[plug] Openmoko FreeRunner Phone Open Source

[Fred Janon]

Hi Pluggers,

The Openmoko open source FreeRunner mobile phone will be released soon.
This will be the second version of the phone. See 

<http://openmoko.com>
<http://openmoko.org>

Please note that the advanced version is not going to exist anymore.
The target price was just announced on the openmoko mailing list
<http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community>: US$399 and
US$369 for 10 units.

For those interested in a group order, there is a page on the wiki:

<http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GroupSales>

Add your name to it if you are interested in a group order when the
phone comes out. They will throw some extras for the early buyers.

Keep Open Sourcin'

Fred

Copy of the email from openmoko:

from	steve <steve at openmoko.com>
reply-to	List for Openmoko community discussion
<community at lists.openmoko.org>,
to	List for Openmoko community discussion
<community at lists.openmoko.org>,
date	Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 12:50 AM
subject	FreeRunner Pricing and PVT update
mailing list	community.lists.openmoko.org Filter messages from this
mailing list
mailed-by	lists.openmoko.org

 I thought I would combine a couple posts today. First an update on
PVT, or
production verification test. Phones are being sent to me from the
first PVT
run. Michael Shiloh will be back in Silicon valley next Tuesday, so he
and I
will test the samples and get them out to key partners. I want to check
a
couple things like using the Nokia batteries as spares and generic USB
chargers before I send these samples out.

Now, for the update on Products, and Pricing,

1. Products.

 Orginally the FreeRunner ( GTA02) was planned to come out in two
packages.
Basic and advanced, just like the Neo 1973. We killed that idea. It was
a
quick humane death. The problem was the GTA02 advanced unit would have
been
$650 USD. After seeing the response to Neo 1973, a huge response, we
decided
the best path was to lower the price, reward our early developers, and
attract more developers.

2. Pricing
We scrubbed the BOM ( bill of materials). We eliminated the Luxurious
bits.
Optimized the box like it was code. The first thing we got rid of
was the lunchbox. It was cool, but it was expensive and heavy.
Eliminating
that was a sizeable cost savings. ( think shipping weight).

Next we pulled out the debug board and made it a separate product.  We
priced it at $99 US. about 1 tenth what people would pay for similar
capability.

My goal was to get to a place where we could sell the FreeRunner at
$399.
USD.

We did that.

The FreeRunner will ship from Openmoko.com at $399. For early customers
I'm looking at throwing in a few free things. More details later.

The debug board will be available as a separate product for $99 USD.

Many people wrote me mails asking if they could get a discount by
buying
more than one phone. Sometimes they were universities, sometimes a
small
business, sometimes a small group or club.

For these people we created a 10Pack. instead of 399 per phone, we will
charge 369 per phone.


Over the next few days I will explain the next steps we go through and
how the product will get distributed


Steve