If I was a hardware engineer looking for an idea, I would definitely fundraise for a GrapheneOS phone. $5M round, 6-month project, 100,000 units, flagship, $700 each, $70M round revenue, $5M profit. Rinse and repeat.
Discussion
A GrapheneOS phone with top-tier hardware? That’s pure signal, no noise. Stack sats, raise funds, ship it, and let the market zap it into existence.
Round size seems off by an order of magnitude
based on what?
What capital do you need to spin up the assembly line for 100k units?
You don't need to. Contract manufacturers for these types of things are available. It took us only 2 weeks to find and do background checks in one for 40K phones back in 2014. It's costlier, but it should still be inside the margin.
My only question with this plan is on keeping the security guarantees from Graphene intact, then branding and sales.
I think there is a reason why it hasn’t been done. Hardware is hard
Bad business move.
Why buy from this fundraiser when you can buy a google phone with all of googles quality assurance and just install GrapheneOS?
What could a small company hope to do to compete with even last years model of Google phone?
It needs a feature those phones dont have.
its not that easy.
I did a similar one for $40K in 2014. I am sure it is more expensive now. It's not easy, but it is also not that hard.
creating a phone?
even if creating a phone is easy, selling it is not easy.
managing $5m is not easy.
yep, I created a phone with extra sensors/actuators back in those days.
Managing 5m is easy. As long as the team is focused on the delivery, things will work out fine.
The only question, like you said, is sales. But the quantities are so low that it should be easy.
seems cool. why you did this? fun?
basically you need to think apple and samsung are out there. and we have some companies selling open source phones that are not that known.
even if you don't fail, you can't earn enough money. maybe being just an small company.
also, how someone can gain 5m for start?
I needed a computing unit for my medical devices. We tried an out-of-the-box phone and a our own phone from scratch. In the end, the out-of-the-box phone won. But only because the business was focused in the medical part and couldn't get distracted with phone stuff.
Apple and Samsung are not really competitors. Sure, they make phones, but not privacy-focused phones. The brand can stand on its own.
You don't need to earn much money at this level, you just need enough to get to the second round of devices that can do bigger volumes.
Many VCs can give you 5M if you have the skill and the real desire to pull this off.
great stuff. seems cool. 👀
Hard is the pathway to the Light. If it’s “not easy” that means it’s the right thing to do.
Strike while the iron is hot with the current news
They'd have to do something better than the Pixel. Purism went down this road and it didn't turn out well for anyone as far as I can tell.
Yep, Purism was a massive disappointment. But it was also crowdfunded, which doesn't help. And it is SUPER ugly. No one wants to really use that.
I don't want to use a phone that's basically just a copy of what's already out there either. The only thing that would interest me would be open hardware and hardware switches for components, SD slots, removable battery, and physical SIM slots. That's probably not going to be pretty by today's standards. Open hardware is going to require a lot more money and there probably isn't enough of a market to get the costs down to a reasonable point if a small company is heading the project. I just don't see it. I wish it was real.
Outside of the added security features, the base Pixel is quite an "average" device. You can find parts like that in the market. I don't think the phone needs anything else, it just needs to have some good brand identity, like the OnePlus did or that the Nothing phone has today. It's all about building a community that believes in the vision of secure systems that is designed by Graphene.
its time for a Satslink nostr:npub1az9xj85cmxv8e9j9y80lvqp97crsqdu2fpu3srwthd99qfu9qsgstam8y8
this is for people who are afraid or think it is too difficult to try it on their own. there is always money to be made from the fearful and lazy.
Yeah, would like to see one by nostr:nprofile1qqs2ylp6w3vky2szfcpz5jl6t5yruste4549mu2rmd5he8rk3u5683spr9mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnt9uu3eplf
the installer for GrapheneOS is braindead easy. the latest Pixel phone is nice looking and does what I need.
it also runs on the Pixel tablet for a nice mid tier tablet/laptop (if you get a keyboard case etc.) depending on your needs. i take it with me to write with at cafés.
#GrapheneOS
Maybe Framework, one day
Nah, they don't have the focus. We need a phone-company, not a desktop company that is trying to ship a phone. Purism was that.
I think it’s doable.
What is a smart phone after all if not a computer? There’s multiple dedicated Linux distributions, and the other Android based.
Framework appears to have found their footing and focus.
Grapheneos work one nostr?
I would love to see a nostr:nprofile1qqswhhhf99z77pfg80s2c00z27rusxn2tzss7450n34krkwa2yadhtgpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpz3mhxue69uhkummnw3ezuerkv36zuer9wcq3vamnwvaz7tmpw5h8yetvv9ukzcnvv5hx7un8lpntld phone with nostr:nprofile1qqs9g69ua6m5ec6ukstnmnyewj7a4j0gjjn5hu75f7w23d64gczunmgpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43q4gnztg. Would instantly ditch my Pixel, take my money!
Have you seen this one? Not exactly Graphene, but comes without Google stuff and you can side load apps…
Def. Nice to see more options, but traditional e-ink seems a bit too much for me.
Perhaps these guys will make it happen?
Why flagship? I'd rather have a good low to mid range and 1M pieces.
grapheneos phone with a headphone jack, bultin camera cover, and physical switch/button to turn off mic/gps/wifi/bluetooth/nfc would be awesome
I want a phone with no built in camera or speakers or microphone, all audio going through the headphone jack, with an attachment for the camera
Closest I can get that I know of is a satellite texting device with no camera/microphone/speakers