Anyone who had high hopes for OpenMoko's ambitious open source smartphone hardware is in for a dissapointment with the news that the group is ditching mobiles in order to concentrate on a new project – minus the majority of staff.
According to The Register, the group has blamed poor sales of its FreeRunner open source smartphone handset – which saw a mere 10,000 sales during its lifetime – for the decision not to go ahead with plans to create a next-generation 'phone dubbed the GTA03.
While the GTA03 handset has not been officially nixed – with the company choosing to call the project “postponed” – the company has confirmed that it will, for the mean time, be concentrating on a new venture known only as “Project B.” Although details on the project are currently hard to come by, the group has let slip that it will take less than a third of the resources to complete than the GTA03 project.
Although OpenMoko looks to be moving away from the 'phone market – at least in the short term – early adopters will not be forgotten. With FreeRunner owners complaining of a constant buzzing noise being emitted from their handsets, vice president of marketing Steve Mosher has stated that the group will try to fix the FreeRunner issues “in the field” via a “volunteer approach” that will see “volunteers with soldering irons ready to do their best” at trade show booths. If you can't make it to a trade show, then you're sadly out of luck.
Any of the 10,000 FreeRunner owners out there who are sad there won't be a revision two in the short term, or are you all just dying to find out what the secretive Project B might entail? Angry that the only way to get your FreeRunner buzzing fixed is to attend trade shows manned by volunteers? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
According to The Register, the group has blamed poor sales of its FreeRunner open source smartphone handset – which saw a mere 10,000 sales during its lifetime – for the decision not to go ahead with plans to create a next-generation 'phone dubbed the GTA03.
While the GTA03 handset has not been officially nixed – with the company choosing to call the project “postponed” – the company has confirmed that it will, for the mean time, be concentrating on a new venture known only as “Project B.” Although details on the project are currently hard to come by, the group has let slip that it will take less than a third of the resources to complete than the GTA03 project.
Although OpenMoko looks to be moving away from the 'phone market – at least in the short term – early adopters will not be forgotten. With FreeRunner owners complaining of a constant buzzing noise being emitted from their handsets, vice president of marketing Steve Mosher has stated that the group will try to fix the FreeRunner issues “in the field” via a “volunteer approach” that will see “volunteers with soldering irons ready to do their best” at trade show booths. If you can't make it to a trade show, then you're sadly out of luck.
Any of the 10,000 FreeRunner owners out there who are sad there won't be a revision two in the short term, or are you all just dying to find out what the secretive Project B might entail? Angry that the only way to get your FreeRunner buzzing fixed is to attend trade shows manned by volunteers? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
RELATED ARTICLES
MSI MPG Velox 100R Chassis Review
October 14 2021 | 15:04
Want to comment? Please log in.