More Origami news

As follows any quantity of hype, there is then a period of disappointment.  It will be an exercise in PR to watch Microsoft carefully handle these criticisms of the new Origami devices from the Korean manufacturers:

1. Processors not as fast as expected
The haters are complaining that the devices need a faster processor.  Perhaps I shouldn’t call them haters, as one of them is an executive from Intel corporation.  (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125011,00.asp)  Can someone from Microsoft get Intel on the phone and get them to shut up and stop talking down their products?

2. Battery life only 2.5 hours
This could be a killer for a portable device.  I hope they work through it.  I suspect they could make for a better story by tuning the device’s processor speed and shutting down some other functions and showing it’s got more than 2.5 hours in it.  It’s just a matter of what you’re measuring.

3. Price point of $600-$1,000
The big worry here is whether or not people who have laptops and desktops will shell out a perceptively similar amount of money for this device.  This, by the way, kills the Motion computing competitor, which doesn’t even get out of bed for less than $1,600 in this category.  Or the OQO, which Froogles for an average of 2 large. http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=oqo&btnG=Search&hl=en

Do you appreciate the fact that I just used Froogle as a verb?  Heh.

Given the short newscycle, how Microsoft handles the PR on these three issues bubbling up in the next 24 hours will determine a lot about how the products are received in the next six months.

This could be an absolute must-have category, and I’m really excited about the potential.