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Unreleased OQO 2+ OLED Version Sells For $6,500

Posted by timothy on from the no-no-you're-supposed-to-haggle dept.

psych787 writes "OQO's product line — much loved by their community at oqotalk — has recently suffered a slow, agonizing death. After dropping warranty repairs, not returning several units sent in, disconnecting phonelines, and leaving trash at their headquarters, a couple of units have survived and found eBay. The last one went for $4.5k. Now the only PC for sale to include an OLED has gone for $6.5k. At that price, perhaps a competitor bought the device to come up with something that meets the same market?"

5 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Heh by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I doubt that the final price is about a device with a 5" OLED screen, I think the final price is about having a collector's item, a rare prototype. As rare as it is, I would think it would fetch a much higher price.

    I wouldn't know, I don't have a device with OLED. I don't typically use devices out of the corner of my eye. I'm pretty sure fading issues have been addressed, a screen made today is going to be a lot better than that made even two years ago. I doubt that an OLED and an LED TV would be comparable, because the LED TV you're thinking about is only LED backlit, it would still be LCD based and as such, still be pretty limited in real contrast ratio.

  2. Smart competitors by qbwiz · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm sure they're just dying to get into that huge market that OQO failed to make any money in.

    --
    Ewige Blumenkraft.
  3. Pricing by machine321 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I guess it just turns out they priced them wrong... shoot, they've got the market for $6500 laptops cornered.

  4. 6.5k != 6101 (!) by gamefaces · · Score: 4, Informative

    Don't like to nitpick, but did anyone else notice that the winning bid was $6101? Woops

  5. Re:Heh by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    it has to be rare and desirable to be a collector's item. I don't think the "Sony iPod" my friend bought back from Taiwan will be able to sell that high, even though it's pretty rare.

    I don't think OQO is rare and desirable enough to demand 6.5K. Someone who is paying this amount of money either has a very specific reason to do so I think.

    An OQO is pretty rare. They were expensive computers in their day, and still have the distinction as the smallest complete x86-compatible PC ever made. (You can get pico-ITC boards smaller than an OQO, but you'll need to add storage, RAM, screen and power...). Heck, you could make it the smallest Hackintosh in the world.

    The OQO 02+ is considered very desirable as it upgrades several annoying components on the OQO 02 - the CPU is better (Intel Atom vs. Via C7). The OLED version had more RAM (2GB vs 1GB), and the SSD as an option. The "normal" OQO 02+ (the one that went for $4.5k) qualified for the Microsoft XP Home license too (the netbook discounted cost).

    Either way, they were also the cheapest OQOs if they were released, with the OLED one starting around $1.5k. Upgrade to an SSD and you'd have a pocketable PC that you could do iTunes, VLC, full desktop Ubuntu, VMWare, Visual Studio, what have you. Or hell, why argue about Flash support, when you can run full Firefox with flash?

    I have an 02, and wanted to buy an 02+. But given OQO is out of business these days, oh well. I won't part with that much cash for an unsupported piece of equipment I intend to use. All I can hope for is the upcoming Archos 9 (running Windows 7) will be small enough to be hand-carried. But pocketing a