Hi Nikolaus,<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 2:48 PM, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:hns@goldelico.com">hns@goldelico.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">Am 30.12.2011 um 19:22 schrieb Ed Kapitein:<div><div class="im">On 12/30/2011 06:59 PM, Gerald A wrote:
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<div>What I think is lost in all of this is the question: Who is
the intended customer?</div><div><br></div></div>Currently: those who own a GTA01 and GTA02 or are willing to give it away.</div><div><br></div><div>There are approx. 18000 units out there waiting for a potential upgrade to a</div>
<div>GTA04 board. And we just have 56 group tour orders within 6 weeks. This is</div><div>0,3 %...</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div> Well, 18000 is a pittance of the 4.6 billion cell phones, and a fraction of the</div>
<div>500,000 smart phones.</div><div><br></div><div>Since part of the issue seems to be attracting numbers, I was thinking of ways to<br>
</div><div>attract people who might otherwise might not be interested or be able to.</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div><div class="im"><blockquote type="cite"><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><blockquote type="cite">
<div>For me, I don't have time right now to assemble a Freerunner
and a GTA04 to get a working phone</div>
<div>"with possibilities". I want the completed package, then end
result. The neo was shipped with the slogan<br></div></blockquote></div></blockquote></div>This takes approx. 15 minutes. Rarely more. And we have an installation service if you don't want to</div><div>DIY (I would appreciate if there will come up local resellers or hacking groups in your area).</div>
</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Does this 15 minutes require soldering skills? (I think it does).<br>
</div><div>I personally am not averse to trying to solder -- it's something I want to learn more about. But your "average linux</div><div>geek" probably doesn't want to. But they still might be enamored by the prospect of an open phone.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Well, to me it looks as if you own a GTA01 that is not used? Maybe you could think about donating</blockquote>
<div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>it to someone who urgently wants to have a new case for a GTA04?</div>
</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I actually do hack on it once in a while. I had written lots of primitive utilities for it, but never got it</div><div>working as an actual phone.</div><div> <br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> My thoughts too, set up a kind of micro credit, where people can
lent money, lets say 100 euro, and with that money build the
phones.</blockquote></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Once the phones are made, more developers can develop different
aspects of the phone and people will see the GTA04 become more
mature. </blockquote></blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
i guess you must be Dutch to come up with a micro credit plan in
west-europe ;-)<br></blockquote></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I'm not Dutch, but I like the idea of micro-funding, and I am aware of micro-credit.</div><div><br></div><div> </div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div class="im"><div>Well, the problem is not to get a credit to produce the devices in advance. </div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>My "block" system, which is really close to the micro-funding that someone referred to on Kickstarter.</div>
<div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>But what about this idea: Group Tour orders with partial payment.</div>
</div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>My idea/kickstarter would allow something like this -- "here, let me give you some money, and</div><div>return 'something' of value in the future". It allows even smallish donations -- in kickstarters case,</div>
<div>they give you a keychain. I'd rather allow it to be used against a future product, like a complete phone.</div><div>I guess you could sell power adapters for ~$10, which if people didn't top up you could give away.</div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>What do those of you think, who still hesitate to subscribe to the group tour to upgrade</div>
<div>your existing GTA01 or GTA02?</div><div><br></div><div>PS: Taking too much credit is what the Greek state did do wrong. They are no</div><div>longer able to pay back neither the interest rates nor the credit without subscribing</div>
<div>to another credit.</div></div></blockquote></div><div><br></div><div>The "Group Tour" is now advertising a price of 474Euro (approx $600CDN). For this, I'm getting<br></div><div>some neat upgrade bits, and I have to pitch in my $300+ Neo. For this price, I could buy two</div>
<div>non-open but complete iPads.</div><div><br></div><div>It's just passing through the holidays and things are tight budget wise here, so I'm still waiting</div><div>to see. However, I'd pledge $100 for a more complete device "later", even though it might never</div>
<div>get to completion.</div><div><br></div><div>As for your Greek example -- almost every country in the world uses credit to finance their</div><div>Government. And this goes for business too -- in one way or another, most businesses use</div>
<div>credit. Politics aside, just as you have to manage how much power your chips consume, just</div><div>as you manage the number and purpose of your chips, credit has to be used wisely. And</div><div>wisely used, both chips and credit can yield wonderful results.</div>
<div><br></div><div>My idea wasn't pure credit, though -- it was a kind of investment in a future device, rather</div><div>then the "kit" of today. My thought process was to move the game forward, the "kit" is</div>
<div>the first step, but the eventual "phone" is what people are after. If you let people pledge</div><div>towards what they want, you can fund what you need to get there.</div><div><br></div><div>I thank you for your ideas and response -- and I hope that we'll get your kit out the door,</div>
<div>either with or without my idea.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks!</div>