One2OneMate’s StudentMate is a sort of $400 UMPC

One2OneMate’s StudentMate is a cross between one of those electronic toy computers and an UMPC. The device is an affordable sub 2 pound PC with a 7 inch color touch screen with a 800×480 resolution, Wifi and ethernet connectivity, and a full size laptop keyboard all running on Linux. Memory-wise the device comes with just 128mb but that is expandable via SD cards and USB. A Carrying case is included as well. On the software side a web browser, word processor, spreadsheet, contact manager, clock / calendar, calculator, typing tutor, home work helper, student summary list, and e-message client are some of the software programs that come included. The StudentMate is supposed to retail for less than $399, and was supposed to be released in June but it doesn’t seem to be out yet. Nowadays $399 can get you a cheap laptop running Windows with a decent amount of specs, so they need to charge much less than that for this to be successful. Make the price $199 and both parents and schools will want it for their grade school children. A similar device called the DataMate is also scheduled. The DataMate looks identical to the StudentMate but it will retail for $450 and be geared towards professionals looking for mobile way to work on word processors and spreadsheets. We think that that will be a total bust all together for $450. Can we say Folio?