5 years ago I happened across this little video that got my heart going pitter-pat. It was a ‘concept’ video from Microsoft highlighting a product called “Origami”. It may be hard to imagine in the age of Android and iPhones, but it used to be that computers were big and bulky and the idea of carrying something so small and powerful in your pocket was a pipe dream. In the video (you can view it below), there were a handful of people interacting with this small hand-held computer. It was different than what was currently going on in the PC world not because it had unique features, but because the product was seen as a part of life…not in an office or at a desk…it’s with you wherever you go, useful for whatever you do. I saw this video and I thought, “could this really happen? is this real?”. It turned out that the video was more or less a teaser and there was little information at the time about an actual product existing. About a year later though, products called UMPC’s (ultra mobile personal computer) began trickling out from a handful of manufacturers…but the early reviews were less than stellar. So it seemed that the dream was better than reality.
While all of this was happening though…I have the distinct feeling that someone at Apple watched the concept video and thought to themselves “We can do that.” And they did and they called it the iPad.
So, I guess the moral of the story is…if you have an idea and you want to inspire people, make sure you can follow through with it. Otherwise, you may just inspire your competition.
