Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

The Swiss "Berner Zeitung" reports today that Sean Moss-Pultz announced the (preliminary?) end of OpenMoko. They will not continue to develop the GTA03 and fire about 50% of their employees.

Sean Moss-Pultz also said they concentrate on a second device they have, which is not related to telephony.

Still he hopes there'll be a future for OpenMoko phones: He asks people to buy existing devices and develop and improve the software so that maybe at a later point they can continue the product line.

Well...


I personally think their main problem was the lack of a clear focus. They changed important parts of the system (like the toolkit) like other people change their underwear.
Isn't it one of the strengths of Maemo that it is reliable in this respect? It was GTK, DBUS, gconf and friends from day 1. Different versions, new details, but no complete change in the basic infrastructure. More professional overall.

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

yes benny, thats a real shame.
heres hoping they regroup and come back better than ever.

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

I liked the idea of openmoko very much. It was clear from the start that it wouldn't be a mass maket product, but it could have done much better I'm sure. Bad management.

Now with The Crisis (isn't it good we have a crisis so we can explain everything?) it probably became even harder for them.

Anyone working on Mer for Freerunner? ;)

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

No Telephony in Mer I'm afraid.

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

Yes, we actually have ported libhildon and hildon-desktop and such to armv4t/debian-armel already. One of the resalers are donating one, and we'll get an environment going. Telephony - there's also FSO (freesmartphone.org)

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

more kudos!

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

Doesn't surprise me.

Hardware-wise, what would you expect from a device which doesn't even support 3G?

They should have collaborated better with other projects such as Hildon and Maemo. Perhaps even LiMo.

People who want a usable UNIX system on their phone can just as well use a jailbroken iPhone. Which does have 3G.

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

there was some traffic on the mailing list about that. from what i gathered, the GTA03 was to much in flux for it to be a reliable goal when the decision had to be taken.

some people on that list seems to suggest that the existing model should be re-designed to enable the use of a usb 3G dongle...

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

That would be... odd. Having to plug a 3G modem into your phone?

(I was under the impression that, at least early on, they weren't going to do data at all; I exchanged email with them shortly after they first came on the scene, and the main developer said he was interested in phones, not PDAs/etc.)

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

if so, the terrain have changed while they where building the vehicle.

i think the idea people in the community is pondering is something similar to that touchbook, basically a extended back cover that can house the dongle.

right now tho, they are experimenting with a setup similar to what some here have done, using the host mode of the usb port and a gender changer on the supplied cable.

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

Well, while I liked the OpenMoko project, with Maemo, Android and Symbian all being open source, OpenMoko is more or less redundant. It's not like I think that redundant is bad, but in this case it was.

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

the difference with openmoko was that the hardware is open.

maemo is only partly open, and android isn't open at all once it's on a consumer phone.

Re: Say good bye to OpenMoko for now
 

IMO, they missed their window of opportunity. Their own lack of delivery (keeping ahead, or even keep up with, the rest of the industry) made themselves irrelevant. OpenPandora is about to do the same thing, IMO. If you take too long, then whatever lead you had vanishes, as other people with faster delivery are able to move into whatever niche you had identified (even if they don't do it as well at first).

There have been moments where I have wondered the same thing about the NIT platform, post-N810. They're taking too long. Other players are moving into the same niche. By the time the Maemo 5 device is out, will anyone still care about buying a NIT? Will those who prefer windows, but bought a NIT because it was the only player, have moved to devices like Samsung's N810 clone that runs WinMO? Or to a Windows x86 MID? Will those who prefer linux/unix have moved on to an Ubuntu (ARM or x86) MID because it delivered the right feature-set before the Maemo 5 device came to market? Only the die-hards will still be around if Nokia takes too long. And only Apple has enough die-hards to make a lasting market just on that basis.