“Frequently praised as one of the best in the Web Desktop category…” Actually, it’s most definitely the best of them! I’ve been using Desktoptwo for a few months and I couldn’t agree more. The UIs are clean and intuitive and the functionality is outstanding, albeit slow and inconsistent at times (but it’s still a beta and Sapotek is a small company, so I forgive those issues). I’ve learned from the Message Boards on their site that they’re thinking of liberating their code and going open source. I look forward to that with great enthusiasm. This one is a winner. I can’t believe that they’re self-funded or that they don’t have any VC/Institutional backing. I checked their corporate website and don’t see any familiar names. Amazing!! This is what Web 2.0 is about. Do it yourself and do it better. Well done Sapotek!

Great post. I’ve also been following the WebOS’s and Desktoptwo is definitely the best of the lot. I signed up for the service in August after it appeared on TechCrunch and have been very impressed with their progress. I know that Desktoptwo is still in early beta but the improvements since its beta release have been noteworthy in terms of deployment speed and programs on the desktop. After reading this post, I sent an email to them and received a prompt, thoughtful reply from Joshua Rand, their CEO, about the work they’re doing. Apparently, they are a very small team and are hosting on their own relatively small cluster so that explains bandwidth limitations (only sometimes) and service interruptions (rarely, from what I’ve seen). I also now know from your post (and subsequently confirmed by Mr. Rand) that they are self-funded to date. He mentioned that they are now in capital raising mode and, truth be told, I can’t believe that this company hasn’t received significant outside investment, esp. given the crap that’s out there. Where are the VCs or have they forgotten that “venture” is part of the equation? These guys have been around for a while (I signed up for Computadora.de nearly 3 years ago) and I only see them appear on blogs and other free outlets, perhaps due to a lack of marketing funds. Still, their growth has been viral (all through word of mouth) and it’s a damn good product that will only get better with time and a few duckets, I imagine. Acc. to Josh, “significant developments in store for 2007, many of which will include users, developers, etc.” He wouldn’t elaborate further but I suspect an open source move is afoot. This is definitely one to watch… even from my perch in Leeds, UK. Well done Sapotek and well done UTR for looking at those that are truly “under the radar.”

Desktoptwo (Sapotek)

Founded: 2002

Sector: Office 2.0, Web Desktop

Headquarters: New York and Toluca, Mexico

Management: Joshua Rand, CEO, former economist and attorney and Oscar Mondragon, Director of Technological Development, founder of one of Mexico’s first advanced ISPs

Funding: Self-funded

Secret Sauce: Frequently praised as one of the best in the Web Desktop category, the interface design of Desktoptwo alone goes a long way toward convincing the skeptics that an on demand webtop is something that people will actually use. Login and your browser looks just like a PC with more intuitive icons and a set of basic office applications, IM, blogging, a desktoptwo email account and 1GB of storage. Not bad for free. It’s not really a business tool, it’s not complex or fast enough, but it’s customizable and would be really beneficial for someone without their own computer. Users can login from any computer and access their desktop – their bookmarks, their email, their blog setups. The business plan seems to be a perfect fit for libraries, ISPs, schools and other high-volume clients who can buy subscriptions to the hosted service – or possibly host their own branded versions.

The really interesting thing about Desktoptwo, and parent company Sapotek, is the bi-lingual factor. The Spanish-speaking demographic is huge in the US, and capturing even a share of that market is sure to be profitable. Desktoptwo has the advantage and experience of launching computadora.de (also free) in Mexico four years ago. Just like the ATM machine has a language option, so too does the Web desktop (sort of, it’s not actually a button you push on the desktop – you have to login to computadora to use the version Espanol). Computadora boasts 110K+ users, so the cycle from beta to release has already been done. Surely that puts Sapotek ahead of the game as well.

Seen and Heard: Techcrunch reviews and states “A WebOS isn’t a new idea, but this one looks like a solid offering.” Rafe Needleman sums it up: “for the billions of people without the resources to call a single computer their own, Desktoptwo could be a great gift.”