Slashdotted

[Steve Mosher]

Hi bob.

  A couple points below. thanks for your continued interest.

robert lazarski wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Lalo Martins <lalo.martins at gmail.com> wrote:
>> quoth arne anka as of Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:01:11 +0200:
>>
>>>> This is getting ridiculous.  Now the misreportage is spreading through
>>>> the blogosphere:
>>>> ...
>>> in what respect a mis-reportage?
>>> that's, what i concluded from these long mails with 99.9% quote and half
>>> a line at the bottom ...
>> The articles (Slashdot, Phonescoop, Engadget, Giz) are saying Freerunner
>> was cancelled.  That doesn't even make sense, since Freerunner is out,
>> what's there to cancel?  But I believe it was said explicitly that
>> production of the Freerunner is *not* stopping... (I certainly still want
>> one, buzz or not)
>>
>> best,
>>                                               Lalo Martins
> 
> Talk is cheap. The GT03 was announced and canceled, 
As an open company we take great pains to disclose as much as possible.
Throughout the development of GTA03 when people asked me what it was
and when would it ship I took great pains to explain ( as did wolfgang)
that it may not ship at all. In closed companies they have closed 
caskets. For us its more like an irish wake. Every company I have ever 
worked for has had to kill products. usually we just take them out back 
and shoot them and never speak about it. But we have to talk about it.
First because we were open enough to talk about it when it was still in 
design, second because our commitment to openness demands it, and third
because others who want to create open companies can learn from our 
experience.



a tentative A7
> release was announced, canceled and replaced with a 5 point plan or
> something , 

The 5 points are conditions that must be met for me to release the A7
that are sitting comfortably in their boxes in the factory. The delay
caused by the factory being off for CNY is past. The final checks
on the image and ALSA states is done. Now I'm working with disty to
plan its entry into the market.


so I certainly wouldn't be surprised if neither the A7 nor
> plan b happen at this point.  You don't fire or create conditions for
> the most important kernel / hardware / UI guys to leave if you have
> growth in mind. Something new may happen, but IMHO its time to at
> least consider that what you see is what you get.

  It's exactly because we have growth in mind that we had to make the
cuts we did. the suicide path was to continue 3 projects when the 
resources available can only deliver on the two more modest projects.
here is how it works. You have 3 projects:
  1. FreeRunner: requires .5X
  2. Project B: requires X
  3. GTA03 requires 3X.

You have 2X resources. Pick your projects. If you pick door number 3, 
you have just picked failure. Couple that with these facts. #3 is
has no wifi and no GPS and costs 499. Looks pretty clear that if you
want growth you better do a little pruning. Is the growth path a 
straight line? nope. But if we set goals we have a chance of meeting
and then deliver, I'm confident that our unique experiment will draw
additional resources. At early stages growth is never funded by cash flow.

> 
> The one thing for sure is that OM a company generally has a bad
> reputation at this point with all this recent press - unfairly or not.
> If they can overcome that image and also release new products with a
> skeleton staff, then I'll be pleasantly surprised - like many of us,
> I'd rather not have my time spent go down the tubes.


> 
> - R
> 
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