Neither iPhone or OpenMoko are revolutionary

[David Schlesinger]

On 1/17/07 6:12 PM, "Renaissance Man" <renaissanceman at macmail.com> wrote:
> On 18 Jan 2007, at 2:00 am, David Schlesinger wrote:
> 
>> You can go out and buy a Nokia 800 or a Sony Mylo today for the
>> price of a NEO and do VoIP right this instant. If it's changed the
>> world, I guess I must not have been paying attention.
> 
> No you don't appear to be reading correctly what I'm writing. It's GSM
> +VoIP via WiFi. i.e. cheap mobile phones that people can communicate
> cheaply with.

The NEO's not _cheap_, exactly: there was a recent survey of 1,800 recent
purchasers of cell phones, and 21--not 21 _percent_, mind you, 21,
period--paid over $400. Not many more paid as much as $350.

But you'd have to be making a lot of expensive calls before a phone like the
NEO would pay for itself on the basis of having VoIP capabilities.

(Oh, did I mention that the $350 wouldn't probably be $350 anymore...? You'd
have to pay for the part, plus the new boards, new test cycle, etc., etc.,
I'd guess we're talking about taking the cost to you, the end user, up to
$400, $425, once everything's said and done. But it's okay: you'll have that
extra six months to save up!)

>> Ditto.
> 
> Good, now understand that VoIP via WiFi + GSM is that killer app. See
> previous email for more detail.

I really doubt that. Cheap phone service, out of the many scenarios I can
envision for a more mobility-capable future, is one of the least
interesting. I find identity-and-location-based services a lot more
intriguing...

When I worked at Apple, I had a sign up on my office for a while that read,
"When the revolution comes, things will be _different_! (Not _better_, just
_different_.)"