Lightning in a Bottle

The Seattle Times just published an article from the San Jose Mercury News about the worldwide development of the ultra mobile PC market.  It’s probably the best overview I’ve read, and it recognizes the influence of the One Laptop Per Child project in laying the groundwork for it, at least in terms of opening minds to the idea that a computer could be cheap, small, and very usable.  I also get a kick out of the fact that the experts they interviewed are all over the map in terms of the importance of this niche.  I think those that downplay it are stuck in mindset where laptops can only exist in a narrow range of functionality, and that range doesn’t dip down to the world of the UMPC.  If that were true in the calculator market, we’d all buy graphing calculators and there would be no $5.00 calculators at the checkstand of the grocery store.