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Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
Smartphone users are usually torn between the two choice — Android or iOS. Their dominance is such that other competing OS like Windows, BlackBerry OS, or Symbian have almost been abandoned.Those who don't want either of them can opt for Pine64's Linux phone dubbed the PinePhone which offers good hardware and software at an affordable rate of $149.
The phone's specs aren't great, but it does include a headphone jack (I wonder if it's capable of using the JACK audio system?) and the article notes that it may provide physical switches for disabling various components. The company behind it, Pine64, also produce the PineBook Linux laptop, which also use an ARM processor.
Source: https://fossbytes.com/pinephone-linux-smartphone-149/
Related: Kickstarter: Pine A64, Cheaper and More Powerful than Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 02 2019, @03:39AM
That sounds right. The real selling point is, you have root, not the telco, or the manufacturer. The phone is unlocked, and ready to do whatever YOU want, without reporting to anyone.
It has been noted previously, in other discussions on SN, that many or most feature phones belong to Google, not to you. A typical $99 feature phone won't do much of anything unless and until you sign into Google. Storage is absolutely minimal, and it won't recognize an SD card. The thing is a surveillance tracker, plain and simple.
I don't have experience with all of the burners on the market, of course, but I presume the ones I have fooled with are typical.
So, yeah, if the telcos can market a fairly nice feature phone for $75 to $125, then a lower end Linux phone can probably make a little profit selling at $150. Not a lot, maybe, but some. The CEO can afford to dine out some place classier than McDonalds or Pizza Hut.