Comments on: OpenMoko FreeRunner Discontinued Along with Massive Staff Reduction http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/ Providing complete coverage of the wireless industry, cell phone news, and future 4G technologies. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:36:48 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Christopher Price http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/comment-page-1/#comment-27365 Christopher Price Mon, 04 May 2009 05:47:10 +0000 http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/#comment-27365 Ben, we see it as a company making the best of a bad situation. Any company developing a new product doesn't want to say that their old product is dead. See OQO. They backtracked from the "OQO 2+ is dead" to "OQO 2+ is in some state other than coming soon." Nobody said that OpenMoko's Plan B wasn't phone-related. To be candid... we suspect OpenMoko has a warehouse full of FreeRunners that nobody is buying. They're overpriced, lack 3G, and Android dev kits are much more powerful. But, it's even harder to sell off remaining FreeRuners if the product is officially dead. So, it's now not dead. But, every indication is that it will be dead soon. We're not here to sugar coat. FreeRuner was a nice idea, and I think OpenMoko can make plenty of money doing ODM work for a lot of Chinese and second-tier phone makers. Who knows? Their Plan B could be to give Sony Ericsson and others the leg up on Android development that they so badly need. But, to say we got the story wrong, is not correct. We got it right, OpenMoko is simply trying to rewrite history. And we don't consider that very newsworthy. Ben, we see it as a company making the best of a bad situation. Any company developing a new product doesn’t want to say that their old product is dead. See OQO. They backtracked from the “OQO 2+ is dead” to “OQO 2+ is in some state other than coming soon.”

Nobody said that OpenMoko’s Plan B wasn’t phone-related. To be candid… we suspect OpenMoko has a warehouse full of FreeRunners that nobody is buying. They’re overpriced, lack 3G, and Android dev kits are much more powerful.

But, it’s even harder to sell off remaining FreeRuners if the product is officially dead. So, it’s now not dead. But, every indication is that it will be dead soon.

We’re not here to sugar coat. FreeRuner was a nice idea, and I think OpenMoko can make plenty of money doing ODM work for a lot of Chinese and second-tier phone makers. Who knows? Their Plan B could be to give Sony Ericsson and others the leg up on Android development that they so badly need.

But, to say we got the story wrong, is not correct. We got it right, OpenMoko is simply trying to rewrite history. And we don’t consider that very newsworthy.

]]> By: Ben in Seattle http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/comment-page-1/#comment-27364 Ben in Seattle Mon, 04 May 2009 05:36:01 +0000 http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/#comment-27364 So, when is phonenews.com going to put a note on this article that it's been retracted? Even Slashdot eventually got the story right: http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/09/220244 --Ben in Seattle So, when is phonenews.com going to put a note on this article that it’s been retracted? Even Slashdot eventually got the story right:

http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/09/220244

–Ben in Seattle

]]> By: Openmoko Phones Discontinued - Seameat’s Nerd Culture Blog http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/comment-page-1/#comment-26508 Openmoko Phones Discontinued - Seameat’s Nerd Culture Blog Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:58:11 +0000 http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/#comment-26508 [...] But it’s discontinued. [...] [...] But it’s discontinued. [...]

]]> By: Chris Nielsen http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/comment-page-1/#comment-26483 Chris Nielsen Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:01:32 +0000 http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/#comment-26483 we had a great private label deal for them, they told us to go away, so I now am just laughing. we had a great private label deal for them, they told us to go away, so I now am just laughing.

]]> By: OpenMoko FreeRunner Gets Canned | mowbee.com http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/comment-page-1/#comment-26450 OpenMoko FreeRunner Gets Canned | mowbee.com Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:52:36 +0000 http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/#comment-26450 [...] [BernerZeitung via PhoneNews] [...] [...] [BernerZeitung via PhoneNews] [...]

]]> By: Christopher Price http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/comment-page-1/#comment-26428 Christopher Price Sun, 05 Apr 2009 07:33:16 +0000 http://www.phonenews.com/openmoko-freerunner-discontinued-along-with-massive-staff-reduction-7457/#comment-26428 Open. Mobile. Free. Mismanaged. Dead. Open. Mobile. Free. Mismanaged. Dead.

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