OQO
| OQO, Inc. | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 2000 |
| Seat | San Francisco , USA |
| management | Dennis Moore, CEO |
| Number of employees | 0 |
| Website | www.oqo.com (no longer available) |
OQO, Inc. is the name of an American startup company that manufactured subnotebooks from its founding in 2000 to May 2009 . OQO is also the name of the subnotebook sold by the company on which the entire product line is based. The handheld appeared in three revisions, with the designations OQO model 01 , OQO model 01+ and OQO model 02 . An OQO model 02+ announced at the CES 2009 did not get beyond the prototype status. The startup was given up in 2009 due to financial difficulties.
history
Jory Bell and Jonathan Betts-LaCroix founded the company OQO in 2000, together with four other greats in computer technology, with the aim of revolutionizing the computer industry with the smallest fully-fledged computer to date.
On May 14, 2009, OQO announced that it would not be able to continue the business; the recently announced Model 02+ no longer reached the end-consumer market.
OQO model 01
When it was launched in October 2004, it was the smallest PC in the world. At 12.4 × 8.6 × 2.3 cm and weighing 400 g, it looks like a PDA and fits in the palm of your hand. However, technically it was a full-fledged PC with the following specifications:
- 1 GHz Transmeta Crusoe - CPU
- 256 MB RAM
- 20 GB hard drive
- 800 × 480 pixel color display
- Touchscreen , keyboard with numeric keypad, track stick and scroll wheel
- USB 1.1, FireWire , headphone jack, microphone
- Delivered with Microsoft Windows XP
- Bluetooth and 802.11b wireless LAN
- Exchangeable accumulator with approx. Two hours running time
- Also connections for VGA , LAN and replicators of the other connections via docking cable
OQO model 01+
In September 2005, OQO model 01+, the successor to OQO model 01, was presented. The new model has seen some improvements with the same dimensions and weight. This includes:
- 512 MB RAM
- 30 GB hard drive
- USB 2.0
- Integrated loudspeaker
- Improved pen operation of the sliding screen
- Since 2006, with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Available
OQO model 02
On January 7, 2007, the company presented the OQO model 02, which contained numerous further developments, including the new VIA chipset, C7M processor and DDR2 RAM. The new model was initially available in three versions ( good , better , best ), each of which differed in the size of the hard disk, the RAM and the clock frequency of the CPU. Windows Vista was also offered as the operating system .
The equipment was constantly adapted to current technical developments, so solid state disks with a capacity of up to 60 GB and modules for Edge or UMTS were now available for new purchases . A module for WiMAX was also presented.
The last model for the European market was called OQO e2 . It was available with and without a UMTS module compatible with the European cellular networks.
A version based on the Intel Atom architecture that was announced at CES 2009 could no longer be produced in series.
Limitations and disadvantages
At the start, opinions were mixed. On the one hand, this was due to a number of small defects, which gained in importance due to their number, but were largely remedied with the model 01+. On the other hand, it was because the users didn't quite know what to do with it.
The OQO calculator should combine the following:
- Mobile like a laptop
- Handy like a PDA
- As powerful as a desktop
So you should only need this one PC, which saves you from synchronizing several systems. However, in 2004 it was out of the question for many users to exchange their fast desktop for a computer with a clock speed of only 1 GHz.
A selection of special accessories for the three OQO models was available.
Due to the early announced market appearance and often shifted dates of the OQO was 01 until the publication as vaporware (product announcement that will probably never met). It was voted number 4 on the US magazine Wired's 2002 vaporware hit list .
