New Open Hardware company

[steven mosher]

Thanks christoph.
  Please feel free to sign up over on the developer list at qi and post
comments there.

Inlined repsonses.

On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 5:44 AM, Christoph Pulster <openmoko at pulster.de>wrote:

> Hi,
>
> my thoughts to Qi / NanoBook:
>
> Mistakes repeated from Openmoko times:
> 1. you believe too much in the community.

       Guilty.

>
> 2. you announce products which are not exitant for sales.


      The first version of the NanoNote will be available for sale this
fall. The Design files
      were released in early July. I will have marketing samples in a couple
of weeks.
      Then we can order the product and be ready for shipping in 45 days or
so, provided
      that the kernel is in good shape.
      WRT the follow on products. It is our intention to announce roadmaps
in the most
      open way we can imagine.
      So, if we collectively decide that a touchscreen would be nice to add,
then that
      can be investigated. A second LCD on the top of the case to see
incoming calls or
      msgs, that too. A different keyboard? more connectivity, of course.

>
> 3. you got no MPEG-patent licences.


      We don't need them. I'll take MPLA as an example. At a previous
company I shipped
      hardware with Mpeg capability ( could do decode) but with no software.
The software
      was sold separately. I did this with the full knowledge and consent of
the patent
      holder. The situation is different for companies that have already
violated a patent.

>
> 4. you dont aim VAR.


      We target developers, including VARS.

>
>
> New mistakes:
>
> 1. you base on old-fashioned hardware
> (Zaurus was state-of-the-art, a hugh community existed, although Sharp
> did not give attention to it at all)


      We had a choice between two challenges:
      A. Select existing proven hardware and work with the community to
shape
           it into what we collectively want it to be following the
principles of freedom
      B. Design something new from scratch.

    Having made mistake B before, now we choose mistake A.

>
> 2. you base on "made in China" (synonym for crap in Europe)


     Iphone is made in China.

>
> 3. the PDA clam-shell form factor is obsolete, there is no small AND
>   useable physical keyboard


    It's funny. I spent about a month showing the device to people in San
Francisco.
    Every one of them was an Iphone user ( ok one owned a blackberry ) Not a
single
    one commented negatively about the clamshell. Most of them made comments
    about things I hadn't considered.. not having to worry about scratching
screens,
    not having to buy a cover to prevent scratches, they liked the weight
and feel,
    loved the size of the keyboard (hated their touch screen keyboard ). The
keyboard
    is bigger and has more keys than my samsung phone keyboard which is
perfectly
    useable.. not for writing novels of course. Anyways I continue to see
clamshell
    designs in the marketplace, of one form or another. Some people prefer
it. I have
    a touchscreen phone ( Android dev platform) hate the keyboard. a couple
    clamshell devices, my samsung slider, and a phone that has two keyboard
that slide out.
    When I look at the mechanical design of these devices I think about wine
cork pullers.
    Huh?  Did you ever notice how many different design approaches there
were to wine
    cork pullers? You have the kind that just corkscrew in. You got ones
that slide
    two thin pieces of metal past the cork. You've got corkscrews kinds that
also hold
    the bottle in place. bunches of designs!  why? because no design is
optimal even
    for the simple task of pulling out a cork, much less complicated tasks
like driving
    or communicating or playing music or..And of course everyone wanted
different
    colors because they could not see that black was optimal. hehe.



>
>
>
> Anyway I wish you best success with your effords, Steve, I really do.


  Thank you. Christoph, that means a lot to me.

>
>
> Christoph
>
> _______________________________________________
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> community at lists.openmoko.org
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