OQO’s handheld computers are the best anyone’s ever made, making history of Sony’s similar Vaio UX and still outperforming most of this year’s rival “mobile internet devices.” Though one of the highlights of this year’s CES, however, the latest 2+ model now seems doomed: pre-orders have been canceled.
Twittered UMPC Portal‘s Chippy: “All OQO 2+ pre-orders will be canceled. Looks like receivership to me. Waiting for official OQO feedback still.” This follows earlier reports that it was seeking a buyer.
This is a terrible shame. The OQO Model 02 was widely renowned as the world’s first pocket computer that could actually get a gentleman laid, and it will be sad to see it go.
Alas. I can’t really say that the OQO deserves to survive, in a world of quite competent $200 netbooks; but it is always sad to see the cool exotics die.
It’s like what happened to all the UNIX workstation vendors, with their bespoke architectures and interesting histories. Nobody can deny the coolness of an SGI workstation or a SPARC box; but, dude, I can get a quad-core x86, 8 GB of RAM, and a 2TB SATA RAID box for less than a good suit. Game over.
That’s true, but the OQO isn’t just a cool exotic — it actually works as a tool and a toy. Unlike practically every UMPC I’ve ever had, I would actually find myself hunting it down in the house to use it.
It might be cool for the tech lovers but not very practical at all. Have you forgotton that everyone whom uses a PC uses a keyboard? PC software is not designed nor the type of thing very useful with your thumbs.
It was doomed from the beginning due to the design lacking a keyboard. They should have made a clamshell design that was longer but still narrow so it would fit in most large pockets. Their continued weak demand and sales should have been enough for them to realize their design was the problem. Yet they were to blind to see the obvious so they deserve to go under to me. Sad though as they had so much potential if they only designed it with a keyboard.