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Oqo comes out with its latest handheld computer

New computer, officially model 02, is a full-fledged Windows XP computer that comes with optional broadband wireless from Verizon or Sprint.

Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Michael Kanellos is editor at large at CNET News.com, where he covers hardware, research and development, start-ups and the tech industry overseas.
Michael Kanellos

Oqo has started to ship a new model of its handheld Windows computer. Now all the company needs is customers.

The new computer, officially model 02, is a full-fledged Windows XP computer that comes with optional broadband wireless from Verizon or Sprint. It costs $1,499 and is available here..

The trick is that it fits into a person's hand, similar to those devices from or Taiwan's Hi Tech Computer Corp. (Hi Tech announced a handheld Vista-based computer this week.). Sony has a few in Japan.

Oqo, however, can lay claim to being in the market the longest one in the market. The company had a coming out party in 2002 on the eve of WinHec. The first models came out with a Transmeta processor. (The new model uses a Via processor, similar to some of Samsung's machines.)

It finally launched its product 2.5 years later, followed by a subsequent upgrade.

These computers are cool, but you don't see a lot of them in the wild. So far, I've seen two: one was owned by a chip executive whose job it is to sell processors to companies making tiny computers and the other belonged to an industrial designer. Do those really count?