“Of Magpie’s and Origami…”

By Bruce McGregor, Director, PDMS

There’s a new buzz in some circles caused by, well you might have guessed it, “Microsoft!” You might expect that any buzz around Microsoft would be about some latest software or latest operating system codenamed “short-tuba” or the like but no it’s actually about the latest must have hardware gizmo, or “Ultra-Mobile PC”. I’m not sure whether “UMP” will stick or not? This new device has arisen from a Microsoft secret, or not so secret, project codenamed “Origami”. There was much debate on the web, blogs, newsgroups and the like as to whether this new exciting Origami device was to be an “OrPod”, in other words some kind of “Apple iPod killer” born out of Redmonds huge “iPod” envy or whether it was to be something very different?

Whatever the reasons, and I expect they are fairly commercially rooted, it would appear that it has not in fact gone for a direct attack at the iPod or MP3 market but has targeted what it perceives to be a gap in the market, one which all the self confessed “Magpie’s” around have been flapping about for some time. It would also appear to be a fairly significant step for Microsoft in that much of the fuss will be about the device as much as what runs on it.

So what is this beast? Well, it would appear from the latest news, to be an “Ultra-Mobile Device” or “Ultra-Portable Lifestyle PC” not a phone but very much a PC with a very small form factor which allows for ultimate portability whilst still allowing for full processing power and functionality. This will be a light, 8” (ish) device which combines all the power of a PC, a phone and a media device into one unit. It will aim, according to the latest information from Microsoft, to provide the user with the functionality to: keep you connected through - web, e-mail and instant messaging | to be effective with: Presentations, Documents and Maps to keep you entertained with Photo’s, Video’s, Music and Games and so to ultimately be your “Go everywhere do everything mobile device”!

From a hardware point of view Microsoft has partnered or is partnering with an increasing number of the usual big named suppliers and although the actual functionality of the device itself will vary, it will, however, be based around a 7” touchscreen running a native resolution of 800 x 480 and will include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Ethernet as standard with the options of 3G mobile and GPS navigation also built in. The move to a true fully touchscreen interface is a significant step as although the devices will come with a stylus pointer they are designed to be truly practical and to be easy to use with the original number one “Point and Select” device, the Finger! Microsoft has in fact developed special software to cope with the interface of touchscreen technologies and its existing software. It would appear the device will run the latest version of Microsoft’s XP tablet platform and will support all usual PC software as standard, although obviously some may be less useable than others on a device of this kind.

So, who wants one, who will ‘get’ the UMP? My first thought was definitely all those soles out there with self confessed “Magpie Syndrome”, I even have a mild form of this myself (I think most men do!). So, I felt I better check on the meaning of this syndrome. I was surprised to find that it’s not as widely defined as I might have thought but I did, however, come across the following definition, which caught my eye! :-

“Magpie Syndrome -- a tendency to acquire the shiniest, most appealing objects in the vicinity and pile them up into a heap rather than assembling them into a coherent whole or exploring the full depths and potentialities of the pieces already acquired. Often comes with a tendency to respond to difficulties by acquiring new shiny objects rather than seeing if any of the ones already acquired will help with the problem.”

A rather lengthy explanation I know, but I particularly liked a couple of its elements!

Some recent statistics would also appear to add weight to the fact that there are plenty of Magpie’s out there, and this is even before last Christmas! An amazing 1 in 4 people have an iPod or similar MP3 player, 85% own a DVD player and over 70% some form of the latest digital camera technology and UK households now have on average 1.7 computers, not to say what percentage of the population have mobile phones! Since Microsoft’s Origami device would appear to be able to do all of the above and more it would appear that its potential target market is enormous!

There are, however, some people out there, not least Mike Nuttall - the man behind the humble and functionally brilliantly simple Microsoft Mouse, who feel that this kind of “do it all” approach is not the right way to create truly useful devices. A “driven by technology” rather than true need or purpose leads to a device which comes to life as a result of “because it’s possible and because we know how to do it” approach. He wrote in an article way back in 2002 that he found that many people in fact like devices that do the minimum but do it really well. How many people out there like the mobile phone simply because it’s a good way to make a phone call and not because it’s OK at playing some music or is mediocre at taking pictures, as well. He felt that such a device, which could do it all, would only be able to do it in a compromised way.

So, will Microsoft’s new ‘Ultra-Mobile PC’ simply turn out to be a “heap of shiny objects”, a “jack of all but a master of none” or have they managed to create an assembly of some of the most appealing objects around us into an ultimately attractive and coherent whole, a single device ‘Nirvana’. I suspect as usual time will tell and in the meantime I think enough Magpie’s will circle and swoop to make it all worthwhile in the long run.