OQO Adds WiMax and 64GB SSD

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/01/07/oqo-does-wimax-and-64gb-ssds/' target='_blank'>http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008...-and-64gb-ssds/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"We love OQO, and we love their readiness for the next big thing. They think it’s WiMax this time around, and while we do somewhat agree, we’d have loved for real U.S. HSDPA support instead of a technology that may or not take off, and isn’t even available for a good calendar year or two. Nevertheless, we’re bringin’ you the news, and OQO is demonstrating a WiMax-certified OQO 02 model at CES."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/hisham-20080108-BGR_oqo-model-02-umpc-1%5B1%5D.jpg" /><br /><br />Hot on the heels of the non-US HSDPA configured OQO O2 comes a new version with WiMax, 64GB SSD and a reflective screen that can be read in daylight. Unfortunately, all these technological advancements come at a price which BGR forgot to mention - would you believe an extra $2k on top of the regular price of the standard model 8O? Most of that price difference (about $800 worth) comes from the addition of the SSD. I do agree that adding WiMax support might be a little questionable, unless they intend this purely for European and Asian markets - the EVDO version already does a pretty good job stateside, unless you're hot for a version that will run on AT&amp;T or T-Mobile networks. I <i>still</i> can't get over the price difference though.

[virain]

To make me to shell out $3K it needs to have US configured HSDPA, SOFT touch screen, and front camera for conference calls, plus all the above of course. Otherwise there are more interesting and more affordable players come to UMPC market s.a Asus with R3/R50, Viliv, amd even LG jumped on a ban vagon now.

[ddhsoftware]

There is not a 2K difference, it's about a 1K difference from the current top of the line OQO to the new one. They have a three tiered line- good, better, best, where good is the one that hovers just over 1000 bucks, and their top of the line had hovered about 2K.

And on the note of Wimax, according to the OQO CEO Dennis Moore, they were not shipping or even announcing support for WiMax, just providing a technology demo. To me it sounded like a preview of the world to come in a year to with any luck. He said they had two things at the show- the announcement of the 64GB SSD and outdoor readable screen devices shipping, and a technology preview of Wimax to demonstrate future possibilities.

On a somewhat related note, I personally don't understand how you can buy 32GB USB Flash drives for about 200 bucks, but have to pay upwards of 500 dollars for that same thing in an SSD Drive. It seems the disparity grows as you go to the 64GB SSD. Perhaps there is a different grade/speed of flash being used?

[virain]

Not to be confused with prices, check here: http://www.oqo.com/store/shop.cgi/op/op_itemdetail.html the top model base price is $2,349 and if you add 64 Gb SSD for another $650, it comes out to $3148 that is hovered about 3K
And the "good" one for $1299, sorry to say, is inferior to current lower priced UMPC's s.a. UBiQUiO 711 $989.95 at MobilePlanet.com or Fujitsu LifeBook U810 UMPC $ 950 at Amazon.com

[stylinexpat]

It does have HSDPA connectivitiy :roll:
http://www.oqo.com/intl/news/press_releases/2007-11-30_HSDPA_release.html

OQO Announces model e2 with Built-In HSDPA Mobile Broadband Capability
Award-winning ultra mobile PC now available with open-SIM 3G data access

[virain]

It does have HSDPA connectivitiy :roll:
http://www.oqo.com/intl/news/press_releases/2007-11-30_HSDPA_release.html

OQO Announces model e2 with Built-In HSDPA Mobile Broadband Capability
Award-winning ultra mobile PC now available with open-SIM 3G data access
Yes it does, bit not for US market.

[Russ Smith]

The OQO is quite pretty, but sadly underpowered (in both processor and graphics sub-system). OQO chose size as the primary criteria (over power). They're adding a lot of nice features to the mix now, but they can't compete power-wise with the Sony UX and they can't compete price-wise with the ever-growing UMPC and MID offerings.

It'll be interesing to see how this market-space eventually pans out. UMPCs are where laptops were many years ago: They're fighting the difficult dichotomy between power and size. You make the same sort of "pay more for a machine that doesn't do as much because it's smaller" decision with UMPCs today, but, just like laptops, the available power (processor, graphics, and even battery life) is increasing and heat dissapation is going down at the same time. On the other hand, linux handhelds are getting more and more capable, while not compatible with Windows apps. There's a company that's showing an HP hx4700 running a full-fledged version of FireFox(!) under a Linux distro and the Nokia N-series Linux tablets are raising a stir as well.

Windows Mobile is also growing up. The memory model is now pretty respectable and the processing power is getting there too. The real stall seems to be Microsoft's own strategy to keep WM from "competing" with low end Windows installations.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

There is not a 2K difference, it's about a 1K difference from the current top of the line OQO to the new one. They have a three tiered line- good, better, best, where good is the one that hovers just over 1000 bucks, and their top of the line had hovered about 2K.

To be perfectly honest and clear - there's actually no difference between the price of this and the current "best" model. I'm just fascinated by the almost 2k difference between "good" and "best".

And on the note of Wimax, according to the OQO CEO Dennis Moore, they were not shipping or even announcing support for WiMax, just providing a technology demo.

I got that impression as well, but only after I did a bit more research on other blog posts on the announcement. Good catch.

On a somewhat related note, I personally don't understand how you can buy 32GB USB Flash drives for about 200 bucks, but have to pay upwards of 500 dollars for that same thing in an SSD Drive. It seems the disparity grows as you go to the 64GB SSD. Perhaps there is a different grade/speed of flash being used?

Very definitely - the type of flash used in memory cards and USB keys is good for (IIRC) a few thousand write operations before failure. That's ok for data storage, but they're obviously not going to last very long under typical x86 OS disk operations (think: internet cache, virtual memory etc), even with good wear-leveling algorithms. The current crop of SSD's have write-lives in the millions.

And the "good" one for $1299, sorry to say, is inferior to current lower priced UMPC's

I'm aware of that - it's just that the price discrepancy for what is essentially the same model with different options is pretty wide. It really depends what value you put on the different options.

It does have HSDPA connectivitiy

That's correct, but as Virain has pointed out - it's the wrong frequency for the US. Just like most tri-band GSM phones can't be used in the US, neither will 2100MHz HSDPA enabled devices yet, as AT&amp;T uses the 850MHz and 1900MHz bands for UMTS/HSDPA. T-Mobile will eventually be on the 1700MHz and 2100MHz bands, but when this will happen is anybody's guess.