[kick]

Counter-perspective:

On price:

By releasing things as cheaply as they can within reason, this vastly broadens who can get one. Given that they depend on the community to create most if not all of the software, this means that software support gets there much earlier than it would otherwise; compare the progress on the Librem handset to the PinePhone: one took three years, has gone over the predicted timeframe multiple times, and still isn't quite right (or released), while Pine64's is actually surprisingly decent, and got there much faster.

On 'customer' experience:

Every time I've ordered from them they've been perfectly responsive and have gotten things shipped on a reasonable time frame. They're based in China and, if you weren't aware, there's kind of a big event happening over there that's interrupted their everything. They're not Apple and it'd be worse if they were trying to be; they aren't treating their customers badly, they're treating their workers well; chill out.

[worble]

> By releasing things as cheaply as they can within reason, this vastly broadens who can get one. Given that they depend on the community to create most if not all of the software, this means that software support gets there much earlier than it would otherwise;

This is exactly it, if we want linux on phones to be a real experience that can offer something on par with Google and Apple, then the very first step is getting hardware into hackers hands; the software will never follow if there aren't any users. The exact kind of person you want using these devices is someone willing to pay less money and pay with their time instead.