6 ms·

> This is the same design used by many Xiaomi phones and lots of clones/rebrands. Someone mentioned even Siemens has one. That would explain why "the device w

> This is the same design used by many Xiaomi phones and lots of clones/rebrands. Someone mentioned even Siemens has one. That would explain why "the device will be entirely assembled by (Siemens) Gigaset factories in Germany." So it's a whitelabel phone. I seem to be misunderstanding the excitement :\

syshum 7y ago
The excitement would be competition in the OS Market Google did to phones what MS did to PC's. Dominated the OS market making it non-competitive. That is very bad for many reasons. We need viable options and alternatives to iOS and Android. Hardware is less exciting to me than the Software, and the Operating systems. Competition there would be nice
- morganvachon 7y ago
  > Hardware is less exciting to me than the Software, and the Operating systems. Competition there would be nice Thank you, I'm glad someone is saying it. Smartphone hardware matured several years ago, where even a $10 Walmart prepaid phone is good enough for everything except mobile gaming. It's long past time we had more than iOS and Android to choose from as a first class citizen. I realize there will likely never be a competitive third party OS on mobile (even a behemoth like Microsoft gave up just when their mobile OS was getting really, really good), but I'd settle for just the ability to buy an affordable device that can run whatever I want to put on it. With this device, the PinePhone, and (holding my nose) the Librem 5, we now have enough choices on the hardware side to give the OS devs incentive to make their offerings polished enough to be daily drivers.
  - namibj 7y ago
    If the 10$ smartphone you mentioned actually exists, I'd like to know how I (as a German in Germany) could buy a couple. At that price point I'd feel comfortable degrading them to a wall-mounted light switch or doorbell repeater. Generic IoT stuff.
    - morganvachon 7y ago
      They exist and you can get them at Walmart, Family Dollar, and other bargain-basement stores. They are at that price point because the prepaid carrier (usually TracFone or similar) expects the buyer to purchase blocks of "minutes" and "megabytes" to use with the phone. It's basically a loss leader.
    - jotm 7y ago
      Just use old phones from eBay :). More like 50 Euros, but still rather cheap and powerful enough for any IoT use. Reminds me of that guy who used an iPad for a wall mounted information panel (weather, transport time, traffic conditions, some other stuff). Pretty cool.
- seba_dos1 7y ago
  Volla doesn't help much in the OS market - it's just another Android phone with unlocked bootloader, relying on Android driver infastructure. If you're interested in alternative software better invest in Librem 5, or if it's too expensive for you get a PinePhone and start hacking.
baybal2 7y ago
Assembly from knockdown kits != manufacturing The same way one can claim that knockdown kit assemblers in Rwanda, Ghana, Pakistan and etc are "manufacturers"
jotm 7y ago
White label, yes, I forgot that term :)

syshum 7y ago

The excitement would be competition in the OS Market Google did to phones what MS did to PC's. Dominated the OS market making it non-competitive. That is very bad for many reasons. We need viable options and alternatives to iOS and Android. Hardware is less exciting to me than the Software, and the Operating systems. Competition there would be nice

morganvachon 7y ago
> Hardware is less exciting to me than the Software, and the Operating systems. Competition there would be nice Thank you, I'm glad someone is saying it. Smartphone hardware matured several years ago, where even a $10 Walmart prepaid phone is good enough for everything except mobile gaming. It's long past time we had more than iOS and Android to choose from as a first class citizen. I realize there will likely never be a competitive third party OS on mobile (even a behemoth like Microsoft gave up just when their mobile OS was getting really, really good), but I'd settle for just the ability to buy an affordable device that can run whatever I want to put on it. With this device, the PinePhone, and (holding my nose) the Librem 5, we now have enough choices on the hardware side to give the OS devs incentive to make their offerings polished enough to be daily drivers.
- namibj 7y ago
  If the 10$ smartphone you mentioned actually exists, I'd like to know how I (as a German in Germany) could buy a couple. At that price point I'd feel comfortable degrading them to a wall-mounted light switch or doorbell repeater. Generic IoT stuff.
  - morganvachon 7y ago
    They exist and you can get them at Walmart, Family Dollar, and other bargain-basement stores. They are at that price point because the prepaid carrier (usually TracFone or similar) expects the buyer to purchase blocks of "minutes" and "megabytes" to use with the phone. It's basically a loss leader.
  - jotm 7y ago
    Just use old phones from eBay :). More like 50 Euros, but still rather cheap and powerful enough for any IoT use. Reminds me of that guy who used an iPad for a wall mounted information panel (weather, transport time, traffic conditions, some other stuff). Pretty cool.
seba_dos1 7y ago
Volla doesn't help much in the OS market - it's just another Android phone with unlocked bootloader, relying on Android driver infastructure. If you're interested in alternative software better invest in Librem 5, or if it's too expensive for you get a PinePhone and start hacking.

baybal2 7y ago

Assembly from knockdown kits != manufacturing The same way one can claim that knockdown kit assemblers in Rwanda, Ghana, Pakistan and etc are "manufacturers"

jotm 7y ago

White label, yes, I forgot that term :)