October 28, 2009, 7:52 pm
When my son was little, he loved the children’s book “Pat the Bunny.” The best line was, “How big is bunny? SO BIG.”
That was my first thought when reading that ABI Research says that 385 million Ultra Mobile Devices will ship in 2014.
ABI defines Ultra Mobile Devices to include Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs), netbooks and Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).
The analyst firm says that pocket-sized MIDs remain a far more interesting product segment to watch, as the market is still emerging. The reports adds that while the most common product design remains the tablet form, competing form factors such as models with slider keyboards, clamshells and touch-screen-only interfaces are gaining in popularity.
Okay, 2014 is five years away — but given how netbooks have exploded into the market in 2009, I wouldn’t be surprised if their 385 million prediction is too conservative. That’s a lot of bunnies for software developers to write apps for.
