I think this should silence the critics who think Apple doesn't know customers want. They obviously aren't stupid!
Really? The AppleTV has been out for over 2 years now and how many customers want that as opposed to Blu-Ray which Apple still hasn't decided if that's what they (the public) want?
"The OQO may be a revolutionary form factor on the outside but what really makes it special is that it's basically a regular wintel laptop inside," said Rob Enderle, OQO beta tester and Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group"
"The OQO may be a revolutionary form factor on the outside but what really makes it special is that it's basically a regular wintel laptop inside," said Rob Enderle, OQO beta tester and Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group"
It's funny because the technology needed to make these actually be good and well priced is finally upon us. Before they were just extremely high priced novelty items, and because of technology breakthroughs it actually looks like apple is going to be creating devices more in line with this type of device(that alleged tablet)
Yes, but as Steve Jobs himself would admit a lot of his success is due to blind luck. He was lucky enough to be born in a time when the computer boom was just beginning. Once you make that first billion, the second billion is much easier.
There is alway a chance for people who want to take risks (they also need luck). Charles Duell, Commissioner of Patents, said in 1899 "Everything that could be invented has been invented". The majority of every generation think this way. It is not until few decades when they realize how wrong they were.
There are always thing to be invented and ideas that can make millions if not billions. The catch is to stop being lazy and do it. The founders of Yahoo, Google, Amazon, and many others made their billions with companies they started less than 10 years ago. Facebook founder made his billions less than 5 years ago. Tomorrow someone will start a company from nothing and will make millions and you will think why did I waste my time posting comments online and arguing with other and never thought about this idea first!!
There is alway a chance for people who want to take risks (they also need luck). Charles Duell, Commissioner of Patents, said in 1899 "Everything that could be invented has been invented". The majority of every generation think this way. It is not until few decades when they realize how wrong they were.
There are always thing to be invented and ideas that can make millions if not billions. The catch is to stop being lazy and do it. The founders of Yahoo, Google, Amazon, and many others made their billions with companies they started less than 10 years ago. Facebook founder made his billions less than 5 years ago. Tomorrow someone will start a company from nothing and will make millions and you will think why did I waste my time posting comments online and arguing with other and never thought about this idea first!!
Everyone thinks they know better and can do it better if only the big bosses would just let them move forward with their ideas, unencumbered by sales and marketing types, MBAs, and corporate bean counters.
'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'. The only thing that matters in business is that you STAY in business 5, 10, 15 years from now when your customers need you.
What good did it do to have a better mousetrap when market forces and a lack of business acumen and humility force you out of business?
Jobs may not be 100% right all the time, but his track record is pretty spot-on. I wouldn't bet against that horse.
I wonder why you think this is so worthy of derision? These people took a risk and worked their guts out to make it work. There are a lot of product categories that can't work in the Mac space, which CAN work in the PC space due to differences in size. You don't have to hate them for being realists and designing for the only platform where this was felt to have a chance.
Respect these people for the attempt they made, for trying to think different. For trying. This was a noble failure. Even though I hate Windows with a passion (I try never to use Windows when I'm around my nieces, because I the profanity is sometimes out of my mouth before I can catch it), this was the only legitimate avenue these people could have gone, to pursue their dreams. I salute them, and I'm sorry it didn't work out. (Never saw one in person, so far as I know. I wonder how many were sold).
I wonder why you think this is so worthy of derision? These people took a risk and worked their guts out to make it work. There are a lot of product categories that can't work in the Mac space, which CAN work in the PC space due to differences in size. You don't have to hate them for being realists and designing for the only platform where this was felt to have a chance.
Sorta, I guess, but: according to the article they lobbied hard to make something similar at Apple and only left when their repeated efforts were rebuffed, so it doesn't appear that they made a strategic decision to "design for the only platform where this was felt to have a chance", and, it doesn't speak well for their "realist" cred that they wound up making an expensive niche product without a clear reason for being beyond being cool.
Quote:
Respect these people for the attempt they made, for trying to think different. For trying. This was a noble failure. Even though I hate Windows with a passion (I try never to use Windows when I'm around my nieces, because I the profanity is sometimes out of my mouth before I can catch it), this was the only legitimate avenue these people could have gone, to pursue their dreams. I salute them, and I'm sorry it didn't work out. (Never saw one in person, so far as I know. I wonder how many were sold).
Again, I guess, but I don't see their failure as particularly "noble"-- they weren't doing basic medical research or furthering man's knowledge or even changing the tech landscape. They just had this idea about making a wee little PC, and they did, and it was expensive, and nobody really wanted it.
It was cool in a tech enthusiast way, but not "the path not taken could have changed the world" cool, just.....cool. Pick it up at a trade show and say "neat" cool, not "OMG this changes how I think about how I do my work" cool. Demo cool. Sony cool.
And yes, it reminds me of a Sony product-- nicely engineered, great industrial design, seemingly existing simply to prove that they could do it when no one else would. Except these guys didn't have Sony's (formerly) deep pockets to indulge their engineering fetishism.
Apple's famous parsimony when it comes to what they actually release really is a virtue, it's just not a virtue that necessarily warms the heart of the average gear head.
Really? The AppleTV has been out for over 2 years now and how many customers want that as opposed to Blu-Ray which Apple still hasn't decided if that's what they (the public) want?
Apple is ahead of the curve again with Blu-Ray. Just as when they left the floppy drive off the original iMac. They saw the end coming for that puny standard before anyone else did. PeeCee folks were astounded.
Now they see that video content is much more likely to be delivered by wire than by plastic disks through sneaker net or mail, no matter what the quality or format. They may be a little premature, but they are right. Already I am watching more of my NetFlix movies streaming through my TiVo than by their disks in the mail.
It's what's next.
I have no answer for AppleTV other than that they will slowly but surely improve it to compete with TiVo and other boxes. Just want to stay in the game until they see which way it's going?
Really? The AppleTV has been out for over 2 years now and how many customers want that as opposed to Blu-Ray which Apple still hasn't decided if that's what they (the public) want?
Well show me some non-bias proof that people want blu-ray over an AppleTV.
I happen to own an AppleTV and would take it over a blu-ray player any day. I can do a hell of a lot more with an AppleTV than I can with an overpriced blu-ray player. Plus you never know what Apple is going to further build into it. You can't build functionality into a blu-ray player.
I have never even seen an OQO so I can't say, but the fact that a small computer company can't be financially viable does not necessarily mean that the product or form factor is the reason.
A similar device with a Mac OS, iApps and iTunes would have a much richer ecosystem then just the vast but unfocused Windows desert.
The fact that they went under reflects the fact that most businesses eventually do go under even with a superior product (see WordPerfect, etc.). If they had come up with the iPod first, but didn't have the integrated experience that Apple could create - they would have failed with it as well. Wouldn't have meant that the iPod was a marketless device!
Cause and effect are not so simple to elucidate as many here seem to think.
Really, I think the problem with the OQO was that it tried to run straight-up desktop Windows on a 5" screen. Tossing in a stylus driven touch UI in lieu of a mouse and some zoom functionality doesn't help out much.
As Apple has demonstrated, if you want to put put real computing power on a tiny screen, you're going to have to do the hard work of coming up with an appropriate OS. Putting some touch stuff on top of a shrunken desktop just doesn't cut it.
I do think Apple could do something about this size and make it a lot more appealing by using a version of the iPhone OS, just as they have already demonstrated that a phone UI is better off not trying to be a miniature version of a full sized OS as Windows Mobile insists on doing (is there some weird Windows thing that thinks tiny text and lists and button and menus are cool?)
I met the guys behind this company and my conclusion was that they are good people trying to do something creative.
So to all the haters: you are lame cowards for heaping scorn on people trying to do something creative and cutting edge.
Maybe the product wasn't right for the market, maybe Apple was right about the market potential -- that doesn't justify the kind of hateful BS I'm reading on this blog.
I hope YOUR business fails and then I can ROFLMAO.
I met the guys behind this company and my conclusion was that they are good people trying to do something creative.
So to all the haters: you are lame cowards for heaping scorn on people trying to do something creative and cutting edge.
Maybe the product wasn't right for the market, maybe Apple was right about the market potential -- that doesn't justify the kind of hateful BS I'm reading on this blog.
I hope YOUR business fails and then I can ROFLMAO.
Hi thebob, gosh, what a nice way to introduce yourself!
Say, could you do me a favor? Could you point out some of the specific "hateful BS" us "lame cowards" are heaping?
Cause I just reread the thread, and what I see is mostly people saying that the OQO was cool hardware, but too soon, or overpriced, or not really addressing any market need.
That seems like kinda a low bar for "hateful BS", dontcha think?
Comments
I think this should silence the critics who think Apple doesn't know customers want. They obviously aren't stupid!
Really? The AppleTV has been out for over 2 years now and how many customers want that as opposed to Blu-Ray which Apple still hasn't decided if that's what they (the public) want?
"The OQO may be a revolutionary form factor on the outside but what really makes it special is that it's basically a regular wintel laptop inside," said Rob Enderle, OQO beta tester and Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group"
SAN FRANCISCO, California - October 14th, 2004
www.oqo.com/news/press_releases/pr0008.html
Well this was their first mistake....
"The OQO may be a revolutionary form factor on the outside but what really makes it special is that it's basically a regular wintel laptop inside," said Rob Enderle, OQO beta tester and Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group"
SAN FRANCISCO, California - October 14th, 2004
www.oqo.com/news/press_releases/pr0008.html
Ugh. The Enderle Kiss of Death.
How that halfwit is able to make a living dispensing his tepid nonsense is beyond me.
As Jobs might say: "Boom".
Yes, but as Steve Jobs himself would admit a lot of his success is due to blind luck. He was lucky enough to be born in a time when the computer boom was just beginning. Once you make that first billion, the second billion is much easier.
There is alway a chance for people who want to take risks (they also need luck). Charles Duell, Commissioner of Patents, said in 1899 "Everything that could be invented has been invented". The majority of every generation think this way. It is not until few decades when they realize how wrong they were.
There are always thing to be invented and ideas that can make millions if not billions. The catch is to stop being lazy and do it. The founders of Yahoo, Google, Amazon, and many others made their billions with companies they started less than 10 years ago. Facebook founder made his billions less than 5 years ago. Tomorrow someone will start a company from nothing and will make millions and you will think why did I waste my time posting comments online and arguing with other and never thought about this idea first!!
There is alway a chance for people who want to take risks (they also need luck). Charles Duell, Commissioner of Patents, said in 1899 "Everything that could be invented has been invented". The majority of every generation think this way. It is not until few decades when they realize how wrong they were.
There are always thing to be invented and ideas that can make millions if not billions. The catch is to stop being lazy and do it. The founders of Yahoo, Google, Amazon, and many others made their billions with companies they started less than 10 years ago. Facebook founder made his billions less than 5 years ago. Tomorrow someone will start a company from nothing and will make millions and you will think why did I waste my time posting comments online and arguing with other and never thought about this idea first!!
Everyone thinks they know better and can do it better if only the big bosses would just let them move forward with their ideas, unencumbered by sales and marketing types, MBAs, and corporate bean counters.
'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'. The only thing that matters in business is that you STAY in business 5, 10, 15 years from now when your customers need you.
What good did it do to have a better mousetrap when market forces and a lack of business acumen and humility force you out of business?
Jobs may not be 100% right all the time, but his track record is pretty spot-on. I wouldn't bet against that horse.
I doubt Steve "Blow" Jobs will rehire those people.
Right - like Steve, with all his other issues, bothers with the minutia of day-to-day human resources issues like individual hires and re-hires...
http://www.macmod.com/external-mods/macbook/1577-itab
who? what?
don't mention teckspud !!
ROFLMAO!!!
I wonder why you think this is so worthy of derision? These people took a risk and worked their guts out to make it work. There are a lot of product categories that can't work in the Mac space, which CAN work in the PC space due to differences in size. You don't have to hate them for being realists and designing for the only platform where this was felt to have a chance.
Respect these people for the attempt they made, for trying to think different. For trying. This was a noble failure. Even though I hate Windows with a passion (I try never to use Windows when I'm around my nieces, because I the profanity is sometimes out of my mouth before I can catch it), this was the only legitimate avenue these people could have gone, to pursue their dreams. I salute them, and I'm sorry it didn't work out. (Never saw one in person, so far as I know. I wonder how many were sold).
ROFLMAO!!!
Hmmmm.... Three or four years ago you were probably laughing about Intel's attempts to woo Apple.
I wonder why you think this is so worthy of derision? These people took a risk and worked their guts out to make it work. There are a lot of product categories that can't work in the Mac space, which CAN work in the PC space due to differences in size. You don't have to hate them for being realists and designing for the only platform where this was felt to have a chance.
Sorta, I guess, but: according to the article they lobbied hard to make something similar at Apple and only left when their repeated efforts were rebuffed, so it doesn't appear that they made a strategic decision to "design for the only platform where this was felt to have a chance", and, it doesn't speak well for their "realist" cred that they wound up making an expensive niche product without a clear reason for being beyond being cool.
Respect these people for the attempt they made, for trying to think different. For trying. This was a noble failure. Even though I hate Windows with a passion (I try never to use Windows when I'm around my nieces, because I the profanity is sometimes out of my mouth before I can catch it), this was the only legitimate avenue these people could have gone, to pursue their dreams. I salute them, and I'm sorry it didn't work out. (Never saw one in person, so far as I know. I wonder how many were sold).
Again, I guess, but I don't see their failure as particularly "noble"-- they weren't doing basic medical research or furthering man's knowledge or even changing the tech landscape. They just had this idea about making a wee little PC, and they did, and it was expensive, and nobody really wanted it.
It was cool in a tech enthusiast way, but not "the path not taken could have changed the world" cool, just.....cool. Pick it up at a trade show and say "neat" cool, not "OMG this changes how I think about how I do my work" cool. Demo cool. Sony cool.
And yes, it reminds me of a Sony product-- nicely engineered, great industrial design, seemingly existing simply to prove that they could do it when no one else would. Except these guys didn't have Sony's (formerly) deep pockets to indulge their engineering fetishism.
Apple's famous parsimony when it comes to what they actually release really is a virtue, it's just not a virtue that necessarily warms the heart of the average gear head.
Really? The AppleTV has been out for over 2 years now and how many customers want that as opposed to Blu-Ray which Apple still hasn't decided if that's what they (the public) want?
Apple is ahead of the curve again with Blu-Ray. Just as when they left the floppy drive off the original iMac. They saw the end coming for that puny standard before anyone else did. PeeCee folks were astounded.
Now they see that video content is much more likely to be delivered by wire than by plastic disks through sneaker net or mail, no matter what the quality or format. They may be a little premature, but they are right. Already I am watching more of my NetFlix movies streaming through my TiVo than by their disks in the mail.
It's what's next.
I have no answer for AppleTV other than that they will slowly but surely improve it to compete with TiVo and other boxes. Just want to stay in the game until they see which way it's going?
Really? The AppleTV has been out for over 2 years now and how many customers want that as opposed to Blu-Ray which Apple still hasn't decided if that's what they (the public) want?
Well show me some non-bias proof that people want blu-ray over an AppleTV.
I happen to own an AppleTV and would take it over a blu-ray player any day. I can do a hell of a lot more with an AppleTV than I can with an overpriced blu-ray player. Plus you never know what Apple is going to further build into it. You can't build functionality into a blu-ray player.
LOL, it seems Apple really does know best.
I have never even seen an OQO so I can't say, but the fact that a small computer company can't be financially viable does not necessarily mean that the product or form factor is the reason.
A similar device with a Mac OS, iApps and iTunes would have a much richer ecosystem then just the vast but unfocused Windows desert.
The fact that they went under reflects the fact that most businesses eventually do go under even with a superior product (see WordPerfect, etc.). If they had come up with the iPod first, but didn't have the integrated experience that Apple could create - they would have failed with it as well. Wouldn't have meant that the iPod was a marketless device!
Cause and effect are not so simple to elucidate as many here seem to think.
As Apple has demonstrated, if you want to put put real computing power on a tiny screen, you're going to have to do the hard work of coming up with an appropriate OS. Putting some touch stuff on top of a shrunken desktop just doesn't cut it.
I do think Apple could do something about this size and make it a lot more appealing by using a version of the iPhone OS, just as they have already demonstrated that a phone UI is better off not trying to be a miniature version of a full sized OS as Windows Mobile insists on doing (is there some weird Windows thing that thinks tiny text and lists and button and menus are cool?)
So to all the haters: you are lame cowards for heaping scorn on people trying to do something creative and cutting edge.
Maybe the product wasn't right for the market, maybe Apple was right about the market potential -- that doesn't justify the kind of hateful BS I'm reading on this blog.
I hope YOUR business fails and then I can ROFLMAO.
I met the guys behind this company and my conclusion was that they are good people trying to do something creative.
So to all the haters: you are lame cowards for heaping scorn on people trying to do something creative and cutting edge.
Maybe the product wasn't right for the market, maybe Apple was right about the market potential -- that doesn't justify the kind of hateful BS I'm reading on this blog.
I hope YOUR business fails and then I can ROFLMAO.
Hi thebob, gosh, what a nice way to introduce yourself!
Say, could you do me a favor? Could you point out some of the specific "hateful BS" us "lame cowards" are heaping?
Cause I just reread the thread, and what I see is mostly people saying that the OQO was cool hardware, but too soon, or overpriced, or not really addressing any market need.
That seems like kinda a low bar for "hateful BS", dontcha think?