Apple is going to beat all competitors

[David Pottage]

Steve wrote:
> ian douglas wrote:
>   
> This is a good point.  Let me make a suggestion, don't delay the October
> hardware, but don't call it GTA02 either.  That has already been
> associated with the phrase "Mass Market Release."  I propose releasing
> the hardware when it's ready as another dev model (maybe GTA01C) then
> rebrand it to GTA02 when it is shipping with bug free firmware.  Even if
> the hardware hasn't changed.
>   
I think this is a good idea.

I personally have been holding off buying a GTA01 device because of the
much improved features that is promised in the GTA02 hardware. From
reading the list, I think there are plenty of other people in the same
situation. When GTA02 hardware becomes available, I will buy one
regardless of the state of the software, because I know that given time
the software will improve, and that a few months after I buy it, I will
be able to update the firmware to the same state as the mass market release.

Though I see myself as a hacker, if I am honest I probably would not
work on Open Moko software once I have a GTA02 device (or whatever it is
called), unless it is very easy. Instead I will probably restrict myself
to watching development progress and regularly updating the firmware to
the latest version, and then filing bug reports. Once it is a lot more
stable, I might write myself some Perl, Python or Java applets, but
nothing major.

To me, and hopefully a lot of other people, the main attraction of Open
Moko is not the bullet point list of features when I buy it, but the
fact that it is open, and has an SDK, so that list of features will
increase over time, and that in a year or two, if I want an extra
feature, then I will probably be able to find it at the end of a google
search. To me, price comparisons with the iPhone, are irrelevant because
the iPhone is closed, and you can't get extra software for it. The fact
that you can't use any music file as a ringtone on an iPhone betrays
apple's motives, and tells me that even when the iPhone is opened up
more, you will probably never be able to get disruptive applications
that might reduce the network operator's revenue stream.

In my opinion, the openness of the Open Moko is our biggest selling
point, and we should not loose sight of it. I don't think we should be
aiming at the regular guy in the street for a year or two, when the
software is rock stable, the hardware better, and there a plenty of
useful third party applets available. For now we should be selling to
geeks, and geek wannabes. There are millions of people out there who run
Linux desktops because they prefer to, and they believe in open source,
even if they don't actually contribute much code back to the community.
They want to be part of the Open source revolution. To them an open
source phone should be an easy sell. They will probably forgive a
certain number of bugs because they believe in open source.

The other market we should be thinking about more in vertical markets. I
have seen a few posts on this list from people who are considering
developing their own software for Open Moko phones to run a business
application, and then buying 100 devices to give to their field
engineers or the like. Again the reason these people are interested is
because of our openness. The combination of a powerful Linux computer in
a hand-held format with GPS and GPRS is very attractive to some people.
Again they will want early access to the the GTA02 hardware as soon as
possible so they can start developing, Once the main Open Moko software
is stable and their app is finished, they will
buy devices in bulk deploy them.

-- 
David Pottage