I already did - he's actually written about OpenMoko before (he sent me a copy of his article (see below).
Not sure why he chose not to mention it in this article. Regards, Dean Collins [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1-212-203-4357 Ph +1-917-207-3420 Mb +61-2-9016-5642 (Sydney in-dial). <http://click.mexuar.com/webuser/click/7/userurl/Cognation> <http://click.mexuar.com/webuser/nojs/7/userurl/Cognation> -------------------------------------------------------------------- www.Mexuar.com <http://www.mexuar.com/> Want to voice enable your website? Use Corraleta to reach your customers in 10 seconds or less. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, 12 April 2007 8:59 PM > To: Dean Collins > Cc: OpenMoko Community List > Subject: Re: Brad Smith article > > On Thu, 12 Apr 2007, Dean Collins wrote: > > > I guess the OpenMoko community need to work on the PR skills, perfect > > opportunity for a mention and it got totally glossed over. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > EDITORIAL EDGE: > > > > Opening Up the Wireless Handset > > By Brad Smith, Wireless Week Technology Editor > > > ..... > > > > What do you think? Let me know at [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Very interesting, as this speaks to the more common consumer. > > At the end of the article Brad invites feedback. It would be great if someone > with the appropriate skills could respond to Brad and let him know about > OpenMoko. > > Michael Sent: Thursday, 12 April 2007 5:58 PM To: Dean Collins Subject: RE: OpenMoko Neo Yes, I have, Dean. I wrote about OpenMoko in my last ETF newsletter - Democracy Hits the Mobile Phone By Brad Smith The average selling price of a mobile phone keeps going down while the top five manufacturers continue to squeeze out the smaller players. So, why would any company want to get into the handset business, and I'm not talking about Apple's iPhone. About 1 billion phones were sold in 2006, but 84 percent of those were sold by Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson, according to Telecom Trends International. The other manufacturers actually had a negative 19 percent growth in 2006. This shrinking competitive field might discourage some, but not a company called OpenMoko and its partners. OpenMoko is a corporation but it's more of a community that makes one think of the early days of the Internet and geeks working in their garages. It's been in development for some time but just recently came out with its first smartphone, although for a select audience. OpenMoko is the brainchild of a self-described "surfer boy who wound up washed ashore in Taiwan." It is an open source mobile communications platform using Linux at its heart. Its main partner is the Taiwanese device manufacturer First International Computer (FIC), which has started producing the Neo1973 handset running the OpenMoko platform. The first handsets, just a few dozen, have been distributed free of charge to those in the developer community to play with. More will go on sale by the end of the month, again targeting open source developers, at a cost of about $350. Then, sometime in September if plans work out, OpenMoko handsets will hit some retail outlets as well as being sold online. What I know about the Neo1973 is based on what I've read on OpenMoko's wiki and webpage. It's a quad-band GSM phone so it will work anywhere in the world. It has GPS built in, a 2.8-inch VGA touch screen (take that, iPhone), an application manager (through partner Funambol) and standard PIM applications like e-mail, contacts and calendar. OpenMoko was born in the brain of Sean Moss-Pultz, the aforementioned surfer dude. He says OpenMoko will take mobile handsets into a world that is as open as the PC, where "mobile applications are equally as diverse and more easily accessible" than they are now. "Ringtones are already a multi-billion dollar market," Moss-Pultz says. "We think downloading mobile applications on an open platform will be even bigger." OpenMoko isn't the only outfit working on mobile Linux, which actually has a larger ecosystem than one might expect. Among the companies already out there are A La Mobile, Trolltech, PalmSource and Motorola. Nokia is deeply involved in the open source Eclipse Foundation, as is Motorola. Panasonic and NEC are the leading handset manufacturers using Linux. I have no idea what OpenMoko's business plan is, assuming it has one. And I've got no idea if OpenMoko will succeed in finding what likely will be a niche market. But what makes it attractive, at least at the gut level, is its seeming wide-eyed, brash but innocent, democratic view of what a mobile phone should be. That's refreshing.
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