Related
I just thought I'd start this thread to ask other developers about their opinion on the matter.
I spent many hours across several weeks reverse engineering the Samsung Galaxy S flashing protocol and then programming, testing and distributing Heimdall as open-source software.
Based on bandwidth consumption Heimdall has been downloaded anywhere between 2000 and 8000 times (depending on whether the source or binaries were downloaded). I have received no more than eight donations, a very sincere thank-you goes out to those eight people! Let's assume that 25% of the total number of downloads were repeat downloaders, so we have somewhere between 1500 and 6000 unique users. So only 0.134-0.534% of users actually donate. Those sorts of donation rates are barely able to cover the cost of bandwidth, if at all.
I know there are a lot of people out there who consider themselves avid supporters of open-source and open-source software. I wouldn't necessarily call myself one of those people, however I do believe there is definitely a time and a place for open-source software, Heimdall being a perfect example.
I also know a lot of people who distribute ROMs, apps, tools, mods etc. are hobbyists who do what they do in their spare time, and the community should be very thankful of that. As for myself, I work as a independent software/games developer, not particularly the most monetarily rewarding profession around.
As much as we do enjoy releasing free software for the community, it is difficult for developers such as myself to justify the work involved when there is little to no return, after all the bills need to be paid somehow.
My question is this, is it possible for developers releasing open-source software directly to the community, not large corporations, to make a living off their work? Furthermore, how do we encourage community members to give back to developers who have donated their time to the community?
Can't you use Google Code instead for hosting? or SourceForge? all provide free bandwidth IIRC.
Don't expect any donations as a rule, if you are expecting profit then either use ads on your website or charge.
I would have thought the primary reason for developing OSS on your phone is to improve the product you originally bought.
Cheers,
MiG
If you want free hosting, I can hook you up at http://www.sgscompilebox.dreamhosters.com/ that I'm paying for anyway for z4mod. Unlimited bandwidth/space. Offer goes out to anybody who wants to host anything for the SGS.
EDIT: Oh, and to answer your question: No, I don't believe it's possible to make a living off making 3rd party open source tools that only a fraction(technical users) of a device's users will use. If you want to make a living off open source, the best bet is through a company such as Canonical, or by creating applications focused at casual users with as much potential marketshare as possible. Or do what most people do: get a regular 'closed' job, and do open source stuff as a hobby.
MiG- said:
Can't you use Google Code instead for hosting? or SourceForge? all provide free bandwidth IIRC.
Don't expect any donations as a rule, if you are expecting profit then either use ads on your website or charge.
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I don't think you fully understand what I'm trying to discuss. The bandwidth costs are fairly negligible, especially if I'm approximately able to cover the costs with just eight donations. A developers time however is substantially more expensive, and in some ways the effort and intention is priceless
I'm not expecting profit as such, nor do I particularly wish this discussion to center around myself (I'm just using my statistics as an example). I'm just curious to know whether people think it is possible to be a "sustainable" open-source developer who contributes software directly to a community? As opposed to large open-source products targeted towards large corporations who pay technical support contracts.
I'm also not a big fan off stuffing ads down the throat of my user-base. Also, in this particular context I seriously doubt that sort of approach would work, especially if third-party free hosting (sourceforge, github etc.) is used.
MiG- said:
I would have thought the primary reason for developing OSS on your phone is to improve the product you originally bought.
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Not necessarily. In my particular case I've simply released a tool to further enable the community to do something that other users (myself included) could already do, in some capacity or another.
For most developers releasing open-source software isn't so much about improving something they own. It's more about providing something for a community to use and benefit from without constraints. It's not unreasonable to ask the community to support you in return. After all there is nothing that forces developers to ever release the software they develop, unless you've used GPL code which is another matter entirely.
MiG-, based on your answer I'm assuming you're saying, no you do not think it's possible, which is definitely a perfectly valid answer to questions I've asked. Although I would definitely love to hear what more community members, particularly developers, have to say about the topic.
RyanZA said:
If you want free hosting, I can hook you up at http://www.sgscompilebox.dreamhosters.com/ that I'm paying for anyway for z4mod. Unlimited bandwidth/space. Offer goes out to anybody who wants to host anything for the SGS.
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Bit of topic.. you can host roms?
DocRambone said:
Bit of topic.. you can host roms?
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Until someone stops me, sure.
RyanZA said:
EDIT: Oh, and to answer your question: No, I don't believe it's possible to make a living off making 3rd party open source tools that only a fraction(technical users) of a device's users will use. If you want to make a living off open source, the best bet is through a company such as Canonical, or by creating applications focused at casual users with as much potential marketshare as possible. Or do what most people do: get a regular 'closed' job, and do open source stuff as a hobby.
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I agree with pretty much everything except the part about targeting casual users in order to make money. In my experience technically inclined users, who have an appreciation for a piece of software, are substantially more likely to donate that casual users who lack the knowledge of the work involved. Of course selling software is something that can be more easily achieved when targeting a casual user base, especially if they know nothing of piracy. However it is generally not possible to sell "open-source" software directly.
Benjamin Dobell said:
I agree with pretty much everything except the part about targeting casual users in order to make money. In my experience technically inclined users, who have an appreciation for a piece of software, are substantially more likely to donate that casual users who lack the knowledge of the work involved. Of course selling software is something that can be more easily achieved when targeting a casual user base, especially if they know nothing of piracy. However it is generally not possible to sell "open-source" software directly.
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Of course it is. Why do you think all of these app stores and market place etc is all catching on? You're never going to get rich off it, but putting up a popular open source application with an advert (and the option to turn it off even) should be able to bring in a pretty good revenue! Social networking seems to do the best for these types of apps.
Also, you'd probably want to diversify if relying on ad money - one banner ad in 25 open source apps, with 100K users each could easily reach a lot of money. And it should be possible to crank out a simple, well made open source app that serves a definite purpose in under 3 months. So with some time investment, in a couple years you'd be able to live off it. No different from closed sourced apps when you you use advertising.
Most important thing though is to make something that
1) the average user understands what it does
2) does the job as simply as possible
3) actually helps the user
4) has as wide a potential market as possible
You could look at firefox as the ultimate in this type of thing.
This is all a lot of work though, I'm sure, and if you're after money, a regular desk job is almost guaranteed to work out better.
RyanZA said:
Of course it is. Why do you think all of these app stores and market place etc is all catching on? You're never going to get rich off it, but putting up a popular open source application with an advert (and the option to turn it off even) should be able to bring in a pretty good revenue! Social networking seems to do the best for these types of apps.
Also, you'd probably want to diversify if relying on ad money - one banner ad in 25 open source apps, with 100K users each could easily reach a lot of money. And it should be possible to crank out a simple, well made open source app that serves a definite purpose in under 3 months. So with some time investment, in a couple years you'd be able to live off it. No different from closed sourced apps when you you use advertising.
Most important thing though is to make something that
1) the average user understands what it does
2) does the job as simply as possible
3) actually helps the user
4) has as wide a potential market as possible
You could look at firefox as the ultimate in this type of thing.
This is all a lot of work though, I'm sure, and if you're after money, a regular desk job is almost guaranteed to work out better.
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Agreed, I mostly meant that it's difficult to "sell" open-source software. If your software is truly open-source then users are likely to download it, compile it and then redistribute it for free, which is sort of reasonable given that it's meant to be open source.
However advertising in a free application is slightly different than selling an application and it does have a lot more potential to succeed. However depending on what you mean by "putting up a popular open source application" I might have moral issues with that. Unless the popular application is your own or you've substantially modified (added a UI etc) to an existing piece of open-source software. Although a lot less likely to happen if your app is free, if it is open-source there is still the chance someone else will distribute it for free, unless of course the non-code assets aren't open.
I definitely do believe that at the moment it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to live off the type of open-source software I initially described. It's a bit saddening though to realise how massively one falls short, hopefully this will change in the future.
About those donations. If I would use it, I would probably donate.
I worked my a** of for the community, providing ROMs and kitchens for 3 years for the HTC S710 and S740 and I got about 4 or 5 donations over that period of time. Sometimes it get's very frustrating, but hang in there, it's worth it after all (there would be no WM 6.5 on the Vox or the Rose without me (dare I say that ), but I wanted it anyway, so I made it and just released it for others as well)!
PS: SAP r3 is open source and it sells veeeeeery good
I think the community can recognize such invaluable work & devote a part of their donations to them, if they are using his software & really think its worth.
I think however small percentage it could be, it would make the developer feel wanted & make him continue devoting his valuable time.
I just read an article either today or yesterday regarding a conference of software developers for android community, & when one developer went to the podium & said he is earning a steady $1-$2 per day, people actually laughed. He retorted, THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD. Android hasn't penetrated the markets YET like iPhone. So awareness & earnings are still low.
BTW, a nice GUI would change everything.
Just my 2 cents worth.
PS : In continuation to RyanZA's talk, I would like to mention that if you think you have something worth using, MAKE A LOT of noise about it. THAT's how people notice, use & donate. No one can understand a software's worth until you tell them. Like some WWii prime minister said, if you want the world to understand what you are telling, tell it like you are telling a donkey.
Ben, I think you need to differentiate between recognition, fame & money. Ideas are many have you tried http://www.ideaken.com/ ?
Benjamin Dobell said:
Agreed, I mostly meant that it's difficult to "sell" open-source software. If your software is truly open-source then users are likely to download it, compile it and then redistribute it for free, which is sort of reasonable given that it's meant to be open source.
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Most companies "built on open-source" provide binaries, and real support for those binaries, and earn a living from that. In an enterprise environment giving support can earn a lot of money (mainly because a lot of companies have policies to only use software/hardware that has decent support). On my last job we had to use a really crappy software, just because the (really) good alternative didn't had a support center in our country.
For the casual users: the marketplaces + ads are a good place to start. If you manage to create something that casual users will use, then it might pay of. Those users don't actaully care about the software being FOSS or not. Actually there aren't many people who care how free an application really is (except for most people working in IT or similar)
If bandwidth is an issue then host it over megaupload and such, problem solved.
ragin said:
BTW, a nice GUI would change everything.
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And give users the ability to think they are actually a power user. Most people here at xda can't write even simple scripts, but they do want to try out new and experimental stuff. (on the other hand there are a lot of users who want things that just work, for them give a simple gui saying: "DO DA STUFF")
EarlZ said:
If bandwidth is an issue then host it over megaupload and such, problem solved.
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I hate when people upload source code to megaupload. There's github, code.google.com and sf.net. sf.net is although quite old now, the other too are still great when it comes to hosting FOSS stuff.
Github is even nicer since they've added a big "Download" button for the end users.
It seems like there are a dozen new Android phones and tablets coming out every week from unknown manufactures. Most of these are cheap Chinese devices, but they're not all junk, and smaller manufacturers from other countries get thrown into the mix as well. Right now, any discussion of these devices ends up in the Android General forums for lack of a better home. This makes these forums quite crowded with orphaned-device-specific posts, and useful general posts hard to find.
I suggest an new forum section for off-brand or generic devices. This section should have four sub-forums: phone general, tablet general, phone development, and tablet development. This would give these low-volume devices a home and declutter Android General significantly. It may even cut down on the requests for dedicated forums for obscure devices.
Not a bad idea actually. I like it, though not sure what the admin will think. I've suggested your idea to them and linked here, so we'll see what they say
Yea, I'm going to go ahead and throw my support behind this as well. Considering there's a new Android device released every week, it seems prudent to give those few users a spot to call there own.
I also support this, especially since I'm unable to afford larger-brand products, so I own a Coby MID1125 Kyros tablet and would love for there to be space specifically for it.
Thrade said:
I own a Coby MID1125 Kyros tablet and would love for there to be space specifically for it.
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Just to clarify, it would be a space for your Coby and other low-volume devices as well. It should be easier for you to find coby-specific posts there though.
Nice idea. If there were any type of voting going on then I'd be raising my hand straight away. This would surely benefit both the users without specific forums and the general lurkers, like myself.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk
Support cost-effective products
This is a great idea, many "off-brand" or "cost-effective" device development ends up in the Android OS fora scattered randomly.
this would be a great organizational addition for future posts and back-cleaning other forums.
XDA has always been a developers forum. We add devices depending on the amount of development and how good the device is. We don't support Chinese knock devices at all as they are not official devices with official firmware versions. Half the time a Chinese knock off will state it has certain hardware and it really doesn't. Remember only recently have we even added non HTC devices.
Well the admin thought this was a good idea and will be implemented in a day or so
I'm a new Note 4 user, and generally like the phone. Like anything complex, though, there are a handful of things that I'd prefer to be different. I'll spare everyone from my litany of pet peeves, and just get to the question:
QUESTION: What is the best way to send feedback to Samsung regarding new features / fixes / etc. for the Note 4?
I went to their web site and found various technical/customer support options, but I'm looking for something more focused for enhancement requests. TIA.
I wouldn't waste the time, they are to concerned with jamming their sub par software and applications into their devices just to have their branding and signature on everything you see or interact with to concern them selves with anyone's logical or rational suggestions. Just look how Samsung operates in total perspective, they make TVs and monitors, that's their bread and butter, its where the majority of their most profitable pattens reside. To put this into the most transparent terms possible, they sell more TVs each year than there are phone subscribers with access to their devices in the entire global cellular phone market.
However for some reason to prove to them selves or whoever it is they think they are impressing or competing with, they chose to build garbage on top of googles already 1st class, free operating system and interface, they waste millions of dollars doing so and for some odd reason continue to think that they will one day create a better user experience than Google the company whos bread and butter is development and let's not forgot the company who designs every operating system for every phone they sell.
Until Samsung learns to stop wanting so much counterproductive attention on their products and realizes they would make more money hand over fist buy just selling their products as is with free standard android OS, they will continue to just shovel crap onto their mechanically awesome products rendering them to nothing but bright HD displays running ads that say how stupid they are.
In my personal opinion Samsung just looks stupid next to every other electronics company. And Google needs to grow a pair and say no android OS if you modify a single thing on it. I can't be the only person who sees this flawed business model am I? When's the last time you used an HP, Dell, or Gateway computer that had System modifications of any kind on Windows? You can go out on the limb and applaud HTC for their modifications because they are cell phone company that's all they do, but for Samsung a company that specializes in displays and makes no mobile hardware of their own worth noting, they somehow get the green light on damaging Android OS with their cut rate software, and continue to make the end user of their products disappointed. The worlds gone mad.
Whoa!
:laugh:
I can't say I entirely agree nor disagree with the long post above. I don't hate Samsung, nor am a fanboy of theirs. I just needed a large phone with a stylus, and my previous phone, while large and I LOVED it, didn't have a stylus which was highly needed. All I'm going to say is this:
Most of the time, a large corporation who sells many different devices within a market (ie, phones) wouldn't care about a single consumer's opinion. You are but a single-celled organization to them. They know you're there, but you aren't big enough to see as an individual. In addition, what changes you'd like to see or need- or whatever- most likely won't be what these corporations think their consumer market wants and will buy.
So in other words, if you send them feedback, all you'll get in response is a prewritten thank you letter saying (in summary), "Thanks, we appreciate the feedback and will keep it mind," (but wont).
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (sm-910a) using Tapatalk
So, it sounds like Samsung doesn't have an email address, web form, forum, etc. for enhancement requests?
On the parallel topic of big evil companies, and with respect to the folks who have offered their opinions on that subject so far, my experience has been quite the opposite - I find that most successful companies do care what their users think about their products. I work in the software industry, and the products I use most on a day-to-day basis invariably offer some sort of channel for sending feedback to the developer. Every app on the Google Play store has a "Send email" link at the bottom of it's page - in addition to many companies monitoring and responding to written feedback in the ratings section. QuickBooks has a "Send Feedback Online" option under the help menu - and even offers different options for sending comments onenhancements, bugs, and doc. A large software company that I used to work for recently implemented a suggestions forum where users can vote on enhancements, actively prioritizes work on new releases based on this feedback, and publicizes the heck out of the results in conferences, doc, and webinars. Every year I see literally thousands of people give standing ovations at one of their conferences because the developer added better Excel integration, or trimmed two clicks from a common workflow. Perhaps the best example is Atlassian, whose products many in these forums no doubt use. They are laser-focused on the people who use their tools - developers - and have been extremely successful at growing into small and large companies alike by inspiring grass roots adoption.
The list goes on. From what I've seen, companies who listen to their users do well as a result.
That said, not every company is as open to feedback as the ones in the examples above. I've found it difficult to provide feedback to Microsoft, for instance, without being part of a beta program. That said, they have robust forums that are well-attended by their internal staff. I can't say for sure, but I have to assume that the most common squeaky wheels get at least I little grease in future releases.
I don't know Samsung very well, which is why I'm asking about feedback options. It would seem odd to me that they don't have some way for users to weigh in on their Android implementation. Collectively, we buy new phones too frequently and switch vendors too easily for them not to care what we think. I like my Samsung phone, but not because it's a Samsung - it just has the features that I want. They obviously do their research into what's likely to sell. I'm hoping that there's some channel where they're actively soliciting input for improvements.
Like spexwood said, I'm not going to waste my time sending a letter to the president of Samsung and get some generic form letter in return. I know that that doesn't work. I also don't expect that Samsung will care about my suggestions, per se, even if they do have some feedback form. But, I'm sure I'm not the only one who misses text messages because the [email protected]#$ing notification beep doesn't fire when a thread is already on the screen (for example), so if mine is one of 10K voices complaining of the same thing, it would behoove them to listen - or maybe next time I'll switch to that nice LG G3 that I almost bought instead of this Note 4.
Anyway, I'm still interested in practical options for sending OS-related feedback to Samsung. Otherwise, I can just rant about stuff xda-developers and hope that someone at Samsung is watching.
Please excuse me for quoting myself, but I stand corrected:
mcmannion said:
[Samsung] obviously do their research into what's likely to sell.
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I just read an article on the S6 that says that it neither has a replaceable battery nor an SD card slot? When I went phone shopping last month, these were the only two requirements I had. I looked at phones from different manufacturers, with different OS, in different price ranges... the battery and card were the only thing they all had in common.
Maybe Samsung is right and I'm wrong on this one. People seem to flock to the iPhone because it has metal and glass on the outside, even with it's hardwired battery, fixed (and expensive) storage, small screen, lack of widgets, etc. If the S6 sells better than the S5 then... then... well I'll just be a monkey's uncle.
BTW, "premium" has gained the cherished center spot on my bull$hit bingo board. The only premium I see is the extra money you'll pay for a metal phone - which will probably be covered by a rubber case, anyway. I'll take a plastic phone with a swappable battery any day.
mcmannion said:
Please excuse me for quoting myself, but I stand corrected:
I just read an article on the S6 that says that it neither has a replaceable battery nor an SD card slot? When I went phone shopping last month, these were the only two requirements I had. I looked at phones from different manufacturers, with different OS, in different price ranges... the battery and card were the only thing they all had in common.
Maybe Samsung is right and I'm wrong on this one. People seem to flock to the iPhone because it has metal and glass on the outside, even with it's hardwired battery, fixed (and expensive) storage, small screen, lack of widgets, etc. If the S6 sells better than the S5 then... then... well I'll just be a monkey's uncle.
BTW, "premium" has gained the cherished center spot on my bull$hit bingo board. The only premium I see is the extra money you'll pay for a metal phone - which will probably be covered by a rubber case, anyway. I'll take a plastic phone with a swappable battery any day.
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I almost waited for the S6, then saw the final specs on it, yep not gonna happen no water Resistance no dust resistance and by the way the metal case most likely will have the same issue with scratches that the bezel on the note 4 has. not to mention an octocore 64bit processor that is hobbled at 32bit.
I still might go check it out once my local AT&T store gets them in stock. just to see
There are plenty of devices around, but we are lost with a simple task - how to get a device with steps, hr and sleep data accessed directly from a device?
In general we wish to find a device with a very simple developers' manual where there is a description how to get a specific data from a device using only a BT. So no additional apps need to be installed on Android, no cloud solutions sending data somewhere to USA, China and similar.
We tried:
1. Angel sensor wristband - they closed their business
2. Microsoft band 2 (they have their own app, but still..) - they abandoned the product
3. Pebble watch HR - you know the story
4. Mi band
Now we are w/o options and I really wonder:
1. Why every device maker provide their own application (usually with very low quality) which sends data to cloud? Is it:
1.1. because they analyze the data and sell it to some advertisers?
1.2. because they wish to establish Apple like - echo system? C'mon if Apple did it there is no proof that FitBit, Jawbone, Misfit or .. (put a name into it) will do it.
So my question is: is there any device with a small direct access description? We do not need an API, we just need a protocol description..
Why we need that - there are some regulations which forbid to send data somewhere w/o control (like seniorscare, eHealth, military). It is frustrated that we can support more than 100 sensors with out iotool.io smartphone IoT gateway, but no wearables
Any suggestion?
SenLab said:
We tried:
1. Angel sensor wristband - they closed their business
2. Microsoft band 2 (they have their own app, but still..) - they abandoned the product
3. Pebble watch HR - you know the story
4. Mi band
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What's the problem with Mi band and Pebble?
SenLab said:
Now we are w/o options and I really wonder:
1. Why every device maker provide their own application (usually with very low quality) which sends data to cloud? Is it:
1.1. because they analyze the data and sell it to some advertisers?
1.2. because they wish to establish Apple like - echo system? C'mon if Apple did it there is no proof that FitBit, Jawbone, Misfit or .. (put a name into it) will do it.
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I suppose it's because a very small market. Microsoft has decided not to catch users with their bands - it shows us the value of the market for big boys.
chinesesmartwatch said:
What's the problem with Mi band and Pebble?
Pebble bankrupted. It is hard to get Pebble2 HR, no support; it is a new product, so we are not aware about possible firmware bugs etc.
Xiaomi has three wristbands - all three closed. It took us 3 weeks to support one of them . With good documentation the estimated time to make our iotool.io extension for specific sensor: a few hours.
I suppose it's because a very small market. Microsoft has decided not to catch users with their bands - it shows us the value of the market for big boys.
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I agree, however there are hundreds of wristbands around from small manufacturers. Every wristband has its own application with rating on Google Play around 2/5. So it is possible to connect it to Android phone. But there is no documentation about comm. protocol. So wristband manufacturer made a bad application which is bad for business, but still don't wish to provide documentation. I think that is a bad decision (don't wish to use stronger words here )
SenLab said:
there are hundreds of wristbands around from small manufacturers. Every wristband has its own application with rating on Google Play around 2/5. So it is possible to connect it to Android phone. But there is no documentation about comm. protocol. So wristband manufacturer made a bad application which is bad for business, but still don't wish to provide documentation.
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Have you tried to contact manufacturers? It seems that another application for their wristband, which is delivered for free, should be interesting enough. But the problem is to find a proper person, who has some motivation for supporting such offers. Most chinese manufacturers are screened with relatively dumb marketing stuff and their internal bureaucracy is horrible. Aliexpress sellers sometime can provide some pieces of documentation, but it's in chinese and not complete. However, googletranslate can help to get some protocol details. Also it is useful to reverse engineer their applications, but it's very time consuming. Another problem here - how to chose a device without any idea about it's sensors quality and even about the presence of some sensors that often are just virtual things and only able to load some trash from internet.
But if you are a paid worker of iotool.io then may be it is possible to convince your boss to spend some money on a serious screening of at least some manufacturers. Some bracelets are very cheap (5$) and in case of presence of a good application the market share can be very big.
Thank you for your help. I'm a CEO of SenLab, maker od IoTool. And believe me, we invested a lot of resources into that. But, there is no real support, firmware change, models change and similar. It is not possible to support this. And, we do not wish to invest into every wristband, but to ask big players, what is in their mind? Some of applications from big and well known providers are rated around 2 on Google Play. No one wish to use them, but big players are stubborn and just follow their route.
SenLab said:
I'm a CEO of SenLab, maker od IoTool. And believe me, we invested a lot of resources into that. But, there is no real support, firmware change, models change and similar. It is not possible to support this.
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In my opinion if you have enough resources then finding a responsible manufacturer is absolutely possible. Of course, it wouldn't be a big company, but there could be a good and cheap product that requires just a better application. However, I don't know your business strategy and may be such approach is not for you.
SenLab said:
And, we do not wish to invest into every wristband, but to ask big players, what is in their mind? Some of applications from big and well known providers are rated around 2 on Google Play. No one wish to use them, but big players are stubborn and just follow their route.
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Big boys work as follows:
They look at the market, they see a successful company, they copy the company's strategy and don't care about anything else. If anybody want to convince big boys to do something then most probably they think the person wants a free lunch and just ignore him. So, you need some connections within the company or you need a well known name for them to listen to you. And it means just one thing - only small and medium sized companies can be targeted by you (if you haven't connections, of course). But you don't want to invest into every wristband, so, there's nobody left for you - big boys won't listen to you and you won't ask some little boys.
Also the logging strategy of iotool.io is not very convenient for many people. People mostly don't want just a logging of some data from some sensors. They want something more useful, like heart rate monitor or calories calculation. Sensor set is just a way to provide the final product - the really needed in real life. Good sensor set can provide better final product, but the task of deciphering of some useful conclusions from logged data is not for the majority of people. So, you need to connect the logged data with people's needs. And while there's no such connection your product will catch only the small market of enthusiast users.
Dear XDA devs,
we are looking for teammates for a automotive software / hardware project. We want to develop modern cockpits
for motorcycles that can be easily retrofitted. For this we still need people who are familiar with Android or Android Automotive OS.
We have funds, but they are limited.
There are enough buyers (a lot of positive feedback and pre-registrations). We have several large chain stores that are
interested in our products and would like to distribute them. Potential investors are also willing to invest, but would like to see more.
We are currently trying to put together a team to develop one of our devices. There is a lot of work to do, but once we achieve our MVP,
we will no longer have to worry about financial resources. Everyone involved in the project will receive company shares,
the amount of which we have to negotiate together.
Production costs for prototypes are secured, as are other costs in the event of outsourcing or material/software purchasing.
As mentioned, we have some financial security. However, we cannot pay high salaries until we reach our MVP.
Prerequisites would be experience in:
- Android system architecture
- Hardware development / mixed signals / microcontroller programming
- Android development - front end / back end
- UI/UX design
Of course, you do not need to have experience in all areas. However, you should already be an expert in your field.
If you are interested, please contact me and I would also be happy to answer any questions in the thread.
https://cmoto.eu/