Neither iPhone or OpenMoko are revolutionary

[Andreas Kostyrka]

* Renaissance Man <renaissanceman at macmail.com> [070118 01:49]:
> On 18 Jan 2007, at 12:42 am, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
> 
> >Renaissance Man writes:
> >>Everything I've read says it doesn't have WiFi.
> >
> >It doesn't. But assuming it's a success, there will surely be a successor soon that does.
> 
> Or how about guarantee success by giving it WiFi. This is all it needs to be a revolution from day one.
Not really. There are no acceptable WiFi solution for the Neo
currently (power consumption + open source driver), which means
requiring WiFi would imply waiting months or a year for the phone.

While I can certainly appreciate the value of a sipphone, and there
will probably be such a thing on the Neo, just BT based, instead of
Wifi, it's certainly not a killer feature.

Technically, the Neo is revolution, because it moves from "phones
itemized feature lists" as a comparision away. It basically gives the
enduser the possibility to do new features.

In fact, the Neo is revolutionary enough that I don't expect it to
come bundled by network operators in the next years.

Just the currently initial hardware gives way to much support for
"stupid" stuff (from the operators view) to cut into their revenues.

One new idea, because you've brought up VoIP. One nice thing with VoIP
providers is, that they usually let one change the call forwarding
target via a Website.

Now consider that (at least herearound) calls to landlines are cheap,
nearly free in most plans. Guess a phone that automatically changes
the forwarding target to the number you've dialed and dials a landline
number. Nothing that I couldn't do today with my Nokia. But it's
awkward. Intergrated into the normal dialer, that would make something
really useful.

Considering how cell operators at least in Europe are charging
unreasonable (up to 100x more expensive than from a landline) fees for
long distance calls, I can see how the above scenario must scare them.

Basically, what I'm trying to express here is, that there are many
many ways to "least-cost-route" calls. Not just VoIP. Especially,
considering that most hotspots need a webpage login, which would using
it costly and bothersome (without some cleverness on the phone).

Andreas