Origami 2.0 to be thinner, smaller, and (maybe) less expensive
Microsoft is working on a new set of specifications for its Origami project. Microsoft development manager Vikram Madan spoke this week at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Los Angeles about some of the specs …
Context & Ripple Effects
Origami has been on the defensive since The Inquirer branded the first generation of UMPCs a disaster in June 2006, so Vikram Madan's announcement of a revised specification set at WinHEC reads as a deliberate reset: thinner, smaller, and possibly cheaper hardware targets meant to fix what buyers rejected the first time.
The stakes sit with Microsoft's OEM partners more than with Microsoft itself — a spec sheet only matters if manufacturers commit second-generation designs against it, and the weak 2006 sell-through gave them every reason to walk away instead.
First-order effects
- Microsoft's OEM partners now have concrete Origami 2.0 targets to design against, making the decision to fund a second-generation device explicit rather than open-ended.
- Madan's 'maybe less expensive' framing acknowledges that first-gen pricing was part of the failure mode, putting cost reduction on the same footing as size and weight in the spec.
Second-order effects
- Thinner and cheaper UMPCs push the category toward overlap with subnotebooks and handhelds, forcing OEMs to justify a third device class between laptop and phone rather than compete within either.
- If the revised specs still don't move units, Microsoft faces pressure to subsidize the category itself or fold Origami's goals into other product lines rather than keep issuing spec revisions.
Third-order effects
- The pattern here — Microsoft defining a hardware class through published specifications and iterating after a commercial stumble — tests whether spec-driven platform leadership can sustain a category that consumers haven't asked for.
- If Origami 2.0 succeeds in shrinking the touch-first PC, the long-run direction points toward pocketable, pen-and-touch Windows devices converging with phones, a structural shift in where Microsoft's OS lives.
The trend: Microsoft is treating the UMPC as a persistent platform bet, using successive Origami specification revisions to chase a touch-first PC form factor that the market hasn't yet embraced.