"We'll take product feedback, and we're serious about seeing this particular [ultramobile] catgegory expand with a wide variety of choices," Moore said. "Nobody else is doing the clamshell, for example."

Moore conceded that the FlipStart may be viewed as "not perfect in every sense, since no product is." But whether users take the FlipStart as a companion to a full-size laptop while traveling or as a replacement "is all over the map." He said some users have "looked at it and don't like it, but then they use it."

Moore has noticed one advantage to the FlipStart over a laptop while traveling. The size of the FlipStart, even though it is a full PC running Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Pro, has helped him avoid the typical security screening at airports.

"The [Transportation Security Administration] doesn't want you to take it out of your bag, so the thing is convenient to travel with," he said. "They tell you to put it back in the bag."