14 DAY TRIAL // When Intel first developed its Mobile Internet Devices, sales were estimated to reach a figure somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 shipments, an expectation that was demolished when the total sales amounted to a mere 30,000. MID manufacturers such as Compal, Quanta and ASUS became skeptical about these products as far back as April, when MIDs were completely overrun by the popularity surge of netbooks. After months of a disappointing marketing performance, the Mobile Internet Devices Innovation Alliance members have begun to completely halt any kind of development in this area.
According to Digitimes, the several members that quit the MID field decided to use, instead, the same resources to develop smartbooks and e-readers. MIDs themselves are most likely unpopular because they cost a great deal of money without delivering enough performance capabilities to make up for it. As far as functionality goes, MIDs can be replaced by the above-mentioned gadgets, and even by smartphones.
Digitimes does not say specifically which MIDIA members halted production, but it does say that, even though they had landed MID orders from European telecom carriers, Quanta Computer and Compal Electronics had very weak shipments. This is especially disappointing, considering the fact that a similar situation arose in the case of Gigabyte and BenQ, which, although they cooperated with Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) and Far Eastone Telecommunications (FET), respectively, for the distribution on the Taiwan market, they didn't do any better.
Most other Mobile Internet Devices developers, although they haven't given up on the project, have greatly reduced the efforts placed in the actual creation of such products. These developers include vendors Asustek Computer, BenQ, Inventec and Gigabyte. In addition, Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) has stopped developing consumer-aimed MIDs, focusing, instead, on giving such gadgets industrial purposes.
This development leaves Intel's upcoming Moorestown platform with very few interested vendors, pointing towards an equally difficult MID period, beginning with the actual launch of the platform in the first half of 2010.