gta02-core (was Re: OM future)

Thu Feb 25 12:54:35 CET 2010

raster,

> may be waiting forever. if it does happen you'll find yourself comparing to
> "iphone 4g" or "nexus 2" or whatever is now out in the 95% of the market. and
> then crying why it sucks so much in comparison. that was already the case for
> freerunner. like it or not there is an expectation of at least being in the
> same ballpark - and as such the big-boys ballpark keeps drifting further away
> from the "open" one. i think it's better to make the big ballpark have more

I do think there is a 3rd way. The gigahertz/gigabyte race is not the only
race in town. Let them have it.
A product that just works very well always has a chance. Usability race. Put
people and their real needs and real ability to understand and use products
in the center. Don't give a damn if everybody around you goes from 2GHz to 3GHz.
Again, no hard feelings, let them have it their way.

But there is room for slow made (but still high-tech) products. Product
cycles that are so long that they allow real feedback to trickle back from
users to creators. What we have now is that most feedback is ignored because
by the time it reaches the creators, they are already 2 generations ahead.

Plus I have to say - the industry is turning into a produce trash throw-away
trash industry so fast I couldn't even imagine.
Even I gave in now: When I shop for a DVD player, I buy the cheapest.
Absolutely the cheapest. No prisoners taken.
Inevitably, some X months later, I run into the first (officially bought) DVD
with latest-and-greatest DRM tricks on it that won't play. Now I throw away my
player and get a new one (of course cheapest again).
This system works quite well.
But it's insane!

The phone industry is cranking out 1+ billion phones a year.
Very soon they need to increase the crappiness and "won't fix" features in
their products so they have a chance to sell the billions more already in the
pipeline.
There definitely is another way. Must be. Business opportunity!
Let's see how long people will be using their FreeRunners, and how long
they will be using their N900... If the FreeRunner would be bug free, I'm
sure people would still use them in 10+ years, easily.

Way to go gta02-core, and way to go osmocom!
Wolfgang

On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 10:24:22PM +1100, Carsten Haitzler wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:10:21 -0800 (PST) ghislain <ghislain at basetrend.nl> said:
> 
> > 
> > 
> > Carsten Haitzler (The Rasterman)-2 wrote:
> > > 
> > > On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:36:22 -0800 (PST) ghislain <ghislain at basetrend.nl>
> > > said:
> > > 
> > >> 
> > >> What about the Ben NanoNote (http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Main_Page).
> > >> They showed how the process is done, from the beginning to the end (I
> > >> don't
> > >> know about the funding).
> > > 
> > > i dont need yet another mini pda. i have a small army of them - that dont
> > > replace the phone junk in my pocket. i - and i would say the vast majority
> > > of
> > > people, dont want multiple things in their pockets - why do u think pda's
> > > are
> > > dead? they want 1, and the phone trumped all of it for communications
> > > reasons.
> > > if you dont have a phone you instantly made your potential market a lot
> > > smaller. if it doesnt fit in a pocket easily - you just shrunk your market
> > > significantly. the more you move your product into a market niche, the
> > > more
> > > likely it is to fail due to just not making enough volume. open products
> > > is
> > > already a niche.
> 
> nanonote is a fair bit simpler than a phone - much less RF, no complex fcc
> testing (and every body on the planet) to get certification, no modem at all so
> skipping one of the big problem areas - its very simple. its not a bad little
> toy - but its a far cry from a phone. ask wolfgang - he's behind nanonote - ex
> openmoko. he didnt learn from nanonote - he learned from om to make nanonote.
> why do u think its not a phone? because a phone is way more expensive - and
> harder.
> 
> > It was not an example of what you need, it was an example of how they did it
> > and what we can learn of it. Also, it's not 'yet another mini pda', because
> > of it's openness you can use it the way you want, just use your imagination
> > and your programming skills :)
> 
> sure - i can do that with my smartq5 too and my other myriad of toys. none of
> them replace my phone - and making a phone is complex and expensive.
> 
> > Your statement 'open products is already a niche' is the exact statement I
> > heard 15-years ago about open-software. We are just at the beginning, just
> > give it some time. :)
> 
> and it *IS* a niche. by open products i mean the ones where you open up
> everything - source and hardware and the target market DEMANDS open or you wont
> sell anything. that market will remain niche for a very long time - if ever.
> the general "i dont care much as long as it has cool apps and makes calls and
> does its job" market will be 95% (number pulled out of arse - meaning vast
> majority) of the market. thats that's what the big boys cater to. and thats
> where all the best hardware is - the kind nerds so dearly want to be open so
> they too can play with it.
> 
> the way to go (imho) is to make that 95% have more openness to it - android was
> a big start - maemeo is also a big positive there - as is moblin.. and now the
> "meego". no - not 100% open, but its working its way there.
> 
> if you are going to hanging out and wait for gta02-core to make a p0hone - you
> may be waiting forever. if it does happen you'll find yourself comparing to
> "iphone 4g" or "nexus 2" or whatever is now out in the 95% of the market. and
> then crying why it sucks so much in comparison. that was already the case for
> freerunner. like it or not there is an expectation of at least being in the
> same ballpark - and as such the big-boys ballpark keeps drifting further away
> from the "open" one. i think it's better to make the big ballpark have more
> open in it than to stick to the dminishing distant "pure open" island far from
> everything interesting :(
> 
> > Ghislain
> > http://www.basetrend.nl BaseTrend  -  http://www.openmobile.nl openmobile.nl 
> > 
> > -- 
> > View this message in context:
> > http://n2.nabble.com/gta02-core-was-Re-OM-future-tp4628177p4631828.html Sent
> > from the Openmoko Community mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Openmoko community mailing list
> > community at lists.openmoko.org
> > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
> ------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" --------------
> The Rasterman (Carsten Haitzler)    raster at rasterman.com
> 
> 
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