What I mean is that, from all the discussions here, and all the questions such as "what do you want to drop to get a more decent price ?", and from the internet rumor about a next year portable device (portable XBOX) from Microsoft (designed and manufactured by MS), it seems to me that this Origami thing is some kind of marketing probe.

"let us launch smthg with the help of other manufacturer to decrease the risk, and take this as an opportunity to see what our customers would like to see in OUR real thing"

I'm quite sure you will strongly disagree with this statement, but come on ! Why is there no real review of any Origami until now ? Why are the specs of the Origami so vague, except for the screen size, everything seems to be open, like if you have told your partners "do whatever you want, you can include a camera, a GPS, and whatever you want" and then the aferthought "well, this wil teach us what our customers would like to have in a product". Even the price seems to be not defined, MS saying that it will begin as low as 600$, but any price I have seen up-to-now is more on the 1000$. And I'm not saying anything about similar design, but with a different volume... I bet that if Microsoft is building a portable XBOX, it will have a screen size of 7", and a resolution if 800x480 !

If I were Microsoft, I would carefully listen to everything said here, price, how much hard disk, games capabilities, GPU, ... what should be included, and what should be left external, to be purchased separatedly, ... and then I would build the as exact as possible system to fill the maket expressed needs ! And this is maketing genius...

You're not the only one ;)

Looking at the recent announcement from Nintendo renaming their new Revolution to "GO", I'd say that Nintendo is speculating as well.  http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/23/nintendo-revolution-nintendo-go/

Of course, the moe GO names I see in this market, the more I like it :)

GoPC
gopc.com/forum
GoPC Mobile Computing Forum

you are obsessed...

What do you mean by "obsessed" ?
What is the advantage of Microsoft in the Origami project: none, or so little... The system is PC based, so there is no doubt we can install linux on it. The applications you telling us about are very simple, and are not smthg Linux couldn't include in the very near future. So where does MS intend to make money ?

I bet that MS will, in the next year or so, sell their own Origami. Of course, it will not be marketed as such, but most certainly as "Portable XBOX'". It will have a 7" display. Be based on PC components. And the main difference in between Origami and the future MS system, is that the MS system will be designed with games in mind, meaning: better GPU (any many people here are questioning about GPU) and buttons layout, with certainly some kind of analog stick, or equivalent, so that playing games will be easy. And all the features that are appearing as needed in these forums will be marketed by Microsoft as part of their new system: docking station for car with GPS, possibility to use the system as a very nice home controller replacing all the ugly remote (TV, VCR, ......) and so on.
Now, you can tell me that I'm wrong, that no such thing will ever happen. And I will believe you ... until it happens :-)

no i meant gopc is obsessed with the word gopc. he wont shutup about it. its all everyone of his posts are about.

And i dont feel this is a marketing probe at all. What about the haiku concept. What about the entire division of microsoft that they have working on this. Microsoft is hoping that this product becomes the wave of the future. I'm not saying they're going to release a portable xbox but with the current specifications there is no way an xbox like device can run portably.

That's not fair...  My point was that Nintendo, for some strange reason that nobody seems to know for sure, has gone with the GO theme as have several other companies lates.

I happen to like that... so what.  I purposely didn't say anythng more beyond that because I didn't want to offend you.  Perhaps I did anyway.  Sorry.

And I agree... Haiku is a marketing concept and the Origami project is just one piece.  As far as the information release is concerned, we've been told that was an internal pub that got loose.  So be it.

Also, there is absolutely nothing wrong with MS using all this to help promote the hardware that carries their software.  :)

G

it didnt offend me... im just sayin you can talk about other stuff.

xfjp100:

What do you mean by "obsessed" ?
What is the advantage of Microsoft in the Origami project: none, or so little... The system is PC based, so there is no doubt we can install linux on it. The applications you telling us about are very simple, and are not smthg Linux couldn't include in the very near future. So where does MS intend to make money ?

People will chose an MS based UMPC over a linux one for the same reasons that they chose an XP based PC over a Linux one. Don't forget that UMPCs are powered by XP Tablet PC Edition, which includes powerful handwriting recognition. Linux doesn't come close.