Sell used phones with UT installed.
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Anyone can buy used phones to load UT on and sell them on Ebay. This would spread the UT name and it would take little organization. Anyone with UT experience could do it on their own in a heartbeat. There is a market for non-android phones. This forum has many comments about being sick of android. This idea has little competition and takes little funding or organization. At this stage of UT's growth, making UT available to those anxious for an alternative to android would spur demand and name recognition. The hard part for non-technical persons is installing UT. I've done it twice and it wasn't easy. Third attempt failed due to bad start button on phone. Will retry after replacing switch.
Later, marketing a new phone with UT installed may be workable, but I know nothing of the costs or how to go about getting manufacturing done. Maybe some phone makers would take custom orders for a large number of phones at low cost. Pinephone might be agreeable to giving some advice. I've seen a couple Nexus 5 UT phones for sale on Ebay for $120 each. That is twice the price of the same phones with android still on them. I don't know what they sold for. Just thought it might be worth bringing up on the forum.
Thanks for listening.
jjconstr -
@jjconstr Something very similar has been mentioned before as far as ebay goes and selling UT devices. People are free to put links to devices with UT installed in the Off Topic section of the forum, but all selling and price detail etc are to be conducted away from the Forum.
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@jjconstr Since it's GNU software it'd be totally okay to resell devices with it on, in fact I've seen them go for as much as £170 (and that's a completed listing), the only thing I'd be worried about is people who don't know what they're buying purchasing one without knowing what they're getting into
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@ImmyChan Good comment, appreciate it. that concern should be covered if language was added boldly and strongly enough in an ad. Hard for most to miss large obvious print. It would only be fair to warn the phone is not for the faint of heart, not for everyone.
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@Lakotaubp Sorry to post on an issue that had been discussed before. I searched and couldn't find previous posts on the subject.
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@jjconstr Not a problem. You may have reminded others by doing so. Which is always good.
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@Lakotaubp I do not know how far away we are to the move to 20.04, because Dalton said something about dropping support on some models. I don't know how much it could hurt Ubports if we were selling phones on Ebay that wont be supported after a while.
4 Google Pixel 3A
1 Google Nexus 6P
2 Google Nexus 5
2 Pinephones
2 Sony Xperia X -
@Rondarius I mean, it happens with Android phones all the time, we have to be transparent about removing support for devices though.
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@Rondarius We won't be not as UBports. All that has been mentioned is as above. If an individual wants to sell a device with UT on eBay they can mention the fact and add the link in Off Topic and that's it. Everything else is conducted on eBay in the normal manor.
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@PhoenixLandPirat
You are right about that. -
@jjconstr Possibly but a lot of people still don't care, for example a while ago I sold an old iMac saying clearly that it wouldn't do modern things but the buyer still complained
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@Lakotaubp I think he means, if people are buying them, expecting a long support life, just to be cut off in half a year or so, they might feel burnt by the project.
He's not really talking about the sales, more the EOL and which devices people should buy if they want a device to get support for another 2+ years.
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@hammerhead said in Sell used phones with UT installed.:
I think the Meizu phones would absolutley sell the best to the average consumer since they're so pretty, but tbh I'd rather a Nexus 5 or something since Meizus can be a bit finicky
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@PhoenixLandPirat That's why I said in the normal way for eBay. Buyer beware, do your research first before buying etc.etc. The transaction will be between two individuals and have nothing to do with UBports directly.
No different to the selling of any other branded item that is out of warranty, support or updates. Nexus 5 anyone.
I honestly can't see it being an issue. -
@PhoenixLandPirat said in Sell used phones with UT installed.:
@Lakotaubp I think he means, if people are buying them, expecting a long support life, just to be cut off in half a year or so, they might feel burnt by the project.
He's not really talking about the sales, more the EOL and which devices people should buy if they want a device to get support for another 2+ years.
Is there any support for phones in this price range, $150 and under, that have support for 2+ years? Most have none at all. They're used.
Isn't the next verzion of UT coming out soon? That may be supported for a while too. Of course, some people can never be satisfied. But look at the price differences of Linux phones and the new high end models sold at the major stores. Up to $1200 and some pay $2000 or more. How can anyone be justified for being angry when a phone for $150 or less with an alternate OS doesn't meet the same expectations of the top dollar phones? They can't, not reasonably. Just give them their money back. It will still do good toward educating the masses about android alternatives. As the name recognition grows, so will the numbers of interested users, developers and contributors. In this price range only used phones and old/new models are available. Our UT phones compare very favourably to them. I'm new to this, so please forgive me if my thoughts are not always matured.
Good discussion, all.
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@jjconstr I'm not 100% sure but I believe that its a legal requirement for phones to get at least 2 years of support?
Dont get me wrong, the OPO, N5, and FP2 have had an extended life using ubuntu touch, the problem isn't ubports dropping support, the problem is that they're all being recommended with no to little warning about the length of support.
If on the UBports devices page, it had a amber warning sign saying "Wont be supported after 20.04" or "Support in investigation" then it'd be easier for people to decide if they should buy the device or not, and if you say its not, or might not have a long life, then when people buy it, and support ends, they can be "well, I was warned" instead of being like "I bought this device, no one told me it wasn't going to be supported, I've waisted my money now"
I think you're pretty safe selling a device at the moment, because I dont think anything before the move to 20.04 will be a big enough blocker to be worth the stop of support for those devices, but the longer it goes on, the less safe it is, until a marker is placed to say when the device/s will stop being supported.
EOL is fine, EOL is needed sometimes, its impossible to support devices forever, and so I'm happy for UBports to drop support when it need be, but you need to tell people in advance, or people are going to feel burnt, and might feel resentful, just let people know if the device they're buying might get a cut off date sooner than they think, its easier to stop people from feeling burnt, and dealing with people who are mad because we cut support, if they get the news in advance.
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Just about the support :
When we talk about phones with a very long development of a community OS, we are not, in the same case as commercial phones already sold with preinstalled OSes fully operational for daily use. And even for Pinephone and probably Volla phone, sold with preinstalled OSes will not be 100 operational when sold.It is therefore surely very delicate to define a support period for phones with a very long development of the community OS.
As far as UT is concerned, they have always said (clearly written on Ubports site outside Q and A, I don't know), that support would be as long as it is technologically acceptable for the phone and while maintaining a certain degree of security.
The oldest Community phones are also the most operational phones: from the user's point of view, the stop of support can only be determined when a minimum of fully operational alternatives can be offered instead, which is not, as yet, the case! And offered with a transition period. As there are not only developers in a community, this has to be taken into account, otherwise there will be a lot of grumbling!
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@PhoenixLandPirat said in Sell used phones with UT installed.:
@jjconstr I'm not 100% sure but I believe that its a legal requirement for phones to get at least 2 years of support?
Are you kidding? What support do you talk about? In Europe legal warranty is two years, so hardware have 2 years support yes, but software is farwest support!
I bought an LG Optimus 3D as my first smartphone, got an update less than six months after, and that was all support from LG.Thanks to XDA forum, i had another update 6 months later from Korea O3D model that LG never ported to Europe. and then it was a deprecated device 2 years after purchase.
Finally i got sick of androïd western plateform where manufacturers make software obsolescence their economic model, and searched for an alternative, and Canonical was here, i bought their meizu MX4 and still have it 5 years later.
