[Community] About cost and business models for community hardware

[H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi all,
quite a while that there was the last discussion.

So let me start one by jumping into this topic:

<http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/15724-how-to-calculate-a-price-for-the-pyra/?p=400173>

There, people heavily discuss if a Pyra must be as cheap as possible - or if it must allow to
cover expenses and a business model that even gives shareholders a profit and is necessarily
more expensive than devices built in millions of units.

It appears to me that all mobile devices you can currently get, follow a “profit” model which
also means that they have to cut cost where they can to stay competitive (“… there is always
one who makes the same, but cheaper”).

The result is what we know:
a) cheap as crap devices without any openness (because being open adds efforts and therefore cost)
b) leading edge high cost devices without any openness (because being open allows a) to become better)

And in all offerings, the user is only needed to pay for the device and accept what is given to him/her.
An exception may be the Fairphone - but even they have 25 EUR (?) for paying their developers and managers.

So what is your opinion?

Should our projects be “profitable” or more be a “charity” based on volunteer work?

BR,
Nikolaus