Will the Eee spell disaster for the Oqo?
The Oqo was novel when the company first debuted: a small, ultra portable PC weighing 1 pound with slide-out QWERTY keyboard. But that was eight years ago.
The San Francisco Chronicle has a little feature Monday on the latest model ("latest" being relative since it actually launched in March of last year), in which it describes how the Oqo is being forced to "defend its niche" against the rise of the mini-notebook from the likes of Asus and Hewlett-Packard. The company cut the price, added Microsoft Vista, and bumped up the storage in September. The Oqo Model 02 is now $1,300.
With the rise of the mini-notebook, the UMPC is essentially toast.
(Credit: Oqo)The Chronicle also reports the company is doing $20 million in sales these days, after a lot of early hiccups, and boasts some high-profile customers, like Craigslist's Craig Newmark. While that's admirable, it's certainly not going to be enough.
We've reported on the rise of the inexpensive mini-notebook, and consumers are clearly finding them compelling as a secondary machine. Plus, the Oqo--and every other UMPC--has been hobbled from the beginning by high prices and an identity crisis, so Asus, HP, and soon Acer and several others, should have little trouble swooping in to eat Oqo's lunch in a fairly efficient and dispassionate manner.
To be fair, the Oqo is certainly pretty--the screen is bright and clear--but it's not very consumer friendly. It's heavy and with the slide-out keyboard, the form factor is more smartphone than mini-notebook.
But the biggest weakness of the Oqo is the price. Why someone would opt for the Model 02 instead of, say, the Eee PC, or now HP's Mini-Note, confounds me. The Oqo is $1,300. The 7-inch Eee PC from Asus starts at $399 with Windows XP, and though the keys are tiny, functions more like laptop and isn't that much bigger than the Oqo. The Mini-Note from HP comes with Vista starting at $599.
Speaking strictly in terms of technology, what Oqo has done to fit a full PC into such a small package is obviously impressive. But usability and having a distinct usage category are so much more important when looking for mainstream consumer success in the gadget world.
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica.
I'd like to understand your definition of a mini-notebook, because the two products you link to above do not have thumb keyboards and it would be very hard for someone standing on a crowded bus or train, or perhaps standing in a long line at Peet's Coffee to log-in via VPN to monitor or troubleshoot their business network or connect to SAP or other proprietary applications via WWAN with either of those units. I guess you could use the person's back standing next to you...?!
just something to consider.
I'd like to understand your definition of a mini-notebook, because the two products you link to above do not have thumb keyboards and it would be very hard for someone standing on a crowded bus or train, or perhaps standing in a long line at Peet's Coffee to log-in via VPN to monitor or troubleshoot their business network or connect to SAP or other proprietary applications via WWAN with either of those units. I guess you could use the person's back standing next to you...?!
just something to consider.
I'd like to understand your definition of a mini-notebook, because the two products you link to above do not have thumb keyboards and it would be very hard for someone standing on a crowded bus or train, or perhaps standing in a long line at Peet's Coffee to log-in via VPN to monitor or troubleshoot their business network or connect to SAP or other proprietary applications via WWAN with either of those units. I guess you could use the person's back standing next to you...?!
just something to consider.
It is not the price but the usability. The problem with all UMPC's available in the US is that they are not very usable. How do you use full windows? You use full windows with a computer with a touch type keyboard; NOT A THUMB KEYBOARD NOR PEN INPUT! Yes computers with full windows with a touch type keyboard dominate the planet with over 113 million sold each year and people would want a more mobile vesion. What is needed is a clamshell type full windows computer with a touch type keyboard. Something resembling the old but famous Psion 5mx PDA. If a new UMPC was that size, basically about 7" long, about 3.6" to 4" wide and less than an inch in height, that would provide enough room for a good touch type keyboard like the Psion had. Couple that with full windows and you would have a consumer computer selling big volume.
The problem with OQO is it is not a good input for full windows. Yes they have great technology in making a full windows pc that small but it has never sold well due to the input being non mainstream. If you work the 20 million backwards that comes out to selling 8000 to 15,000 computes a year depending on how you want to estimate the average sales per customer of the device, and expensive accessories. After 8 years they have not had big demand. If they made a slightly longer version with a true touch type keyboard that would sell. By making it a little longer say 7" they would have about 35% more internal volume available keeping it the same thickness; I would expect a good engineering group could find a way to reduce the height which would make it much sleeker and easier to carry in a jacket pocket. The normal jacket pocket should be the parameters for UMPC's to gain mainstream sales; that dimension can handle about 7.4" x 4.25" x 1.3" roughly. Ideally the more narrow and thinner is what would make it easy to carry BUT do not reduce the length to less than 6.9" as that was what the Psion had; any smaller and then you are faced with the current problems of not being easy to input.
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by primaz
April 21, 2009 10:21 AM PDT
- OQO should have changed the design to more of a simple clamshell so that it would have a touch type keyboard to be able to peform the normal laptop functions most would do with Vista yet still be small enough to fit in a large jacket pocket. Now just as I foresaw years ago and this article pointed out last year that they can not survive with the form factor they have continued to market for 8 years with such weak sales. OQO confirmed with the Wallstreet Journal that they are in financial problems and the company is seeking a buyer. It looks like they will not survive as they are not supporting warranty repairs and there are reports that OQO is sending OQO computers back to customers without repairing them.
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(5 Comments)They did have great technology but they failed to use the technology in the right form factor to generate much interest and sales. That is the problem when you let engineers run the direction of a company; they might be great technically but they are out of touch with the norm to realize that a thumb keyboard for a full PC is just not what most would welcome in a computer.