[Gta04-owner] Invitation to indicate interest in next batch of GTA04A5 boards

[Bob Ham]

On 2013-04-04 09:53, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
> Am 04.04.2013 um 10:08 schrieb Sven Dyroff:

> * kickstarter is US centric

I would just point to this site:

   http://www.startnext.de/Projects.html?newLanguage=en

It's a German crowdfunding site which has both German and English 
descriptions for projects.


> a) Non-Openmoko-experienced people usually want a complete phone that
> is ready for take away. They want to switch it on and have a first
> successful phone call *before* they start experiencing the freedom of
> being able to modify everything.
>
> This is no problem to offer and has been done.  E.g. Pulster did add 
> a
> SD card

I would point out that all the complete phones that have been sold have 
been marketed as having second-hand cases, which is not really what most 
people want to buy.  Particularly if one is investing such a large sum 
in the base motherboard, it is less than appealing to be limited to a 
second-hand phone case.


>> http://www.google.com/nexus/4/ [1]

> So what is our argument to convince the Non-Openmoko-experienced
> people to get an OpenPhoenux device instead of that one?

(1) Customisability (3D printable case) and (2) freedom

Customisability is simple to communicate; the market is primed to 
accept it as a feature.  Freedom is more difficult to communicate about; 
difficult but possible.


>> If we want to offer a device for everybody in the world, it must
>> come down to 99 EUR. And for doing this 100K is not enough. We need
>> to collect 100M. And then it can't be an open device any more
>> because it does not need to be one and openness costs money.

I don't see that it's necessarily the case that a mass-produced device 
can't be open.  The GTA02 was (arguably) open, was mass-produced and 
sold high volumes, >10000 units.


> I think we can't make something for the masses.

I think it's possible for this to be done.  I think it's possible for 
Golden Delicious to do it but I recognise that it would require a great 
effort and a change in the goals and character of the company.  Possibly 
that isn't what the company wants.


> I think this is a slight misunderstanding of the role of GDC. It is
> not the intention to sell the device by some fancy "homepage" to the
> masses and handle all the service and return requests because people
> don't understand how to insert the battery.

I think it's possible to sell highly technical products to "the masses" 
without worrying too much about support minutia.  Take the Raspberry Pi 
for example; it is a very popular board with cases and kits available 
and yet I don't think you would get much luck phoning the Raspberry Pi 
Foundation and asking for help dealing with connecting a battery.  The 
consumers who purchase the devices understand that.  They understand it 
because the device has been marketed well.

Obviously, increased volumes of mass-produced products would 
necessitate dealing with more return requests and other such retail 
issues which would require an expanded company to deal with them.  
Again, this would be a change to Golden Delicious but it sounds like 
this is not what the company wants.


Regardless, as I see it the issue of large-scale production of low-cost 
phones is a separate issue to that of getting A5 boards off the ground.

-- 
Bob Ham <rah at settrans.net>

for (;;) { ++pancakes; }