On Monday, January 30, 2012 09:18:09 PM Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote: > Am 30.01.2012 um 15:42 schrieb Patryk Benderz: > > [cut] > > > >> This look very interesting. Can’t wait to get my hands on one. > > > > It is written 200 EURO, not dollars ($). Makes a difference. > > Most likely it is 200 EUR w/o taxes, WEEE and many other duties > like warranties etc. > > And @ 1 Mio units :) > > Without calculating engineering cost (i.e. there will never be fixes, > updates and upgrades). > > OpenPandora and GTA04 have both shown how difficult it is to get to a > really low price in practice at limited volume. And OLPC also never did > meet its goals (at least not within a short timeframe). > > It only works if someone heavily subsidizes each unit of a small batch > and/or has the capital to kickstart the first really big batch. And there > are also many examples how even big companies had to clear their stock at a > dumping price to limit further financial loss. E.g. HP Touchpad. > > Or some model that already exists is tweaked to become a community > device. But there will be no successor product and enough openness > as many examples have shown. > > So let's see how they do it sustainably. Maybe they have found some > trick, I would be happy to learn about :) > > Nikolaus
>From the blog post, it sounded like this is going to be the first device where they start with lower specs from an existing reference design (which others have pointed out go for as low as 70-100 Euro) with a higher price to then fund other devices. The line I'm thinking of specifically is "Just as important: the proceeds will be helping fuel the efforts that make this all possible." Now, I have no idea how feasible this would end up being, as it likely largely depends upon descent sales and how much is profit. So, on one hand, it sounds like they're trying to get something to market quite quickly with an open source software stack (without any lock downs, a definite plus), but on the other hand, it is a lower spec machine (with no official ship date.) All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic this could be a good thing :) _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
