Ogo is back, Swiss-style
posted Nov 16th 2005 6:30PM
We must have been extra good this year, because first FOX wowed us by bringing back Family Guy, and now IXI Mobile
has found a new carrier to resuscitate its much-maligned and goofily-named (but fun to mock)
Ogo instant messaging handheld. We had heard that IXI
was seeking foreign support for the phoneless Ogo after
Cingular ignored and then finally
dropped the device following the AT&T acquisition,
and now it seems that Switzerland's Swisscom will attempt to find Ogo the fanbase that it never developed in the US.
Swisscom cited recent polls which showed that the average Swiss citizen spends 12 hours a month logged into MSN
Messenger to justify their push into IM, which besides email, is the only real function of the Ogo. In order to draw in
its youth-oriented target audience, Swisscom is offering the Ogo for only $37, and is also temporarily waiving the
$14/month subscription fee.
[Via textually and
Wireless Week]
well i thought this would have come to mobile phones by now but i get not having a qwerty keyboard on most is the main reason not to!
i think this could have potential! if they dont make the monthly fee too much then thier target audience is a sure thing!
Dorph, stop being a dorf with your 3 URLs in every post.
ogo please go!
Let it die already :)
I love the Ogo. I still have mine and use it daily. It's great when i'm sitting in the airport or just want to talk to my friends. I really would love a carrier in the US to pick it back up.
They should offer this device with a WiFi configuration... that would be sweet.
well, you guys know how i feel. i must report though that after getting the vx9800 i have said goodbye to my little friend the ogo. sad...
I think ogo just decided to live live Family Guy did.
RE: Dorph and Bothered
HA HA HA HA HA LMFAO
It's also alive in Turkey. http://www.e-kolay.net/ogo/
I keep my Ogo here in the US as a $14.98/month GPRS bluetooth modem. Syncs flawlessly with my powerbook and provides pretty good battery life for what im using it for. Haven't sent any of my unlimited text messages or used the AIM on it for well over 6 months though.
The OGO did have potential but it had a few major problems.
- Battery life was only 2 hours.
and
- Middleware sucked! AOL was going down all the time and if you had any special "!@#$%" characters in your buddy list it wouldn't load.
It was mainly used by the def (yo, yo, word to ya mutha) community. It was only like $17.99 a month for unlimited SMS and IM/E-mails with one provider (AOL, Yahoo or MSN).
Overall it's potential was hurt by lack of execution.
Two hours? You're sorely mistaken my friend. I used to use it in school all day long without any problem....I vividly remember driving from cleveland to pittsburgh, using the ogo the entire time..almost a 3hr drive (probably extremely unsafe in retrospect) then still having a good 35% of battery left which lasted me the whole next day.
I worked as a consultant on a project with IXI Mobile for a short time doing strategic marketing and research. We went around the Bay Area doing demos and showing it off.
We ended up with what we started with. It's good for those who want to IM and email on the go all the time and its big screen and VERY comfortable keyboard were nice. It appealed to kids especially. Most people wanted more- wifi, phone, etc and the thought of paying a monthly fee for something that just does IM and email just didnt make sense.
I liked it for the short while I had it, but I wouldnt buy one- most phones do it all and more. But I do hope they reach their target demographic there and do well- it definitely has the potential to.
If I sign up with the Swiss company, can I use my ogo in the United States?