Continued...

The lack of sufficient onboard storage is another caveat. While the official specifications suggest initial devices to ship with 30GB, I expect companies to deliver 60GB versions soon. 60GB is acceptable, but I fear that early versions of the Origami and their 30GB drives won’t be enough to convince even the bleeding edge adopters. Anyone thinking about using the Origami as a multimedia device will have at least a few movies and a few hundred songs to fully utilize its capabilities, and thus it’s easy to see that 30GB Origami versions won’t be able to hold enough data before the drive reaches its maximum capacity.

What Microsoft has designed is an all-in-one device that’s ready to replace the Pocket PC, MP3 player, GPS navigation system and even the notebook computer, but sadly for Microsoft, an average user has already invested in the aforementioned devices, and surely Microsoft doesn’t expect users to retire their already owned, and potentially expensive possessions to replace them with another expensive device, does it? Nah, I didn’t think so.

At $1,000, the Origami is an expensive device to purchase, especially for a mainstream buyer who can opt for a decent notebook from Dell instead of the Origami and be far more productive. Microsoft expects the price to dip to $500 later in 2006, which is easier to swallow, but until that happens, companies should look for limited sales. On the contrary, they could take this opportunity to experiment and improve the second generation Origami, which will hopefully be more acceptable than the introductory models.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the notion of ultra portable devices. In fact, it’s great to have a single device that can do everything, at least for those of us who carry multiple devices at once, but just like the Tablet PC idea, Origami needs work. From the specifications, it’s crystal clear that companies could regurgitate a few preliminary errors, such as the lackluster battery life. Unless the specifications improve and the price plumps, Microsoft is looking at another Tablet PC-like failed platform.

Related Articles:
- Microsoft Reveals Origami Details
- Microsoft Origami: A New Tablet Platform
- Microsoft Origami Finally Appears for Sale
- Industry Raves Microsoft's Origami
- Codename: Origami

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