Developers phone also fit for early adopters?

[Bryce Leo]

Marcus, I don't know what the problem is but I think you need to take
some time and think about some things.

Nothing good comes of a rushed release. This is a flagship product, it
needs to be heavily refined and rock solid or the public won't keep
interest. This is not designed to JUST be a developer product, it's
meant to be a consumer phone, with GPS, a great screen, and a whole
host of nifty and useful apps that will draw a large user base.
Secondly it's a fully open platform that will easily woo both hobbyist
and professional developers.

> People buy phones all year round. And those that do so before their
> holidays will come back and make perfect mouth-to-mouth propaganda. And
> when November comes the others will base their buying decision on
> exactly that. It is perfect leverage at zero cost that you miss out.

Yes cell phones are bought all year round... but the majority of
phones are bought in November -February range. Why's this you ask?
Well between November and January prices get slashed to make way for
models that get announced just before and at CES. Then from Jan to the
end of February people clamor for those hot new models that their
chique friends have just bought and are showing off.

> I bet that in the christmas season 2008 (not this year) you will have
> plenty of phones with GPS and VGA screens. And plenty of big companies
> throwing big marketing dollars at it.

Exactly the reason to wait and make sure that you have a damn good
product. Remember the first gen Razr? It was a very sexy and cool
phone but many people shied away from it because of the numerous
reports of it "being slow" and "freezing up." Note that the new
Motorola phones are running their own Linux and that the interface and
operation is significantly faster and smoother than the predecessors.

So you don't like the way that management is doing this. You'd rather
they rush a product out there just to get it out there first? I'm
incredibly grateful that you don't have a say in the timeline because
the Neo1973 would be doomed to failure if the launch were rushed.

The timeline of the project is very well planned, it provides enough
time to make big changes to the software and small changes to the
hardware without compromising stability and security. This is a
fantastic ability, it gives them a way to address unknown weak points
in the hardware before the consumers ever get their hands on it. You
have to think with a business oriented mind not one of a hot headed
young developers mind. It's not about getting it out there, it's about
making it the best.


> > On the long term for nobody of us is it important to start in January,
> > or March
>
> That's not true. It is a waste of first mover advantage. Once Google
> comes out with a phone (unless they buy from FIC and use OpenMoko) the
> market gets really tight.

GOOGLE WILL NOT BE RELEASING A PHONE. (Sorry for the all caps but that
really needs to be emphasized.)That's not their market strategy.
Google will be streamlining their services for phones, my bet is that
they'll be doing it though a browser, just like all their current
services. I'm also going to bet that it will be compatible with the
embedded Opera browser which the opera folks would be more than
willing to port over. Google will not come out with a phone, they're a
services company not a products company.

Come on Marcus don't just blindly read Internet speculation and think
that this project is doomed. Trust your superiors, trust the people
who started and are in love with their project. They have an immense
amount of passion and a great bit of business savvy that needs to be
trusted and respected.

Bryce Leo