[giantrobot]

> What’s the showstopper into bringing an open phone to a general audience?

The biggest showstopper is Open phones can't seem to do what all of their closed competition can do. If an Open phone can't reliably make calls, send texts, get on WiFi, or run apps people want there's no demand for them.

Even the cheapest Android phone has millions of person-hours sunk into its hardware and software implementations. There's no need to drop down to a command line to get some component to work right. If it truly sucks you can return it and at worst you're out under $100.

Until an Open phone can get to at least the capability of a cheap Android phone you can buy at a drug store no one is going to want them, especially for the price premium of their low volume production.