notes and views on crm, social media, and the human side of information technology

My search for the perfect Linux smartphone

OK I’M A GEEK. No surprise there. And I didn’t really need all those gadgets I got, like the oh-so-sexy Zaurus SL5500 that I’ve recently given to my wife. But I can’t find a cure for my affliction, and lately I’ve been looking for another time-waster: a Linux cellphone.

My reasons:

  • Philosophical: current market leaders (Symbian, Windows Mobile, and the rest) provide closed-source platform with limited options for user control. I believe open platforms ultimately bring more value to the customer, regardless of whether he feels he ought to be in control or not.
  • Practical: I have needs that are common (making and receiving calls, texting my pals, etc.) and less-so (for instance, logging into remote console to restart a server). You could argue that I could do the latter using another device, to which I say: the technology is mature enough so that I could do that with my phone, so why can’t I?

I don’t want a company to decide what I can and cannot do with my phone. And I want to install whatever application the phone’s hardware can handle regardless of whether it’s supposed to run on a phone or not.

This is about CRM 2.0, folks: the customer isn’t a passive recipient of whatever value businesses throw at him but an active participant in the value creation process.

So I’ve begun my search but the results aren’t definitive just yet. Let me re-cap the current offering and ask you all to chip in if you know about anything I should know about:

  1. imcosys smartphone:
  2. trolltech greenphone:
  3. fic neo1973

All of them run Linux, but only the imcosys phone can currently be purchased. The Trolltech’s product is only available to developers and the FIC’s cannot be found on the manufacturer’s website despire rumours it was to be released this January.

Out of the three, I suppose the FIC is closest to what I’d like since it’s based on the openmoko platform. It’s based on an understanding that no one can truly foresee all the needs there are. Quoting from their wonderful presentation from the “Open Source in Mobile” conference in Amsterdam:

“How will we understand the needs of diverse customers spanning the entire world?

(dramatic pause)

“We can’t. We never will. And we shouldn’t even even try.

So the idea is to build a basic phone that’s as customizable as an everyday Linux PC. And I love that and applaud that. The mobile phone market needs a great “opening up” similar to what introduction of the x86 platform did for personal computing.

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March 28, 2007 | Filed Under CRM, Open Source 

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