An Open Letter to OQO, the developers of the Ultra-Personal Computers...

Dear Sir or Madam:

I want to be portable. Completely and utterly portable. I want to be able to take my computer with me everywhere, and not have to worry about running out of memory or space. I've been to your site and I like what I see, except for one small thing. To be truly portable; to be able to disappear into the woods for an entire day and write, I need a bit more than 8 hours of battery life. Right now, on my Visor, I have approximately 200-250 hours of battery life on two AAA batteries.

When your ultra-personal computer can give me that, I'll be interested.

Oh, I'm interested now; I'll admit it freely. I'm very intrigued with what I've read and seen about your product, but the biggest drawback (to me) is the same reason I have yet to buy a laptop. To me, it can't be a portable computer if you have to plug it in or recharge it every couple of hours.

I would much rather buy my own rechargable or regular batteries and pop them in than have to wait for it to recharge so I can continue my work. I have that same problem with my digital camera (solved by the purchase of an extra battery, but still, those only last 3-4 hours at the most.)

While an 8-hour battery charge is an improvement, I can't in good conscience pay over $1000 for something I would have to recharge every single day. I want portability, darn it, and right now, my Visor does the job quite well.

I'd love to purchase your product when it is available, but the only drawback is the battery. If that problem is ever taken care of (for example, could it be a self-charging battery that charges when the computer is plugged in? Can it have a solar-powered charger? Or something for those of us who would use it for more than eight hours at a time with no way to recharge the batteries?) I will probably buy one. I hate the size of desktops, and I hate having to be tied to my desk when I want to get something done.

I really like the idea. I really want your product to succeed. I'd love to take an OQO Ultra-personal computer out of my pocket, hook it up to a monitor and a keyboard, and say, "Here's my computer." I'd love to have it with me all the time.

But until the battery life can be extended, I can't really see the point.

Sincerely,

Jennifer St. Clair

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