OQO announces price drop and spec updates for model 02 product line
I was very impressed with the OQO model 02 devices that I had a chance to play with at CES in January 2007, but just didn't have the money to buy one of these when they were made available in March. I spoke with a representative at OQO yesterday and found out about a refresh of their current 3 model lineup that was announced today. The updates include improvements in hard drive sizes, flash hard drive option, RAM upgrades, processor upgrades, and a price drop.
The Good model has dropped US$200 and starts at US$1299. The hard drive capacity has also been increased from 30GB t0 40GB. RAM remains at 512MB and thus this model is only offered with Windows XP Home.
The Better model sees an upgrade to a 60GB hard drive. This model still starts at US$1699 with Vista or XP (and XP Tablet) options. The Better and Best models include the active digitizer display that is not found in the Good model.
The Best model gets the majority of the spec upgrades with a bump to a 1.6 GHz Via processor and 80GB hard drive. You can also buy this model, starting at US$1899, with a 120GB drive or even a 32GB SSD. The SSD model starts at US$2399 and can be configured with Windows Vista Business, but not Ultimate since Vista consumes so much of the hard drive space and the media center functionality of Ultimate was a trade-off that had to be made.
OQO also announced that the wireless connectivity module has been upgraded to support EVDO Rev. A. The Sprint or Verizon EVDO option fell to US$99 after activation. Existing OQO model 02 owners can send in their units to be upgraded to EVDO Rev. A for their own cost of US$249.
OQO also announced that they appointed a CEO, Dennis Moore, who comes from the Emerging Solutions division of SAP.