Hi all,
thanks for so much of information. Now I have a better knowledge of
what extra I am going to get with Free-runner:
(1) no contract with service provider
(2) no hidden costs like i-tunes
(3) openness; freedom to experiment
In addition I will be supporting open source.
another point which I wanted to reply to
> Michele wrote:
> Open-source development doesn't mean that the programmer work for
free! This is a common error that a lot of person do.
> In Openmoko there are a lot of talented persons that has a family and
they need a salary.
Hi Michele, fully agree with you on both the facts.
(1) Open-source development does not mean free. But effective cost
come down as (a) As there will be some contributors (though it will be
very less % of total, and this type of free support will mainly come
during later stages of the project) working for free (b) making big
profits is generally not the goal of open-source projects (again i say
generally, there will be exceptions), whereas profit is the sole
objective with other projects. the open-source projects have other
motivations (in addition to profit)
(2) There are lot of talented persons on project - hats off to them.
They have developed a phone which is comparable to any other smart phone
in the world. Those phones have hundreds of developer working on it with
budget of hundreds of millions US$. And they take years to perfect their
designs. openMoko is a wonderful product.
Regards,
Kunal
enaut wrote:
Kunal Singh schrieb:
Hi,
I am located in India, and I have decided to go for Free-runner.
But, I am really wondering about why this phone is so costly?
Apple will be releasing the iPhone in India later this year.
This phone is likely to be priced much cheaper than free-runner
(free-runner is currently available for $500 in India).
Also, it looks to me that iPhone has much more features (it has 8
GB memory - I could not see similar in Free-runner).
On a plus side, iPhone is fully tested. Their is official
performance rating for each feature.
Why is the Free-runner cost so high?
With open-source development, the cost of devices should in fact
come down (that is my thinking - correct me if I am wrong). At least
be at par with the commercial products.
Is the high cost due to the low volume production? Or something
related to the location of production units?
If the cost is high because of above (or similar) factors, I assume
that costs will come down in long run.
In such a scenario, does any one have a (rough) idea about what the
final (appx) costs would be?
Will it be any better than the commercial products?
My interest in openMoko is purely from a developer's point of view
(I guess every one currently using it is has similar interests).
And the reason why I want to participate in open source development
is that I want technology to proliferate and become affordable to the
common masses.
If this objective is not going to be satisfied, I am going to feel
a bit dis-appointed with the loss of time which I spend on my efforts.
Also, I really find the Free-runner too expensive just for the
development purpose. I am hoping that if I can use it as my
cell-phone, I can feel a little better. In case the phone is not
practically usable (very poor battery performance, or loosing
networks, going to infinite sleep etc), that will add to
dis-appointment too.
Another possibility - is it that Free-runner is much beyond iPhone
in feature list (which I have failed to capture)?
I think the cost is that high because you get an Iphone usually with
acontract to a specific firm.
the other thing is that the Iphoneis closed sothey make the real money
by selling music and stuff like that.
for the "hardware features" i think they are pretty even.
the iphone has multituch but no GPS and lower resolution.
but the big feature of om is, that you are independent. you can do what
you want with it. Iphone contracts dont allow you that.
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