Is OpenMoko dead ? Not really.

Surprised ?

IT journals have been quite quick to report OpenMoko‘s death after Sean Moss-Pultz‘s announce at  OpenExpo. It seems to me they’ve been so quick that they missed something. So here is a quick post to quickly make clear a what it needs to. Also, OpenMoko hasn’t put out a Press Release yet, which I believe is a mistake.

I’ve been asked by a friend to make this post, I seem to have many readers these days so perhaps I can help spreading the word out.

Openmoko is not dead

The FreeRunner phone (codename: GTA02)  won’t stop being produced or supported. The GTA03 phone development, instead, will be stopped.

So yes, the GTA03 is dead before being born. Instead the company will work on a Project B, which is going to require less resources and help build capital to pursue further projects (like a new GTA03).

What’s the Project B ? No one knows precisely, by the way, here it is:

So what it appears to be is a little touch tablet. Be it a media player, an e-book reader or a pornographic storage media system, that’s what has been shown by the CEO during the talk.

Why ?

Moss-Pultz was very careful to specify he doesn’t drive a Ferrari, and he doesn’t like to put the crisis forward as an excuse for everything, but – by the way – something happened.

Putting a new product into production means a big investment for the inventory, which is quite a big step for small companies. In other words, OpenMoko is not Apple, Google  or Microsoft.

Expanding the concept, the best from Apple came after they put together enough cash cows to provide them the capital needed for big investments. First came the iPod, then the iPhone. The same goes for every company. And, by the way, we’re still waiting copy-paste and push notifications from them

The choice they had to face:

This could be more explicative:

Essentially, I made the same argument I heard so many times on this list: “How do expect us to buy a GTA03 when you’ve yet to deliver on all the promise of FreeRunner?” And I took the arguments I heard from disty seriously, “how do you expect us to buy FR, when GTA03 is right around the corner?“

And:

Our biggest challenge was to make a choice about how to spend the
balance of 2009.

There were two paths:
A: Fulfill our promises on FreeRunner and launch GTA03
B: Fulfill our promises on FreeRunner and  launch project B.

We will talk more about project B in the coming months, but these
salient facts should be able to guide any budding executives out there.

1. GTA03 was in constant flux as a design.
2. GTA03 schedule was consequently always slipping.
3. The resources required for GTA03 are 3X those required for Project B.
4. We don’t have 3X.

So, we picked plan B.

As you have just read, both the choices won’t affect in anyway the support for the existing phone, which is still being sold.

How to help the project (as a developer) then ?

So, what about GTA03? As it was defined, it is dead. So how do we
get to a new GTA03? Two requirements: continue to improve GTA02; deliver
on project B. What is GTA03 and when do we get there? There are a number
of independent efforts out there that are pitching me ideas for GTA03.
I talked to sean a bit about this and I’d like to try to open up more
of the design process and the marketing process to the community.
Perhaps on a separate list. Some of these discussions have already started.

What can you do to help?
1. Move GTA02 code upstream.
2. Stay Involved.
3. Continue work on applications
4. Buy a FreeRunner.
5. Get involved in GTA03 discussions

Once again: is the GTA03 dead ?

No, it has been postponed. But it’s very likely for the project – once resumed – to be completely re-engineered. So in a way GTA03 is dead. But a new GTA03 project will see the light, some day.

So, in a way it’s dead.

Original sources

So here’s some official sources. Openmoko has been shy about releasing anything officially, but you can read their clarification on the matter in their mailing list.

Also the video of the OpenExpo announce is available for everyone to see:

Click here to see the video on my site

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