Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"What a shame. One of the companies at the core of the UMPC movement and with a history that goes back beyond my first blogs about the topic has gone under. The confirmation came through GottaBeMobile and all we’re left with is the thought about what could have been with the OQO 2+ Atom-based UMPC that we first spotted on stage at Intel’s IDF Sept 2009."

I remember when the OQO was first introduced, suddenly several companies jumped on the super-ultra-mega-pocketable-portable-and-light PC bandwagon. Vulcan had the Flipstart and Sony had the Vaio UX but OQO's design was really catching and smaller than its competitors. Unfortunately, there did not seem to be much of a market for UMPCs at the time, and the OQO's price kept it out of the reach of most people. Then the iPhone, smartphones and netbooks come along along and pretty much dash any hope of the OQO finding a sizable enough niche to survive. I never had a chance to own an OQO, though I do have a UX280p, and the portability combined with the power of these munchkins is great. Sure, UMPCs are definitely not for everyone, but they definitely helped push the boundaries of technology and having a full fledged PC in your pocket helped give some people geek cred. Did any you covet the lilliputian device or actually have one?

"OQO will be shutting its doors before shipping the OQO Model 2+ according to industry sources. Bob Rosin, OQO's SVP of sales and marketing, told the Wall Street Journal that the company is facing a cash crunch, has reduced work hours and is actively looking for a buyer. We're fans of OQO and really hope the situation improves, but things are looking grim. Apparently the company is virtually out of cash and the company will not say when the Model 2+ will ship. There's an estimated ship date of May 2009 listed on the Model 2+ product page, but the WSJ article points out that the target will most likely be missed."

The OQO has always been an interesting, if expensive, device. Their innovation in the hardware was impressive, but their devices always seemed to struggle to find a place in the market. I've heard the very smart Michael Gartenberg say that there's a market for 50,000 of anything and I feel like that's exactly the market that OQO was limited to. For some people, this is a dream device - the problem is, there's not enough of those people to keep a company like OQO going. The OQO 2+ is an impressive device - the 5-inch OLED screen is, simply put, stunning. The $999 price point isn't outrageous - but ask yourself how well Windows XP or Windows Vista works at 480 x 800 screen resolution. The answer is "not very".