1. Pissed-Off Lemmings Start Early On UMPC

First it was called "Origami" and Microsoft tried to whet our appetites for whatever it was with a mysterious campaign featuring the name and not much more. Then the grand concept was released to the world under the name "Ultra-Mobile PC" or "UMPC". By the time of its release members of the technical press - most of whom were not clued in on the product - were ready to hate whatever Microsoft called its new small PC concept originally code named for the fine Japanese art of paper folding.

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If that wasn't enough, first reports on UMPC included photos of the device that looked like they were taken in the deepest dungeons of some dreary video game. The displays looked horrible and the units themselves looked even worse. Commentary focused on the lack of a keyboard and some on the cost being too high.

The intro was a bomb, but the real nails in the coffin of perceptions about UMPC were the product itself and the almost blind lemming-like manner in which tech journalists jumped off the anti-UMPC cliff. In no time the UMPC had taken on the persona of the devil and today virtually no one speaks about it in positive terms.

Today's UMPCs are too expensive and might need a keyboard for some apps and standard battery life is too short at 2.5 to 3.5 hours. "So," you might be asking, "how come you didn't do a 'Who Designed This Crap?' column on these things?" The simple answer is that I'm not a lemming.

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