Simon’s Blog

The new Microsoft / Intel “Brick” “Origami” appears to be a new type of ultra mobile PC. That is, a handheld computer with a “large” screen, using an Intel processor and running Windows. A couple of videos have been put up on the Web. From what I’ve seen so far, I’m not even close to being sold. Here’s my top three reason why:

Data Entry. Data entry is a really important part of using a computer. From the models seen so far, there’s no built-in keyboard. Even if it worked super-well, hand-writing recognition is a brain-dead way to enter text data into a computer. For the demographic that would buy this kind of device, it’s far preferable to use a keyboard. You can get full QWERTY keypads on mobile phones for goodness sake, so I’m not quite sure who thinks that leaving out a keyboard on a larger form-factor device is anything other than a dumb idea. Yes, I know the Origami has Bluetooth, so you can attach a keyboard wirelessly. But people don’t want to carry a separate keyboard around.

Size. The device is just too big. It looks not that much smaller than a small laptop, and way too big to carry in a pocket. If people need to put the device in a bag to carry it, why wouldn’t they just use a small laptop instead? After all, the laptop has a keyboard (see above).

Looks. This is not a great-looking device (the photo above flatters to deceive, I think). In the flesh, it seems to look like something that wouldn’t even have looked cool back in 1990. The problem is the wide border round the screen - they really need to lose that.

And why call it “Origami”? It doesn’t seem to fold. If someone put a folding/rollable colour screen into a mobile phone, and added a built-in laser-projected keyboard – then they’d have a killer product on their hands. And it might even make sense to call such a product “Origami”. However, this new device doesn’t resemble anything I’d imagined an “Origami” would be.

So, perhaps I’m missing something, but from what has been shown so far, I don’t want one of these devices. And I bet not many other people will either. There is only one mobile form factor that’s going to win – and that’s the mobile phone. Origami appears to simply represent the technological state-of-the-art in terms of fitting a fully-functional PC into a small form factor. I’m afraid, though, that makes it neither useful nor desirable.

Now, it may be that what we’ve been shown so far isn’t the real deal. If any of the hardware companies have made a version of this that is significantly smaller, has a usable keyboard, and looks cool – there’s no reason why it couldn’t be a success. But, without all of these, it might be dead on arrival…

Or will it? You can look at this kind of device another way. What if the Origami is essentially meant to be a “read-only” device? You know: watching movies, reading e-books, listening to music etc.; but being able to run a fully-featured web-browser via Wi-Fi access, using hand-writing recognition for occasional data input. As long as they get the price-point right (and “right” in this case, means $350), that kind of device might actually fill a pretty useful niche. They still need to make it look cool though.

UPDATE:

There is a possibility that the Origami will, in fact, be more of a “thin-border” design (see the image below). If so, that would be a step in the right direction.

We will know more tomorrow.