It should be a slam dunk press event.

The Cast: Heavy weight partners Samsung, Microsoft and Intel all on stage together.

The Plan: Show off the latest and greatest gadget to full effect doing it what its designed to do.

The Audience: News and technology vendors from all walks in one of the most advanced technology cities in the world, Seoul Korea.

The Product: Samsung Q1 Ultra Mobile PC alias Microsoft Origami.

The Problem: Either the executives from each of the big 3 can’t work the product or the product doesn’t work or some combination of the two!

The Korea Times details a presentation Snafu during a press conference designed to show off the Samsung Origami device named Q1.

Executives from the three partnering companies gathered together to provide a presentation on the new Origami unit from Samsung named the Q1.

Three Strikes and their out!

Strike 1
Samsung’s Vice President of the PC Division attempted to make his presentation using the Samsung Q1, but could not get the device to toggle to the 2nd page of the presentation (the device has no keyboard).

Strike 2
After getting help from his staff, the VP made it several pages into the presentation only to be stomped on when the batteries ran out(the device has a 3 hour battery life as projected)

Foul Ball
Microsoft Korean unit President was next up to pinch hit, but couldn’t get started without assistance from the Samsung staff, and then watched as the device rapidly scrolled through the entire presentation in just a few seconds.

Strike 3
Confidently rising to the podium Intel’s Exec claimed he could avoid the problem by “‘do it my own way as my predecessors have had a difficult time.’” Unfortunately, he received the third strike for the group as he also required help from the Samsung team to make the device function appropriately.

Samsung is hoping to sell 100,000 units in the first 12 months, but will need to practice their presentation and consider improving battery life and increasing the availability of user training, especially within their own ranks.

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At a press conference in Korea intended to promote the new Samsung Origami unit called Q1, the presenters ran into technical issues. They were attempting to run the presentation with an actual Q1 (Samsung Origami unit) and technical glitches seemed to steel the show.

The presenter from Samsung had difficulty toggling pages & then before his presentation ended the battery on his Q1 died.

The presenter from Microsoft didn’t fair much better, requiring assistance and then a technical glitch fast forwarded through his slides in just a few seconds.

The third and final presenter from Intel tried to make a brave show of it, but also required assistance from a staff member to get the unit to function.

The unit has already been criticized for having a short battery life (3 hours normal use/ 2 hours DVD), and to have one die in the middle of a presentation by the makers does not help ease the situation.

It would appear that all three groups are going to have to push for an upgrade option for a better battery. Training programs might not hurt either.

The Korea Times : ‘Origami’ Stumps CEOs in Jobs-Style Presentation

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ShadowRam of CRN trade magazine from March 13, 2006, made a short comment about the lackluster of the Origami device.

ChannelWeb: “Origami is nothing more than a device from Samsung and other vendors running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition version 2.0 with enhanced touch screen and better navigation. In other words: yawn. ”

It would appear the comment is negative, however, its a bit of a forehanded criticism. Talking about how there is nothing special about the Origami unit by describing what is special. It would seem to be Anti-Microsoft code for, you cand hand it to Microsoft for doing something right because they are Microsoft.

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