While much of the world often looks to Japan for good product design, particularly of ultra-compact objects, Japan itself has looked to San Francisco-based OQO for one of its more well-regarded products. OQO's model 02 computer, has won Japan's prestigious Good Design Award; it is the world's smallest fully-functional Windows machine, with a sliding-tablet form factor.

"From the onset, we realized that in order to make a truly usable PC that can fit into your pocket, we could not simply take the conventional clamshell form factor of notebook computers and shrink it down in size. It was necessary to reconsider every feature and each type of interaction that the user would have so that the product feels right in your hands and is intuitive to use," said Nick Merz, co-founder and vice president of design. "This required not only a fresh and new industrial design, but a high degree of integration with electrical, mechanical, and wireless engineering."

Here's the 02's demo video: