Freerunner Sale Price in India - Official partner with Openmoko

Rahul Joshi rjoshi31 at gmail.com
Thu May 29 14:02:43 CEST 2008


Hi everyone,

I'm a little (actually quite) late in this scene so pardon my ignorance on
any goofy questions. I am a LAMP (and uhm ... Java) developer and had always
wanted/waited for a "dream box" like this. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I
came across openmoko 1 year late. But better late than never... yeah.
I'll be honest when I say I came pretty close to buying an iPhone when I
went to US recently but the whole "Out of Stock" thing drove me mad. In fact
I started harboring anti-Apple feelings ($20 for s/w upgrades,
overtly-closed-and-controlled UI environment etc. etc.) that I decided to
stick with my iMate SP5m until something really gets to me. And here I am.
So, my first few questions (and I'm thrilled to know a thread on Neo Indian
retailing exists!!) -

1. Where in India can I purchase Neo FreeRunner and its related accessories
once it gets released. I know Rakshat is the man here but can we get some
more info on this please? Can I pre-order one (just in case it runs out of
stock!)

2. Whats this talk of 15.4K discount Mr. Krishna is talking about. How can I
be entitled to it as well? :D :P

Thanks!

Rahul J aka sector7


*Ganesha Krishna* ganesh.krishna at gmail.com
<community%40lists.openmoko.org?Subject=Freerunner%20Sale%20Price%20in%20India%20-%20Official%20partner%20with%20Openmoko&In-Reply-To=>
*Tue May 6 11:45:30 CEST 2008*
> Hi,
>     First off, my 'thank you' s are due..
>     1. To Rakshat for setting up the Indian distribution. You obviously
have
> the know how of open device and open source which is great. This shop has
> greatly relieved my anxiety of shipping and customs which tends to become
a
> hassle.
>    2. To Harry, for the official announcement on Indian
distribution.Always
> good to know that you are buying from the official shop.

>  On the price point:
>          I feel 20,000 for Free runner is very decent,  (BTW I am eligible
> for 15.4K discount so that is very very decent :-) ). Neo has a potential
to
> become the "office PDA phone". Conference calls to the US and other
oversea
> destinations are extremely common in Indian IT industry. neo +wifi+skype =
> ridiculously reduced cost.

>   A GSM +GPS (GTA01 like ) box would be great for the rural India if
priced
> around 10,000. Imagine a post man plotting the shortest path to cover all
> the villages that he has to deliver mail to
> (
>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/south_asia_indian_postman/html/1.stm
)
> with the right features the government might want to buy the neo for
> them.
>       A VGA screen with GPRS means the farmer can consult the market price
> of his crops, and the wealthy ones can lookup Stock market. (Oh, yes.
> Commodity trading and stock trading are huge in my native village!! but
> there are only few brokerage houses that are miles away in the town
center,
> one needs to call them frequently to be in touch with the market. The
> village itself has GSM+GPRS coverage)

>  Students and universities:
>           Rakshat, have you considered talking to Universities/engineering
> colleges. There are mind boggling number of engineering colleges in
> Karnataka(my state) and all of them run some kind of telecommunication
> course. a couple of neos to each college with a smartly packaged SDK and
> presentation on getting hands on GSM experience would help you sell many
> phones. I know I would want to work on such a device If I were a student
> now.

> Regards,
> -GK



> >
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: "rakshat hooja" <rakshat at gmail.com>
> > To: community at lists.openmoko.org
> > Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 12:57:48 +0530
> > Subject: Re: Freerunner Sale Price in India - Official partner with
> > Openmoko
> >
> > > Shakthi,
> >
> >
> > I have been using  GTA01 (Neo 1973)   my main phone for some time and
felt
> > that at its price point (under INR 12000 for GSM and GPS and VGA
display) it
> > would make a great phone for the Indian market. Unfortunately with its
power
> > draining problems (I carry 2 spare batteries in my pocket) it can not be
> > mass produced (My initial email to Micheal was about reselling the GTA01
in
> > India).
> >
> > Anyway the good part is that the Openmoko and Qtopia software is GPL and
> > porting these to a GSM only hardware should be considerably easier than
> > writing a new GSM stack! We have plans get it to run on the CompuLab
X270em
> > board but thats kind of stalled at the moment. If that works out one can
> > bring out GSM only, GSM+GPS, GSM+WiFi and GSM+GPS+WiFi versions of a
phone
> > running Openmoko.
> >
> > Maybe after the success of the Freerunner (I am quite confident on that
as
> > I have seen the software really improving over the last 6 months and the
> > price point is pretty decent too) Openmoko themselves may consider
bringing
> > out a lower spec cheaper version.
> >
> > Right now I think it would be best to support the Openmoko endevour and
> > try and make the Freerunner a great success, both at the market and as a
> > philosphy.
> >
> > Rakshat
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > > From: "Shakthi Kannan" <shakthimaan at gmail.com>
> > > To: "List for Openmoko community discussion" <
> > > community at lists.openmoko.org>
> > > Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 09:53:15 +0530
> > > Subject: Re: Freerunner Sale Price in India - Official partner with
> > > Openmoko
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > --- On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 9:09 AM, Harry Tsai <harry at openmoko.com>
> > > wrote:
> > > | I am so glad to introduce Mr.Rakshat to you all, actually they are
our
> > > | first partner in India market, if you are developer come from India
> > > that you
> > > | can buy Freerunner from him directly for reduce your shipping cot
and
> > > | customs process effort.
> > > \--
> > >
> > > I would like to thank you guys for this initiative. It greatly eases
> > > our shipping+customs+tax import issues. Yes, I have made my order :)
> > >
> > > I just have one request. If you guys can strip the current model to
> > > just have 1. a GSM (say INR 5k, or USD 125) , or 2. a model with
> > > GSM+GPS (with a reduced price, of course), it will be extremely useful
> > > for the "mass" market in India. I would assume the GSM takes
> > > one-fourth of the total price of the product. Not sure what is the
> > > proportion of the GPS component.
> > >
> > > INR 20k (with four RF components) is quite affordable to most people
> > > working in the Industry here in India, but, a basic, customizable
> > > phone would be really something that will be usable, and affordable
> > > for the "masses".
> > >
> > > Just my thoughts,
> > >
> > > SK
> > >
> > > --
> > > Shakthi Kannan
> > > http://www.shakthimaan.com
> > >
> > >
> > >
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