Microsoft introduces Ultra-Mobile PC
by Alan Rose 
{ Mar 9th 2006 at 3:30PM }
Microsoft and Intel unveiled the Ultra-Mobile PC at CeBIT in Germany today, but if you're a gamer, the device probably isn't everything you had hoped it would be. The 7-inch widescreen is nice, but instead of a portable Xbox, we have a smaller Tablet PC with an $800-1,200 price tag. Instead of Sudeki, we get Sudoku. As we learned last week, the "Origami" has no aspirations of being a mini fragbox, and will instead be marketed as an all-purpose consumer and business device. It currently runs the Tablet PC edition of Windows XP and includes a special thumb touchscreen keyboard, although Vista will sport additional features suitable for the small form factor.
No speculation has been made yet as to whether the UMPC will get a future boost in the GPU department, but keep in mind Microsoft has plans for music and movie-friendly battery life. Developers could always create scaled-down versions of games like Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 (as they did for Xbox), but there would have to be considerable market penetration to justify the effort. What are your thoughts on the UMPC and its potential as a portable gaming device?
Here are some other links of interest:
Engadget's coverage - "Live at CeBIT: Origami is dead, long live UMPC"
CNET article - "Reality check for the much-hyped Origami PC"
MSNBC article - "Microsoft unveils much-hyped 'Origami' PC"
Microsoft's Ultra-Mobile PC web site
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David @ Mar 9th 2006 3:41PM
afaik early reports had it at 15 min battery life when playing video so far
...
Mullinator @ Mar 9th 2006 3:45PM
The best games for this will probably be a couple home-brew emulators and/or solitaire and minesweeper. I doubt any developers will try this as a platform of choice for games.
Copperhead @ Mar 9th 2006 3:45PM
Sounds....... pointless.
DJ @ Mar 9th 2006 3:46PM
It should be used for casual games and that's about it. Tetris, Sudoku, Solitaire and the like. It is a Tablet PC, not a games console. Samsung and Microsoft would just be silly to market this as any kind of games device, and by the looks of it they are not doing that, so kudos to them.
Pete @ Mar 9th 2006 4:03PM
They have GOT to take the price down on this thing if they want the masses to adopt it. The marketing video leaked a while ago seemed to have the aim to get the common consumer to buy this. An $800-$1200 price range is way to much for the common consumer. Sure, people that read Engadget and Joystiq regularly may buy it, but this is not going to have any market penetration in the bigger scheme of things.
benjamin @ Mar 9th 2006 4:03PM
It may not play games but just imagine how well suited that thing would be for a little softcore porn.
Um, I mean, storing productivity applications, and um... other work stuff, yeah, work related stuff.
David @ Mar 9th 2006 4:10PM
Pete
The Oragami isn't particularly aimed at casual consumers, its meant for buisness types who need info at their finger tips. Essentially its their blackberry or mobile treo
Scott @ Mar 9th 2006 4:13PM
Yeah, I can't see this being used by very many consumers. Looks like it would be handy though in places like hospitals, doctor's offices, or people who do work out in the field.
I'm sure we'll see Dr McKay on Stargate Atlantis replace his Tablet PC with one of these. ;)
gamer1 @ Mar 9th 2006 4:15PM
Is the tablet version of Windows XP capable of running PC games? If so, they better put an Nvidia or ATI 3D graphics chip in those things.
Jeff @ Mar 9th 2006 4:49PM
"Essentially its their blackberry or mobile treo"
Except that they already have Blackberries and Treos. I honestly can't see any market for this. It does absolutely nothing well. It's too big to carry in a pocket. It has poor battery life. News.com (C-Net) even had a story earlier today (which appears to have been pulled) with quotes from Intel and MS saying they knew they had "more work to do" to make these things appeal to the mass market. You know things are bad when even the manufacturing partners admit their brand new product is crap.
These things are just underpowered, slightly smaller tablet PC's. Nothing to see here from a gaming perspective.
MS would have had a much more exciting product had they just done the portable Xbox that everybody wanted. But no, they are still absolutely obsessed with forcing these tablet PC's down everybody's throats when it should be crystal clear to them by now that nobody wants them.
Joseph @ Mar 9th 2006 4:51PM
If this were cheaper I'd definitely pick one up. Load dos on it, and play me some Warcraft 1 & 2, X-Com, Master of Magic, Diablo... some emulators too. Fun games.
Jeff @ Mar 9th 2006 4:55PM
Just a quick add; this is the article I was talking about in my earlier post: http://news.com.com/Reality+check+for+the+much-hyped+Origami+PC/2100-1044_3-6047643.html
Pip @ Mar 9th 2006 5:05PM
If you want touch screen gaming, you buy a DS.
This may be good for smaller turn based games and such, but I think people expecting Microsoft to jump into the handheld gaming market are off their rocker. These will be for business people on the go, contractors, and digital photographers.
draco @ Mar 9th 2006 5:19PM
I guess I'm the only one really excited about this?
I mean sure I will not buy one, but its the thought, we really need something between a laptop and a PDA, my laptop is to big (I got a 15.4" widescreen) and a PDA is to small, this is perfect, 7" screen is legible, still has the touch screen, and easy controls (look kinda like a game system)
I don't know what the resolution is though probably 850x480 I guess? its wide screen and I can't see it using less then 480 verticle because that would cause all sorts of problems with programs minimum res at 640x480.
maybe in a few years I'll pick one of these things when vista comes out for them.
Buzzbomb @ Mar 9th 2006 6:05PM
Samsung make absolute garbage hardware They can't even make a good microwave oven.I would never buy anything made by Samsung.
SK @ Mar 9th 2006 6:22PM
Remember, it took them at least one generation to even get PMP devices worth looking at. This could be great the text input has my interest piqued. Engadget says it's nice.
Reynor Padilla @ Mar 9th 2006 6:25PM
They look like fun but a little heavy and too expensive. Delicate too. $500-600 is the max I'd pay. More if I could drop it and it wouldn't break.
Nick @ Mar 9th 2006 7:13PM
Wow, let the misinformation spread at Joystiq as usual. I really wish people would take a few moments to be informed about what they're trashing because it would make them realize how stupid their comments are. Let me give you all a fact based overview.
Will Execute: Any Windows application. That means any software you can run on your desktop will run on this. Not every application is well-suited for use with these devices but they will run.
Gaming Capability: DX 7 and DX 8 games in the first generation. HL2 has DX 7 and DX 8 code paths, just as one example.
Price: $599 to $999, not $800 to $1,200. Price depends on the type of hardware in the device and how much the individual manufacturer wants to charge for it.
Weight: Depends on the hardware in the device but the average weight is only 2lbs. Much lighter than a laptop and easy to hold in one hand.
Battery Life: Currently 2-3 hours of constant use. Larger capacity batteries will be available soon and addition power saving features will be added to the OS. Vista will have better power management features and modes and these devices are Vista compatible (though without Aero Glass, for now).
Designs / Manufacturers: This is a type of device with loose specifications. Dozens of hardware manufacturers can make their own versions of these devices that have different aesthetics, screen sizes (likely smaller), and so on.
Storage: 1.8" or 2.5" hard drives between 30GB and 120GB. Depends on the manufacturer.
Input: Touchscreen that allows multiple points to be touched at once (two fingers to type on the circular virtual keyboard). Stylus for writing or touching. Wireless keyboard / mouse (or wired). Dual microphones to offer better noise canceling (not in all models).
Output: SRS speakers, headphone out, VGA out. Native screen resolution is 800x480 but it can run higher resolutions that will be scaled to fit on the screen.
Ports: USB, VGA, Ethernet (in addition to WiFi), Compact Flash, headphone out, etc. Depends on model and manufacturer.
Specialized Software: Microsoft Touch Pack which contains a specialized application launcher (http://www.origamiproject.com/blogs/images/program_launcher.jpg), Touch Improvements which make touch-use much simpler, WMP skin optimized for touch-usage, DialKeys which is a circular virtual keyboard for input (http://www.origamiproject.com/blogs/images/dialkeys.jpg), and as already mentioned you get a Sudoku game.
Uses: Media player (plays every codec a Windows PC can), notepad (handwriting recognition), portable gaming, navigation (it can include a GPS card or communicate wirelessly with Bluetooth GPS units), web browsing (connects to net through your phone or wireless hotspots since it includes WiFi and Bluetooth), working with Office documents (handwriting, DialKeys, or wireless KB), etc. These are just a few I could think of in about 30 seconds. It may also be a remote for Media Center PCs in the future.
I'm sure you can all draw your own conclusions from the above so I'm not going to bother negating specific points made by previous commenters.
Nick
The ZeroCorpse @ Mar 9th 2006 7:15PM
Oh, look! It's the Microsoft Newton! And only a decade after Apple invented it!
Todd @ Mar 9th 2006 7:34PM
"Let me give you all a fact based overview."
So...it's a laptop, only smaller, and without a keyboard. Plus it's got a touch sensitive screen. I.E. a small tablet PC. Now that I know exactly what it is I'm sure I don't want one. Thanks!
Let me know when they come up with something with all of those features and I can put it in my pocket.
Felkster @ Mar 9th 2006 8:27PM
#17, Nick, did a terrific job.
For all those who still feel like they need to rip on it, realize that these things weren't designed for everyone.
This is just an attempt to create a new class of PC, that is supported directly by Microsoft. It's an industry-wide push to create another form factor. If you want something smaller, get a PDA. If you want something larger, get a laptop. And yes, we all know that certain companies have tried this before (OQO, Nokia, etc), but this is an industry-wide recognition that these devices have a market and deserve some development (especially by lowering the cost).
Yeah, so the UMPC is kind of like the Apple Newton, except that people will probably buy UMPCs. That's the beauty of it being industry-wide and having competition.
dotun.o @ Mar 10th 2006 1:29AM
Well, as I already knew for sometime now, a smaller and cheaper (but perhaps not cheap enough) tablet PC; not bad at all, but for a more compact version of what already exists, seroiusly overhyped.
So far though, no specification seems to have mentioned optical drive. While apps can be installed onto it like a secondary hard drive when connected to the main PC, should the user not be able to play music and movies directly from disc? Or did I miss that detail?
Nick @ Mar 10th 2006 3:57AM
The devices have USB ports so you can use an external CD/DVD drive. The idea is that you will use an external drive (CD/DVD, Flash, MP3 Player, etc) or transfer your media via a network connection. I suspect it will interact with Media Center devices as well, so you can pull content from those - probably similar to how the Xbox 360 works but with better codec support (any Windows codec) and the ability to store the media on the device.
Also, there have been rumblings of a Microsoft digital media store, similar to iTunes, called Microsoft Alexandria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria). If the rumor turns out to be true, I would expect the prices to be lower and for there to be a wider selection of video content and possibly games. True competition to iTunes would be a godsend as competition is always good for the consumer.
Nick
dotun.o @ Mar 10th 2006 9:25AM
It's obvious it will connect to external optical drives (i.e. through its USB ports), but isn't "movies/ music on the go" supposed to be part of it's appeal? I guess you can always download media onto it or remotely access media on your home PC HDD, but these are understandable for a media player; for what is essentially still a PC, it sort of falls short not being able to instantly load a music CD you bought while browsing at a store (or having to lug around an external drive to do so). But I guess it's part of the trade-off for its compactness, and if Microsoft and other companies' (rather impractical) dreams of the demise of physical media are something to go by, it fits the plan.
JaSoN! @ Mar 10th 2006 11:23AM
I dont really want one.
and i never say that.
"as indespensible as the mobile phone" - nah
Todd H. @ Mar 10th 2006 12:08PM
As people above have said, devices like this aren't really for the average consumer and probably not for gamers.
With some of my clients, this is a great form factor compared to what they currently use like heavy Tablet PC's. We have doctor's that use these to fill in information when seeing patients and they always complain about the size of the hardware.
I can see something like this definitely having a use in a lot of different industries, especially if they fall under $800. Not everything Microsoft creates has to do with gaming and just because it won't run Halo doesn't mean it deserves to be bashed.