Timeline Librem 5

From market research found on the net, it turns out that almost 4 in 5 buyers have spent more than 400 euros for the new smartphone (19.2%), followed by those who spent between 170 euros and 249 (18.6%).
I do not know if it is possible but if the librem5 cost around 300 euros the market penetration would be greater.
if to be safer I have to spend € 600, and with customs taxes we get to about 720, how many people are willing to do it? and how many people would do it to get a phone that has no sharing application with friends? (facebook, whatsup, etc.).
I personally do not believe that this phone, which I bought, will be widely distributed.
I was aware when I bought the phone in the crowfunding campaign that the phone, in the initial phase of research and design, cost more than its intrinsic value.
Only if the price goes down (and personally I would be happy to see the price go down for a big spread).
“Freedom for the masses” also passes through those who commit themselves, when they can, to others.
Freedom also passes through this.

Exactly correct.

It’s a niche device currently so it will be hard to sell it at high volumes, so what they have to do to be able to not lose money on the product is to make it more expensive. Producing low-volumes of such a complicated thing as a smartphone is very expensive. Same thing goes for the rest of Purisms products.

One day they might not be a niche product anymore, but for now you will have to pay a high pricetag for Purism products.

If you’ve bought one of these, you’re an early adopter.

And part of the price you pay is a higher price.

I usually buy tech by looking at the “bend” in the price curve, because there’s no point in spending huge money now for something that’s just going to drop significantly in price in less than a year. It saves aggravation.

But in this case, it’s different. I am SICK of carrying around a spy and I am seeing more and more people waking up to this, so I’ll spend a bit more (and deal with the inevitable teething problems and lack of some apps) to push this along.

And (if it works out) you may see the price DROP a lot in the future. I remember that happened with iPhones and many of the people who had bought them early (and paid more) were mad about that. They didn’t understand what “early adopter” meant.

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@Kevin1
You will likely have to rely on a web browser for many things. Regardless of what people say, this is an extremely niche market. It appeals to various sorts of people, including hackers, free software/open source enthusiasts, people looking for improved data security, or privacy from ad platforms, anti-big business/establishment people, and political idealists of various sorts. It is certainly not for people who don’t care, or people who want convenience.

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The only app I care about is Spotify. If Purism start their own music streaming service with a 40M+ tracks catalog, I’ll cancelled my Spotify subscription. But I don’t think this will happen any time soon.

I don’t want to download pirated mp3s (this will not happens) just to be able to play the music I want on my phone. Steaming services is the way to go. Spotify already have a Linux client (Snap package) so I don’t think this will be a big work to have it on Librem 5 (which I just pre-ordered). :slight_smile:

I wrote another post about this: Librem 5 apps e.g kik..snapchat..etc

Basically, PureOS will not out of the box support non-free applications.
That being said, Ubuntu Touch supports all of the applications listed either via Anbox or the App Store.
Here are the links to the apps: Whatsapp, Slack, Spotify

More info with Purism and Ubuntu Touch: https://puri.sm/posts/ubports-ubuntu-touch-on-librem5-collaboration/

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whatsapp, Spotify, and other services have the web alternative to the Android app, which means that it’s possible to make the HTML5 apps out of them easly.
I used whatsapp for a year or so, then i decided to ditch it because it got bought from facebook. I said to my friends that i will never ever use it again, no matter what, and explained why. After a while the last stubborn switched to Telegram too. I wish i could use Matrix but that’s askin’ too much. Matrix is only for Linux users that have Linux friends. I don’t. .—.

Engels formulated a general idea very well but I cannot see that it is applicable to Librem 5 denying the possibility to run Android apps - even those spy apps that are fairly common. Engels’ point was more that it is not “freedom” eg. to jump over a cliff and think you can fly (without any equipment). It is stupidity, not freedom, to defy laws of nature (or economic laws in Engels opinion). Unfortunately there are lots of people who are … not aware of the problems with spying apps. Probably more scandals are needed before the general awareness is awoken.

Personally I do not use those apps but I think they should be available on Librem 5 anyway. People must take responsibility for their own security and privacy. The way to go is to enlighten them (if you can). The really important contribution is that Librem 5 makes it possible to avoid those spying devices. That means we get more freedom. You could say that Librem 5 is a necessity if you want to avoid spyware.

Also there are Android apps which are very useful and do not spy on you.

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