OpenMoko Phase 0 shipped
Despite certain delays due to some hardware issues, the Phase 0 of the OpenMoko project has been shipped. This means that around 30 to 50 developers around the world working on the development of OpenMoko have received and unboxed their new Neo1973 phones, creating a bit of a buzz on their planet.
But what is Phase 0 exactly? It is an early quick phase of OpenMoko development which is intended mainly for a certain group of developers working on the project. Soon after, at the end of March a Phase 1 will follow when the phone will be available to anyone who wants it for $350 although in its current state it will not be ready for the common user. Geeks, testers, developers interested in lending a hand or just someone who wants to buy in order to support the project financially will be able to order.
Somewhere in between Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the development (we can call it Phase 1.5) is a planned "hardware refresh" which is a challenging task of boosting the hardware of Neo phone to more powerful specifications, in order to be more appealing to the common mobile user. This is basically a preparation for the second phase, around September according to the current plan, when the phone should be mass market ready.
Here is a graphic showing this roadmap in a clear way (extracted from the OpenMoko Neologics presentation):
Let's wish the OpenMoko project best of luck through all of these stages. It is potentially a very revolutionary project and intentionally so. You want Mobile 2.0, a mobile revision? This is it, a truly open mobile phone.
