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

[Bob Ham]

On 2013-04-04 12:02, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:

>> In total then, there are about €4000 in one-off costs for a 
>> production run of a new design.  I think it's eminently possible to 
>> raise that through crowdfunding.  Moreover, I don't think we're going 
>> to determine, a priori, whether such a crowdfunding effort will be 
>> successful.  I think the only way to determine whether it will be 
>> successful is to do it.
>>
>> So why not do it? :-)
>
> Because it misses a crucial point: getting the one-off costs is only
> half of the problem. The other one is that if we want to produce 100
> units, we need to buy components for 100 units. And as long as there
> are not 100 orders for 100 units, there is still missing a lot of
> money to stock the not-yet needed components.

I see.  In that case I'm wondering: why not use crowdfunding to cover 
the component costs as well?  But then I see the problem: marketing.  
The A5 has barely registered on my radar and I regularly check this list 
and the other openmoko/openphoenix lists.  I've seen no calls for 
assistance in spreading the word, no requests for donations, there is no 
web page about the A5 and in general there's been no noise about it.


On 2013-04-04 09:53, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
>> marketing and everything around it is task of the community.

That could work but you would have to *tell us* about it :-)  I had no 
idea you harboured these expectations of the community.  For this to 
work, you would have to tell us when there's something to be marketed 
and most importantly, tell us explicitly that you want it to *be* 
marketed :-)  I've seen no such request on this or any other list 
regarding the A5.

-- 
Bob Ham <rah at settrans.net>

for (;;) { ++pancakes; }