| Thread Previous • Date Previous • Date Next • Thread Next |
On 08/05/2013 12:29 PM, Omar B. wrote:
Yes. Shuttleworth has even said that the/entire/ purpose of this campaign is to judge if there's a market for_super high end_ phones. Adding a mid range phone just to make this campaign succeed does not measure the market appeal of the superphones, and it doesn't make manufacturing those superphones any more affordable (quantity is important, if you can't meet the quantity, the price is prohibitive). That's pretty absurd.
What's absurd? They need to make 40,000 phones in order to have a high enough run to get costs down to something reasonable. They're saying "if 40,000 people want to buy this phone for the $800 it costs to manufacture, we'll do it".
Since it doesn't seem they'll get 40,000 buyers interested, there's no reason to make it otherwise.
They can't just lower the specs, because then they won't be delivering the product that people paid for. And they can't add a different model without getting an additional 40,000 buyers for the new model. It'd double their required goal.
Why back a company, specially in a crowdsourcing campaign that will not do everything in its power and just let it die? If they don't show any effort then they just not kill this, but the trust of everyone (the backers, the critics, the media, etc.).
Because that's what crowdfunding (not croudsourcing) means. You reach out with a product and say "Is there an audience for this?" Sometimes the answer is "no".
Ubuntu Edge is only about a high-end convergence device that exceeds what we have now. Meanwhile, the software development continues and work with consumer-level OEMs goes on. We'll have Ubuntu-based phones in a year from now, one way or another, and they'll satisfy the mediocre hardware requirements and pricing you want. There's no reason to compromise this campaign with what's already out there.
Canonical is basically doing market research. The reason OEMs and carriers won't do this is because they're too risk-adverse. Eventually, the community has to get away from the idea that striving for something difficult and falling short is a failure that carries an inescapable stigma. You won't succeed every time you try, but if you never try you'll never succeed.
Regards, Nathan -- Nathan Haines Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/
| Thread Previous • Date Previous • Date Next • Thread Next |
