After Vulcan’s FlipStart UMPC saw a huge price-cut back in January, sales of the diminutive clamshell obviously picked up. The online store is now sold out, and directs people to import specialists Dynamism, which was enough to tip Engadget into suggesting the whole FlipStart project was closing down. Now Steve from the UMPC Portal has stepped in to (partly) clarify the situation.
Vulcan’s FlipStart UMPC might have garnered some attention for its diminutive size and handy QWERTY keyboard, but its whopping great price also caught the eye. At its original $1,999 it was considered an eye-watering frippery, while even a $500 price cut left Vulcan still searching for buyers. Now they’ve seemingly set at the sticker price with a scythe, chopping it down to just $699.
With sales of Vulcan’s FlipStartsuper-compact PC branching out into Europe, the team behind it is doing their damnedest to make sure the device doesn’t fall into the same trap so many other niche products have succumbed to: “it’s a great toy, but what do I use it for?” Mobile pro’s in need of image and video capture, therefore, are being woo’d with this latest release; the Snap Camera piggybacks onto your FlipStart’s lid and can grab 5-megapixel stills or VGA quality video.
This video is getting some real attention now, which is as it should be since the Vulcan FlipStart UMPC is an interesting little monkey. A long time in the coming, it’s a chubby clamshell portable with a full QWERTY keyboard and in-built EV-DO.
Vulcan slipped a pre-release unit to JK of jkontherun and he promptly shot this video of it. In it he goes a poking through the trackpad, trackstick, built-in webcam (ideal for video-VOIP) and a SideShow-style external sub-display on the lid. I’m not sure if I’d pick this over the Samsung Q2, though; I’d rather a slim slate than a plump mini-laptop.
First look at the Vulcan FlipStart [jkontherun]
SlashGear Japan
