Tiny PC Article Misses The Point

Ramblings

from the different-than-a-Libretto dept

Last week we wrote about the OQO handheld that is actually a fully functional PC. Wired News has finally caught up with the story, and they get quotes from tons of people saying it has no chance. Whether or not it has a chance is certainly open to debate – however, the article is very misleading. Almost everyone they quote says there’s really no market for “small” computers because everyone wants a big screen or a big box to be their computer. They use the poor sales of Toshiba’s tiny Libretto as an example. What they never mention is that OQO has actually solved that problem. As almost every other story pointed out, what’s actually cool about the OQO is that it comes with various “docking stations” that turn it into a laptop or a desktop machine as needed. So, yes, while people generally don’t want a tiny computer to be their main computer that they always have to use, if the computer change shapes and sizes to fit their needs it seems to me to be a much more compelling sell. I don’t think the value of the OQO is the tiny computer itself – but it’s ability to be the right size at the right time.