2004: My Next Wireless Phone

[Geoff Shang]

Hi:

I only managed to find one page on the site about the phone, and that was
in the news section.

http://www.owasys.com/accesible_en/new14.html

If there's an actual product page, I'd like to know where it is.

As much as I like the idea of a phone that's designed for our needs and
that runs Linux, I have to say that I have the same reservations as I do
about any custom solutions rather than adaptations of regular devices.
How long will it take this phone to become out of date?  How speedy will
development of the next model be?  How long will it continue to be
developed, given the relatively small returns from a niche market?  An
accessible solution from a major phone manufacturer is bound to have a
longer lifespan and be kept up to date more, due to the fact that it's only
one of an entire product line which can and is being used by everyone (well
most).  We saw the same with sharp products. They made excellent talking
clocks, calculators, even talking video remotes.  But each product went off
the market.  Why?  Because, I'm guessing, of the relatively small returns
that came from the R&D money required to develop them.  If one of, say,
Nokia's phones was shipped with accessibility features built in, then it
would be snapped up by not only us, but the average Joe on the street, as
phones are.  The average user would just be buying it because it was the
next new phone, but their doing so would (1) help to keep the price down
(by dividing the extra development costs among more buyers), and (2) ensure
its continued success due to more people buying it.

Disclaimer: I am not an economist, nor do I pretend to have studied any
form of economics.  It just seems like common sense to me.

Geoff.