It isn't often that Microsoft announces a completely new concept in computing, but at CeBIT 2006 in Hanover, Germany, the software giant finally unveiled details about its Origami Project to a worldwide audience.

Microsoft created the Origami Project to develop (with various hardware and software partners) a new type of computer that falls in-between the size of a typical PDA and tablet PC, uses a standard Windows operating system and costs less than $1000: the Ultra-mobile PC, or UMPC.

Image copyright © 2006 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 U.S.A. All rights reserved. Samsung Q1 Ultra-mobile PC

The Microsoft team originally used "Origami" as a code name, and they liked it so much that they kept it for the project's public community Web site. One of the program's managers was interested in Japanese culture and liked the name, which refers to the art of intricate paper folded sculptures [ref].

Clearly, there is a need for a smaller form factor than the traditional notebook PC. PDAs don't run standard Windows OS, and many tablets are too heavy to carry around all the time. Gartner, an IT research Web site, posits that the UMPC space should have the following advantages:

• An eight-hour battery life
• A sub-$400 price
• Low-cost, compelling content bundles from partners like Intel and Microsoft
• A better Microsoft shell/interface running on top of Vista
• Text entry options beyond thumb-typing
• Dock-and-go synchronization, requiring minimal user interaction
• Sustained market momentum from Microsoft and Intel

These are all worthy goals, but the initial UMPC units won't deliver on all of these points at first. In this article, we'll show you what Microsoft has planned for the UMPC and what is still to come. We'll also talk about how these new computers will work and how they differ from tablets and PDAs.

The UMPC is unique in that it runs regular Windows OS -- it currently runs XP Tablet edition and will run Vista in the future. While there are many PDAs and PDA/phone combinations that run Windows Mobile (such as the Palm Treo 700w) it isn't the same as running the stock XP OS loaded onto millions of desktop and laptop computers. Windows Mobile requires new versions of applications to be compatible with that OS, and the applications have to take advantage of the smaller screens on these devices. The goal of UMPC is to run off-the-shelf Windows applications, with no medications whatsoever other than supporting the tablet/touch screen features.

Image copyright © 2006 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 U.S.A. All rights reserved.

The UMPCs that Microsoft announced are small devices -- they weigh less than two pounds and have seven-inch video screens. This puts it in a new market segment not currently served by any particular manufacturer. It is smaller than the smallest tablet PCs that are currently available from Motion and Fujitsu, and lighter than the Aopen MiniPC (a desktop model that doesn't include any screen at all). It is also bigger than the OQO PC. The other distinction is that the UMPC will be lessexpensive than the typical tablet.

"Origami isn't an iPod killer per se, it's rather a new class of device that will compete with other devices that cost about the same," says Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research, using the original code name for the UMPC. "That means portable media players, game machines, GPS units and the like will face some new challenges. Much like there were PCs with TV tuners long before MCE, the power of MCE was really the 10-foot UI. The power of Origami is really in the 10" UI."

In one reportBill Mitchell, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Windows Mobile Platforms Division said, "While the first generation of UMPCs will run Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, future models will run on Windows Vista."

The Marketing Campaign
Microsoft is a marketing machine, and it took over a year to build a credible marketing campaign for the UMPC. They used a combination of blogs, messages at various Bill Gates keynotes and a short video showing off a concept of the UMPC that was widely distributed -- unintentionally, it seems.

As we said earlier, "Origami" was the codename that Microsoft used for the project prior to the announcement at CeBIT, but it has proved so popular that many vendors continue to refer to UMPCs by the code name, and Microsoft continues to use the name in its team blog and community site for the UMPC.

Image copyright © 2006 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 U.S.A. All rights reserved. The Microsoft Origami Team Blog

To take advantage of blogging's popularity, Microsoft used the team blog from various UMPC project members to build buzz and excitement over this new device. The blog was part of the viral marketing campaign, a way to build community and converge on solutions from a wide group of disparate players around a common platform. The team is still blogging away and the Web site has an active discussion forum debating various topics, including the features promised for the first several units.

In the Origami blog, Dustin Hubbard, Microsoft Mobile PC manager, stated: "When we came up with this idea a few months ago, this was intended to be a small, grassroots effort to generate some interest in the UMPC. Boy, did we do that! Overall, the campaign was successful beyond our wildest expectations and frankly maybe a little too successful."

Image copyright © 2006 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 U.S.A. All rights reserved. The pre-launch buzz Origami Web site in week two

According to the Microsoft project team, it was pure coincidence that they announced the UMPC on the same day of a big Apple announcement. When they settled on the announcement date of March 9, they needed two weeks prior to build up the buzz and that was the same date (February 23) that Apple picked for one of its announcements.

Part of the buzz centered on the "Digital Kitchen video" which was developed by the production group Digital Kitchen as a concept piece (and has since been removed from YouTube for violating its terms of use). This video was more than a year old by the time it got a lot of play in the press. It has many vague statements, with just a few close-ups of what appears to be the UMPC in various everyday uses, such as mixing music, playing games and drawing pictures. Microsoft originally intended it for internal Microsoft viewing only.

A scene in which a user appears to be playing the popular Halo video game on a UMPC-like device attracted the most attention. "The video, which was intended for viewing by Microsoft employees only, showed our ultimate goal of running all Windows software on this ultra-mobile form factor. However, in this first release, you'll probably be primarily limited to casual games," says Dustin Hubbard.

Microsoft says that the hype surrounding the video was completely unexpected. Hubbard writes in the UMPC blog: "No one at Microsoft even knew that video was publicly available until someone posted it after finding it by doing an Internet search. Both of those events may have turned out to be serendipitous I suppose, but it wasn't planned if I'm being honest. The discovery of the video was what took our buzz campaign from a tech enthusiast following to mainstream media."

Let's dive deeper into the hardware and software specifics on the first round of machines that have been promised by various vendors.