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04/17/09
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primaz
Just as I predicted that without providing a model with a touch type keyboard they are doomed to fail; guess what it looks to be any day now?
Struggling OQO seeks buyer
Model 2+ UMPC could be last ever product
Agam Shah
Struggling to stay afloat during the recession, ultramobile PC maker OQO is seeking buyers, a company spokesperson has revealed.
OQO is well-known for its innovative PC designs and in the past has received accolades for its products. However, its offerings have struggled to find buyers because of the high prices.
Rumours of OQO seeking a buy-out was first confirmed by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
The company is having cash problems and views a buy-out as the best way to solve its troubles and make OQO more competitive, according to the news report. A company spokeswoman confirmed details in the report, but declined further comment.
Rumours of OQO being on the block spread after a poster on the enthusiast site Oqotalk.com suggested the company was having financial difficulties.
"OQO is attempting to sell the company. It lacks the funds to keep going, cash is tight and work hours have been reduced," said a poster named Picasso, listed as a moderator in the OQOtalk forums.
The rumours gained steam after UK retailer Expansys reportedly pulled an upcoming OQO product off shelves "due to uncertainties to stock availability" of the upcoming Model 2+ ultramobile PC, according to posting on JkOnTheRun blog.
OQO in January announced the Model 2+ design, which can deliver a full PC performance in a tiny footprint. The computer includes an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen and weighs only 1 pound (0.45kg). The product was received with considerable fanfare at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
The company's cash shortage could delay the delivery of Model 2+, said Bob Rosin, OQO's senior vice president of sales and marketing told with The Wall Street Journal.
But posters on the OQOTalk have doubts about the product ever reaching the market.
"I'm sorry to say this, but the [Model] 2+ might be the last OQO we see made. I don't even think we will see it." Picasso wrote.
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04/20/09
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Boss302
It looks like OQO is just about dead and on life support? The modle 2+ looks no different than all their other models before. I think they really need to update that design.
04/21/09
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scoobie
So do I - at least the screen and the fan needed upgrading but they have no cash, and I believe the main reason is they are getting so many returns under guarantee
04/29/09
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MeanSquare
primaz,With all respect, I think it's not (just?) that the OQO lacks a touch-typeable keyboard. (As a matter of fact you _can_ touch type on it... or at least I can  ) The salient fact is that the OQO and others like it are a "niche market." The numbers of OQOs that sold were vanishingly small compared to laptops in general and that number was being encroached on by the growing "net book" and smart phone markets. Sure, the net books are larger (less pocketable), but for a lot of folks the price and size were good enough. Sure the smart phones are under powered (in comparison) and don't run a full OS, but for a lot of folks they do enough.
Basically, the OQO was a great idea, but the niche wasn't large enough to support it.
04/29/09
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primaz
meansquare, I doubt what you consider touch typing would be what most consider touch typing using an OQO; how may words do you type per minute? 50-100 words per minute with two thumbs? I doubt it.
The OQO has been out for 8 years they marketed it prior to netbooks and even before smart phones really took off so those are not any reason for their lack of sales, they had lack of sales before those were available. The fact is simple people use full Windows not with two fingers they want and prefer to use it with a touch type keyboard just like they have been doing for decades with desktops and laptops. Why is it so hard to face that fact? Thus far the lack of a keyboard is why all of the UMPC have done so poorly.
OQO had great technology in making a full PC pocket size; their mistake was they used the form factor of the old school HP 200LX. They should have used something like the HP Jornada 720 or Psion 5mx. There is a huge market for a full PC that is jacket pocket in size but it must have a built in touch type keyboard. All they needed to do is make it a clamshell like the 720 as that design is about 35 percent larger in volume to a OQO yet is easily jacket pocket in size.
It is just that very problem. When a computer is limited to thumb input it is not something that can ever replace a laptop so people say it is expensive. What they really mean is yes since they need an OQO plus still need another computer it is ultra expensive. If it had a touch type keyboard design at the same price it would be well worth the price as it would be all you need for a computer.
04/30/09
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GreatDane
primaz, Also with the greatest respect, I doubt that the keyboard design of the OQO had or has anything to do with their present predicament. Lesson in basic computer commerce (and just about everything else) In order to successfully stay in a market, one must either have a unique, top of the range product which offers exclusivity and sells at a very high price, or one must achieve economies of scale to sell at a lower price. If one can not achieve either of the a fore mentioned, then the only way to keep a product like the OQO in the market is as a lost leader showing technological prowess in a much larger portfolio. Sony has successfully marketed the U/UX and now the P series computers using the latter strategy. One product shops like OQO and others have to go with one of the first two options. The price on the OQO was way to low for margins to make up for volume sales, and OQO was too small to create a situation where economies of scale could be achieved. Add to that that they were being squeezed from below with subsidized cell phones, and from above by the cheaper net books, and they have an insurmountable problem, regardless of how great their product is/was.
Similar products like the Vulcan Flipstart and the Raon Digital Note that have attempted to produce a "touch type" keyboard in this form factor have failed as well. The Raon is not selling in numbers, and the Flipstart is no more.
As a direct indication that your argument about the keyboard is probably flawed, the Sony UX line have arguably the worst keyboards of any of the Handtops out there, and yet they have been possibly the most successful. That is because (among other things) they have the R&D might and financial clout of Sony behind them, were more successfully marketed etc.
There is a place for a touch type Handtop in the market, as there is a place for an OQO like device. Unfortunately, in the current economic climate, they will probably both have to come from a company like Sony who can support the development of a relatively high cost item with low margins and low sales volumes. There in lies the hope for the next great Handtop.
04/30/09
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primaz
Greatdane,
I still disagree with you. The market for thumb based full PC computers is tiny. The Flipstart could not survive and the Sony UX does not sell many either. I would not assume the pocket size UX is profitable as I have yet to see anything that indicates that and with overall UMPC sales under 350K a year I doubt they are making any real money on it. The Sony P is a touch type keyboard design so that does provide a good input and will likely sell much better than the UX and any other thumb based computer. OQO never has generated much sales even before netbooks and before this economic down turn.
To me it is pretty obvious that it is the keyboard. Everyone whom uses a full PC uses a touch type keyboard and prefers that so why would they want a thumb based version? The answer is they do not and consistently demonstrated in sales that they do not want to buy that type of computer. OQO clearly created no niche as a full PC with thumb input is not very useful and the simple functions a computer with thumb input can perform can be done with instant on, a fraction of the price, with full cell phone features via a smart phone pda.
Look at the entire UMPC market Greatdane it has had pathetic sales of less than 350k worldwide and they all lacked a touch type keyboard. Now recently with the new netbooks they have sold well and guess what the only difference is they have a touch type keyboard. Full PC computers have never generated much sales if they do not have a built in touch type keyboard. It is the keyboard Greatdane that caused OQO to fail. If they used their great technology of shrinking a full PC into such a tiny size and used a simple clamshell that provided a touch type keyboard and was still jacket pocket in size they would have found out that a large market in the millions would buy it even at the current price of the OQO's.
To me it is clear that people after all these years did not buy the OQO in any numbers at all to ever make the company viable and there was no way they could charge anymore as most were already complaining it was expensive (more due to it being limited in function due to no keyboard), so as you say no niche market nor high enough price so without changing the form factor to attract the larger market whom would buy a touch type keyboard jacket pocket computer it is no wonder they are dead in the water.
05/03/09
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GreatDane
Primaz,
You are ignoring the obvious, since it is infinitely apparent that there are two groups of people out there who are interested in purchasing handtop type machines, those who are looking for a touch type type of unit, like the Sony P and the Raon Digital Note, and those who are looking for something a good deal smaller like the OQO or Sony UX. Both of these groups of people for the most part look to this type of machine as a second or even third machine, and are prepared to pay the high price for the units. This limits the size of the groups, and consequently the number of machines that a producer in this sector of the market can sell. Your own argument that UMPC sales were less than 350k worldwide, including I presume units like the Raon Digital Note, the Vulcan Flipstart and other clam shell devices is proof here to. OQO fitting a touch type keyboard to a unit would not have changed this trend in any significant way I fear.
The limited number of sales is not of to great an importance to a company like Sony, as I stated before, the U and UX line of handtops seem to be viewed by Sony as lost leaders to show of their technical prowess. I doubt that the Sony P will do much better, as there is no indication that the Raon Digital Note, a similar form factor, sold like hot cakes.
The simple fact, as has been stated in a reply to your original post, is that it is all about money. The vast majority of computer users are not prepared or able to spend the kind of money on a second or third machine that is needed to obtain a machine like the Sony UX or the OQO. The Flipstart, which is also of the touch type type keyboard, although you can use it as a thumb keyboard machine in theory, failed primarily on price for performance. This is the weak point of the Sony UX, the OQO and just about every other machine in the handtop class. The vast majority of users are prepared to use their smart phone, or if they must have a machine with a slightly larger screen and keyboard, the inexpensive net book type machines.
Cell phones are typically part of the package, and are not perceived as being expensive. Net books are not doing all that well according to Intel, and they should know. Small notebooks are the only sector of the market that seems to be bucking the downward trend at this time.
The Mobile Device Interface type devices that Intel is pushing for the future should prove to be an interesting concept, if they can be placed into the market in the same way that cell phones are currently distributed. This would also be the saving grace of devices like the OQO and others in the handtop class, and I believe that is where future handtop manufacturers need to concentrate their efforts. The cell phone market is huge and smart devices are occupying an ever greater portion of this sector. With or without touch type keyboards, this is where the most likely area of growth lies. Ask Apple, they have proved this point with their iPhone (without any keyboard at all)!
I have an OQO and a Flipstart, and use both. I love the OQO for its size and convenience, and the Flipstart for its battery life, relative power and built in 3G. But then, I also have three other top of the line laptops on my desk, so I can select the machine I require to fit the task. I was standing in line for the new OQO, it would have been fantastic, but I am prepared to pay the price for the unit. Not everyone is or indeed can.
For small companies with limited resources the current economic downturn is a disaster. For some larger ones as well. OQO is in a limited market and that fact would not be changed by the size of type of their keyboard. They need to change their market and marketing strategy, as well as obtain a large amount of capital to sort out their problems. This is not going to happen due to a change in keyboard I fear.
"To you it is pretty obvious that it is the keyboard" that is the problem. To just about everyone else that is a side issue. Even if they were able to capture a full half of your quoted 350k worldwide sales, it would not solve their problem in the long term. In order to bring down the price, for a one product company, they are gong to have to achieve far greater economies of scale than can be had from that number of units. The cell phone market could offer those volumes, so I would suggest that instead of changing the keyboard, they fit a cellular phone module and sell the unit as a high end cell phone to compete with the iPhone and the like. I have a feeling that that might just do the trick.
05/03/09
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primaz
Greatdane,
The Flipstart is NOT a touch type keyboard UMPC and was too wide to fit in a jacket pocket as well, there has not been any touch type keyboard UMPC's that are jacket pocket in size. All of the UMPC's have been either thumb keys, or pen input that were small enough to carry in a jacket pocket. Greatdane there are millions whom would buy a pocket laptop so long as it has a built in touch type keyboard. Sure there are two groups but you have the facts wrong. The group of users ok with pen input only or thumb input are 350k/year. The touch type keyboard full PC jacket size computers are not part of that group as there has not been such a computer made yet; they are part of the larger over 115 million laptop owners each year that are part of the base of billions of laptops used today.
When a UMPC is not small enough to be carried in a jacket pocket than you are forced to carry it in a bag just as you would with any laptop or even subnotebook, etc. At that point the UMPC's that were too large to be jacket pocket size could not create enough value to overcome laptops for sale. The problem is that UMPC's have often been too large to fit in a jacket pocket which creates that problem of being able to provide enough value and reason for someone not to just buy a normal laptop and now with netbooks the competition for those too large to be pocketable UMPC is worse.
The UMPC's like the OQO that are pocket size share in the same wrong input by lacking a touch type keyboard. That is what prevents most people from buying them. People whom value mobility whom would want a mobile pocket laptop expect it to have a touch type keyboard. They are mobile and thus do not want to bring a second computer such as a laptop. If OQO did make their poduct a touch type keyboard computer it would then attract the millions of mobile users whom are part of the billions of laptop owners NOT just the 350k UMPC owners today.
To the existing UMPC owners they continue to ignore the basic fact that 99% of the users of a full PC computer prefer to use it with a touch type keyboard. The market of laptops is over 115 million a year. There is a good percentage of those users whom value mobility and would sacrafice and buy a pocket laptop that runs full Windows if it also had a touch type keyboard. Thus the market potential IS NOT A MERE 350K but part of the 115 million new laptop users and the base of laptop users that are in the billions.
I continually laugh at UMPC owners whom continue to use cell phones use of thumb keys to somehow assume that people are now wanting to use their thumb for full desktop computer use when they are clearly NOT. There has been no successful computer running full Windows using thumb or pen only input. Greatdane we are not talking cell phones we are talking about a full PC computer. People just want to do the same work they do with their laptop but in a pocket version that still provides a touch type keyboard. Remember the term putting lipstick on a pig? it is still a pig. Adding cell phone features to a UMPC is not going to change things as a PDA smartphone already does that and has instant on, longer battery life, etc. The UMPC's market is not ever going to be the phone market as they run full Windows and full Windows programs are NOT made for thumb keys. UMPC's need to change their designs to that they provide the same functionality of a laptop but make it small enough to carry in your jacket pocket. That will differentiate them from any computer you need to carry and any PDA.
If UMPC designers to not address this problem they will suffer the same fate as OQO. I think they already are as the amount of new UMPC's has not been increasing, the sales have continued to be weak and might even be weaker now, and this to me sounds very similar to OQO.
edited: May 04 2009
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GreatDane
primaz,
I think you are either very confused, or manipulating the "facts" to suit your "argument".
Firstly, it is not the market for thumb keyboard devices that is tiny, the market for all handtops, Net Books, and even tablet PC's is tiny as a percentage of the total computer market. This is sad but a fact.
Your thinking on this matter is muddled to say the least. On the one hand you claim "The Sony P is a touch type keyboard design so that does provide a good input and will likely sell much better than the UX and any other thumb based computer". This for a unit larger than the Raon Digital Note (245mm x 120mm v/s 200mm x 118mm). Some might claim that the Sony P series stretches the definition of handtop, in the same way the Toshiba Libretto U100 was not "really" a handtop. On the other hand you claim "At that point the UMPC's that were too large to be jacket pocket size could not create enough value to overcome laptops for sale".
Which one is it? Touch type keyboard or fit into a jacket pocket? You do realize that in the strictest sense, the two are incompatible! A true touch type keyboard makes a device to large to fit into a jacket pocket, unless the keyboard is a folding design, which can not be used as a hand held, and have proved to be fragile, bulky and expensive in the past.
The smallest unit I have ever personally come across that one could touch type on in the accepted sense is the Raon Digital Note (200mm x 118mm). It is simply to large to fit into any jacket pocket I own. In this respect, the Sony P Series is worse as it is larger. The smallest true touch type keyboard I have ever been able to find is the KeySonic ACK-3400U Ultra-compact Mini Keyboard, measuring a massive 218mm x 103mm. Way to large for a jacket pocket. And that is just a keyboard, without touch pad, hinge etc.
To use your rational, that would mean that any unit with a true touch type keyboard would not be bought because it could not fit into a jacket pocket. To preempt what I know is coming, neither the HP Jornada 720 or the Psion 5mx had true touch type keyboards. Indeed, if any of the reviews I have read in the last little while are true, the Net Books do not have touch type keyboards either, part of the reason why they are not doing as well as expected, and are growing in size on an almost daily basis.
If one was to claim that fitting into a jacket pocket is not in fact a criterion, that simply having a modified touch type keyboard in a clamshell design is enough, then why are the Raon Digital Note and the Sony P Series to name but two not selling in the millions? Why are the sales of Net Books not close to what was expected? For that matter, why has HP not brought out the successor to your beloved HP Jornada 720?
Based on Intel's report on the sales of Net Books, the general public are confirming what I have always believed: Net Books, along with UMPC's and dedicated Hand Tops fall into a niche market that is comparatively small. This is born out by the continuing "comparatively good" sales of low end laptops rather than a dramatic switch to Net Books. Its all about "bang for your buck". MeanSquare, as always, puts this more succinctly and better than I do.
Case closed. It has taken an economic downturn of almost unprecedented magnitude to prove the point, that expensive, purpose built handtop/UMPC type machines are not attractive to the man in the street, with or with out touch type keyboards. Relatively inexpensive Net Books are not all that attractive to the man in the street, even with "touch type" keyboards.
On the other hand...
Cell phone growth has eclipsed PC growth year on year for the last ten years. Smart phones are growing as a percentage within the cell phone market, particularly in the developed world.
Intel has identified this area of growth as extremely important, hence the Atom processor and the entire Mobile Device Interface. They believe in years to come that the smart phone will grow physically in size a bit, and become the convergence device we are all looking for, with an 8086 based processor and full PC capability (No touch type keyboards incidentally).
A rework of the OQO that includes cell phone capability, and therefor also the longer battery life etc when used as a phone might well be exactly the concept that Intel is looking at as one of the goals for the Mobile Device Interface.
Sold on a phone contract, an OQO cell phone might well be able to make sales in the millions of units. If this is "putting lipstick on a pig" then I say bring it on, we all need pigs to bring home the bacon.
I doubt that OQO will, in the current financial climate, easily be able to make a transition like this, more is the pity. But the fact remains, even Net Books, with their comparatively small size, comparatively low prices and (dare I say it) touch type keyboards are not selling as well as anticipated. By contrast, the Apple iPhone, which I do not really like and don't own, but is probably a good example of one of the early convergence devices done right, is bucking trends and selling well, with great future prospects (and no touch type keyboard).
On a personal note, I can put a Vulcan Flipstart into my jacket pocket with ease. If you can't, change your tailor. I carry it around in the winter in ... my jacket pocket. The OQO fits into a shirt pocket, so I can carry it around all year. I tried the Raon Digital Note, it does not fit into either my shirt or jacket pocket, so a larger device like the Sony P would not either.
Sadly it looks like the scenario that was debated on this forum some years ago is coming to pass - handtops are being slowly pushed out of the market by convergence devices based on cell phones.
The high powered handtop that I had such high hopes for, and would have bought in an instant, seems to be like an ever fading dream, eclipsed by the low powered, longer battery life, cheaper and more universally attractive cell phone derived designs. Design criterion like the touch type keyboard, desktop equivalent processor and all the other "nice to have" items have fallen prey to the high price and low sales of the handtop type of unit. As things stand at present, the "hand top" market is dominated by cell phones, and in this economic climate, looks to stay that way for a while.
Like so many other good ideas, OQO were before their time, and have not had the capital (or vision) or technology to adapt to the new trends. In the short term, I hope that OQO can survive this, and get the necessary funding to continue producing innovative devices that can sell in the niche market for handtops. If they do, I am buying one.
I hope that Intel has the vision and staying power to push their Mobile Device Interface through to its logical conclusion, and that a device in concept like an OQO smart phone eventually makes it onto the market.
All the above said, when I need to travel with a device with a touch type keyboard, I am still going to use a laptop, with its larger screen etc for the foreseeable future. I need not just the keyboard, but the screen size, the processing power and the battery life that current technology can only supply in a laptop.
That wraps it up from my side, no more on this subject from me. To use another saying, this is "flogging a dead horse".
05/04/09
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primaz
Greatdane,
I have always said that there is a good market for a touch type keyboard handheld that will fit in a jacket pocket. For me the Psion 5mx did provide touch type input. Yes it was small and tight but once you used it a bit most people all loved the keyboard and could type about 80% of their desktop speeds on it. You obviously never used one. The Raon Digital Note is a nice computer but just a tiny bit too wide at 4.6" wide. most jacket pockets are more suited for 4" to 4.3" maximum width. If the Raon Digital Note was narrower it would fit into a jacket pocket.
The handhelds like the HP Jornada 720 were stopped due to Microsoft not continuing to suppor the operating system for handhelds and at that time nobody had the technology to create one that ran a full Windows OS as UMPC's can do today. That size and shape device did sell over 2.3 million a year which is much more than any of the UMPC's have even for several years combined and definately more than the 8-13k OQO's sold a year.
The computers which have touch type keyboards all have good sales. The ones limited to thumb keys or pen only input have not. Those non keyboard type of computers is what made up all of the 2008 UMPC market which only totalled 350k as IDC reported in December.
You say netbooks are a tiny niche like thumb and pen based UMPC's? They are a smaller segment of the computer market but are doing fairly well with good growth and in the last two quarters have totalled over 5 million units sold.
"IDC released the numbers yesterday for netbooks, which the analyst firm refers to as mininotebooks. During the holiday quarter, EMEA mininotebook shipments reached 3.6 million units, accounting for 20 percent of all the region's portables shipments. Worldwide, manufacturers shipped 5 million mininotebooks during the fourth quarter. "
Now how many units of thumb key or pen based UMPC's sold? less than 350k a year.
There is a good market definately in the millions per year if not much more for a touch type keyboard based handheld jacket size computer that runs full Windows.
OQO was the wrong size. For a full PC computer people need a keyboard and that is just the facts. The ones whom are highly mobile and value that will sacrafice and get used to a tight smaller keyboard like a Psion which was only 6.9" long but they will not sacrafice and try to do with a thumb keys using two fingers. The Psion 5mx as I said had a great keyboard at 6.9" long by 3.6"; if OQO or another UMPC company copied that design and increased it to say 4.25" x 7.5" and keep in thin say 1" or less it would easily fit inside your jacket pocket yet have a very easy to use keyboard. The lack of keyboard is why most PC owners would not buy one.
If your needs were just limited to viewing information, and limited input of standing the OQO is an expensive toy and not ideal either. That is because people will just buy a pocket pc at a few hundred dollars with instant on, much longer battery life, with full cellular and wireless built in. Adding cell features to an OQO would never make it more competitive against a Pocket PC. The better choice to get sales would be to make an OQO longer as I mentioned say 7.5" x 4.25" so it would have a good keyboard and still be jacket pocket in size.
There is a good market for handhelds but right now there are no real handhelds made right now. To me a handheld should be what the name implies, a computer with a touch type keyboard layout, that is shaped just like your laptop but fits in your hand, a computer that still can do the functions of your laptop for those whom value mobility most of all. The last handhelds made were back in the 1990's. I believe that with UMPC technology enabling a full PC to be so tiny that if they made modern renditions of those 1990 handhelds like the Psion 5mx that there would be a thriving and strong market for handhelds with sales definately at least in the millions per year!
05/04/09
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MeanSquare
primaz,
When I say "touch-typing," I mean being able to type without having to look at the keyboard. It really has nothing to do with how many fingers (or thumbs) you use. The term comes from the longer typing by touch (rather than sight). While I don't get the same speed I get from a full-sized keyboard, I can get about 40wpm on the OQO.
One of the things I've discovered in these forums is that each of us has (sometimes slightly; sometimes radically) different needs and wants that we have sought to meet with our UMPCs. The primary fallacy you'll find in these forums is the assumption that others are operating under the same set of criteria (needs and wants) that you are. In my case, the ability to type at full speed was simply not a consideration. When I think of the vast number of computer users I know who couldn't touch-type if their lives depended on it, I suspect it's not a consideration for a number of other folk as well. That's why I doubt that the lack of full-speed typing was what kept the OQO from becoming mainstream.
Rather, I think it's just that laptops had continued to drop in price, especially with the advent of the "netbooks." If pocketability wasn't as much a consideration as computing, graphics, or peripheral power, folks would pick up a small laptop or netbook and be happy.
On the smaller side, smartphones keep getting smarter. If screen size and full-os compatibility (including the ability to run standard applications) isn't as much a consideration as pocketability, folks would likely pick up a Windows Mobile, Blackberry, or iPhone.
05/06/09
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primaz
40 words per minutes? thats is not bad but must be a strain to accomplish? For I've used the OQO and it was just plain difficult to get many words inputed. I still think that the sacrafice of a keyboard that for most would provide such slow input speeds is why most just ignored the OQO as more a toy.
Right now there are not many great options for mobile computers if you want a computer you can carry in your pocket to do real work. When I used my old Psion or Jornada I would continually get many other business users ask, "does that run Windows?" and most say darn if someone would make something like that with Windows I could stop carrying around this bulky laptop everywhere. If OQO made their hardware more like the Psion 5mx so it was jacket pocket in size yet with a Psion type keyboard then the millions of business users whom just want to a pocket laptop would have bought that type of OQO product in big numbers.
05/12/09
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MeanSquare
Well, 40wpm is what I can do without straining too much. Nonetheless, I prefer a full-sized keyboard for major amounts of input. (It's easier, faster, etc.) Fortunately, I can add one via USB or Bluetooth.
I had a Jornada and I'd agree that it worked pretty well. I couldn't thumb-type with it like I can on the OQO so I either needed a flat surface or had to resort to one-handed typing.
I'm not sure that the keyboard is the best interface for input on a small device. I've got one on my smart-phone and I do find it quite handy, but on previous PDAs I used FITALY and could input at about 60wpm. Handwriting recognition also worked to some extent, but special characters and punctuation was a major hassle.
Small computing devices all try to strike a necessary set of balances: You want a device that's small enough to be carried easily, but you want input methods that work well and a screen that can show a reasonable amount of data. Even with multi-touch, zooming and scrolling slow you down. You want reasonable speed, but you also want reasonable battery life and you want it to run cool enough to hold in your hands. For some, the value of portable computer out-weighs the trade-offs. For others it doesn't. Right now, I think the first group is just too small to support some devices (especially when you factor cost into the equation).
05/14/09
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primaz
A touch type keyboard would not work with the size of an OQO but if they made an OQO longer like a Jornada or Psion 5mx it would then work well with a touch type keyboard and attract a good market of buyers. There is a large enough market but so far not one company has made such a device; they have all lacked a sufficient keyboard for people to buy one.
FYI, users at OQO Talk have said OQO is now dead, the phones do not work, it appears OQO is even liquidating all of their furniture, so I think it is all over for them now. Sad when they had a technology capable of being successful but with the wrong size and shape missing a touch type keyboard they had no real hope.
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