Steve Mosher posted to one of the OpenMoko mailing lists about scrapping the planned GTA03 device and instead doing something they call "Plan B" or "Project B". Whatever this "B" is, only OpenMoko know.

Even if the company have good reasons to scrap the new device (reason quoted is "3X the needed development resources compared to Project B"), such news, and the current economic climate may be a indication of the beginning of the end to OpenMoko. Another indication that this may be the end to the company is speculations that they have laid of most of their Linux staff.

The sad thing is that the OpenMoko folks have yet still some way to go to get the FreeRunner End User Ready. It seems like a bit of bad management to jump onto the next project before finishing the only product a company has.

OpenMoko is a really interesting concept. Open Hardware and Open Software - hand in hand. Personally I am very big fan of the OpenMoko.

Unfortunately for OpenMoko, Google has released it's Android platform, and several hardware vendors has deployed Android on these hardware units. Unfortunately because Google is a better brand name and have a bigger war chest. Unless the OpenMoko people come up with something novel - they will unfortunately not stand a chance in the Open Source Mobile area.

In light of what is not said in the posting to the mailing list, creating something else than a cell phone unit may just be the right move for OpenMoko. If the speculation about the lay-offs are correct I'd really like to see them pull this off.

If you really want a piece of history - you should buy a FreeRunner before they run out.