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Origami Is UMPC

So, all the Origami hype came to a head, and the results are… underwhelming. In the end, the Origami was just an internal code for the Ultra Mobile PC and the new variant of Windows Microsoft will be releasing for those devices. Since we already knew a lot about the UMPC, it’s hard to look at Origami as unexpected. Additionally, there is no product to buy right now, and the prototypes don’t really work, and that is pissing off a lot of people.

So, lets go through the actual news.

Todd Bishop:

In an interview yesterday, Mika Krammer, a Microsoft marketing director involved in the project, explained that Origami was merely meant to be the code name. She said the volume and breadth of buzz created by the cryptic Origami campaign caught the company by surprise.

If the Origami products are as good as they are supposed to be, then the hype was a big mistake, since it overshadowed the features, specs, design and software. Microsoft should have never hyped it, and just made their announcements as planned, and let the devices speak for themselves. If they had, instead of having to answer to feverish Origami hype, things might be a little different today.

Microsoft expects the only people buying into the first wave will be the typical hard-core gadget geeks.

The first devices are supposed to hit next month, we hope, and cost from $600 to $1,000, and will not have all the features Bill Gates had hoped. Devices will come from Samsung, Asus and Founder (a Chinese company), have two and a half hours of battery life and weigh 2.5 pounds. Gates wanted full-day batteries and close to a pound of weight, and those marks will take a while to hit.

The devices will have 30-120 gigabyte hard drives and run off Celeron M, Pentium M or VIA C7-M processors, with options for stylus, touch and keyboard input. They have seven inch (or smaller) screens, minimum 800×480 resolution and are wi-fi and BlueTooth enabled. Some may sport more expensive options, like cellular modems or GPS navigation.

Other features: dual array microphones with noise reduction, stereo speakers, headphone jack, docking capability (some models), flip out stands (so you can prop them up and watch movies).

The devices will run standard Windows software, and Windows XP Tablet edition, and will be Vista ready, minus Aero Glass. However, they will be supplemented by Touch Pak, which adapts Windows for smaller screens with larger screen elements and other features, including an onscreen keyboard called DialKeys, which “creates an overlay of keys for typing, using the screen’s touch sensitivity”. You can type with just two thumbs.

Another feature is the program launcher, making it easier to find and run programs (after all, the Start menu doesn’t exactly scale). Scroll bars and icons will be larger, as well as the minimize and maximize buttons, and defaults thumbnail views in folders, so you can run everything with your fingertips. It also comes with Sudoko, which is just a happy bonus.

You can change the program launcher backgrounds for practically anything, and there are a bunch over here. There’s also a new Media Player theme called Brilliant Black:

NPD Group analyst Stephen Baker was skeptical of how much appeal the first round of devices will have. “It’s a product in search of a market,” he said. It’s too expensive for the things it does, Baker said, and is “too under-featured to do some of the other things it needs to do.”

These devices will need more battery life and better looks to sell. Gizmodo has a video of them using the Samsung Q1, and it looks like a Creative Portable Media Center running XP, with a larger screen. It has an ethernet port, two USB ports, audio out, compact flash, volume control, a bunch of face buttons (including back and menu), VGA-out, and, weirdly enough, an antenna. The video: