Origami

In recent weeks Microsoft has been trying its hand at Apple style marketing - keep an exciting product a secret right up until it is announced, creating a buzz and excitement around the product. Microsoft's product is called Origami. They've been teasing everyone with a mysterious website giving away little details but they've now spilt the beans.



Origami is not one product, but a form-factor developed by OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), Intel and Microsoft. They are small paperback sized tablet PCs, currently running Windows XP Tablet edition, but soon Vista. They typically have about 512 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD and a 1 ghz - ish processor, obviously from Intel.

The three products announced today are the Samsung Q1, Asus and Founder models. Engadget things that the Asus has the edge on build quality and looks, but the Founder has a better processor - a 1 GHz Pentium M as opposed to the 900 MHz Celeron M processors in the other two.

No word yet on release date or final cost, but the BBC reports that the Samsung Q1 will be the first to drop with a pricetag of £699. It will also be available before the summer this year, otherwise there would be no point in installing Windows XP on them, and the machines would all be running Vista.

[picture from Engadget.com]