OpenMoko - We Need HYPE, and we need it yesterday!

Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller hns at computer.org
Mon Jun 4 21:30:19 CEST 2007


Am 04.06.2007 um 18:27 schrieb el jefe delito:

> Regardless of where the hardware and software are right now, I  
> would imagine that they both will be further along come release  
> date.  But, outside of this community and the few people that  
> remember us telling them about the FIC Neo1973 and the OpenMoko  
> platform, who knows about this phone or platform?
>
> Slashdot and NYTimes and many other sites have articles about the  
> Apple iPhone, but very rarely is the Neo1973 mentioned.  We, the  
> OpenMoko community, are interested in these articles too (I would  
> imagine), and yet no one ever posts a comment about the Neo1973  
> (except me, it seems).  If we don't get the mainstream press to  
> write about the Neo1973, we (or FIC) are going to have a difficult  
> time selling devices and getting out there.  If they (press) won't  
> write about the Neo1973, the least we can do is mention the Neo1973  
> in the reader comments, with a link to the wiki.
>
> Here is one such article from just this weekend.  The iPhone will  
> be getting a lot of coverage, and as different as the two  
> philosophies may be, the average person on the street will see the  
> two phones as very similar.  If we have a great feature comparison,  
> why not let people know??
> http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/fever-builds-for-iphone- 
> anxiety-too/
>
> I hope that we can start to create some buzz about this product!   
> Being open, being able to work with multiple service providers,  
> being unlocked, being cheaper, being higher-resolution... all of  
> these are benefits that we must PROMOTE.  The quicker we can post  
> on an article, the higher on the Comments list we will be and the  
> more reads that comment will get.  No one reads Comment #154267....
>
> Thoughts?

Ok, let's write down some htoughts:

Apple is most probably spending several 10 or even 100 Millions of $$ 
$ for advertizing and distributing (working) devices to promotors and  
multiplicators. And when looking at the "single carrier" policy of  
the iPhone, I get the impression that the main value to operators is  
a unique marketing tool. And all operators want to use it for their  
promotion purposes. But cleverly enough just one in the US carriers  
did succeed and probably a single other will in EU (at least that is  
what I read from the news).

Then, some of the press coverage comes simply from the fact that  
Apple is a public company which requires them (and others) to publish  
anything which influences the value of their shares. Such news are  
automatically spread through the financial news. And why should they  
compare it with OpenMoko? Whose existence is very interesting for us  
but not for their readers?

OpenMoko on the other hand is a project made of volunteers (besides  
FIC). Driven like many other Open Source projects. And - there are  
"just" developer devices to show. It does not produce announcements  
so interesting for the end users so that carriers want to have it  
definitively in their offer and promote it. And, there is no large  
Marketing budget (dho wants to donate to that?). OSS marketing has  
different rules...

When comparing with the iPhone buzz, it is IMHO wise to wait a little  
until the Lion has stopped roaring. Then, your lower voice will be  
heared better again...

OpenMoko/Neo did have a lot of press coverage when originally  
announced. But now it needs to deliver something. So the most  
important news we need is that there is something tangible for  
everybody.

-- hns





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