Microsoft busts out the Origami

It seems like an interesting concept but I think it will suffer the fate of all tablet PCs. Most people will just buy a smaller laptop if they don't want to lug a bigger one around on the road. They already have a wireless e-mail gadget that fits in their suit pocket or purse so they won't use the Origami for that. I guess they can browse with it but you can do that from both their Blackberry/cell-phone and their smallform laptop.

I wouldn't play games on that tiny screen because I would have to plug in a mouse and a keyboard to play any twitch game. I have a mouse and keyboard built into a laptop already. It also looks unwieldy and not built to be a handheld game system like the PSP. Plus, I would have to carry it around in its own special case or stick it in a backpack. A PSP is just much more portable and easy to manage then this thing.

So what else can you do with it? I guess you can use it to read web books or as a giant Ipod or something. And this last move just sucked the entire cool factor out of the thing:

Instead, the company is calling it the "Ultra-Mobile PC," said Mika Krammer, a marketing director for Microsoft's Windows mobile unit.

Could they have come up with a little more imaginative name? It sounds like a Japanese floor cleaner or something. It is the new ultra-mobile particle cleanser for floors and even walls. Keeping it the Origami would have given it a bit more cool factor. I goes to show you that MSFT needs some of Apples design nowhow. The thing even looks ugly. It kind of has a pull-down DVD player on a minivan vibe: