First Intel MID pre-order/pricing: M528

Chippy from UMPCPortal has found that the first Intel MID can be preordered already at Tegatech, Australia.

Interested in mobile Internet devices? You know, the ones aimed at the consumer with consumer features and consumer pricing? Then read on… Tegatech, a well-respected UMPC retailer in Australia has recently signed a deal with Gigabyte for the distribution of it’s UMPCs and MIDs in Australia and New Zealand and has sent out an email to it’s media contacts announcing that my favorite MID, the M528 is on their books. A quick look at their website reveals that, yes, the M528 is listed, still looking very desirable, with a nice 8GB flash drive, the 3MP auto-focus cam, an 800×480 touch screen, 11Wh battery, built-in GPS, 3G radio and an 800Mhz Intel Atom processor. With a pocketable size, a pocketable weight and that slide out keyboard it’s a dream device for many.

But here is the interesting thing, the price for this device is around 1280 dollars! Was not the Intel's MID concept talking about very cheap devices which only main task was Internet Connectivity? For that money you can buy a decent UMPC! A powerful laptop! 3 iPhones! And the other thing is that this price fiasco for some reason reminds me the 500 dollars price tag for UMPCs in the initial Microsoft/Intel marketing campaign. And I said Microsoft/Intel because during that marketing campaign Intel was part of it and a very active part of it and I wonder if the 500 dollars price tag really came from Intel and not from Microsoft.