I Know It's Very Early To Be Talking About This But....

[dotrat1989]

I know my suggestion here is premature with OpenPandora not out yet.....

Iphone is huge around the world with millions of units sold within the launch window. This is because there is no other device like it on the market that works so well; with the same features. But their weakness is their corporate practices. Selling Iphones to cingular users only has left alot of people looking for an alternative. This where I think OpenPandora would absolutely dominate! With the open source scene behind and the much better hardware capabilities of it, it would T-bag every cellphone on the market; sidekick, Iphone, N-series etc.... In a year or two make a hardware revision of OpenPanora with slide out keyboard(just license it), 3g wireless, and a slimmer case. This is just a thought to keep at the back of your minds....

 

[Kings]

No thank you.

 

[dotrat1989]

.... Is it a bad idea? It would definitely open it to a broader audience. Especially with the features like Iphone touch screen and sidekick like keyboard, it would make the price point a steal. Imagine the best cellphone device without a contract!

 

[nubie]

.... Is it a bad idea?

Yes.

Would cost many millions, I am sure not going to happen (Unless you have millions?)

The Omap3 will be in slide keyboard cellphones next year anyway, buy it from Nokia or Motorola or Samsung

 

[adsharma23]

the reason why those companies use those "corporate practices" is because they need to to in order to get the money to actually make the product
really this is way beyond what anything but a major corporation could do and certaintly nothing that a small community such as the one making pandora could do
the slide out keyboarding licenses would cost enough then adding the cost of the new OMAP (which probably won't even be out by then), the cellphone aspect (and i don't see how a form factor could be made without looking ridiculous)
if you really want this i would recommned asking the guy that is making the zephr to help you

could someone please close this

 

[TaG]

if you really want this i would recommned asking the guy that is making the zephr to help you
I agree with you both, not gonna happen.

could someone please close this
Why, when it could be so much fun?

 

[gaterooze]

Iphone is huge around the world with millions of units sold within the launch window. This is because there is no other device like it on the market that works so well; with the same features.

While that is arguably true, the most important reason that it is "huge" is because it is from Apple, and had millions upon millions of dollars in advertising and promotion.

 

[PoisonedV]

 

[dotrat1989]

Obviously I didn't know why it couldn't be done... You could've just told me why instead of acting like little whiny lil bit3hes!

Why would it cost millions in dollars? Just for the cellphone chipset? Eventually, like every other goddamn electronic device in the universe, the price of manufacturing and the sizes of the processors and other parts will go down.... I am not saying this, or next year this should be made but when it's possible it would be a good idea... The time it takes you to make those arrogant posts, you could have just told me....

 

[AireTamStorm]

Obviously I didn't know why it couldn't be done... You could've just told me why instead of acting like little whiny lil bit3hes!
And you wonder why you got flamed?

The time it takes you to make those arrogant posts, you could have just told me....
It isn't our arrogance, its your ignorance that got you these responses. The worst way to respond is to resort to childish name calling.

 

[gruso]

The sliding keyboard is patented, so all products that use it have to (i) pay big money to licence the design, or (ii) pay big money to fight the patent violation in court. Even if the Pandora team had the capital to do it, the price of a hypothetical Pandora Phone would probably be double that of the regular Pandora.

Personally, I'm all for convergence but I'd really prefer to have a clamshell gaming system and a separate, basic phone.

 

[cb88]

+1 gruso

cell phones should be simple.... and cheap but of course if they wanna drive the omap market with overhyped mega phones for rich kids that is fine by me

 

[Chip]

I'm trying to figure out exactly where you lost credibility...

it would T-bag every cellphone on the market

Ah, there is is.

But as you say in the thread title, it is too early to be worrying about this. What you are suggesting is not impossible, but it is beyond the scope of the Pandora project. Adding cell capability is significantly more involved than just slapping another chip on the board and calling it a day. The Pandora is what it is. The next generation may well have wireless broadband, but now is not the time to worry about it. You can bet the devs won't even be considering another version for several years, so there's no point in discussing it further.

 

[IceBerg303]

the EIA/TIA docs for just the cdma or gsm standards alone cost several hundred, then to get licensed to develop said products is in the hundreds of thousands, then the FCC testing, not to mention development and manufacturing costs.

I've worked in the Cell industry, so Im quite aware what has to go on.

If you want an Iphone killer, the HTC Dream should hit T-Mobile on Sept 17th, and general public around that same time in October. HTC makes the best phones in the world so with the Google Android OS that is Linux based, I highly recommend the phone.

If you want your Pandora to be a phone then get a bluetooth headset and write a sip phone for it.

 

[Megamixman]

Not to mention the fact that PCB design for Cellphones is a far more complicated process then people seem to think. There is a reason RF engineers are a specialty in themselves.

Just to re-iterate.
Slide out keyboard = Talking about Millions in Patent licensing/litigation.
Cell phone Patent Licensing = More Millions
FCC = more money although a drop in the bucket next to the licensing/litigation costs
GSM/CDMA PCB design = Complicated requiring hiring of specialty engineers and equipment


While this is all true, there is one thing others have left out. The Pandora is likely to open up the major Manufacturers into the power of such development systems and is more likely to produce what you want. I can see Nokia opening up their development process for the next set of Tablets, which is far more likely to produce what you're asking.

 

[dotrat1989]

True I was childish in my remarks but it was still after there hasty negative attitude towards me. This does not give me the right to flame other people that are flaming me but I, for some reason, thought acting towards them like they act towards me would get through to them..... My ignorance is somewhat to be expected with me, new to the scene, but my """"suggestion"""" was in no way that outrageous for people to act like that... I still think it's a good suggestion and eventually, it would definitely be possible to do something like this... I am not asking if it's possible now but maybe in a couple of years.

EDIT: I thought there obviously would be more complicated to incorporate a cellphone chipset and bulken it up but I was taking consideration that the pandora chipset would steadily drop in price and the chips would become smaller and more efficient... What I did not anticipate was the huge licensing fee and the cost of licensing the patents. Hopefully the openpandora dev company/group will grow so maybe one day possible... Though doubtful.

 

[sold]

Mobile phone+handheld computer that fits in your pocket= increased risk of nut cancer