Market Timing (was USB Connectivity)

Martin Lefkowitz lefko at sbcglobal.net
Tue Feb 20 15:44:07 CET 2007


They are completely closed because they are very intimate with the
chipsets they are using.  In fact the chipsets are specifically designed
for the company that builds the phone.  While you can buy something with
the same core, typically you can't buy the chips that are actually in
the phone.

The fact that you can buy a GSM/GPRS module that runs off the AT command
set is the big innovation.  I don't know how long this has been
possible, but I've only heard about this recently.

Whether Open phones have timed the market or not, I'm not sure.  You
could look at browsers for some examples Netscape->Internet
Explorer->mozilla for some examples.  But I don't think other than the
fact that it can be done it's appropriate.  You really have not had the
ability to write/port an integrated application and run it on your phone
like you do your PC (i.e. I think the coldfire only dealt with the Palm
PDA aspect).  It may be more appropriate to look at what Honda did to
Harley Davidson in the 60's from a market/business perspective.

Marty


> Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 06:47:04 +0100
> From: larpoux <canardoux at larpoux.net>
>
> I just decover Openmoko, and it is exactly what I was dreaming for the
> past few years.
> I already have two cellular phones running linux, but, (strangely), they
> are completly closed.
> My phone operator download a new software release from time to time on
> them, but I have no documentation, no possibility to develop my own
> packages, no comunity working on them, ...
> Too bad that this project is somewhat now a little late and will be hard
> to have great impact on the mass market. But Openmoko seems exactly what
> was desesperaly needed for us, the hackers.
> /larpoux





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