"It's a Development Device!"

People in the comments of my OpenMoko coverage are complaining that I'm not being fair towards the Neo1973. "It's a Development Device!" they yell.

Let me tell you about development devices in the real world. Whenever Nokia, Samsung or HTC release a new phone, they send some to individual software vendors for free. Why? Because the platform is only as strong as the applications running on it. What they'll send are also development devices, but the difference is that these actually work. You don't have to put them together first. There's not "Some assembly required". They work, at least to a large extent. Beta quality let's say. Not pre-alpha like the OpenMoko phones. They don't ask you to finish their software for them.

And you get these development devices for free, not for $300 up to $450. See the irony here? Freetard phone -- $300-$450, proper phone -- $0.