By Antone Gonsalves

TechWeb.com

Thu Mar 9, 6:16 PM ET

Movielink, an online movie rental service, said Thursday it would be the premier brand for downloading films in the program launcher of Microsoft Corp.' s Ultra-Mobile PC.

Microsoft unveiled the UMPC, code-named the "Origami Project," on Thursday at the CeBIT fair in Hanover, Germany. The computer, which has a 7-inch touch-sensitive screen and wireless connectivity, runs Windows XP and has all the functionality of a laptop, but without the keyboard.

The Microsoft partnership means UMPC buyers will be able to download Movielink content directly to the device instead of having to access the site through a Web browser first.

"Since the Internet has proven to be ideally suited for portability and a significant amount of Movielink' s downloads are already for portable use in notebooks, we believe the new UMPC platform will be a catalyst for portable video consumption," Sean Besser, director of business development for Movielink said.

Movielink, based in Santa Monica, Calif., offers rentals and sales of full-length Hollywood movies downloaded from its Web site. UMPCs are set to ship in April from Samsung and Asus. Founder, China' s second largest PC maker, is scheduled to ship its version in June.