Community update: The 850 MHz issue

Randall Mason lists at mason.ch
Tue Nov 6 20:38:20 CET 2007


The facts don't matter a bunch in this discussion for me.  I think that we
should vote for what we want and be grateful that ANYBODY is willing to put
this kind of backing for an open source project.  I haven't been around in
the F/OSS community for long (maybe 8 years or so), but I really think that
our attitudes should always be of thankfulness and never of entitlement.  I
really feel like there has been a big shift in what people expect now that
there are large companies throwing money at the community.  Look at what
happened when nVidia started providing binary drivers.  People got all
entitled and demand that they release source code.  Where do you have the
rite to tell them what to do with their IP.  We only have the right to ask,
vote with money, and reverse engineer things in countries where that is
still legal.  Linux is about the people creating and giving, not
corporations creating and giving.  Most projects didn't start with giant
corporate benefactors.

I think it's unfortunate that this project was/is advertised as a quad band
phone when it just has a quad band chip.  I still don't think we have the
right to tell them what they should/have to do.  We are the consumers, but
we are also being given something that no other company has ever been kind
enough to give.  These people are willing to make hardware without the
locking that US companies pay other phone manufactures to do.  Look at the
iPhone, it's the exact opposite.  It is closed source and it is locked.  I
don't know how much ATT pays Apple to sell only to ATT customers, but I'm
sure that FIC is losing a pretty penny by not making deals with carriers to
lock up their hardware.  Lets try to look at all of this more as the rich
benefactor FIC reaching out to the freedom fighters.

Vote and we'll see if we can get this phone fully functional in the US
market.  I'd love to see it.  I love my Zaurus and can't wait to have one
that is internet connected 24/7.  I'm thankful for my Zaurus.  I'm thankful
that it runs Linux.  I'm thankful that another company is putting money into
putting out a cell phone with Linux.  I hope that we in the US can be a big
enough market to make it succeed where the Zaurus flopped.  As much as I
believe that Linux is ready for everything (Server, Set Top Box, Desktop,
PDA, Cell Phone), I don't think people, the consumers, are ready to buy
everything with Linux.  People never think "Hmm, TiVo, it runs Linux,
right?  I'll get one!".  Linux is still not a "feature" to most people in
the US.  Why do you think we still have so many unfriendly laws?  The public
still doesn't care.  To be a force in the US you have to have features, not
freedom.  Sad, I know.

Randall (ClashTheBunny)

On 11/6/07, ramsesoriginal <ramsesoriginal at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Nov 6, 2007 6:39 PM, hank williams <hank777 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Common, take a look outside of your own borders. It's hard to inmagine
> an Open
> > > Source phone gaining any traction at all in the US, land of software
> patents,
> > > closed standards and telco control. There are quit a few OSS projects
> doing
> > > just fine despite being illegal in the US, an Open Source phone will
> do just
> > > fine without US support.
> >
> >
> >
> > > And Nokia is not a US company, nor is Sony-Ericsson, both became major
> players
> > > in this market before there even was any form of GSM coverage in the
> US.
> > >
> >
> > 1. did I say it was not possible to exist as a company without the US?
> No.
> >
> > What I said was that a plurality of smart phones are sold in the US.
> that's not true. I don't know the exact numbers, but i DO remember
> that the US are only at the nineth or tenth place of the
> smartphone-buyers-list.
>
> > It is a major market.
> hm.. no. In the us the mobile communication sector ISN'T a major
> market at all. Ok, my information is not thaat up to date (2005-2006),
> but if we compare: italy and germany togheter have more active mobile
> phones then the whole usa. (actrually in italy we have 2.5 phones per
> person :D )
>
> >And a huge amount of OS work is done in the US.
> ok, that's true. But that doesn't mean that less is done outside the usa.
>
> > To design a phone that specifically cant really be sold in the US is
> > dumb.
> As above, in 2005/2006 only 12% of the announced phones could be used
> in the usa. I don't know if ou have ever been in a phone shop in
> europe or asia.. compare it to the usa and you'll cry to.
>
> >It cuts out a huge potential market. And given the high level of
> > competition, loosing 20 - 30% of your market opportunity is
> > potentially deadly.
> >
> > > > > We're not, nor do we have nearly the largest possible sales base.
> > > >
> > > > It is not true to say that we dont *nearly* have the largest base.
> > > > whatever the numbers are, particularly for smart phones, I would be
> > > > shocked to hear the US was anything but one of the top markets. Only
> > > > japan could compete as a potentially larger market in asia.
> Certainly
> > > > they are not going to be selling tons of these in China.
> > >
> > > Yeah, because it's not like there are loads of smart phones being sold
> in
> > > Europe...
> >
> > "loads". Is that a new unit of measure in europe?
> If you have no exact data, you have to approximate. The countries with
> the highest phone/person ratios are japan, finnland, italy, spain and
> germany. I wouldn't say this are third world countries, so you can
> assume we are not speaking of old nokia 3310, but probably some really
> hig-tech phones.
>
> >
> > It's Asia first, then Europe and the the America's, largely because
> > > the US had an incompatible system of their own for years. And you may
> be
> > > suprised about china too, 1% of the chinese buying a phone is as just
> as good
> > > as 4% of the US buying your phone. And it's far easier to gain
> marketshare in
> > > China then in the hugely locked-up US market.
> > >
> >
> > Ok, so I guess this whole thing in your mind is really good biz dev
> > strategy because they dont need the US.
> No one sais they don't need usa. Just if they have to drop usa or rest
> of the world.. i would choose usa.
>
> > Lol. They need more strategists like you at FIC.
> I think they would need more testers, as we saw..
>
> >
> > Hank
> >
> Stefan
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > OpenMoko community mailing list
> > community at lists.openmoko.org
> > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
> >
>
>
>
> --
> My corner of the web: http://blog.ramsesoriginal.org
> My dream, my world: http://abenu.wordpress.com
> My work: http://unicoinuffico.wordpress.com
>
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>
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-- 
Randall Mason
randall at mason.ch
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