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Jake - 2022-12-19 7:27 PM
Mark, isn't GPD based in Hong Kong, which is more of a victim than perpetrator these days?
Not sure about GPD location, had assumed they were in China, but you may be right....and yes, they are certainly a victim these days....sad to say...
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But your purchasing point is well-taken with regard to Chinese politics. Not all buyers are as sagacious as you, but if China rolls into Taiwan, even the blindest buyer may see something; there could be a lot of boycotts. I'm flashing back to Freedom Fries...
Thanks....and you're certainly correct, there will likely be backlash if China rolls into Taiwan.....although sad to say, not sure for how long....
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And hey, re: PC--you ordered your stuff, your stuff came, your stuff worked. I think that's great and we need those kinds of success stories. So hats off to you, and maybe even to PC.
Thanks....
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Since PC does use some of the cheapest hardware, and they get literally millions usd in backing, I can't imagine why their staff would be skeletal. Cutting off your nose to spite your face... Or maybe PC's going Hannibal Lector, cutting off the face to spite the nose.
Well, there's cost of designing the devices, making prototypes, sourcing and advance purchase costs of main components
(CPU chips, etc
), costs of other components
(custom boards, displays, etc
), custom case/keyboard designs/fabrication, etc, etc.
There's costs for software engineers to customizing Android for their devices, and updating the Planet apps, cellular radio design/testing, etc.
There's costs to rent office in UK
(at least they did have a London office, don't know if they still do
), warehouse costs in Hong Kong, marketing and promotion costs, insurance, and other ongoing general business expenses, including staff salaries, etc.
So, money is going out continuously and due to production issues the past two years, they haven't been able to scale up production so that shipped all the backer perks and then take in more funds from people buying at retail price on their website or elsewhere. Think that is where the gravy would be. Doubt they make much on the backer perks deals, probably just enough to stay afloat.
From what I could tell a few years ago, in UK they had 3 or 4 leaders plus a few support staff
(software/hardware support
) and maybe an admin or two. So, guessing somewhere between 6 to 12 people. In order to pay people salaries and some benefits, tax, etc, you figure it costs at least 1.5 - 3X salary for everything.
Add all of the above costs up, and I'm telling you, I think Planet can barely make it financially with only about 2.5 years taking in backer perks costs. They've only taken in about $2.86M on the Indiegogo site. So, that means they'd be operating on about $1.1M/year for the Astro campaign, plus whatever they made on the Makuake
(spelling?
) campaign in Japan....maybe another +/- $1M/year ??? plus maybe a bit on continued sales of Cosmos? Still if you think about it, this is running a company on a shoestring....undercapitalized, so think they were hoping to bootstrap themselves into being able to scale up through having successful Indiegogo campaigns, then selling a lot of devices at higher retail prices. But in current environment I think they are always running behind financially as they have to pay their ongoing costs, but can't produce enough devices to get their productions costs down to make some real money on them and use profits to expand, etc. ie, think it's a vicious circle now, hard to get out of....probably their best bet would be if a bigger company would buy them out. However, I doubt Janko wants to do that and lose control of his baby.....
Don't have much hard facts to prove the above, other than I ran my own business for 14 years and understand the myriad of monthly costs that never end, even if you have periods where little income is coming in as well as having had clients who run large hi-tech companies, and learned a lot from them about costs of running those businesses, and some other experiences.
Bottom-line, my intuition tells me it's a real struggle for a tiny company like PC to make in this challenging environment.
Just my 2¢, well, given all I wrote, maybe 3¢.....
Hope it's somewhat clear..... sorry for the long ramble....
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And re: the Fxtec Pro1. An US seller has them available new via ebay, but I just read a recent scorching review that seems to level the same PC-like charges: antiquated hardware, ancient Android, and shoddy-at-best Linux development. Surprisingly, the kb was the one positive. I wonder about the customer service; Fxtec might have a better one. The phone is tied tightly to XDA and those guys in their parents' basements often pull back their Star Trek shower curtains to shoot from the hip. I'm always careful when I post over there, since it's a hair-trigger place. I don't want XDA mad at me. Maybe Fxtec doesn't, either.
Hmmm....yes, sounds familiar.....
Is PinePhone related to one of the devices you mention or different?
As for XDA, yeah, that place is unique and can be almost as friendly to novices like me as the Arch forums...
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I'm nursing my wife through some scary-mary open heart surgery (valve repair) and I must be doing something right since she keeps asking if I want to buy something. My Pixel 4a is cheap and functional but I do miss a laptop phone.
Jake
Whoah....sorry to hear about your wife's surgery....hope she gets well/back on her feet soon! Although it sounds good if she asks you about buying something....unless that's just the anesthesia wearing off.....in that case, buy now....
Will think positive for the two of you!
Best wishes,
Mark