Device support / life (was: community issues)

Wed Mar 14 21:04:33 CET 2007

Hi all and Wolfgang,
On Wed, Mar 14, 2007 at 08:12:48AM -0700, Wolfgang S. Rupprecht wrote:
[...]
> The second cent is that many folks here are looking at the developer's
> phone as simply a way of getting the consumer's phone 6 months early.
> These people obviously have never used early rev. engineering
> hardware. My experience is that it normally has plenty of hardware
> bugs that can't be easily fixed by the software engineer. Sometimes a
> if the bug is simple a few blue-wires and a few trace cuts are all
> that is needed, but I can't imagine it will be practical for hundreds
> of phones located in the far corners of the world. I think developers
> buying the engineering samples should think of them as essentially
> disposable with a shelf-life of 6 months. Once the consumer device is
> out software tends to stop supporting some of the weirder quirks of
> the early engineering hardware and that hardware rev is essentially
> orphaned.

I think, there are two things to look at there:
1) P0 phones:
 It was clear for nearly everybody, that the P0 phones
 are engineering hardware. At least I expected some
 hardware flaws and thus expected P0 developers to be
 experts in the embedded field.
 The P0 phones were free to them (modulo customs
 trouble). Which is IMHO the right thing for engineering
 samples.
 So, no "getting the consumer's phone 6 months early"
 here.
2) P1 phones
 a) I have not read anywhere, that the P1 phones will be
 "expect hardware issues" devices. And at least I did
 not have the impression, that FIC tries to trick us
 into being their hardware laboratory rats.
 I really hope FIC will either deliver proper hardware
 or be kind to people having paid 350ドル.
 (Warranty is also next corner.)
 b) At P1 start software is a completely different story.
 Full stop.
 c) I really hope against and can't see the orphaning of
 "older hardware".
 This is one of the base points of Sean: He doesn't
 want to buy a new phone, just because a new feature
 is out there (in this case "out there in the
 software"). He just wants to update the software and
 be happy.
 In a sense, the "getting the consumer's phone 6 months
 early" (modulo software!) seems true and I really hope
 for it being like this.
If I missed something, or am just using wishful thinking
can someone correct?
 Elrond