OpenMoko, maker of the open source handset everyone loves to praise but no one actually wants to buy, has stated it will cease development of new mobile handsets. Citing current economic conditions and a competitive market, OpenMoko CEO Sean Moss-Pultz reportedly made the announcement yesterday at a conference in Switzerland. We can’t exactly place this decision into the shocker category considering end users — and more importantly, manufacturing partners — have been very slow to embrace the handset. Thus far, OpenMoko has only pushed out about 10,000 handsets and no major news as far as manufacturing partners offering customized builds of the phone has come into play. OpenMoko isn’t throwing in the towel just yet, however. The company intends to continue FreeRunner support and it will also commence development of a new product that isn’t a mobile phone. Interesting. With a new mobile OS going open source each day and very little interest in the physical side of OpenMoko’s FreeRunner project (hardware add-ons, customization, etc), we can’t say this is a bad decision on the company’s part.
OpenMoko stops development of new handsets
Updated Dec 19th, 2018 6:17PM EST
If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.
Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.
His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.
