Status of the GTA04 Group Tour

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Just two weeks left over to get subscribers, makes me think
that it is time to look at the order indicator.

We have achieved 41%.

This is a big step forward after the 25% during FOSDEM time
and shows that we have a growing support. Thanks to all
those who see a future for the GTA04!

On the other side it is not realistic to hope to reach the
100% goal by end of March.

Should we now - just as the GTA04 is gaining speed,
getting working distributions like QtMoko and SHR with
some remarkable features (e.g. 10-20 seconds boot time),
Replicant/Android just starting - so should we now cancel
the group tour if we don't reach the 100% goal?

I think: no.

This means, we will produce boards for all these preorders,
independently from the final outcome by end of March.

And it means that you can still subscribe.

It has only one major issue: the financial side.

The idea of the group tour was to raise the production
batch size into a range where component cost comes
down allowing the preorder price incl. early bird rebate
(449/474/499 EUR) to cover all known (and some unexpected)
cost.

But with the lower number of units, the component cost
raises by approx. 20%. So we have a funding gap of
approx. 100 EUR per board.

Golden Delicious Computers can compensate a little
but this is also getting to its limits.

Since I think it would be unfair to ask all subscribers
to pay more - and I am sure that not everyone could
afford that - a better approach is just to ask for (additional)
donations to fill that gap as good as possible.

So if you think the GTA04 project deserves to survive,
please make donations through:

http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04%3ADonation

Any amount (in increments of 1 EUR) is welcome.

As a bonus we offer to the first one who donates:
1000 EUR:	the first GTA04A2 board (there exists only one)
800 EUR:	the first GTA04A3 board (has a OMAP3530 processor, no UMTS but otherwise works fine)
500 EUR:	a Letux 380 Linux Quadband smartphone sample with OMAP730 with integrated GSM/GPRS baseband (www.letux.org)
300 EUR:	a Letux 400 MIPS based MiniPC (we still have some in stock collecting dust)

Sorry that we don't have a better solution than to start
fund-raising, but it is a way to continue and not throw away
what we already have achieved and disappoint those
who already decided they want to have a GTA04.

Nikolaus