Nokia's Linux Based Xbox Competitor

Gerhard F writes: "FinancialTimes reports 'Nokia to use Linux system.' 'MediaTerminal will compete against Microsoft's Xbox video game console and UltimateTV digital TV recorder.' 'We have made the hardware an open design so anyone else can make a clone or compatible product,' said Mr Nelger. "We would rather have a small part of a large market than a large part of a small market if we had used proprietary technologies.'" I'll believe it when the vapor dissipates, but here's hopin'.

Comments

Word from a developer on the project

[Anonymous Coward]

I work as a developer on the project and therefore have pretty good knowledge about it. The hardware is mostly standard PC hardware with some custom bits for the digital tv stuff. If you want to know more about the software in the box, take a look at the fresh developer community site at: http://www.ostdev.net

Collab.net

[Jeffrey Baker]

Captain Tacky forgot to mention that Nokia is doing this in partnership with CollabNet, a very cool company based on community development, which also used to operate sourcexchange.

Nokia wants YOU to write Linux games

[bee]

Since Slashdot saw fit to post the story they did rather than my submission :-) I'll put the link here:

From The Register: Nokia calls on Linux coders for set-top box apps

Nokia has reiterated that it is turning to the Linux community to ensure that its Media Terminal set-top box, due to be launched later this year, has plenty of applications from the word go.

In particular, it wants games developers to get coding for MT, based around what Nokia is now calling its Open Source Terminal platform.


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Financially this won't work

[throx]

The problem here is almost so obvious that it is being overlooked by most people: this can't work because of the pricing mechanics of the game industry.

In order to produce a product at a competitive price you have to LOSE money on the sale of the hardware to make it up again on either the license fees from software sold or from the SDK. It has been estimated that it will cost Microsoft about $425 for each XBox but they have to sell them at $300 or less for it to sell against the PS2.

Now if Nokia has an open design then no one will clone it because they would have to lose money from the sale of their hardware with no way to get the money back from any sort of licensing, and by using a GPL operating system, Nokia has no practical way of recovering their loss on the sale of the systems. The best they could do is have a binary-only kernel module which they charge software developers to use, which breaks the whole idea of using a GPL system in the first place.

So, by producing an open hardware console with an open hardware system, Nokia (by my reckoning at least - feel free to correct me) are going to be heading down the long road to a failed project. There is simply no way for them to make money, even if they capture the entire market they are only guaranteed to lose money!!

You don't pay full price for cellulars either

[sonny]

Remember that Nokia got really big in the cellphone business. They don't sell many phones directly to the consumers, instead they sell them to phonecompanies, which then sell them to the enduser for a fraction of the price. The enduser has to sign a contract to use their services for a minimum time, like 6 months or a year.

They can do the same with the OST, maybe with cabletv and internet providers instead of phonecompanies, but in these days they are basically the same corporations.

Re:You don't pay full price for cellulars either

[TeknoHog]

Remember that Nokia got really big in the cellphone business. They don't sell many phones directly to the consumers, instead they sell them to phonecompanies, which then sell them to the enduser for a fraction of the price. The enduser has to sign a contract to use their services for a minimum time, like 6 months or a year.

My impression is that after paying for the connection for a year, the consumer has effectively paid the price of the phone. In Finland the bondage between buying a cellphone and buying a connection for that is forbidden by law, so people pay the real price of phones but on the other hand the calls and monthly charges are cheaper.

Finland has the highest number of mobile phones per capita (about 60 per 100) in the world, so you cannot explain the success of Nokia (Finland based :-) simply with the contract schemes. Personally I can't stand those systems, with SIM locking and all that. People like being able to _own_ a phone and use it for anything, such as changing the provider every month for the cheapest deal :-) .. and hacking it, of course.

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The difference between this and andrema??

[FortKnox]

The difference between this and the andrema is that it is backed by a company with serious cash. Which means the project could stay fully financed the entire way.

But on the other hand... Nokia has a board of directors that can pull the plug at any given moment.

Its hard for a small-time company to break into the console industry, but Sony proved that a big corporation with a nice financial situation can do it (on the other hand, Sega proved that even a vet can loose in the industry).

Good luck to nokia, and grab as many developers to make games as possible!

Hypocrites?

[infiniti99]

I used to be an avid follower of the gnokii project, which was/is an attempt to create open source drivers for various Nokia digital phones. I even wrote a completely portable driver for the 51xx/61xx phones by using gnokii as a reference. As I remember, Nokia would never help the team out with any technical information. The company showed promise at one point, but then never delivered. For the years that the project has been going, not once has Nokia given them any help. And now they are embracing Linux with this set-top box?

This is just wrong.

-Justin

Finally, someone with half a brain!!

[Arethan]

This same 'open design' policy is what brought x86 platforms into the mainstream. Everyone cloned it, and a wonderful pricewar of 'who can make the best the cheapest' made owning a computer very affordable. If this goes through, I won't be surprised to see these boxes replacing Nintendos and Playstations within 4-5 years, and box prices around $80 a piece within 8 years.

Re:Finally, someone with half a brain!!

[Tech187]

You're right. Two hundred and fourty-seven different 'clones' out there, all with hardware variations, will lead to an excellent robust game platform. Game developers can write code tuned to specific hardware like on all the other successful game platforms.

Oh, wait....

Nokia?

[OblongPlatypus]

Expect this thing to feature a colorful interchangeable outer shell, not to mention annoying ringtones..

Original specs

[MSBob]

CPU: Intel Celeron 366 or higher, 32-64MB SDRAM, Integrated video chip, internal hard drive, 3d feature list: perspective corrected texture mapping, bilinear and anisotropic mip-mapping, gourad shading, alpha-blending, fogging, z-buffer, support for glx 1.3 and Mesa, DRI.

Can an enlighten 3D guru comment on these?

btw. specs here (pdf format).