Engadget's Thomas Ricker reports on Samsung's announcement of its brand spankin' new SPH-P9000 Deluxe MITs at the Mobile WiMax Summit 2006 in South Korea. The device will be released in Korea in the first half of 2007.

"Measuring in at a chubby 143 × 94.3 × 29.75 mm / 580 g (5.6 × 3.7 × 1.17 inches / 1.28 pounds) when folded, this Windows XP device unfolds (dare we say) origami-like to reveal a 1 GHz Transmeta CPU and both Mobile WiMAX (AKA WiBro, which is already launched in Korea) and EV-DO for data connectivity," Ricker writes. "No Wi-Fi, apparently: this is all about Mobile WiMAX, kids!"

Still, GottaBeMobile's Warner Crocker warns, "This burst of ultra-portables that is being rolled out is certainly interesting, although it will be interesting to see if they ever make it to the US market. I'm kinda doubting that. I'm also wondering just how these underpowered (by Vista standards) ultra-mobiles will gain much traction given that Vista's touch capabilities make similar devices quite a bit more functional."

More here from the Korea Times ... and Samsung's press release is here.