Exact release date of GTA02v4?

[Michael Shiloh]

Hello Andreas, and everyone else,

Andreas writes:
 > Thats no problem, i can be very patient. I think what the community
 > want is just a date, when the device is "planned" to be shipped.

Many years ago, I had a running joke with a co-worker. Every time 
someone said "just" we would role our eyes at each other and repeat the 
sentence, emphasizing the word "just".

As others here have explained, we are involving the community in the 
process of designing, manufacturing, and distributing in a way that is 
simply not done. We are experimenting and learning as we go along. There 
are no models for this sort of project, no experts to turn to to ask 
"how is this done".

It seems so simple, but in fact it is extremely complicated.

If you look at the history of this mailing list, you will see that Sean, 
Harald, and others started off being very generous with their 
information, and then having to spend a tremendous amount of energy 
calming angry readers when deadlines were missed. As you continue to 
study the history of this mailing list, you will notice an increasing 
level of frustration in all parties.

This is one reason I was brought in. Having come from the community, I 
hopefully represent the community well, but now in the company, I 
hopefully can balance being in both worlds.

My goal is not to get as frustrated as Sean or Harald or the others who 
have gone before me. Perhaps since I'm in the middle, I'm supposed to 
get half as frustrated :-)

In fact this is very complicated. Since everyone in OpenMoko knows that 
I am the channel to the community, I suspect there is a certain 
reluctance to being completely open with me. Believe me, I have as hard 
a time getting updates from OpenMoko people as you have getting it from 
me. (Again, since I'm in the middle, perhaps this is exactly as it 
should be.) On the other hand, the community knows that I know more than 
they do, and don't understand why I can't share all this information.

So to answer your question, Andreas: We can not give the community the 
date for when the device is planned to ship, because we do not have such 
a date.

What we have is a plan that gets increasingly vague as it moves into the 
future.

What I know for sure:

We, and Harald in particular, are quite happy with GTA02v3.

GTA02v4 has been made and should be showing up on Harald's desk any day 
now. True, I said this a couple of days ago, and I have not yet received 
any confirmation that the device has shown up on his desk, so I must 
presume it has not yet.

Once GTA02v4 shows up on Harald's desk, there will follow a period of 
very careful inspection and testing. Only when there is a high level of 
confidence will we move forward.

How long will this take? We don't know. It depends on what we find.

For example, remember that the drivers aren't all finished. This means 
that the testing will sometimes be delayed pending drivers, and other 
times will be tested with test software that (we hope) is very similar 
to the drivers, but whether it is sufficiently similar we won't know 
until the driver is finished. So someone might need to make the decision 
of whether to approve of the subsystem under test after having been 
verified by the test software, or whether to wait for the driver itself. 
Obviously such a decision depends on how confident they are in the test 
software, and how much longer the "real" driver is expected to take, and 
how risky it is to find a flaw in this subsystem after say 1000 units 
have been sent out to customers.

Quite a big responsibility. If I were in their shoes, I would be very 
tempted to wait for the driver. Even though the community is anxious to 
get the hardware, even if the software isn't finished.

As others have said so eloquently, we are doing our best. We are far 
from perfect, but we are trying.

My personal goal is to continue improving both the quantity and quality 
of information that I bring from the company to you.

Regards,
Michael


andutt wrote:
> Hi Steven
> 
> Thats no problem, i can be very patient. I think what the community want 
> is just a date, when the device is "planned" to be shipped.
> 
> /Andreas U
> 
> On 10/24/07, *Steven *** <montgoss+openmokocommunity at gmail.com 
> <mailto:montgoss+openmokocommunity at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Note that that is an estimated timeline created by a community
>     member.  Don't take those dates as gospel and then get upset if
>     they're missed.
> 
>     We all want the GTA02 ASAP.  But we also want the hardware to be in
>     perfect working order.  If it's rushed, there's a much larger chance
>     of issues being found after it's been delivered.  We don't want
>     that.  So, let's all just be a little patient here.
> 
>     -Steven
> 
>     On 10/24/07, *Andreas Utterberg* < andreas.utterberg at gmail.com
>     <mailto:andreas.utterberg at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>         Thanx...
> 
>         Thats the post i have been waiting on
> 
>         /Andreas
> 
> 
>         On 10/24/07, *Mark* < wolfmane at gmail.com
>         <mailto:wolfmane at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>             Since no one else has seen fit to make an appropriate post, I'm
>             pasting this from the one place on the site that has some
>             information:
> 
>             Estimated time line
>                 * Sep 20 - GTA02v3 design finalized.
>                 * Sep 25 - GTA02v3 serious flaw found, GTA02v4 needed.
>                 * Oct 15 - GTA02v4 design finalized.
>                 * Oct 30 - GTA02v4 design produced, and shipped to
>             qualified developers.
>                 * Nov 20 - GTA02v4 design verified through testing by
>             developers.
>                 * Dec 10 - GTA02v4 produced in moderate volume
>                 * Dec 20 - GTA02v4 goes on sale
>                 * Dec 25 - GTA02v4 arrives. See Santa's Sleigh Package
>             Service.
> 
> 
>             However, I suggest everyone take this with a grain of salt
>             and not
>             expect anything until well after the New Year.
> 
>             Wolfmane
> 
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> 
> 
> 
>         -- 
>         Andreas Utterberg
>         Thundera AB
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> 
> 
> 
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