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The Death of the Greenphone
phobos13013 writes "Trolltech announced this week that they will discontinue development on their Greenphone platform. The Greenphone was advertised to be the first phone with a user-modifiable environment. Trolltech CTO Benoit Schilling stated that they are not really a hardware company and so will focus their efforts on FIC's Neo 1973, now available. However, Schilling hinted at a future Wi-Fi-enabled endeavor (possibly a VOIP phone)."
It's a bummer in several ways. First, we geeks don't get hard-ons for crappy hardware (as the poster below suggests). Sleek advanced hardware, totally open for us to explore while trying to change the world, however, gets my blood going. When the hackers cracked the iPhone and put some of the best software management tools I've seen in place, without even a damned header file... that was cool.
:-) but what the hell?
I own an NEO1973. I'm glad to support the project, and desperately hope that it will succeed. Here's something I read today from the OpenMoko mail list: "The Neo is, was, and will be, a product for geeks and therefore never was intended to be a mass market product. Geeks do not look at fancy glamour but for useful attributes." I have no idea who this guys is talking about. I'm about the biggest geek I've ever met (yeah, I know some of you are bigger
The NEO1973 battery is tiny, screen too small, touch capabilities poor, integration level low, plastic instead of anodized aluminum, and worst of all... there's not the same kind of inspired software leadership. The community wants to build the world's best phone, but a guy like Linus is required to lead the effort. I think the OpenMoko guys have incredible vision, but not the complete vision, and the leader needed make it succeed is currently missing. Get the right guy involved, and they could change the world... crappy hardware and all.
Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy.
Or does anyone else think this would be a great way to spy on your kid, your spouse, etc.. I wonder how many techie nerds bought this out of jealousy or fear... Why couldn't you program this open-phone to auto pickup from a certain number, disable the speaker, and transmit audio? All without a single ring, vibration, or visual cue.
Dont worry, the SOLD OUT likely means the community that bought them all up will make sure the longevity of this phone persists similar to the persistence of the Zaurus users who still have pkg sites available for both Qtopia and X environments. Though, I guess it does depend on how many phones it takes to officially sell out (200 or 20,000!)
Regardless, yea, it may not be for the masses, there IS more than a significant market for this, and yes, i think the Neo is the next step for this. It just takes at least some kind of corporate-backing and a committed community!
...and it should be known by now
Why does no one understand that the Greenphone was purely a developer platform?
It was never meant for consumers, and the fact that it works as a phone is purely secondary to its main function of providing a test bed for developing mobile phone applications for Trolltech's platform. Comparing it to consumer, mass market phones doesn't make any sense.
I think you don't need to say *NIX anymore. OS X Leopard 10.5 is certified UNIX, and as the iPhone is based on OSX, isn't the iPhone the first UNIX phone?
even if we have to fight Steve Jobs tooth and nail for it.I thought Apple is going to open up the platform for developers.
The OpenMoko software is more important than the hardware. The Neo1973 is open hardware designed to a specification, but won't ever be a successful commercial product because no phone company is going to subsidise it. There is a bullet to be bitten, that there are few smartphone platforms that are open enough to match the aspirations of OpenMoko, but I can see it being ported to other smartphone chipsets such as those used by HTC or indeed non-dedicated chipsets like the OpenSparc S1. It wouldn't surprise me at all if was running on an iPhone in the next year either. That's where the software's strength will lie: while phones are not PCs, and are probably harder to develop drivers for (one of the reasons, I believe, why the Nokia N8x0 doesn't have a phone module), there will be a group of people who want to get it out there and onto as many phones as they can.
The Neo runs X11 on a 640x480 screen and allows multiple toolkits to run on the same screen. If TrollTech wants to run in that environment, that's good.
On the other hand, if they are going to port Qt/Embedded and try to take over the phone, like they have done on other phones, they should forget it; those attempts at monopolizing the platform are unwelcome.
Overall, I'm kind of doubtful that TrollTech has much to contribute anyway. Devices based on Qt/Embedded have had lackluster commercial success, and the platform has serious usability problems in my opinion. Maybe the company should stick to writing toolkits and leave the end user experience to people who have more experience with that.