(Special Report) - Microsoft Corp., the pioneer behind the Ultra Mobile PC movement (Origami), is more or less killing the original concept and coming up with a more upbeat version. The primary reason, according to Microsoft and its partners, was the price and availability issues, which is a catch-22 problem. Very few consumers actually bought the units at such high price tags, and until the price tag reached more reasonable levels, third party manufacturers couldn’t produce enough units to cut prices.

Now, however, the industry is working to release sub-$500 units of the Vistagami right from the beginning to ignite a new kindle in the otherwise dull fire. Moreover, the second-generation of units are actually interesting and useful. Units from Asus had a sliding keyboard, while Samsung’s unit lacked that ability. With that said, Samsung said it’s working on newer models that will have built-in sliding keyboards. Thanks to Vista integration, these devices are more advanced than what the XP versions provided.

Look for Vistagamis to make their way to retail shelves later this year at reasonable prices. If the demand for Vistagamis takes off, you can expect the prices to fall well below the initial $500 we were quoted at CES 2007.

Check out the latest prices on Microsoft Zune from HP Online!