Some light ahead...

[Duncan Hudson]

Jim Thompson wrote:
> 1) the Openmoko-for-customers is slated for 9/11/07, so it was going 
> to ship after the "Q207" date for the iPhone in any case.
It was supposed to be in developers & enthusiasts hands back in February 
- was it not?  The plan was to get the geek on board, get them writing 
apps and fixing problems so that when the general release happened it 
would have everything in place to blow the competitors away.  Well, as 
we all know it didn't ship so nobody (ok a few) is working on anything.  
So when / if it ships in September will it really be that impressive?  
Yes, to you and me it'll be great - a Linux based phone will be 
wonderful.  But to my mom, your neighbor?  No, they'll opt for the 
polished ready to roll iPhone.
> 2) the iPhone may slip too.
>
> Its all the rumor in the Apple world these days.  We already know that 
> Apple has slipped its next OS release (10.5) because it put some large 
> number of its OS folks on the iPhone project, in order to get it out 
> the door.
It may, but they have a hell of a lot more at stake if they slip the 
date.  To pull developers of OSX, put them on the iPhone, and then slip 
both dates?  Their stock would tank unbelievably - I don't think they'll 
slip the iPhone date.
> 3) the iPhone is being sold (in the US) through AT&T/Cingular's 
> channels, which are deep and wide.  Getting a "consumer" to the iPhone 
> will be easy.  Getting that same individual to an OpenMoko phone will 
> be much more difficult.
Getting the 'average joe' to the OpenMoko unknown is going to be 
difficult at best.  Getting the 'average joe' to the OpenMoko when the 
iPhone, et. al., are flooding the market will be next to impossible.
>
> 4) Relax... you're not going to be able to add features to an iPhone.
OSX is unix based, so you and I both know that one will be able to add 
apps to the iPhone.  We also both know that for it to succeed in the 
business environment they'll have to allow 3rd party apps.

Know that I want nothing more than for this device to succeed, but I 
truly believe with each slip its success becomes more difficult.  There 
comes a point in the game when one just has to play the hand that 
they're holding - whether it's a winning hand or not...

Dunc