Openmoko Phone Not Dead After All

In response to the report I posted a few days ago that the Openmoko FreeRunner phone had been discontinued, Pat Meier-Johnson writes on behalf of Openmoko to say that this isn't so. "Some bloggers have been misinterpreting a presentation by Openmoko CEO, Sean Moss-Pultz last week in Switzerland to think that the company is getting out of the phone business. That's not true. In fact, the Openmoko FreeRunner (their current model) is alive and well. (Also in Switzerland, Sean announced another project — not a phone — that they are calling 'Project B.' No details yet.) The next version of the phone, codenamed GTA03, has been suspended and there were some associated layoffs, but the GTA03 was in constant flux as a design. So the company is being prudent and focusing on the FreeRunner which has lots of open source community and most recently, embedded developer support." Glad to hear this, because the FreeRunner is an interesting phone.

Comments

Interesting?

[Microlith]

Considering the chaos in the software end, the only really interesting aspect of it was that you could get a debug board that plugged right into the thing. Other than that the only notable aspect was the fact that the schematics and mechanical designs were open, which is nice but largely only interesting to other corporations with the resources to spin and assemble PCBs.

Maybe if the company had better direction, they would have been able to forge ahead to the GTA03 instead of it constantly wobbling. With focus they could have pushed the software stack to stability and usability, as well as solve the power management issues and gotten an actual 3G radio into the thing. Instead they've shrunk and moved on to some unnamed project.

Sad, but not suprising. Glad I kept my $400.

Re:David versus Goliath

[linhares]

EVEN BEFORE CUPCAKE:

OPENMOKO

Google PageRank: 7

Google BackLinks: 526

Live Search BackLinks: 6

Technorati Links: 1,230

Compare that to http://code.google.com/android

Google PageRank: 8

Google BackLinks: 1,880

Live Search BackLinks: 164

Technorati Links: 7,980

And... the google site has been replaced by http://developer.android.com/, which will soon capture the original's statistics, and then some.

SCO

[MBCook]

SCO claims to not be dead too.

So did Infineon (behind the Phantom console).

I'm sure we could all come up with a ton of other examples.

Re:Missing Kool Factor and Advertising $$$

[Enderandrew]

I think the only open aspect of the iPhone is an API for developers to produce apps on that platform.

Re:But does it make calls yet?

[SanityInAnarchy]

The real question, at the moment, is whether it's also something that would never see the light of day on android.

Otherwise, well, Android seems to be here, now, cheaper and better in every way except openness. And honestly, forcing everything to be written for a VM has advantages -- Openmoko is likely to be bound to ARM for some time, even if something better were to come along.

Re:Interesting

[eltaco]

+1 hackable

Interesting idea....

[jmorris42]

I like the idea but everything I have read about the product says it is a lousy phone. And if it can't do that basic function well it doesn't matter what other neat things it can do, whether it is open software, open hardware, whatever. A phone that sucks is no sale.

Re:Interesting idea....

[H0p313ss]

When you decide to get a phone that does what you want instead of what you provider wants go and buy a freerunner

No he's right. I used the FreeRunner for 5 months on a daily basis and it's a crappy phone. Damn cool handheld touch screen linux machine with WiFi, BlueTooth and GPS though.

Re:Interesting idea....

[DrgnDancer]

I'm sorry. I like the idea of the phone as much as the next person. For a while, when I was in Iraq, I seriously considered getting one of the dev versions. How cool is a phone that I can analyze all the specs on, and run any OS I want, blah, blah, blah. In the end though calling a phone (and it is, by all claims from its manufacturer, a "phone", not a "portable device") that cannot reliably make or receive phone calls a "wonderful device" is just disingenuous. I might be "cool", or "interesting", or any of a dozen other adjective, but any device that cannot reliably perform its stated purpose is not "wonderful"

The fact that it performs well as a somewhat under-powered PDA doesn't change the fact that it was never able to do the primary thing that "phones" are supposed to do: make and receive calls. It seems to me (and maybe I'm just silly) that when designing a new Open Phone the checklist should have read:

1) Is able to actually call people
2) Is able to be called
3) Whatever other cool shit we'd like to be able to do
4) ...
5) Profit

I apologize for the overused meme, but in this case it's perfect. As evidenced from the vast numbers of shitty smart-phones out there that sold at least a decent number of units, people will buy a phone with a crappy UI, buggy software, and a crash prone OS. What they won't buy is a phone that can't (reliably) call people.

Damnit!

[GF678]

It's annoying because the zealots will be happy that their "phone" (which isn't even a good phone to begin with) will still be around. We need an actual product that you won't be embarrassed showing to non-geek folk. Now all we'll get are smug idiots.

Re:Damnit!

[ksheff]

the Lego phone - it works great until you drop it and have to put it back together. :)

Re:But does it make calls yet?

[Running Pinata]

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Distributions#Hardware_Support has pretty current info. From my experience: Using At&t atm. Distros: Om: Usable, no bluetooth gui. FSO: Usable, no bluetooth gui. Androd: Panicking cupcake. Usable, somewhat. Phone goes to sleep after receiving a call. FDOM: based off of Om 09. Still has suspend issues that was resolved in the Om 12. QTExtended Improved: Trying this one out this week, so no clues. Well for voicemail I get a text message with "50". For SMS I haven't tried since it costs me to send messages.

Re:Interesting

[linhares]

interesting..., you know, interesting.

Re:But does it make calls yet?

[stupkid]

If you are looking for an idea of the apps people have written:

Openmoko Software Repo

This is outside of whatever software your distro includes (Debian, SHR, OM2008.12, Qtopia, etc.).

Re:Missing Kool Factor and Advertising $$$

[rampant mac]

"I think the only open aspect of the iPhone is an API for developers to produce apps on that platform."

And look how badly that has affected them. 30 million devices (iPhone & iPod Touch). Over 500 million downloads from the app store?

How does OpenMoko compete? What's their app store strategy? Is there a strategy? At the moment, it looks like Apple is on the verge of running away with the handheld market. What is OpenMoko doing about it?

These are the questions I wonder about. More so, than, *if* API is free or not...

It boils down to: Can I make money on this handset?

Re:But does it make calls yet?

[Mr2001]

Google is touting it as an open-source platform. However, as we saw last week about tethering, Google and device makers may be beholden to the interests of service providers.

The platform is still open source, and although Google has unfortunately pulled apps from the Android Market (as seen by T-Mobile users, at least), you can still download and run them, because unlike the iPhone, Android doesn't force you to get all your software from a central repository.

Android is in the same situation relative to phone manufacturers that Linux is relative to TiVo. You can recompile the open source code that TiVo is based on, but you can't install it on your DVR without significant hacking. Just because Linux is open source doesn't mean everyone who sells you Linux-based hardware has to give you the ability to install your own distro, because Linux isn't GPLv3 (and neither is Android).

This isn't Google's fault any more than the TiVo situation is Linus's fault. Blame the manufacturers and carriers who insist on locking down their hardware. Nothing is stopping other manufacturers or carriers from selling hardware that isn't locked down; let them know you're willing to pay for it.

The best chance of an open software platform for a phone is for manufacturers to all jump on the Android bandwagon but allow 'unlocked' phones to be bought in stores as with traditional GSM phones.

"Unlocked" in that case would have to mean more than it does with traditional GSM phones. You can use an unlocked phone on any carrier, but that doesn't mean you can flash whatever firmware you want.

By the way, if you want an Android phone that you can flash with whatever firmware you want, you can buy one today. It's called the ADP1, and you can get it for $400 after signing up as an Android developer ($25).

Re:Missing Kool Factor and Advertising $$$

[byolinux]

Please point me to where I can download the source code to the iPhone kernel.

Cool! I'll still buy a neopwn, based on OpenMoko

[SpzToid]

http://www.neopwn.com/

Neopwn runs on an optimized FULL custom Debian operating system that boots off of a microSD card with a custom Linux kernel, with a vast support range for module drivers, allowing the network security tester the ability to perform various network penetration auditing tasks that are normally carried out on a notebook or desktop workstation.

We offer complete hardware setups as well as a standalone customized operating system (with custom driver module and kernel support). We can also deliver custom features and support options upon request for hardware or software that isn't standard with our systems.

Re:David versus Goliath

[Cyclops]

So your point is that a very popular non Free Software phone, backed by Google and major phone makers has more fame? You just won the Sherlock Holmes award!
BTW, OpenMoko is the first Free Software Android Phone....

Re:Last post!

[drinkypoo]

The public just isn't ready for it, yet.

The public will never be ready for a phone that doesn't make phone calls properly. If instead of working on various UI toolkits and abandoning them they focused on making the phone work maybe they could sell a few more.

Re:Just ugly

[DrgnDancer]

New iPhone OS will allow MMS (and copy/paste thank fricken' Gods) not sure about multiple SMS though. Which doesn't help you now of course, but they're saying June/July time frame which isn't to far in the future. I know you can display spreadsheet/word procession documents, but I've never had a great need or desire to edit them on my phone, so I can't speak to that.

More Openmoko Information

[erko]

Interview with Steve Mosher from Openmoko about current state of things (7 minute video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8Tsvj2TdQ

Sean Moss-Pultz's presentation at openexpo (30 minute video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFuwhPXYxxI&NR=1

Head FreeSmartPhone developer, Mickey Lauer's take on things.
http://www.vanille-media.de/site/index.php/2009/04/04/back-from-switzerland/

LinuxDevices article: Openmoko: Next-gen phone bites the dust, FreeRunner lives.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8568412362.html

Re:Just ugly

[Vegeta99]

Already using 3.0 Beta 2, MMS works fine, and sending multiple SMS messages has /always/ worked just fine. Bluetooth A2DP works too, FTW!

Re:Just ugly

[BitZtream]

Multiple SMS was added after the initial release. I think it was during one of the last 1.x releases, but it most certainly didn't work out of the box.

A2DP is only supported in mono, which is lame as shit for a iPod.

I love my iPhone for what it is, but I have no delusions about it being more than it is, nor do I like the idea of anyone spreading false information because they just jumped on the bandwagon.

Hate to break it to you, but ...

[BitZtream]

The project was dead before it started. The management of the project is horrible. The software is constantly attempting to copy someone else and doing it poorly.

This is pretty typical of an OSS project. Its not about innovation or breaking the mold, its about copying what someone else did and releasing the source in a sad attempt to reap the benefits of someone else's work without really contributing anything new. Very few OSS projects actually break out of this mold. Linus did it by accident, when he started it was nothing more than a copy of another Unix, that was the plan. Obviously that changed as Linux grew far beyond a 'copy' in the late 90s. But Linux is a shining start in OSS world and is very hard to duplicate, there simply aren't enough people that care about most OSS projects the way Linus and his original crew did to get it to the point that it had momentum.

I'm not saying thats always a bad thing, but lets not get delusional when talking about this device, it is in no way impressive unless you're comparing it to those fake phones you give little kids.