Kickstarter Smartphone

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nextbit/robin-the-smarter-smartphone

Interesting, surprising they went for a hardware play when the value is in their software solution.

The concern here is they’re trying to pay for both hardware, and recurring cloud costs with a fixed price model…which is not sustainable, unless people end up minimally utilizing the feature (which is the whole point of the phone?).

Not really feeling the pastel cube design, it feels like a Jr. ID Solidworks project.

They’re well on their way to funding though, so will be interesting to see how it shakes out and how high this one goes.

It looks like it will reach its funding goal on the first day.

Scott Croyle, founder of One & Co, is the Chief Product and Design Officer.

More info: the guys behind the design appear to be Branch in SF (founded by ex Fuse Project directors) and Cinco in Portland.
Pretty strong line up behind the product.

I am also not 100% convinced as to the ID and CMF but they are using a poppin’ font: Brown!
…which co-incidentally we are using too for all out communication :wink:

This has OUYA written all over it… count me out.

Design is fun, but will be terribly dated by the time the phone comes out. Unless perhaps they add some more CMF options when it’s time to confirm shipment address.

Cloud-storage is the inevitable way forward, but I don’t think the world is ready just yet. Although I’m happy to see their goal is reached and we’ll get to see how this plays out.

I like that they try not to be an iPhone. Now that you say One & Co., it does remind me of some HTC phones.

Really?

At this point in time, Cloud = my personal information, and quite possibly my personal safety, is accessible to everyone in the world

To me, that is a non-starter. Convince me otherwise.

If you use an Android phone, or an iPhone - 99% of your information is already stored in the Cloud. Both Google and Apple backup all of your information for the exact same reasons. But they generally limit the amount of space available for things like photo archives. Apple provides 5 gigs free (you can upgrade) and I’m not sure if Google has a limit.

If you are still on a flip phone, then this shouldn’t convince you otherwise.

The only novel thing this phone is suggesting is that on top of the standard layer of cloud backup (which already exists, perhaps they are hedging their bets on people not realizing that?) is that your apps and photos will be pulled off your local storage and backed up to the cloud, but restored when you need it.

To me this is fundamentally flawed:

-If I really want to recover an old app in real time, it will need to completely download again. This is not much different then just re-downloading from the play store/app store with the exception my data is kept in tact (if the app stores local data). That will chew up a lot of data if being done over 4G in our pay-per gig universe

-For people who create a ton of data (videos/photos) this would be great. But those cloud costs will become prohibitively expensive if left uncapped. Storage and data transfer is not free, and to try and bake years of that cost into a single purchase is a flawed business model that will not last.

I think this will last long enough for them to get enough funding to build their first batch of devices and pay for 12 months of cloud costs before their business eats them from the inside out and they go belly up. It would have been cheaper and smarter to just build a phone that came with a 128gig SD card than it would have to try and push tons of data back and forth to a server.

Now I’m confused. Which data exactly is being stored in the cloud currently and which is kept local? Because currently I am using a 64gb card to store images, music, and translation dictionaries. Seems to me that is a big chunk and not only 1%.

So what is kept on the cloud? Cookies from websites? Data generated from apps? System setup?

Would app specific data, for example my banking app, be backed up by Google? Or these guys offering the phone? I don’t mind entering a user agreement with the app provider, they take the responsibility to secure any data transfer to a third party. But I don’t recall giving Google access to that data.

If Google wants to wants to backup my solitaire scores, that’s one thing. But if Google is backing up my bank account numbers, social number that is generated from my banking app, that is another matter.

Was your goal to make me paranoid? You win. :smiley:

The main information that Google will keep is:

-Anything tied to your Google account (Gmail, docs, map locations, all of your search history)
-What apps you’ve downloaded and any registration/purchase information for those apps.
-In some cases, the application data (this includes your solitaire scores).
-System settings and preferences
-Images/video

Things like your social security #, and banking info are not local data (unless your app gives you an option to save your ID) - that’s all held on the cloud and just being displayed to you when you are in the app.

Music AFAIK is not synced to the cloud either, those are just local files. This is why if you drop your phone in the toilet and restore from your Gmail, it will look and feel just like your phone used to - because almost all of that info is coming back down from the cloud.

Goal is to not make paranoid, simply informed. I recommend you watch the South Park HumancentiPad episode about what happens when you don’t read the terms of service agreements. :wink:

Well, my second sentence was “the world is not ready”.

Think about how much we’ve moved to the cloud already.
I used to have a 60GB iPod with all my music. Now I have Spotify.
I used to burn DVD’s, buy empty boxes and print covers. Now I have Netflix and 2-3 other alternatives.
I used to remember passwords, buy paper tickets, print boarding cards, save receipts, receive bank statements… now I have Gmail.
I used to lose touch with half of my friends every time I lost a mobile phone. Now I can pick up a brand new phone and have all my contacts back in under 60 seconds, not asking a single one what their number is.

Next step is unloading the computing power. It has been happening on workstations and terminals for a long time now. I can run photoshop elements, word, excel, powerpoint on my cellphone by logging into a virtual desktop through Citrix. That is what I’m getting at with the inevitable way forward, also on mobile platforms. But for me to cut the cord and rely on the cloud the network coverage should be 110% reliable, 110% coverage, much faster, and much cheaper. We’re far far from there.

Regarding sensitive data… It’s a big issue. But that is one thing that could actually be stored locally. In some way that the data is useless without the app (if you lose you phone) and the app is useless without your data (if someone hacked the cloud storage). The data could be stored at some third party you trust - your bank perhaps? Or maybe the encryption will improve dramatically? Again - the world is not ready, yet.

Whats the difference between gmail having all that info in there vs this version of “the cloud”? Just the perceived protection Goggle offers in their cloud?

Correct.

Performance and security. Not there yet and I don’t think this phone will advance the cause in any way.

My gmail does not have any sensitive data. At least I don’t consider addresses and phone numbers to be sensitive. Maybe if I had Donald Trump’s number …

But if you are asking if my bank’s server is more secure than google’s, the answer would be no. I figure the less I am out there the better. I like anonymity. I have no need for strangers to know anything about me. I don’t think using my phone to unlock a door is any easier than using a key. And if I am out of milk, I won’t drink milk. I won’t be purchasing a shack in Montana with a typewriter, but I not willing share everything with everybody either. I don’t see what’s in it for me and I see a lot of potential downside.

Performance issues I agree with but, do you really believe your data on any internet connected device or cloud server will ever be secure? Marketing departments are just waiting to make such claims (without being laughed out of the market) for new future phone designs.

It appears the silicon valley has been busy in the last few quarters trying to push the next wave of hand held computing, tracking, communication and monitoring devices/systems. Ex-CEO of Apple John Sculley and SF based design firm Ammunition have put together a competitive <US$200 price point that will go head to head with this kickstarter play.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3050406/how-ammunition-and-apples-ex-ceo-plan-to-disrupt-the-design-center-of-the-smartphone-world#2

The only thing new being offered here on the Kickstarter Robin phone that does not already exist is the bloat ware management feature. If they can pull that off without upsetting my day trading, share economy and group communication apps when I really need them, then this is a feature that I want in a phone that has a higher degree of form sophistication.

It is very interesting to see how these large American tech company guys leave their firms and start ventures like this hoping to create a new market. This would be sacrilegious here in South Korea land of the Chaebol monarchy firms.

I think performance and security of any cloud-based device is horrible. And a phone will never fix the underlying architectural problems.

But that is the problem with innovation, it does not come all at once. I just want to mutter something to myself in my flying car and then have what I want just appear. Too much to ask?

You young folks, get on that please. :slight_smile:

Halfway to go and the phone has already doubled its target.

Interesting that they are announcing the product will be in short supply, and blaming the Chinese new year (like it came out of the blue).

I’ll still hold on to my skepticism, that this is a very complex model to scale and that no one in their right mind should be “Giving” away cloud services when it’s a known monthly cost.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the phone does well and then every backer or new buyer is forced to buy it with a monthly subscription on top of their carrier costs - you simply can’t give data away for free in 2016.

I’ll still hold on to my skepticism, that this is a very complex model to scale and that no one in their right mind should be “Giving” away cloud services when it’s a known monthly cost.

Well, but what’s the problem with known monthly cost? They are not giving away data for free. You pay $399 for the phone. Of course the cloud storage they probably just buy from some “supplier” is included in that price. The cloud storage is tied to the phone I guess. You also can assume that in 2-3 years 95% of your customers won’t use the phone anymore. Now you can actually calculate very well how much it will cost you.
And it is not like that’s the only “known monthly cost” when you sell a phone. Think of the people you have to pay that take care of software updates. Or storing all the spare parts for repairs… etc… All monthly costs that are just factored into the retail price beforehand. Nothing new in the world of selling products. And cloud storage will probably just get cheaper and cheaper anyway.

That’s also how “life long warranties” work. You just assume that almost no one will actually take advantage of that promise. But the handful of people that do - you can probably take care of them.