Volla phone (is back and) will be a new UT phone in 2020
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The sum is too ambitious. The market is full, some other options for privacy already exist right now (/e/, Lineage), and they need to find more than 1,000 investors in 40 days... The product is good, but nobody wants to pay 300 euros now to have a phone in one year. Crowdfunding is not a very good option to launch a phone for a new company... There have been some other examples by the past.
What I don't understand is that they already have a working prototype and are already porting UT on it... So what the kickstarter is supposed to pay ? Not R&D, as they seem to have already done this part of the job... Kind of a suicide to invest in the product first, develop it until it's ready for mass-production (or so it seems), and after that make it depend on a 350,000 euros crowdfunding campaign...
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@Pookie said in Volla phone might be (or not) a new UT phone in 2020:
The product is good, but nobody wants to pay 300 euros now to have a phone in one year. Crowdfunding is not a very good option to launch a phone for a new company...
That's exactly what Fairphone did
I was one of the people investing 350€ when there was no real guarantee that's I'd get a working phone after roughly one year.
They were a little different though, as they said they were gonna use a licensed design for the phone and would run an existing OS (Android). -
@makeixo Its better not to start with a feature-heavy device, you need to get expertise on the manufactoring process, on software support etc. The cheaper the unit the easier it is to make fixes. So while the first PinePhone iteration might not convince all consumers, its a necessary step, and every other vendor (I dont mention the name here hehe) which tries to jump up the stairs might fall off instead
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@Flohack If I understand it right, the manufacturer would be Gigaset. I dont know if the quality of their products is good but they produce Smartphones for some years now.
Dont get it wrong I dont criticize pine64. Its amazing what they do but for me its not a daily driver device. Maybe I will buy one if I learn to code.
By the way. I still have an Xperia X. Maybe when the port supports the device fully and anbox is ready, I will switch from SFOS to UT.
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@domubpkm Maybe the problem is that up to 490k you "only" get an Android phone. I would back it, if I get an UT phone.
I am wondering what happens to the prototype when they dont reach the goal.
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@Pookie said in Volla phone might be (or not) a new UT phone in 2020:
What I don't understand is that they already have a working prototype and are already porting UT on it...
This is a very good question.
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@Ingo
Well yes, Fairphone is the only successful example I know, for several failures (Ubuntu, Jolla...). I guess that fairphone offered a product that could find a broad audience, bring ethics in the smartphone world. Good shotBut for volla, what do they promise? Another piece of hardware. Okay, we have already too many of them and it becomes difficult to make a choice. A new android-based ROM focused on privacy. Well, the design looks okay, but nobody cares about this. There are already so many ways to tweak android... Ordinary people don't care about privacy and think that when they have an iPhone they're as far as they can on that point. People who really care about privacy already have solutions (Lineage with microg, /e/), some of them easily available for non-techs (/e/ pre-loaded on a Samsung).
There is the promise that they will support UT, and only for that I could consider investing on the product, because the hardware looks far better than pinephone. But if it is simply a clone of a gigaset model, as some have said here, we could hope to have the port available even if Volla fails... -
Yesterday UBports has began to communicate about Volla Phone so I ask a question for next Q&A: https://forums.ubports.com/topic/3360/ubuntu-touch-q-a-63-this-saturday-16th-of-november-at-19-00-utc/3
Donate anonymously 1€/$ by year to UBports, all Ubuntu Touch users can do it ! Demonstration:
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/1262/donate-anonymously-1-by-year-to-ubports-all-ubuntu-touch-users-can-do-it-demonstration/ -
@libremax said in Volla phone might be (or not) a new UT phone in 2020:
Yesterday UBports has began to communicate about Volla Phone
Where?
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@Fla Everywhere UBports is present: twitter, facebook, mastodon, telegram, this forum
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the specs sound a little like the GS290
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I still find it hard to understand if we will go somewhere with this phone and if there will be a second campaign that will be able to convince or another form of approach to the user customer who needs concrete quickly and the concrete is the pinphone for the moment in my opinion (not yet in daily use it's true).
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@Mic_ I dont think there is any.
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Four letters and a rhyme.
It does lead to some confusion though.
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Volla is back on kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/volla/volla-phone-designed-with-simplicity-and-security-in-mind?ref=3sdaga
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Oh well this time it looks much more reasonnable.
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6.3 inch screen? Dammit when will this stop, 5 is already too big for me...
