> On Jan 17, 2007, at 7:37 PM, David Schlesinger wrote: >> The NEO's not _cheap_, exactly: there was a recent survey of 1,800 >> recent >> purchasers of cell phones, and 21--not 21 _percent_, mind you, 21, >> period--paid over $400. Not many more paid as much as $350. > > To me what differentiates the NEO from a typical $400 phone is that > when you've plunked down your money for a typical phone, you're locked > into your provider (this is how it is in the U.S. - I know it's > different in at least parts of Europe). On top of that, if there's > anything you don't like about your phone, that's too bad, because when > they fix the problem in the next release, the only way you're going to > get it is to buy the new phone. Compared to the OpenMoko situation > where even if you aren't a geek yourself, at least when some annoying > UI glitch gets fixed, you can update your software. > > Also, since you're paying for the phone, not your provider, you are > the customer, not your provider. I currently have a Samsung t809, > which is a D820 flashed with t-mobile's firmware. The phone is > supposed to be really nice - it has an MP3 player, for example, and > bluetooth, and supports EDGE as well as GPRS. But none of the > features that I wanted actually work. > > I can't use a stereo bluetooth headset on it, because the version of > the firmware t-mobile ships doesn't support that. So the mp3 player > is useless. > > The apps on the Samsung don't interface with my PIM on my laptop, so I > can't update the phone book on the phone - it's a dead end data > store. When I lose the phone, I have to re-enter all that data. > The calendar isn't interoperable, so same problem. The AIM client > uses SMS, so it's $0.10/message, even though I'm paying for unlimited > GPRS/EDGE. The PPP implementation doesn't work with my laptop, so I > can't even use GPRS/EDGE for anything except from my Nokia 770, which > I usually don't carry. > > So yes, not many people have bought expensive phones. Why? > Because, by design, they suck. The customer is the provider, not the > user. So whether you're into open source or not, the OpenMoko/NEO > phone is a much more attractive value proposition. When a product > isn't selling well, it might be because it costs more than the market > will bear, but it's also possible that it just sucks, and so nobody > wants it. > > It really will be interesting to see what happens with the NEO. I > think we will learn a lot. >
I don't know what it is about the guy who posted this thread, but I really think that he's got some sort of talent for getting people talking. I posted a similar idea only yesterday that received no replies. Could someone brief me on why the same idea gets so much feedback from the list? However, I now fully understand the reasons for Sean omitting wifi, and consider his arguments to be quite sensible. I would be put off having a feature packed phone that wouldn't last longer than three hours, but having a phone that does everything I can currently do - but better - and with the potential of wifi integration on the developers mind... yes. That is a good phone, and many congratulations to whoever is making these decisions to stick with them. Good Project management. _______________________________________________ OpenMoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org https://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community