Vulcan Flipstart

I previously have blogged on the AntelopeTech MCC. Now here the people who are 2nd to market. Vulcan (Paul Allen's company) is about the launch the Flipstart

Why is 2nd to market important? Because we've seen in Technology, 2nd to Market often ends up being the winner. This makes lots of people angry because it looks like innovators are punished, on the other hand, the market rewards companies for getting something "right." Microsoft is a good example of a company that has been excellent at this.

So the market as spoken and essentially said, "BRING BACK THE TWEENER!"

Sigh... we've already been here. A full PC with a real version of windows and not some CE nonsense that looks and behaves like a 50% scale laptop: perfect for a newborn: its so 1997.

I remember that the maid-of-honor's father talked to me about his company's version of this product for something like 30 minutes at our rehersal dinner.

This is the sort of thing that makes me question the accepted capitalist Wisdom about "the genius of the market." However, 2nd to market does not guarantee that the person has gotten it "right." Here are four reasons why I don't thing the current offering is the killer product.


THINGS I want out of my ultraportable computer (UPC):

1. Better ergonomics - the clamshell design is excellent for transport, terrible for use.
a. Screen should be detachable. Even better would be a choice between small LCD screen or small projection. The best would be an 8.5'x14' screen that had the physical properties of a piece of paper (electrical paper). Xerox is working on this.

b. Keyboard should be full size. They've solved this. You can get a fold-up full size keyboard for a Palm

c. Pen interface, at least as a mouse alternative.

2. dockable cell phone. For years they have had Cell phones as PCMCIA cards I want to be able to pull out the card and hold it up to my face like a phone. This should be a relatively clutter-free device as well. tiny display, buttons, that's it. No camera, no PDA, no mp3 plater, no swiss army knife, no washing machine. Nothing looks sillier than people putting these enormous monsters against their face. In the alternative, if handsfree mic was wireless and there was a place to store it in the UPC so I don't lose it.

4. Retail price under $2500. Don't talk to me about "its cache to own, so its a cache price" and Dell makes very cache items and all of them are affordable.