CNBC has Origami

That’s it? Where’s the beef?

I have to say that this device looks increadibly retro, from the 90s even.

Portable devices won’t come of age until we have:

1. cheap waffer thin OLED type screens that use little power, ultra high resolution and vibrant colour without a backlight.

2. solid state HDDs with very high throughput with ultra low power consumption.

3. compacted body so that almost all surface area is screen real estate. No more clunky chunky designs like what we’ve just witnessed at the IDF.

I think it is too early for the Origami concept to be realised properly. It certainly looks like Microsoft has overhyped this one. I guess we will see.

FrogSkin: on this computer, yes.

Diego: who promised you beef? We’re talking portable gadgets. What were you expecting? An iPod killer? I thought we covered that yesterday.

Brian: Origami is something we worked on with partners. Not done alone.

Matrix: that question is answered in the video on Thursday.

Mujibur: just “disaster?” Oh, come now, can’t you find a better flame word than that? If I were not working at Microsoft and I was trying to be a snarky commenter I would at least modify it to something like “total f-ing disaster.” I far prefer “abortion” though. That’s a word that gets everyone’s fur flying and tries to tag the product with a “won’t even be born” tag.

Or, why don’t you pull out all the guns and say “Steve Jobs has killed better projects than Origami.” That way you’ll get all the Apple acolytes on your side cheering your flames on.

I really expected more from you Mujibur.

Oh, one more thing, I knew this sentiment would come up so I asked Otto in the video “who will hate Origami?” I guess we already have our answer.

Toast: we cover your gripe in the video. In some ways you’re absolutely right. Otto tells you about his vision and where he wants to go and the tradeoffs he had to make to get this done for a decent price today.

That’s why I say it’s not a perfect device. There’s a limit to what you can do while keeping a device affordable.

But there are more devices (the one in my video you haven’t seen yet).

My posts have hardly been flames. In fact, let me quote my previous posts again:

“This product seems like some grand master strategy that doesn’t really have a concrete market it’s targeting. I look forward to playing with it but doubt it’ll be succesful.”

“Again, is computing while standing important enough for a new platform at the price-performance benchmark you are offering? Perhaps for some — but I doubt it for the mass market.”

“The usage models for this product aren’t compelling enough, particularly at the price-performance bechmark Microsoft is offering.”

Instead of trying to incite a flamefest (which is what you’re doing here), why don’t you address any of the pertinent points I make in my posts? Instead, you go bonkers trying to paint me as snarky.

“I have to say that this device looks increadibly retro, from the 90s even.”

You know who’s made incredible strides in portable devices?

Apple with the ipod, sony with the PSP, and Nintendo with the DS and the stylus and writing apps.

http://www.apple.com/ipod/
http://www.us.playstation.com/psp.aspx
http://www.nintendo.com/systemsds

What better way to get people to carry a small PC device that wouldn’t ordinarily then by hiding it in stuff they’d already be carrying like a walkman or a gameboy. The pocket size was a key to the success as well.

http://www.nokia.com/770

A really nice linux powered device that’s 3 times cheaper and functions appx the same way. It was featured in Linux journal magazine last month. It still won’t match the ipod, psp, or ds though, because it doesn’t have broad appeal or primary purpose.

toast,

why do people who promote OLED never mention that OLED screens degrade and have a short lifetime, which is something that probably can’t be remedied ? i really don’t care how little battery power it takes or how bright it is if it dies out little more than a month

Mujibur:

>“This product seems like some grand master strategy that doesn’t really have a concrete market it’s targeting.

We’ll talk about this on Thursday. To talk about it now would mean giving away stuff that I was asked to keep quiet about until Thursday.

>Instead of trying to incite a flamefest (which is what you’re doing here), why don’t you address any of the pertinent points I make in my posts?

Because I can’t until Thursday. You haven’t seen all the devices. You don’t have all the facts. And already you’re saying it’s a failure. So, go ahead and say it’s a failure, but if you’re gonna do that, do it right. Play it up so that all the Microsoft haters will slap you on the back and cheer you on.

I’ll answer any serious points you have after the video is posted on Thursday. Calling this a “failure” at this stage before anyone other than a CNBC journalist has had his hands on it is just lunacy. Even if you turn out to be ultimately right.

>A really nice linux powered device that’s 3 times cheaper and functions appx the same way

Chris: how do you know the Nokia is 3 times cheaper? Our partners haven’t yet announced the pricing on the Origami.

Not all facts have equal weight, Scoble. But I will play your game and wait till Thursday to make further comment.

Mujibur: cool. At least then when you say Origami is a failure you will have all the facts upon which to base it on.

“Retailing for under $1,000″

The nokia 770 is $359 USD.

http://www.nokia.com/770

Tick purchase, and click through until you see the price on the 770.

Cover
http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue/142

article
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8671

It’s a smaller device, and obviously only first gen, but future handheld devices based on this with built in gps ect.. in that $350 price range will be very attractive.

Chris: under $1,000 means a lot of things. The Nokia is under $1,000 too.

In marketing terms under x amount means the x amount minus $1 99% of the time.

If your product was $399, you would never say it was under $1000, you would say it’s under $400.

That’s pretty much a rule of thumb. Generally, one would never market the product like the Nokia 770 that retails for $359 and say it’s “under $1000″ to advertise it.

Making that unclear and giving people hope that it’s cheaper is a nice counter though. Cheers, bye.

BTW,

IBM just fired you as their desktop supplier and won’t be upgrading to Vista. That must be a very huge contract to have lost. I’m sorry. Really. It’s slightly irrelevant, but it explains a need to shift to new markets as you are currently doing with this laptop device.

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/5436/

“Andreas Pleschek also told that IBM has cancelled their contract with Microsoft as of October this year. That means that IBM will not use Windows Vista for their desktops. Beginning from July, IBM employees will begin using IBM Workplace on their new, Red Hat-based platform. Not all at once – some will keep using their present Windows versions for a while. But none will upgrade to Vista.”

Chris: yeah, I’m sad to see them go, but this was pretty expected. Now it’s up to us to win them back.

As to price, we’ll see ya on Thursday. As I’ve noted, there are a variety of devices. Not just one.

Robert, you recently wrote in a post that has strangley now disappeared that there will be MANY origami pseudo laptop models and that you’re sorry IBM gave Microsoft the boot and hope to “win them back”

So how many models of this device are there?

I don’t think that a choice of models will be a motivating factor, but the info would shine some light on it.
I’m tentatively assuming it’s the same sort of deal as with the 2 different xbox2 versions with and without the hard drive.

it was the cache. Oh well, I guess it will all be revealed on thursday. Wierd error.

Chris: WordPress is load balancing between many servers, not all of which are in total sync with each other. Sometimes you get to see the cracks in the seams here!

There will be different models from different manufacturers. More on Thursday!

I guess that makes sense about the load balancing.

http://throwawayyourtv.com/2006/03/marc-emery-prince-of-pot.html

On a very side note, your govt in Washington State is trying to lock this guy from BC up for life, for doing next to nothing. Please let people know, so they stop harassing him.

Go origami.

Scobleizer writes: “This is a huge deal different than the Newton, though. What killed that? It didn’t have a mainstream operating system. This does.”

Silly boy. It wasn’t the lack of a mainstream operating system that killed Newton. Did you ever actually use a Newton?

You’re trumpeting a device that is built upon the shoulders of giants. Sure, Origami will have it’s own share of fanatical adherents and drag us inexorably towards Star Trek. It does look very retro as others have said. Hint: turn this to your advantage. I could have sworn that I’ve seen this design before in “AppleDesign”. But then we expect your hardware partners will inspire us.

>Did you ever actually use a Newton?

Yes. I also interviewed John Sculley before it came out. Remember, I was an Apple freak back in the early 1990s.

Yeah, it didn’t have good enough handwriting recognition. Yeah, it was too big. Yeah, it was too expensive. Yeah, it had too many expectations on top of it (unlike Origami, we heard about Newton for a year before it came out).

Scoble: “Diego: who promised you beef? We’re talking portable gadgets. What were you expecting? An iPod killer? I thought we covered that yesterday.”

I guess I’m very underwhelmed by it. All the hype without the bite. Maybe I’ll hold off until I see some more.

Diego: >Maybe I’ll hold off until I see some more.

Like I said, it won’t be the device for everyone. But, we’re less than 24 hours away from giving you more.