[Arm-netbook] Crowd Sourcing Proposal

[Gordan Bobic]

On 10/11/2012 01:11 PM, luke.leighton wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 9:57 PM, Peter Steenbergen
> <p.steenbergen at j1nx.nl>  wrote:
>>>
>>>   well... is that really true?  there's (at least) 3 groups here.
>>> developers (350 people on arm-netbook), intelligent-eco-conscious
>>> people (N people), and "everyone else" (i hesitate to use "the
>>> masses").
>>>
>>>   the target for the crowd-funding is therefore the combination of the
>>> two groups.  hmmm...
>>>
>> Don't get me wrong, I am by no means an expert, but ...
>>
>> The 350 subscribed are not an indication of the people willing to
>> participate. Sorry, but I really think the majority of subscribers are just
>> readers that want to be one of the first, something new pops up.
>>
>> Once again, I am not a marketing expert, but I really agree with Alejandro;
>> The EOMA concept is not enough for a succesful crowd funding campaign. An
>> EOMA card with a bare minimum extension might do it, but only if the price
>> it competitive.
>
>   well, that can't happen.  we're not selling a "competitor to
> single-board devices".  competitive pricing can happen when
> mass-volume quantities are achieved.  and a crowd-sourced funded
> project will not reach mass-volume (million+) units.

It doesn't need to. It just needs to be a decent ARM laptop with a price 
tag comparable to the current competition (€150 ball park 10" device, a 
little more if you can squeeze in a _decent_ res screen and > 1GB of RAM).

>   we need a strategy to bootstrap up to that point.  one that is
> profitable, as well, and easy to achieve.

Pushing the EOMA on it's own isn't likely to appeal to enough people. It 
needs something to make it into a complete usable product that people 
want, IMO.

>> You are really better of using the laptop or tablet concept for the
>> marketing strategy as where the EOMA card "hops along". A tablet/laptop of
>> where you just update the card to upgrade sell a whole lot better than only
>> the card on it self.
>
>   ok.  we have MTU university who offered to do a laptop design.
> costing this kind of thing out however is going to take time, and, if
> it's part of the project, will delay getting the EOMA-68 card itself
> made up.

Sure, but at least when the EOMA cards arrive, they'll be useful to more 
than a handful of people.

Gordan