World of Origami still unfolding

(continued from previous page)

TabletKiosk, one of the early Origami makers, is planning a Vista-based device eventually, but is focused at CES on introducing a more rugged version of its Windows XP-based minitablet. While many of the initial Origami designs were aimed at consumers, TabletKiosk focuses on business uses.

"For our vertical markets, it's what they are looking for...because of the wear and tear these machines get," said TabletKiosk marketing director Gail Levy. The new model will still weigh in at less than 2 pounds and is smaller, but slightly thicker, than the company's existing minitablets. The new model, which will be shown off at CES, uses a Via processor and also boasts the addition of a PC card slot, which customers have been wanting as a way to add a cellular connection.

As for Vista, "a lot of our business is in the enterprise market." Levy said. "They are not asking for it just yet."

One question is whether the Origami really needs to morph into something different to be successful.

Intel is considering whether it should be looking beyond the PC when it comes to these devices. According to a source, the chipmaker is toying with the notion of an ultramobile device, rather than the ultramobile PC, a move that would put more focus on devices that can pull off specific tasks rather than be full-fledged computers.

Krammer said Microsoft does expect that devices will come to market that run something other than Windows.

"It's all about choice," Krammer said, adding that she thinks there's a wide appeal to having a small device that can run the full Windows operating system. "It will be nice to have that option where you can have all the applications that run on full Windows run on your ultramobile PC."

Intel would not comment on its plans to move beyond the PC, but a representative did say that the company still believes it will take time for such devices to take off.

"It's one of these things that is going to be evolutionary," said an Intel representative. "It's baby steps."

Intel likened the evolution to that which took place in cell phones, which started out bulky and expensive, but evolved to be slim, cheap and highly personal.

Via's Brown said the relation to the phone market may be more than just a case of similar evolution. He projected that within a year there will be smart phones that use the same x86 chip architecture used in ultramobile and standard PCs. Using those chips would offer more power and open up phones to the wide range of software development that takes place with Windows. At the same time, that would demand even greater improvements in power consumption in order to get the battery life phone users are accustomed to.

Though big on the idea of the little devices, Intel has been cautious in its forecasts, its representative said. "I don't know that everyone in the industry has been as realistic with their promises."

[Mark Greene]

Oh, give it up already

Stick to monopoly-protected markets and "me too" just-good-
enough products, MS.

[jabbotts]

silver lining

For years, games have pushed hardware to get more powerful. Now the OS will push for more powerful hardware design. The new Origami should fly once you get Vista off and a more efficient OS on.

[herby67]

That's what they said

to Microsoft when they went to graphical OSs. And Spreadsheets. And Word Processors. And project management tools. And Servers. And game consoles. And mice. And PDAs. And phones. And mice. And games. And online services. And databases. And mail servers. And...
Nevertheless, Microsoft managed to stay putting out releases. Sometimes at the second release they succeeded. Sometimes at the third one. But in very few cases they failed definitely.
So I think your advise goes counter to what history suggests.

[techmaddy]

Who's Microsoft's CEO??

In the article, its mentioned "MS CEO Bill Gates is expected to ..." . I thought Steve Ballmer was the CEO ;-)

[Jon Skillings]

Story corrected

Thanks for pointing out the typo. Old typing habits die hard...

[ServedUp]

Grasping a straws.

Question:

What makes "stupigami" different then an ultra light laptop?

From what I understand, generation 2 of the device also comes
with a keyboard. To me it just seems Microsoft is grasping at
straws. The only thing seemingly different, is instead of XP
they'll be using VISTA.

Haven't they learned about the miniscule success of the tablet
PC. Whats Gates obsession with the tablet, anyway?

Seems to me, their initiatives are nothing but hot air. So what
else is new?

[daveworld]

Where is The Demand?

If there were a demand for tablet PCs from consumers it would be fying of the shelves years ago. Origami, UMPC, MiniTablet or whatever new clever name they come up with does not change the fact it's still tablet PCs (V.2) which was out years ago. So how did the original Tablet do in the consumer market? Not good at all! So why to they continue to push these Origami/Tablet PCs at consumers? That does not make much sense to me, their target should be business (Hospitals etc). What's the point of using one of these only to see it run out of battery in just a few hours. Kind of kills the whole ultra mobil thing no? It Probably will continue to be more or the same price as a Laptop with a much bigger and brighter screen.
So where is the market? Vista support is not a selling point IMO seeing how much power is required just to run it.

So where is the Demand?

[ralfthedog]

How about running it on a 64 bit verson of windows 3.1?

If it came with a lighter faster operating system that required fewer resources to run I think there would be a market.

Why won't Microsoft put out a striped down ultra fast OS that uses very little memory and very little hard drive space?