UMPC/Project Origami -- It's Official: I'm In Love Again!

Engadget

Move over Palm and PocketPC! There's a new handheld in town and it is poised to take market share off of yours!

Intel finally pulled the curtains off its UMPC initiative and man those portables looks great! The device they showcased has a 7-inch touch screen, standard x86 processor (I wonder how long will it take the Linux community to create a specialized OS for this?) and is capable of running full desktop OS (read: Windows XP/XP Tablet Edition).

In a few day's time, Microsoft will also unveil their "Project Origami" and that's when the real big picture comes out: A consumer-oriented tablet PC than has a processor that is powerful enough for daily tasks and a reasonably long life battery. That same device should be able to interface with a desktop/laptop PC, a phone, a digital camera and other Bluetooth-enabled/Wifi-enabled gadgets. It is said that these devices will be available for a little less than $1,000 but should hit the "sweet spot" of around $500 in its succeeding generations.

If marketed well, these UMPCs will be a much needed shot-in-the-arm the handheld computing niche needs since its a well-known fact that the PDA has already reached the saturation point of the market and its users are starting to look for more powerful and versatile handheld device.

As for me, I *may* get one *if* there is a way to connect a full-sized keyboard on it because its a pain to "write" documents on such a small screen using handwriting recognition. Actually, I have my eye on the OQO when it was first launched but its high price prevented me from even considering owning one.

technorati tags: project origami, UMPC