Along the lines of what Muthu said, I can only speak for our team. We are trying to make a kid proof phone exist that is light enough and tough enough for an elementary age kid to carry in their sock like a soccer shin pad. The features of the software will allow teachers to keep track of the kids on field trips to public places like the zoo, and allow the kids to arrive at AM bus stops just in time. Yes, the bus driver would need one, too.
Parents are motivated to make purchasing decisions that take care of their children. And they will push their communities to do the same. Android in it's current directional implementation lets you demonstrate this software on full featured phones (that are too expensive for our application), but it is open source. Once we demonstrate how it works to protect children and families by using $400 handsets, we will make a pitch to develop purpose specific hardware that meets the cost requirements for this market, about $25 a kid. We don't want it to be a disposable phone for environmental reasons. But we want it to be priced like one. Just much tougher so it can be reused as if rental equipment. You need to be able to pull it out of the lake, knowing it will still work - even after you sterilize it, so that you would be comfortable giving it to your child again. It should survive, and benefit from, a warm water/detergent wash cycle in a household washing machine. Most apparent rants are aimed at making broad market demand/acceptance for the ingredients needed for this phone: location based ring tone utility (this is for kids, after all), inexpensive simulated or real compass that works in any orientation and cost less than $1, edge active accelerometer based touch screen for 26 cents, cell tower location triangulation based algorithms that still work with bad information because the two phones that are trying to find each other can process the raw signals on a differential basis,... oh, and it helps if dad is around, so cell tower ID to help with his commute. Android makes that within reach for demonstration and prototyping. I think customers will want and demand phones like this once they realize it is within reach to make their lives more secure. I am concerned the Linux overhead will push the chip/processor cost too high. Each/most of the things are algorithmically simple. Once a software set is demonstrated that does all these things, and the market is recognized, second generation... that decision is not yet well posed. Anyway, I hope this answers your 'why' question and builds on Muthu's directional answer. On Jun 12, 11:48 pm, "Muthu Ramadoss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Carriers will carry them if users want them to. > > On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 8:43 PM, Jim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > Why do people think carriers, T-Mobile for example, would carry the > > Android phone? Is Google just paying them to? Will Google and T- > > Mobile share in service revenue like Apple and AT&T share? > > -- > take care, > Muthu Ramadoss. > > http://cookingcapsules.com- nourish your droid.http://mobeegal.in- find stuff > closer. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
