Quanta developing own MID handhelds
updated 09:20 am EDT, Mon September 1, 2008
Quanta Develops MIDs
Normally known for building notebooks for other companies, Quanta will start producing Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) under its own name, company chair Barry Lam said on Monday. The executive is short on details but says it will make one of the small devices with a focus on better mobile Internet access than the Wi-Fi that limits most notebooks; past MIDs such as those from GigaByte have often included 3G cellular Internet access and should soon include support for WiMAX and other long-range access.
Lam is cautious regarding a launch but notes that prototypes already exist and that Quanta's first MIDs should ship sometime in 2009, bolstering its existing assembly business. Most MIDs released by that stage should still be using a variant of Intel's Atom processor as well as a simplified version of Linux and some variant of flash- or hard drive-based storage. Intel itself has also estimate that many of these devices will sell for as little as $200.
