NXP and Purple Labs Unveil Sub-$100 3G Linux Mobile Phone [LWN.net]

NXP and Purple Labs have announced an inexpensive Linux mobile phone. "NXP Semiconductors, the independent semiconductor company founded by Philips, and Purple Labs, a leading supplier of embedded Linux solutions for mobile phones, jointly announced today the release of a 3G Linux reference feature phone offering video telephony, music playback, high-speed Internet browsing and video streaming at a transfer price below US$100. The new Purple Magic phone serves as a reference design for phone manufacturers creating entry-level 3G handsets, including those targeting mobile markets such as Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America."

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NXP and Purple Labs Unveil Sub-$100 3G Linux Mobile Phone

Posted Jan 31, 2008 22:01 UTC (Thu) by wertigon (guest, #42963) [Link]

Interesting. Any indication of when it's to hit the market? If it's good enough I might buy
it. Been thinking of getting a Neo1973, but with all it's delays and whatnot... Well, this is
a promising alternative. :)

NXP and Purple Labs Unveil Sub-$100 3G Linux Mobile Phone

Posted Jan 31, 2008 22:58 UTC (Thu) by deleteme (subscriber, #49633) [Link]

It's a reference design, perhaps we will know more after it is shown off in February 11-14..

They aperantly developed for the Dreamphone, and I quote: However, users will not be able to easily modify the phone to run Linux kernels of their own implementation

NXP and Purple Labs Unveil Sub-$100 3G Linux Mobile Phone

Posted Feb 1, 2008 9:36 UTC (Fri) by fergal (subscriber, #602) [Link]

What's a "transfer price"? Whatever it is, I presume it's not the price I would end up paying for an unlocked model - otherwise they'd just say "price".

NXP and Purple Labs Unveil Sub-$100 3G Linux Mobile Phone

Posted Feb 1, 2008 10:28 UTC (Fri) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]

Actually, I took it to mean exactly what you wished, as in "the price to 
transfer the unlock", as opposed to "the price, often quoted as "free", at 
which the phone comes with a lockin contract of some several years 
duration".

Of course, those in the "Free Software" community should realize more than 
anyone that the "free" above isn't really "Free", due to those 
contracts...

OTOH (here comes the disclaimer!), I don't have a mobile as I've simply 
not been able to justify the monthly cost over a wired dedicated phone 
service, which BTW I now can't justify over that of VoIP (FWIW over wired 
cable modem), so I follow the industry only at a bit of distance.  As 
such, it wasn't worth reading the full article, so the above is perhaps 
simply naive optimism. =8^]

Duncan

NXP and Purple Labs Unveil Sub-$100 3G Linux Mobile Phone

Posted Feb 1, 2008 16:42 UTC (Fri) by rise (guest, #5045) [Link]

And I'd read it as "price transferred to user", i.e. after the lock-in subsidy.  Decoding a
term of art without reference doesn't work very well.

NXP and Purple Labs Unveil Sub-$100 3G Linux Mobile Phone

Posted Feb 1, 2008 11:25 UTC (Fri) by Richard_J_Neill (subscriber, #23093) [Link]

How does this compare to the OpenMoko ?