After the cancellation of the Samsung i800, Access seems to have given up attacking the PDA/smartphone market with its ALP OS and looks for another attack vector. A recently-released press release contains the following passages:
ACCESS will be supporting the growth of the Mobile Internet Device (MID) market with the capability of running ACCESS Linux Platform on the emerging MID format, giving MID manufacturers the same complete, flexible, commercial-grade, Linux mobile platform available for mobile handsets to access a wide range of Internet and Web 2.0 services. The flexibility of ACCESS Linux Platform will enable licensees to create differentiated experiences, including UI innovations and support for larger displays.
“Mobile Internet Devices will allow people to browse the web better than they can on today’s smartphones,” said Philip Solis, principal analyst at ABI Research. “Some of these devices will have support for full cellular voice and, in some cases, will replace handsets. This market will begin later this year and grow to about 90 million devices in 2012.”
ACCESS will be demonstrating ACCESS Linux Platform for MIDs running on Texas Instruments Zoom™ Mobile Development Kit. ACCESS Linux Platform for MIDs is available to licensees immediately.
“The ACCESS Linux Platform is well suited for the flexibility and customizability required to deliver new product concepts in the emerging MID category,” said Seshu Madhavapeddy, general manager Mobile Internet Device business, Texas Instruments. “By working with ACCESS to integrate OMAP platform-based hardware and software, we can provide an integrated solution for our customers to help speed time to market and deliver no-compromise web browsing and an enhanced user experience.”
IMHO, the idea behind this is not the abandonment of the PDA/smart phone, but rather the attempt at creating a larger user base and then shrink downwards from MID’s to smartphone devices. This means that people owning an ALP-powered web tablet will eventually go for an ALP-powered phone for convenience and compatibility reasons – which nets Access 2x the money.
The market for MID’s currently is an emerging one which hasn’t found a true standard OS so far, which makes entering the market easier. MID’s essentially are little more than overpowered PDA’s with a big screen (and theoretically could run Palm OS or Windows Mobile).
Microsoft did something similar with Windows, which now dominates the mobile computing marketplace – Access’s idea could very well work out (unless MID manufacturers start to adopt Windows XP)…
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