An Update

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Sean,
thank you *very* much for your openness in this aspect as well!

> The latest hardware spin -- GTA01B_V4 was supposed to fix the few
> remaining issues keeping us from setting phones free; but, we  
> uncovered
> some other issues.

 From my own experience in the Mobile Phone business, I know that there
is always one more issue behind another one - like onion skins.  
Miniaturization
is always challenging for everybody in the hardware game.

In a company I had worked, upper management was always astonished
how long it took to develop such a simple thing as a new phone which  
is not
very different - besides changing some colors and buttons - from the  
previous
generation. Most new CEOs and CTOs did immediately set the goal to cut
development cycle to half the time - and of course expenses...

But standard engineering time schedules included three hardware spins  
before
field trial started. And a series product could have 5 more  
modifications.

> In the past many have rushed products to market to "catch" a market
> window or to counterattack a competitor. But, you'll all agree, having
> unstable phones in the wild would be headaches for all of us.

The outcome of the idea to cut development cycles was a lot of headaches
for logistics and after sales support. High return rates etc. Which  
did harm
financially more than any competitive product was able to...

Although we have an Open device, we as developers and future users would
not be able to fix the hardware of existing devices. So I completely  
support your
decisions for hardware quality reasons - if it is necessary to make  
another spin...

I think that the Neo is also seen as some competition to the iPhone -  
and Apple
is known for high hardware quality standards.

Nikolaus