Microsoft News Tracker

Wolfgang Gruener has the eulogy for Origami at TG Daily in “The UMPC dies. And no one notices“:

Ok, let’s not be so dramatic. It really depends on your view if the UMPC is actually dead or alive. However, the idea of the Ultra Mobile PC as it was pitched to us in 2006, as an ultra cool and always connected companion that is with us anytime and anywhere, is gone for good. Expect the current UMPC generation to leave the general retail market very soon.

During a recent conversation with Intel, which has been one of the first companies to show UMPC concepts and unveil some prototype devices a little over a year a ago, we learned that the initial concept of the UMPC has failed. While the form factor of the UMPC won’t go away, these devices have been less appealing to the mass market than expected and have been redirected to aim at the business market, for example field technicians who use bulky Tablet PCs today. If Intel has its way, then what once was the mass market UMPC will morph into much smaller and less powerful “mobile Internet devices,” short “MID”.

So, if you have been dreaming about that cool little tablet you can bring on vacation instead of dragging that notebook bag along, continue to dream. While MIDs will be more affordable, come in a smaller package and offer more connectivity options than today’s UMPCs, they will be far less capable in terms of processing power and storage capabilities.

Everyone wanted the product that was misleadingly hyped, but it couldn’t be delivered. There’s much more by following the link including speculation as to whether smartphones actually leave any market room for the the MID.

CNET UK’s Crave blog sums up Bill Gate’s keynote at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show quite nicely:

The Gates soft-shoe shuffle at CES kicks off the gadget show each year with the same forlorn regularity as a Windows blue screen of death. It’s comforting to watch Bill climb up to the stage, but prepare yourselves, people: this can’t go on for ever. Gates began his remarks by saying that next year’s keynote may well be his last.

This year’s keynote didn’t hold many too many surprises. There was the usual self-satisfied purring about what a long way we’ve all come, baby, in what Gates is now calling “the digital decade”. There was also some quite staggeringly unhip video showing what were supposed to be hip and cool consumers using Microsoft products to have connected experiences.

I always get a laugh out of the “digital future” concept demos they put poor Mr Gates through.  This year even he was laughing at the schtick where he, the world’s richest man, was reading interactive ads at a bus stop and checking out recipes projected on a kitchen counter after setting a forlorn bag of RFID tagged flour on it.

Also, someone please get Robbie Bach a public speaking coach - he seemed like a deer in the headlights. Of course, it is a trifle embarrassing to warmly endorse parental controls for gaming on Vista and then run a montage of games that mostly involved shooting other people.

The main event was news of a new home server as well as some cutesy Media Center PCs in quirky form factors (round and white anyone?). There was also the intriguing news that Microsoft will allow its Xbox 360 games console to act as a link to its Internet Television service, or IPTV.

And that’s about it in a nutshell. Some more details from the general press release and elsewhere:

• New Vista PC form factors - see the press release. These are presumably the result of Microsoft “helping out” the PC manufacturers on design. Also a couple of Vista Ultimate Extras (goodies you get for buying the pricey Ultimate version) were revealed.
• Exactly as leaked, the Xbox 360 made its 10 million ship target and will in future provide Microsoft TV IPTV set top box functionality. This feature plus the video download service announced in November (Lionsgate was announced as a new content provider) seem to me to be more selling points for the Xbox 360 than any real encroachment on the consumer electronics market. Also, the first fruits of Live Anywhere were demonstrated where Vista PC users can play online versus Xbox 360 users.
• The deal for Ford to offer Windows Automotive based car entertainment systems under the Sync brand came off as rumored.
• Finally, the rumored Windows Home Server (formerly codenamed Quattro) came to pass with Hewlett-Packard scheduled to be the first out of the gate to deliver one (HP MediaSmart Sever) in 2H2007. The details are rather sparse other than it sits on the customer’s home network and serves media files to Windows Media Connect supported devices as well as providing automated storage backup for the customer’s other client PCs. One novel note is that Microsoft will provide a free “personalized Internet address from Windows Live” so the data on the server can be accessed from anywhere, hopefully only by the owner. All this functionality can be purchased today from other vendors, so it will be interesting to see the price points for the Home Servers when they reach the market.

Update: Paul Thurrott has more details on the Windows Home Server including that it is based on Windows Server 2003 R2 and that the operating system can be purchased without hardware.

Update: A press release and Q&A for Windows Home Server have belatedly arrived. See also this post on the weblog of Microsoft’s Charlie Kindel, a member of the Home Server development team.

Clarification: Ken Fisher at Ars Technica:

One challenge facing Windows Home Server (WHS for short) is that it is an OEM-only product, meaning that you won’t be able to head out and buy WHS at your local retail joint. And much like Media Center in the early days, we don’t expect specialty shops to carry an OEM version of the software anytime soon. This is disappointing news, because the early-adopter segment isn’t particularly interested in paying top dollar for OEM creations when do-it-yourself delivers a better experience. That said, I discussed this briefly with a Microsoft representative who said that Microsoft is aware that there’s a big enthusiast crowd out there, and a retail release of the OS isn’t out of the question.

It looks like the Orgami (AKA UMPC) form factor portable PC sponsored by Microsoft and Intel is getting a second chance - Ina Fried at CNET:

Get ready for Origami take two. While Microsoft’s minitablet effort may not be quite where the software maker had hoped, the project is ready for another cameo.

This spring, Microsoft attracted huge buzz for the Origami prior to its launch, but as details emerged and the products hit the market, they were roundly criticized as overpriced and underpowered.

Next month, at CES, Microsoft will be back with another round of the tiny computers. The latest tablets, code-named Vistagami because of their Windows Vista support, also will come in a wider range of looks, including some models with keyboards. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates is expected to mention some of the new devices in his CES keynote as part of a broader discussion of the new types of computers that will be enabled with Vista, including new all-in-one PCs and other esoteric designs.

But it’s unclear whether the new crop of devices will do that much to address the two biggest criticisms of the category: price and battery life.

More details by following the link, but adding Vista or a keyboard isn’t enough in my opinion. The good news is that so far a viral marketing campaign hasn’t been spotted.

Despite Microsoft denials, Brier Dudley at the Seattle Times says the iPod Killer is for real and has more details:

Microsoft is indeed developing a digital-media player to compete with Apple’s iPod, and there’s much more to the story.
…
What’s being developed is actually a complete line of Xbox-branded digital-media products, including a device that plays media, a software media player and an online media service.

The project, or at least part of it, is referred to internally at Microsoft by the code name Argo — a reference to the huge warship used by the hero Jason in Greek mythology.

Argo is being developed within the Xbox group under the leadership of Xbox co-founder J Allard. His team includes people who previously worked on MSN Music, an online music service that had a promising debut in 2004 but fell victim to Microsoft’s dithering over its music strategy.

Now the company is firmly behind Argo. It has committed hundreds of millions to produce and market the devices.
…
It’s a grand plan, but as with a few other big projects in Redmond, it may be a struggle to get it all done by the end of 2006. The project isn’t completed yet, the holidays are approaching fast and the team is under intense pressure to get everything absolutely right.

The timing of the hype cycle is perfect, however. Microsoft’s annual meeting with financial analysts is July 27, and it’s looking bleak.

More by following the link, but while the end of the year shopping season is approaching at a furious pace, July 27 seems a little soon to be spilling to the analysts. Dudley also asks the big question, “Can Xbox’s young guns get past the old guard with a less Windows-centric venture?” Looks like they already have. Now they have to deliver.

Microsoft finally commented yesterday on the recent iPod Killer reports as Scott M. Fulton, III describes at TG Daily:

In a carefully worded response this morning, a Microsoft spokesperson denied his company’s participation in a demonstration of a portable music device capable of wireless networking to music industry executives, calling a Bloomberg report on Wednesday and a Associated Press report this morning “speculation and rumors.” However, the spokesperson stopped short of denying a demonstration of such a device from someone took place.

“For the stories you are seeing,” the spokesperson wrote TG Daily, “they are based on speculation and rumors and, as such, Microsoft didn’t participate. We don’t have anything to announce at this time.”

Curiouser and curiouser. The BBC has a similar story.