If you do the math of their yearly sales and make conservative estimates based on average sale price you only get anywhere from 6000 to 15000 units sold a year. That coupled with increasing competitors getting close to making full PC’s with similar form factors and they will not survive. For them to survive they need a more mainstream form factor.

Their technology is leading edge for their size and if they just turned it into a clamshell like a HP Jornada they would be a success.

JC,

Tell that to the venture funds whom loaned them the money to form OQO; I doubt they gave up millions for a niche product not generating very good numbers.

Your weak selling niche product is going to start facing stiff competition with the new UMPC/MIDs that will run Vista and will be cheaper than an OQO without the over heating issues and noisey fan.

They have tried what over 8 years to hock this thumb computer and spent millions in marketing yet the reality is people whom use full windows are used to and prefer a touch type keyboard, duh. Hundreds of millions of poeple do need Vista everywhere and a large amount hate lugging a laptop to do so but need to as the OQO is a toy that will not enable them to input very well.

They need to scrap that thumb keyboard otherwise they will bite the dust like Flipstart just did.

When I look at their own publicity, it’s clear to me that they know they make a niche product. They’ve said over and over again that their focus is on those who need to walk and compute at the same time. Now, if they stick to this, they will never make a popular computer. Very few people need to do this. Very few people need something which is simultaneously Vista capable and fits in a pant pocket.

So what? What’s wrong with making a niche product?

They don’t need to make a popular computer to prosper. They can be highly successful by owning their niche. Whether or not you find it useful is not the same as whether or not someone finds it useful. Given that Intel touted OQO’s technology demonstration as a major design win, someone must be buying OQOs, just not the typical consumer. (Indeed, OQO’s website is mostly about specialized vertically integrated applications.)

True, this means that, chances are, they’re not making something you, personally, want. I hadn’t realized that was a prerequisite for commercial success.

If Andy was a co-founder I hope he realizes that a thumb input full PC has not and will not ever be a popular computer. I agreee with the post about needing a touch type keyboard model. They really need to update that ancient computer if they want to stay in business in the future. I think Mr. Moore saw the writing on the wall. Hopefully they do more than stick an Atom chip to that weak thumb computer.

The industry caught up to OQO and new competition hurt thier business.

I agree that for a CEO Dennis was great to be willing to collaborate in forums directly with customers. His problem was the company has no new sales, insufficient capital to do any real major changes in the OQO form factor, and with their weak track record I’m sure it is not easy to go to venture funds again and say we need more millions.

What I see as the problems with OQO is that they have had their basic form factor going on 8 years now with relatively weak sales. In an article in Spring this year SF Gate listed their revenue and if you do simple math of that divided by estimates of the average dollars spent per customer then you get a meger 8-15K units sold which is not very good.

They were the first to make a full PC pocket size but to me their issue is they choose a form factor that was just not that mainstream and do not have enough capital internally to use their technology to their advantage and redisgn it into more mainstream form factors. If they do not alter the form factor I see OQO just slowly shrinking in size and in sales.

If you look at handhelds of the past the OQO looks much like a HP 200lx while there are die hard 200lx fans it never sold huge amounts. Compare that form factor the HP Jornada handheld HPC’s those sold a lot more units per year; infact the HPC’s with touch type keyboard that were jacket size had sales over 3.3 million per year. Now compare the entire UMPC market in 2007 as cited by IDC in the Forbes 12/07 article only 350K total UMPC’s and that is every single brand and model worldwide from the Samsungs to OQO, etc.

For a full PC in your pocket there is a huge untaped market. It is untaped because most people prefer touch type input as evident with the laptop being the largest full PC seller at over 113 Million per year sold. People have proven that they will not buy a thumb input full PC. What OQO needs to do is raise enough capital to create a true pocket laptop that provides the largest touch type keyboard possible but in a form factor still jacket pocket in size.

If for example they modeled such a new form factor OQO using the HP Jornada 720; that device would provide about 35% increased volume. That increased volume should enable good engineers to make a OQO with the Jornada dimensions of length and depth but likely make it thinner and thus much easier to carry in a jacket pocket.

I agree with Ron. I was shocked when Dennis contacted me out of the blue through my little Blog and responded to my comments about the OQO.

He later organisd a sample OQO E2 for me to review and invited me to the E2 3G launch in London where I met him.

He chatted to me for a while and even partook in a speed test of his 3g OQO and a Raon Digital Everun that I had with me. The OQO was much slower…but what a cool guy.

Its a shame he’s leaving the mobile device sector. All the best Dennis.

Dennis, if you read this I wish you well, and I hope you make sure to communicate to your friends at OQOTalk.

NOTE: Here is an excerpt from Dennis’s Blog regarding his future:
From Dennis’ blog:

“BTW, I saw a blog that wondered if I were going to compete with OQO. I will not be competing with OQO in my new company. I will be working in the enterprise solutions space, primarily on the software side, with some mobility aspects included. I do not believe anyone can hold a candle to OQO when it comes to handheld computer hardware, and anyone would have to be crazy to attempt to compete with OQO in this space. OQO is able to achieve thermals, battery life, performance, usability, and innovation far out of reach to other companies.”

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4763311972930494628&postID=2667066345902382462

Good Luck to Dennis, an example of how it should be done when you are at the top! I’m sorry to make such a long Post, but I wanted the readers to know about a quality executive that it looks like has “left the building” We are at a loss.