Digital Home Thoughts: Goodbye, OQO. You will be missed.

"What a shame. One of the companies at the core of the UMPC movement and with a history that goes back beyond my first blogs about the topic has gone under. The confirmation came through GottaBeMobile and all we’re left with is the thought about what could have been with the OQO 2+ Atom-based UMPC that we first spotted on stage at Intel’s IDF Sept 2009."

I remember when the OQO was first introduced, suddenly several companies jumped on the super-ultra-mega-pocketable-portable-and-light PC bandwagon. Vulcan had the Flipstart and Sony had the Vaio UX but OQO's design was really catching and smaller than its competitors. Unfortunately, there did not seem to be much of a market for UMPCs at the time, and the OQO's price kept it out of the reach of most people. Then the iPhone, smartphones and netbooks come along along and pretty much dash any hope of the OQO finding a sizable enough niche to survive. I never had a chance to own an OQO, though I do have a UX280p, and the portability combined with the power of these munchkins is great. Sure, UMPCs are definitely not for everyone, but they definitely helped push the boundaries of technology and having a full fledged PC in your pocket helped give some people geek cred. Did any you covet the lilliputian device or actually have one?