WikiReader sales and the future of Openmoko Was: When is the next and more powerful openmoko releasing

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Am 13.08.2010 um 17:08 schrieb Martix:

> Hi community,
> 
> I want to share a few news about WikiReader and Openmoko Inc. I am
> publishing with permission my short interview with Sean Moss-Pultz the
> CEO of Openmoko Inc.:
> 
> _______________________________________________________________
>> May I have a question? How is it going with WikiReader? Are WikiReader
>> sales satisfactory?
> 
> Much better than expected. We're getting into major US retailers this
> summer. And launching in Japan tomorrow. We've already sold 4x the
> total number of FreeRunners. And we're just getting into the channel
> now. So I'm quite excited about our chances with this product!

That is good news!

> 
>> 
>> I wonder if you and your company are planning to
>> create more open source/open design devices, maybe successor of Neo?
> 
> Absolutely! WikiReader is fundamental to this. What we're doing is
> getting our channel setup. To survive in consumer electronics you need
> volume. And still, the only way to get volume is through retail
> stores. So everything we're doing is focusing on making that
> successful. Then we can build more product that stand for the same
> principles (open) that got us started.
> _______________________________________________________________
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Martin 'Martix' Holec
> 
> 
> PS: I heard on IRC something about next Openmoko phone running
> Android. I think, it's a good idea. Android will provide stable
> software and community can port existing fully open distributions like
> SHR, Qt Moko etc., which it should be easier on open hardware. After
> experience with Neo FreeRunner it seems like better plan.

If a new Openmoko phone is based on the OMAP3 like the BeagleBoard, there are at least 3 different Android ports (in addition to anything else like SHR, QtMoko, Debian, FreeBSD, ...). One of them is Rowboat (http://code.google.com/p/rowboat/wiki/BeagleBoard).

Another project just today announced this on the beagleboard.org list:

> Hi, 
> 
> We are pleased to release the Android - Froyo port for OMAP-3530 
> BeagleBoard. This release enables developers evaluate CoreDruid's custom 
> Android-Froyo port for BeagleBoard. 
> 
> This release has minimum set of features like 
> 1. Android Froyo 
> 2. Qwerty keyboard 
> 3. USB Mouse 
> 
> We will release more stable & feature enriched version in near future. 
> 
> The source code and build instructions are available at: 
> 
> http://coredruids.org/ 
> 
> http://coredruids.org/?page_id=77 
> 
> We appreciate your joining our open source initiative, reviewing our work 
> and sharing your knowledge & experiences with us. 
> Google groups : coredruids at googlegroups.com 
> Source code repositories : 
> http://gitorious.org/~coredruids<http://gitorious.org/%7Ecoredruids>(Android 
> Enablement) 
> Follow us on twitter : http://twitter.com/coredruids 
> 
> Thanks 
> CoreDruids Team 

If someone wants to try and/or help one of these projects to support a Freerunner type touchscreen, that can be done with the new Openmoko Beagle Hybrid board approach.

Nikolaus