Cost. (was Re: Questions about Freerunner: Phone Usability, Battery Life, Shipping Date)

[Ted Schundler]

>   Also, it looks to me that iPhone has much more features (it has 8 GB
> memory - I could not see similar in Free-runner).
As per the SDHC thread, any standard microSDHC card will work. I think
the plan is to include 512MB by default. But you can buy an 8GB card
on your own, then you've got 8GB. And as I understand, 16GB cards will
be on the market soon.

>   Why is the Free-runner cost so high?
>   With open-source development, the cost of devices should in fact come down
> (that is my thinking - correct me if I am wrong). At least be at par with
I'm not sure why you're focusing exclusively on the iPhone. It is a
Smart Phone, so that includes iPhone, Blackberry, Dash, etc. all in
that class. Such phones seem to be generally in the $300-$600 USD
range (purchased separately from a contract), so $400 USD doesn't seem
too unreasonable to me. Maybe the Indian market is different.

Then there's the simple supply and demand issue. OpenMoko's current
audience is techies and developer types. It doesn't quite seem ready
for mainstream anyway. And since it's inherently unlocked, I wouldn't
expect to see it as an option from any cell provider until/unless the
concept catches on more widely. So, the demand is tiny compared to the
iPhone. And it doesn't have a well established foothold for businesses
like BlackBerry.

I'd love cheaper too. But, I'm OK with paying the current price, since
I'm interested in supporting this project from a political
perspective. There have to be early adopters to get such an initiative
really off the ground.

Ted