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The Commodore Callback 8020 smart flip phone

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Re: The Commodore Callback 8020 smart flip phone

#21

Regarding the price: the reality with all these alternative phones (e.g. the clicks communicator) is that you are going to have to pay a premium to make them worthwhile for the manufacturers. Scale (and the spyware economy) are what allow the larger companies to produce cheaper "better" phones, so comparing a phone like this with them on price isn't super productive. If you want something different than what the mass…

Wonder why pine can't do this? Not dissing on commodore. With hallucinated apps, the gap is going to be really small with play store

Re: The Commodore Callback 8020 smart flip phone

#23

Regarding the price: the reality with all these alternative phones (e.g. the clicks communicator) is that you are going to have to pay a premium to make them worthwhile for the manufacturers. Scale (and the spyware economy) are what allow the larger companies to produce cheaper "better" phones, so comparing a phone like this with them on price isn't super productive. If you want something different than what the mass…

That unihertz "Jelly Star" with it's small size and rounded corners looks like a good prison phone choice, but still a bit of a "stretch".

Re: The Commodore Callback 8020 smart flip phone

#26

It looks awesome but I’d need to be able to swap an eSIM easily to switch back and forth from an iPhone.

eSIMs can't be swapped by design to increase lock-in. That's why I never buy a phone that requires an eSIM or use a carrier that only issues an eSIM.

Re: The Commodore Callback 8020 smart flip phone

#27

Regarding the price: the reality with all these alternative phones (e.g. the clicks communicator) is that you are going to have to pay a premium to make them worthwhile for the manufacturers. Scale (and the spyware economy) are what allow the larger companies to produce cheaper "better" phones, so comparing a phone like this with them on price isn't super productive. If you want something different than what the mass…

Wonder why pine can't do this? Not dissing on commodore. With hallucinated apps, the gap is going to be really small with play store

Hallucinated apps are a delusion, and Pine is just yet another random Chinese company remixing surplus hardware. They don't care what happens with the software, that's the plus and minus of it. They don't lock down the software, but nor do they actually provide any. You can run Android on Pine... if you port Android to Pine.

I hear that in China they have a lot of franken-PCs reusing recycled chips because they have all the PCB-level design and manufacturing expertise but they can't make chips. They'll take a GPU off its graphics card and solder it onto a laptop, or the reverse, stuff like that. And each design in low quantities based on what models of e-waste they can get. Pine is one of that kind of company although not nearly as extreme. A lot of their plastic cases are repurposed from other devices. The A64 chip is designed to go in set-top boxes. They don't do low-hundred quantities based on e-waste, obviously, they are set up for mass production but they're still using whatever parts they can get their hands on that are surplus to other companies' requirements. That's half the reason they discontinued so many products.

Re: The Commodore Callback 8020 smart flip phone

#28
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overpriced relative to what? Phones that are produced at scale by the millions and so can have much lower prices due to economy of scale? That's going to be the case with anything produced in low volumes, but that doesn't mean they are overcharging for it. Most tech products are sold at somewhere around 3-4x what it costs the company to make them.

I have no idea how much it costs to produce this phone, but if you asked me how much it should cost, I'd say about 200 USD.

That's the hardware. How much do you have to add on to cover the designer and software people's salaries and the CEO's profit, if you're only going to be able to sell 5 phones?
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