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What their former CTO had to say: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Zlatan-Todoric-Interview https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&

• DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
  also comments when it was discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21303770 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21303770
• shaftoe 7y ago
  Great link. "Quantities matter [in China] and getting only dozen or couple of hundred orders per month doesn't really help. That said, the Librems are heavily overpriced but that is because Purism seemingly never tried to get better deal and the South San Francisco partner abused this so that is why Purism Librems are double the price they should be. I believe that if we had more realistic prices, it would be much better for Purism not only financially but also more talking about it, more of it in wild which in turn means much more orders, more happy customers etc. The innovation is not really that hard in this space because big players don't try to really innovate as they have strong positions, so it wouldn't be that hard to be good or better then most of big players even, but quantity leverage is hard to pass by."
  • cartoonworld 7y ago
    If the price were 20% less it would demand some more eyeballs. When I saw the price I assumed they were trying to position a premium product. I think this is a little bit of a mistake given that in the market of handsets, Apple owns the "premium" devices, and maybe samsung counts as #2? Nobody is crossing that Rubicon. $700 isn't really bad but I don't like the look of it. Maybe if they can make this thing for 6 or 7 years. People who are worried about this have been aware of Essential phones which aren't the same, but end users aren't shopping these Freedom characteristics. I predict another few years of nobody batting an eye to these devices. Great shame.
    • macspoofing 7y ago
      >When I saw the price I assumed they were trying to position a premium product. They are. They are building a product that let's you do anything you want on the device. Honestly, the phone should be priced at a premium level because it will appeal to a demographic that will pay more for a phone that lets them break free from the closed ecosystems of Android/Apple. It also gives them extra cash to re-invest in the company and doesn't require them scaling their manufacturing just yet.
      • Redoubts 7y ago
        > They are. They are building a product that let's you do anything you want on the device. Completely orthogonal to “premium”
        • admax88q 7y ago
          I mean it is essentially a premium feature in the current market of cheap locked down shit.
          • ghostpepper 7y ago
            Isn't the most expensive phone you can buy also the most locked down phone you can buy, the iPhone 11?
            • PudgePacket 7y ago
              Premium and expensive aren't the same thing, though often go hand in hand :)
      • icebraining 7y ago
        What can you do with the Librem that you can't with a Moto G?
        • ptx 7y ago