Microsoft announces Next-Gen PC Design Competition winners

Taking a break from all the actual products being announced at this week's WinHEC conference, Microsoft has used the opportunity to announce the winners of its Next-Gen PC Design Competition, none of which you'll likely be able to get your hands on anytime soon. Taking home the $25,000 Chairman's Award was the MADE in China PC designed by John Leung of AARIVE Design (seen above), which was "specifically designed to bring computing closer to the world's 1.3 billion Chinese." Apparently, the surface of the device is actually a touchscreen, with the so-called "CHOPstylus" used for input. Among the Judge's Awards, the "blok" PC intended for use in kindergarten classrooms snagged first-place, incorporating building-blocks, keyboard mats, and digital markers into its design. Other winners include the BulbPC, designed to fit inside a standard grommet hole on a desk, and the Zeed+ for the Future PC, which is based on "Ikebana," the Japanese art of formal flower arrangement (upgrades are apparently done simply by replacing the "flowers"). Lastly, the People's Choice Award went to Zhu Fei's "Light up your Life" design, which consists of a "glowing cylindrical orb" that can act as a flashlight, portable multimedia player, or mobile phone. Check out the gallery below for a closer look at all the winners.

[Via AARIVE]

Gallery: Microsoft announces Next-Gen PC Design Competition winners

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[randy @ May 16th 2007 1:41PM]

"People love sushi. And people love computers. So here's my idea!"

[Eric Unterhausen @ May 16th 2007 2:08PM]

This one here is either an air freshener, or a designer dynamite exploder thingy.
http://www.engadget.com/photos/microsoft-announces-next-gen-pc-design-competition-winners/244099/

[WRexaru @ May 16th 2007 3:42PM]

Why is a company that does not design or manufacture PCs having a PC design contest?

[Nick @ May 16th 2007 3:54PM]

Hey look the sushi tray is solar powered!

This if proof why MS should never consider manufacturing computers.

[quandmeme @ May 16th 2007 4:00PM]

So I tried to click through to the links because weblogs have the WORST gallery interface on the web. Am I the only one on the planet that uses a laptop as the their primary?
Check out Gizmodo/Jalopnik's galleries. I stopped going there because of their crosslinking with their adult interest site. (Huh, maybe that's why their galleries are better). Anyway, I flipped through this gallery with a sigh. Is it that hard to be user friendly?

[michael @ May 16th 2007 4:26PM]

The next gen PC is a mac. Ha!

[derek @ May 16th 2007 4:56PM]

what the hell?????

[Aaron @ May 16th 2007 5:04PM]

I think these are cute and all, but do they atually WORK?

What's the point of having these contest and trumpeting the winners if there isn't the slimmest chance in Hades these things will actually work. Anybody can come up with a catchy design (well, anyboday except current PC makers ;) but if it's not at least possible, why bother?

[randy @ May 16th 2007 6:04PM]

Was this a contest for children? I don't think an adult would design the ports as the "BulbPC" designer has, formed in such a way that the cable plug cannot be grasped and manipulated into and out of the hole. Where is the space for human fingers?

And the four bullet points on the bee hive design don't even make sense. They don't even read correctly. Did somebody just string together an assortment of random buzzwords?

[Tom @ May 16th 2007 7:31PM]

After careful consideration I have determined that these all totally suck ass!

[KC @ May 16th 2007 7:41PM]

If those are heatsink fins, I think they might be better waffle makers.

[mark @ May 16th 2007 7:42PM]

An unexpected error has occurred. Please report this error to the Microsoft / IDSA PC Design Competition site owners.


great, just great

[John @ May 16th 2007 11:54PM]

Hi. I'm the designer of MADE in China. You are welcomed to come to www.aarive.com to have a detailed understanding of at MADE in China. It has some very great potentials...!

[Tim @ May 17th 2007 8:47AM]

So John, according to the designs, there's no cpu, graphics card, sound card or hard drive. These are required components to make your PC run, so if they're not inside the case then where are they?

[chengdude @ May 17th 2007 4:36AM]

If the winning design was "specifically designed to bring computing closer to the world's 1.3 billion Chinese", why does it look like a Japanese sushi tray?

[Tim @ May 17th 2007 8:37AM]

Is it just me who finds it incredibly sad and disappointing that these designs have barely any basis in real world technology, or common sense for that matter?
1) "MADE in China"
Where are the insides? It's thinner than a laptop, so I'm sure the noise of the fan required to keep it cool will completely ruin the sushi tray motif.
2) "Zeed+"
This one makes me gag at how completely insane it is to expect technology to squeeze down into a tiny leaf thing for the sake of looking pretty. I know it's artsy, but artsy costs an arm and a leg to reproduce in the tech world.
3) "blok"
Again, where are the insides? I know designers these days love thin, but the real world needs innards. That "U" shape is also asking to get broken easily, especially around kids.
4) "BulbPC"
The only design here that is actually achievable and fills a real niche, although I'd expect to see a VGA or even composite video output there instead of DVI. The faceplate needs to be flattened if you want to actually plug things into it, as randy pointed out.
5) "Light up your Life"
The picture tells me nothing, which is a shame. It looks rather heavy for a portable device, keep the original idea and completely remake the case. A lot of the listed features are lightweight and are already appearing in current UMPCs.

I'm a design student, so I fully realize that designers are told not to limit your ideas, but these ones are just ridiculous.

[Fatass of Kickassness @ May 17th 2007 9:52AM]

These people have some great ideas that are completely awesome but are tarnished by the fact that they moronically choose form over function.

[Bart @ May 22nd 2007 8:57AM]

Some of these comments are even less imaginative than the designs. A VGA port on a computer of the future?!? You have to be kidding me. There are computers today, like all Apples, that don't have VGA anymore. Why don't you just ask for a parallel port for your dot matrix printer!

I think the problem with these designs is that nothing about the form is impossible to produce today (look at all the thin smart phones and the iPhone that are tiny, but have real computers inside them!), but there's also nothing about the designs that seems futuristic to me (except for the idea that your computer might eventually be just a socket in the wall or ceiling with the Bulb one). They could have come up with some interesting port designs (cause we know they're not going to stop coming out with a different one every year) or some kind of wireless monitor setup. What about a computer completely inside your mouse?