You are right that the Tablet PC market seems to be going heavily towards convertable laptops and I think that that makes sense for most people who might be hesitant to commit to a slate but are more comfortable with a “laptop-plus”.

I do see Origamis taking from the small slate Tablet market in addition to the PDAs, but that market is already so small that I don’t think it’s going to be a big factor.

Unfortunately, given that both the standalone PDA and slate Tablet markets are small, I’m not sure the Origamis are going to make a big splash unless they can really break out and grow that market.

Of course, I still want one. :)

As for me, I’m as geek as they come but I’m not gonna buy one. It’s not small enough to replace my Pocket PC Phone and it’s not capable enough to replace my tablet.

In all honesty, the Pocket PC Phone (Audiovox XV6600) is gonna be really tough to beat. I complain about its battery life all the time but reality is, it beats Tablet PC or Origami. But it’s my my camera, my portable music player (Napster to go, $15/mo), my orgamizer, and an entertainment device. Oh yeah, and it’s a phone too. :) As far as I can see, this spot in my life has already been filled.

http://www.umpcsite.com/2006/04/ultranauts_finished_predicting_and_about_the_last.html

…..”You may have read the same idea almost everywhere. Lots of editors think like this.Especially UMPCs’ wiping out high-end PDAs. But i don’t think so.” …..

Me, I’m picking up one (probably a Samsung Q1, unless the price really goes squirrelly on May 1) because it fills both those niches plus the ebook, PPC, and (to a much lesser extent) portable video niches all in one package; and because, for once, I’d like to be an early-adopter.

As to getting Linux on UMPCs, well, maybe if somebody gets developing on it… if this form-factor takes off, it might become popular enough that someone will pay attention and grind out the right code to support touch and ink. Me? I’m happy with XP, so that’ll be one that I watch from the sidelines.

— Steve

Number eight makes me really sad but it is the truth. I’ve got a friend with a tablet who’s got a tri-boot setup with XP, Ubuntu Breezy, and OS Ten. He tends to stick with XP because the tablet functionality just isn’t there with Linux, which makes running it on a tablet over a normal laptop kind of pointless. I’m hopeful this’ll change in the next few months.

Number ten totally makes me wonder what the UMPC will end up being. I’ve gone back and forth between a mini low end tablet, to something like a not-so-thin thin-client. Most people are still going to need an everyday PC to get all of their work done, to these people all the UMPC will be is nothing more then just an extra wireless set of a PC display with touch screen and speakers. If that’s the case, I think the coolness factor of doing your computer work away from your computer will be somewhat short lived for half of this group.

I’d like to see where UMPCs take off (or crash and burn) in the next few years, but seeing from the side lines is as far as I’ll get. Half way to saving up for my Toshiba M4, woot!