It just got announced today. It's a new type of Personal computer that sits right between a Pocket PC and a lightweight Notebook or Tablet PC. There was a site with a "teaser" about it at

http://www.origamiproject.com

but it finally got announced today at the CeBIT conference in Europe. There are some interesting characteristics that define what an Ultra Mobile Personal Computer is. The highlights are:

  • Weighs around 2 pounds and has a 7-inch screen
  • Mobile-tuned UI with touch screen, stylus, dedicated buttons, speech, and optional Bluetooth or USB keyboard
  • Includes Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth and/or GPS
  • Screen resolution is 800x480, scaling to 800x600 and 1024x600
  • Pentium M, Celeron M or similar CPU with 30-60 GB hard drive
  • Running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 (Windows Vista in the future)
  • Price range: $599 to $999 today (expect it to reach $500 later)

The specs are new available at http://www.microsoft.com/umpc and more in depth information for developers can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility/tabletpc/umpc