A computer in the hand

OQO has started to ship a new model of its handheld Windows computer. Now all the company needs is customers.

The new computer, officially model 02, is a full-fledged Windows XP computer that comes with optional broadband wireless from Verizon or Sprint. It costs $1,499 and is available here..

oh no, it' oqo

(Credit: oqo)

The trick is that it fits into a person's hand, similar to those devices from Samsung or Taiwan's Hi Tech Computer Corp. (Hi Tech announced a handheld Vista-based computer this week.). Sony has a few in Japan.

OQO, however, can lay claim to being in the market the longest one in the market. The company had a coming out party in 2002 on the eve of WinHec. The first models came out with a Transmeta processor. (The new model uses a Via processor, similar to some of Samsung's machines.)

It finally launched its product 2.5 years later, followed by a subsequent upgrade.

These computers are cool, but you don't see a lot of them in the wild. So far, I've seen two: one was owned by a chip executive whose job it is to sell processors to companies making tiny computers and the other belonged to an industrial designer. Do those really count?