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Crowdfunding a Replicant Smartphone

Added by Allan Mwenda over 7 years ago

Have the replicant devs considered this option for getting new device(s) for the project? I do believe it would go well what with smartphones getting more and more closed down and malicious, the need is definitely there. Crowdsupply [https://www.crowdsupply.com/] seems a great place to fund the project if it is viable. Regards.


Replies (2)

RE: Crowdfunding a Replicant Smartphone - Added by Lukas M over 7 years ago

Hi Allan,

crowdfunded and open devices are already existing or beeing developed, e.g. the Tinkerphones GTA04/Letux 2804 [1] or Neo900 [2].
Some of them even have (partial) Replicant support [3] already. I was also able to boot/bringup Replicant 6 on the Letux 2804 a couple of weeks ago [4]!

Those project could need a little more support, or maybe even a crowdsupply campaign. But unfortunately making phones is very expensive on such a small niche scale (only a couple of hundred/thousand devices). Your help is appreciated!

BR,
Lukas

[1] http://www.tinkerphones.org
[2] http://www.neo900.org
[3] http://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/GTA04
[4] https://twitter.com/goldelico/status/808329554653810688

RE: Crowdfunding a Replicant Smartphone - Added by Allan Mwenda about 7 years ago

Hi Lukas,
I am aware at least of the neo900 and GTA04 (of which the Letux seems identical?) and they are indeed awesome projects. The idea I had though was to make a standard, pretty generic android phone, but with hardware known to work under replicant. The goal here to have a mass produced phone that runs replicant as the OS, instead of a niche device that won't appeal much outside the hacker community.
Think something like an Android One device, that's cheap with fairly decent performance, but runs Replicant (including working WiFi) It would also make a great development device I think

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