Not just a phone

[doron]

Hi Michael / all,

Sorry for my late response.

I think that innovation is the big and the first challenge that the 
Openmoko and the community have.

After 35 years of property industry (the cellular industry)  it is easy 
to talk about innovation but it is not easy to be innovative - we all 
have some "imagination blocking".

To be innovative the first thing to do is define what is the FreeRunner 
device.

some of us talk about "phone" or "cellphone", my Freerunner is not phone 
or cellphone. as far as I know cellphones have a limited OS with a 
limited functionality, I didn't see any of those in my Freerunner (it 
use cellular network) .

It's also not a "smart phone", smartphones is a phone that the 
manufacturer add it some extra functionality, smartphone was plan to be 
an extension of my computer, but my smartphone did't do it, the reason 
is the limitation of the property software.
Basically, the manufacturer defined what is the extensions - and thats all.

so, my Freerunner is not a cellphone and is not a smartphone and it 
definitely not a pda .

It is a personal communication device (or center) that connecting my 
with the rest of the world, on the other side it is an extension of my 
computer.

so basically, I am looking for a new ways to connect me to the world 
from one side and from the other side I am looking for a new way to 
connect with my computer.

for example, we can check what is the blackberry. Rim, didn't build a 
new way to communicate, they just think different and build a device 
that use a regular tools to connect me to the world - this is innovation 
of the connection process between people based on regular tools.

I don't know what's about your freerunner - but I want that my 
freerunner will be more then that.

but, first of all, we need to think different.
location aware services - it easy .. voip - also easy (etc) - all this 
services and tools it's great (must to have)(and of course, we can 
improve this services for better live), but I hope that we can do more 
then that , I think that this is the real challenge.

also, I hope that the next hardware version have a bigger screen (I need 
to communicate with the device ) and a wimax chip ..it will make my life 
easier.
:-)


- doron


Michael Shiloh wrote:

> Peter, your email below is the one I've been trying to write for the 
> past few months.
>
> Like you, what got me excited about this project was NOT the possibility 
> of building better cellphone applications, but rather the possibility of 
> creating radically new uses for a general purpose, location aware, 
> connected handheld computer.
>
> I'd like a phone that syncs seamlessly with Thunderbird and the rest of 
> my Linux workstyle. But what really turns me on is the potential uses 
> that I can't even imagine yet.
>
> It is that innovation that I hope to see come out of this community, and 
> I hope that in some way I can help make it happen.
>
> Michael
>
> Peter Harrison wrote:
>   
>> I wouldn't focus on the age of the hardware at all.
>>
>> The real question is whether this will be a hardware platform that 
>> others will be able to build innovation on top of. With phone companies 
>> making available only applications which earn them money you have not 
>> really seen the same kind of innovation that we saw in the PC space in 
>> the early 90's.
>>
>> It will no doubt be a success in its own right, but what about other 
>> ideas...
>>
>> * IP phone over Wifi and integrate with Asterisk IP phone systems - 
>> changes to GSM outside the office.
>> * In car navigation system.
>> * Low cost taxi fare system.
>> * Courier driver system that minimizes route time and allows dispatch to 
>> communicate.
>> * Robotic platform and robotic control
>> * Hospitals - used by nurses and doctors for prescriptions and 
>> observations as low cost tablet.
>>
>> The Neo could open up hundreds of vertical market opportunities that the 
>> Telco's currently have no interest in tapping. If you think that the Neo 
>> is simply a different kind of iPhone you are missing the point. Many 
>> applications may use GPRS, but may not even implement phone 
>> functionality. Some may not even use GSM. To me the attraction is that 
>> it has been designed from the ground up to run Linux, and there is a 
>> dedicated team working on the frameworks that will make delivery of 
>> these applications possible.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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>
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