From: Frank Gruendel (fg2_at_pda-soft.de)
Date: Sat Mar 26 2005 - 06:43:28 PST
Hi gang,
I have finally managed to get in touch with Florian
Biehler, creator of the ingenious FreeDock of which
you can find a review here:
http://www.pda-soft.de/freedock.html (english)
http://www.pda-soft.de/ge_freedock.html (german)
I have tried to talk him into checking if manufacturing
another batch of FreeDocks would be possible at all.
This depends on a fair amount of things like finding
someone who will make the case in small quantities,
finding connectors, having the logic board made in small
quantities and about two dozens of other
things that need to be figured out.
If it is possible at all, he might do it, but he
isn't interested in marketing them himself. I would
be willing to buy the lot off him to make this ingenious
device available to the Newton community again. However,
Florian quoted a roughly estimated price of between 100
and 150 Euros, so if this was possible at all and
a production run of e. g. 20 units was made, this might
set me back 3000 Euros. I am willing to take
that risk, but obviously I would like to get an idea of
how big a risk it is.
If you are interested in a FreeDock, please answer privately
(answers to the list will automatically be disqualified...)
Please let me know the following:
1) How much would you be willing to spend as a maximum for
a FreeDock? Please be honest. It won't be more expensive
for you if it can be manufactured cheaper just because
you quoted a higher price.
2) Would you buy one if it was 150 Euros?
3) If you consider 150 Euros too much, how much would you
be willing to spend?
4) Would you consider a transparent FreeDock more valuable
than the standard black one?
5) If you would, which transparency color would you prefer?
(Clear like glass, greenish like eMate, ...)
At the moment I am solely interested in replies from people
who don't have a problem being taken up on what they said if
we are lucky enough to make this possible. As I said, 100% of
the risk would be on my side, so I will expect people who
confirmed they'd buy a FreeDock at a particular price to really
buy it if it actually becomes available at that price.
Starting Monday, I might not be able to answer my mail as
promptly as I usually do for about a week. Don't worry if
your mail remains unanswered for some time, I will get in
touch with you as soon as I am back.
Frank
-- Newton software and hardware at http://www.pda-soft.de
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Mar 30 2005 - 02:30:02 PST