RSSThe Buzz: Origami Draws Cheers, Jeers
By Ed Oswald | Published March 9, 2006, 3:39 PM
Microsoft finally unveiled its much-hyped Origami Project, now called Ultra-Mobile PCs, early Thursday at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany. While many pundits saw promise in the new platform, a palpable sense of disappointment has been a common theme among many consumers.
Was the device overhyped, and did Microsoft under-deliver? What do you think?
"So finally Microsoft Origami (or what it would be) has been brought to light -- and my first reaction, for crying out loud, yet another digital device? Since it is an ultra portable PC based on Windows XP, how secure is it? What is the "re-boot" time? How much resources it would need and how long is the battery life. Of course the price point is even more worrisome: at $599 to $999, it is still too expensive for an occasional use device."
- Om Malik, Business 2.0
"No matter what Origami's future in the marketplace, if it succeeds in driving more reference designs for Microsoft partners, the project should be called successful. I am sometimes appalled when I look at what some of Microsoft partners have done with the company's software. I would suggest Microsoft do more reference designs, and music players would be an obvious starting place." - Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Monitor
"The hype got too big too fast. Who was responsible? Dustin Hubbard, Group Manager over on the Mobile PC team. He explains what happened on the Origami team blog. He tells how he didn't plan for the hype to get so out of control. And, with that, this will be my last Origami post until I get my hands on a production unit." - Robert Scoble, blogging on the Origami hype
"Overall, the campaign was successful beyond our wildest expectations and frankly maybe a little too successful. When we came up with this idea a few months ago, this was intended to be a small, grassroots effort to generate some interest in the UMPC. Boy, did we do that!" - Dustin Hubbard, Microsoft's Mobile PC team Group Manager
"In terms of usage model, Origami as a concept may well change what devices people carry with them. While it's not a pocketable device, Origami units by design are small enough to be kept close at hand. The fact that they run Windows means that they can excel at a variety of tasks, from productivity to games to media consumption (it's a great Slingbox client, for example). Expect the Origami story to evolve and remember, we haven't seen the Origami story in the Vista timeframe. Look at Origami the way you might look at a new platform, not the value of a particular machine today." - Michael Gartenberg, Jupter Research
"It's a product in search of a market. It's too expensive for the things it does, and is too under-featured to do some of the other things it needs to do." - Stephen Baker, NPD Group
"It might be worthwhile to note that the Ultra-Mobile is the result of the partial failures of Microsoft's other two portable system plans: The Tablet PC and the Portable Media Center. To be fair, the Tablet PC is not a total failure, but it certainly hasn't been embraced by the wide consumer and business audience Microsoft envisioned when it launched tablet PCs in 2002. Portable Media Centers, on the other hand, count, in my book, as abject disasters. No one is buying them, and few manufacturers are making them. Origami is Microsoft's attempt to repackage both concepts into a true hybrid device - and one that, it hopes, is more palatable to an iPod-crazed public." - Lance Ulanoff, PC Magazine
"I was hoping it would be cooler because I'm looking for a portable device. But (so far) color me unimpressed by Project Origami. (As everyone predicted) Microsoft is now suffering backlash from the over-hype. Anytime you give the market that much hype they expect a free pony. To some degree, I admit I fall in that number. I was hoping for more." - Wizbang Blog
If writers & reviewers had to submit to drug & alcohol tests prior to submitting an article(& let's not even get into psyche, iq, tech, writing tests), what % would NOT get published??
This one has NO CLUE WHATSOEVER, with this oxymoronic, biased/hype statement:
"In terms of usage model, Origami as a concept may well change what devices people carry with them. [b]While it's not a pocketable device, Origami units by design are small enough to be kept close at hand[b/]..."
- Michael Gartenberg, Jupter Research
While this statement seems more common-sensical:
"It's a product in search of a market. It's too expensive for the things it does, and is too under-featured to do some of the other things it needs to do."
- Stephen Baker, NPD Group
Anyhow, it's all more of: Gee we haven't sampled one yet, but we postulate it's the best/worst ever!!!
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|AMD Lovers answer me (if you can) When UMPC is based on Intel Celeron and Pentium M and in future Solo and Duo Processors and an alternative company like VIA tell me WHERE IS AMD IN THIS WORLD? DOES AMD MENTION ANY THING NAMED MOBILITY?
so **** up please
shut it men and have fun :-D
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|im a 'proud' amd lover(& i have used Intel before)
in that area i don't know what amd is doing.
with all the marketing stunts they did for turion, i thought this is the one, sadly pentium m beats turion in benchmarks.
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|oh stupid me i just forgot to enable ad filter in the outpost
sorry
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|It sucks. "Ultra-Portable" does not fit this gadget form factor. A cell phone or PDA is "ultra-portable". A tablet or UMPC is "portable". If you can jog with it (conveniently and comfortably) it is "ultra-portable". Amazing how everyone just nods in agreement with stupid misnomers like this.
It may sell, but it will NOT come close to iPod or PSP sales due to the clunky size/weight, higher cost and especially: da-da-da-da-dummm..... crappy battery life.
Come on, RIM: just stuff add'l storage, GPS/mapping, MP3 and streaming media support into the blackberry and you're there! Most business users (the bulk of berry customers) don't care about cameras being built in. They want to listen to music, watch news and media, talk, and store files (ala thumb drive approach). The berry is at the 1 yard line. The closest to scoring, IF they don't fumble the ball. The Garmen Nuvi is cool, but the market acceptance of blackberry is second to none at this point. A smart company would capitalize on that and score.
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|u just hate M$
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|the blackberry sucks, its a toy. Do you even use it for anything worthwhile other than synchronizing your phone book?
Try using it for enterprise stuff sometime, and see if you still enjoy it.. The first time you have to call Blackberry for a mail issue (and you will have to call) you won't like them either..
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|LOL! You just post stupidity cuz ya can, huh?
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|i think it will work this time.
with tablet the size was the problem and the idea was not that great,
and i will say that again, it will work this time.
with PDA, i find the size too small(i don't know what will happen to palm, first blackberry now this)
and with tablet the size was just to big, even in ads i looks weird, and they were not able to hide that.
Video ipod's have very very tiny screen.
Ultra-Mobile PCs have got a perfect size, it is nice to see that M$ is learning from their failures, all this criticism they have faced have made them lot better.
i would like to add that price is going to be very very imp. factor for its success
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|-yawn- zzzzzzzz....
-ogman (betanews)
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|ack....double post.
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|Look! It’s a pterodactyl. Caww!
Filed under: Internet Seattle/WA— Mat @ 08:30 Edit This
Microsoft pulled the sheet off of its “Origami” project. Personally, every time I heard about “Origami”, I thought of the Little Ceasar’s commercial where the guy folds up a pizza box into a dinosaur. The guy that did it just resurfaced into another commercial, and only just now did I put the two together. That dude looks old on TV now. What’s that say about me, right?
http://www.microsoft.com...owsxp/umpc/default.mspx
So it looks like BillG really does want to expand the OQO market. Maybe it’ll happen. More likely, I’m guessing these things will litter ebay in a couple of years. They should be looking at the Garmin Nuvi, adding a phone and calendar/email to it. At least they’re not acting like a keyboard is all that necessary. Finally.
http://cityofrain.com
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