WiFi testing status
Wolfgang Spraul
wolfgang at sharism.cc
Sun Feb 28 03:24:20 EST 2010
Ron,
> Is this the elephant in the room we are all ignoring? ;)
No.
> The ability to add WiFi to Nanonote would obviously
> yield very happy results in terms of sales.
Wi-Fi status from me comes in two parts:
---1 technical
Lars described it, and if he says works 'quite well' then I think it really
does work.
---2 business
Only speaking for Sharism here: A lot of work was done to make a
proof-of-concept that the SDW-823 card could actually work. I believe in
the next official image it will work out of the box, so that's cool.
The card is currently available at Expansys worldwide, although in most
countries only as 'special order' and for high prices.
With the Ben NanoNote, we have demonstrated that we can execute quite a few
things around hardware production. We got the stuff built, certified, shipped,
etc. But copyleft hardware was never a technical challenge for me, it is
a business challenge. Our challenge now is software and marketing.
Once copyleft hardware is in the hands of any normal person, it feels and
behaves exactly like any other piece of proprietary hardware. No secrets
inside, no patents, can 'rebuild' sources, can manufacture improved
versions - come on!
Ben NanoNotes are in stock in:
Barcelona, Spain: http://www.tuxbrain.com
Germany: http://www.pulster.de
Netherlands: http://openmobile.nl
Jaipur, India: http://www.idasystems.net
rest of world: http://nanonote.cc
(I think Daniel works on US)
Sorry that I hijack your Wi-Fi question to promote NanoNotes, but for Sharism
at least, we need to sell those fine pieces of copyleft hardware now.
If someone thinks adding a Wi-Fi card will make it sell more, great, we
prepared all the pieces. I can give you the sales contact at Spectec, you
can order 100 SDW-823 for 50 USD each. Higher volumes will bring down
the price, at 1000 you might already be around 40 USD a piece.
The Ben as it is has huge potential, we are nowhere near maxing it out. Just
compare the out-of-the-box experience today with what is realistically
imaginable with better software!
Did you order a NanoNote yet? Can you organize a group sale at a LUG?
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Group_Sales
We are collecting shipping data for more and more countries, so people feel
better about ordering, see
http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Shipping_Notes
Can you talk about Ben NanoNote on a blog?
Wi-Fi - distraction.
USB Host - distraction.
That's honestly how I feel (personally). I want to max out the Ben now,
naturally because Sharism the company I work for needs to sell it. You
would do the same if you were me...
:-)
Wolfgang
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