OQO has shut down operations, turned off its phones, and is no longer accepting repairs. According to OQOTalk:
A Note from OQO Inc.
“We are sad to report that due to financial constraints, OQO is not able to offer repair and service support at this time. We are deeply sorry that despite our best intentions, we are unable to provide continued support for our faithful customers. Please accept our sincerest apologies”
OQO was one of the original Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), a precursor to today’s netbook. Sadly, they could never get the price below $1000 even though these little beasties could run XP like a champ. The company was planning to release the OQO 2+, an updated version of the MID, this year.
Crunchgear videos – now with 18.9% more monkeys!
Such a touching tribute. Will that be available on iTunes?
LMAO, TechCrunch you guys are the worst……
is that a joke… jesus.. you are an idiot… you come across like a hormone infused teenager that got excited of stitching together a few pics..
Kind of pathetic.. its time for you guys to grow up… and do some real work. You guys are going downhill..
If you’d have a regular job or any other job for that matter your ass would have been fired long time ago…
Go home, dad, you’re drunk.
That might be the funniest exchange I have ever read… man I need to read more.
Outstanding response :-)
Your video is very funny by the way, well done.
You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new. – Steve Jobs
I have my iPhone and that all I need. But I feel sorry for the employees who will need to find a new job in this economy. QQQ will have a small page in PC history.
I’ve got an OQO myself and there’s no portable device out there that could replace it unfortunately (yet, that is): PC functionality at around 1lbs + fits in your pocket. Netbooks don’t do that and neither does an iPhone or Blackberry go anywhere near that.
In fact, I was looking forward to an even more powerful processor and potentially even lighter device. Hopefully someone like Dell, HP or IBM buys the IP and keeps this lineage going.
What about this devices?
http://www.dynamism.com/viliv.shtml
It’s close — except for the OQO’s slide-down qwerty keyboard that is.
Of course one could say that said keyboard isn’t worth a 1,000$ preemium over the Viliv …
There are other more subtle things like the OQO has got a much more rugged/solid frame than what I can see from the Viliv. In fact, the viliv is the type of device that, just based on pictures, seems like it’s got lots of parts that are likely to break. But I could be completely wrong on this, I’d have to touch one.
Again, is this worth a 1,000$ premium?
That’s probably why OQO wasn’t able to refinance. Outstanding design, price delta with comparably-powered device likely too big.
Now, if the fully-powered OQO (2GB RAM, 120GB HD, 1.6GHz Atom) was sold at 499$ history might have been different …
I’m not into PCs but I recall seeing lots of small devices like this when I lived in Japan up until about seven years ago, though none were for export. I suspect there are similar devices right now on the display shelves of Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku, Kawasaki, Akihabara and elsewhere that are in the 500 gram category.
Another $20 bites the dust! Anyone keep track of the failed investments in tech?
To me it seems so obvious as it does not have a touch type keyboard. They copied the old HP 200lx design and should have changed it to be more like the HP Jornada 720 series shapes when it had such weak sales. They had cool technolog to make a full PC the smallest size but while we want computer ultra mobile they still have to be functional. Most would agree trying to type a report and do other full Windows work with your thumbs IS NOT very functional. They had weak sales from day one and never addressed this key flaw.
That’s one way to look at it.
From where I stand, I was fine with their thumb-typing. In fact I have some mild form of CTS and a persisting tendinitis in my right shoulder and I’m extremely sensitive to keyboard form factors. A few years back I switched from a regular keyboard to a Kinesis keyboard and haven’t every been able to go back again. Laptop keyboards will generally make my hands start feeling a little numb after 5min usage. I’ve been trying out netbooks of late to see how that was and I can’t get past 30s usage (not pain or numbness, but just disgust at the size of the keys), except with possibly the HP minis who have vastly wider keys than the other models. To say nothing of the mouse — I’m right-handed but switched to a left-handed Evoluent mouse to give my right-shoulder a rest. etc.
Thumb-typing on the OQO isn’t as fast as typing on my Kinesis (which, by the way, is a large part of my in-office OQO usage using the docking station), but it’s actually more comfortable than my full-fledged 15″ Dell.
BTW, this topic has been hashed and rehashed on OQOtalk.com and interested readers can go there for more details.
The lack of a keyboard is why I never would buy one. I really liked the size being small but I agree it would have been better to make it a longer clamshell. I think that belief that people would want a non touch type keyboard was clearly their demise.
No wonder they flipped. I contacted them a year ago with a proposition to make a usability review of an OQO and their reply was, “We can sell you one?!”. And now, this attitude got them to this… It’s just a shame to see 20 mil go down the drain.
The units with the 1.6 via chips had a bad failure rate.. they burned up and you can’t just swap them out (potentially VIA’s fault). The on screen touch scrollers failed too much as well, and big are big ticket parts they had to eat that weren’t in the budget. Outside of that, you had an incredibly well engineered device with excellent build quality. That was the problem I think… they made an engineer’s dream, great parts and materials and industrial design… which brought the cost up enough to miss a big chunk of customers, while also raising their cost of repair. The margins did not win.
Is it possible didn’t hire you because they didn’t want *your* help for some crazy reason..?
@wwdd
My “help”? An independent usability review like this http://bit.ly/bWU8Y you call help? And by the way we never charged companies for reviewing their products.
Too easy.
The OQO is a fantastic product (450 g and pocketable). But it failed due to its high price (3,000 USD). Plain simple! Give us that for 300 to 600 USD and you will sell milions worldwide.
It is not the price, it is the lack of a keyboard. For 3-600 I would rather buy a blackberry or pda phone if I wanted a thumb computer as those have instant on, long battery life, and full cell phone features.
I would only buy an OQO if it had a normal keyboard and price was not a factor for me not buying one at all.
but u’ll not be able to do the things what u can do with an OQO with iPhone or blackberry
Does anyone know how many people worked at Oqo, or the number of people that are going to get canned from them ceasing operations?
Thank you.
The Wook
Is this the Wook, as in Wook from LA that worked at DD?
If only they would have added a webcam! I had hopes of using this like a n810, but with x86 capabilities.
who were the vc investors?
Webcam? that would make no difference to me. What would make a difference is to provide keyboard.
You are correct! That is so obvious but why did they not see that?
The dudes at http://oqoasis.com/ are keeping the spirit alive for all the users who were left out in the cold by OQO’s sudden disappearance.
I think the OQO concept was a good thing.May be they have copied some features from other companies,but it is a very good idea to put all of them into one single unit.Arguments with the keyboard is worthless.I think it’s perfect for its kind of use.If there were telephone capabilities(i mean a GSM/CDMA telephone with sms),it’ll b so hard to beat this.Blackberry and iPhone can’t even reach this(those gagets actually good.But here i mean about the work).A guy has somehow managed to run mac os X on an OQO.Everybody knows hw much it can be done with a desktop OS.can your blackberry run your favourite video editing tool?.can it run 3d max or maya?.sure,u’ll say some people do not prefer such functions from a mobile phone.Then why don’t you find yourself a “NOKIA 3310?”.Actually the price is a turning point for any item in the market.Finally i’d like to say that the OQO was an amazing goodie and we’d like to see they are continuing the line.thank you everybody