KEVIN J. O’BRIEN reports that
Microsoft and two electronics companies, Samsung of Korea and Asus of Taiwan, plan to unveil ultralight tablet computers on Thursday that melds a laptop and media player into a thin, new device.
The Q1 from Samsung combines a laptop computer with a media player. It weighs in at 1.7 pounds. Samsung’s device, the Q1, will use Microsoft’s Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system. It is a product of Microsoft’s so-called Origami project — an effort to shrink and redefine the laptop, while bolstering the company’s software sales for new hand-held devices. Asus will also produce a version.