Purism Announces Librem 5 "USA" Model For $1999 USD

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Purism Announces Librem 5 "USA" Model For $1199 USD

Purism announced today a Librem 5 USA model of their smartphone that has the same specifications and features of their Librem 5 Linux smartphone but manufactured in the US. That pushes the 720x1440 display, i.MX8M, 3GB RAM, 32GB eMMC, 802.11n device from $699 USD to $1,199 USD...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Librem-5-USA-Model

[Baguy]

Reporting Requirements

All social purpose corporations are subject to additional reporting requirements relating to their social purpose goals and achievements.

Within four months of the end of its fiscal year, a social purpose corporation must provide its shareholders with a social purpose report that describes short-term and long-term goals, as well as the actions it has taken and will take to achieve its social purpose. It must also explain the financial, operating and other measures used to evaluate performance.

This report must be accessible to the public, free of charge, from the company’s principal web address—and remain accessible until the end of its fiscal year.

In addition, social purpose corporations can include in their articles of incorporation a requirement that shareholders be provided a third-party assessment of performance with regard to social purpose goals.

As a social purpose company Purism enshrines in its articles of incorporation that we must do what is good for society, therefore avoiding any and all toxic funding by virtue of the strictness of those articles.

So much for their transparency and enshrining it's articles of incorporation. They don't even follow the SPC law. They have been supposed to be releasing financial reports publicly on their website that also give a overall summary of their project and outlooks, and they haven't posted a single thing since 2017. We don't know the batch sizes of the phones, and we don't know how much money they actually have right now. This is very important stuff for their investors (the people paying money in the crowdfunding supposedly) to decide what the company outlook is.

And this is just one problem with the company. They have had multiple delays, they've worded things in very loose ways and changed their ways last minute, and they've lost their marketing director (Who never actually reviewed or talked much about the phone he received. He posted about 5 pictures and then went silent after arguing with the ex-CTO. And that's not even the only loss of staff that occured.)

[danmcgrew]

Never let it be said that Phoronix doesn't have a sense of humour...
...surpassed only by Purism, and (I simply can NOT wait) by all the Librem fanboys with their absolutely indisputable and fact-filled rationalisations.

Thanks for the laugh, Michael. We all needed this. A sense of humour in the trade press is such a rare commodity these days.

[Michael]

Article updated as now the edited price on their website is $1999 not $1199.

[L_A_G]

April 1st came on a very strange date this year...

[NateHubbard]

I guess the labor costs are pretty high right in San Francisco. Perhaps they could have set up shop somewhere else in the country and shaved a few hundred dollars off that insane price.

[Danniello]

LOL. 2000 USD for very outdated, alpha quality phone (in the best scenario - beta quality in Q3 2020) - sounds almost like April Fools joke.

They are sinking and it is very desperate attempt to stay alive...

[letrout]

Freedom ain't free. Or even cheap. Or not-expensive.

[Baguy]

Baguy backers are not shareholders. Silly.

Purism just secured more funding und SPC terms. Clearly this can only happen if California state and bond investors makes this happen.

https://puri.sm/posts/purism-closes-2-5m-note-series/

More GNOME mobile

Even if we aren't their main investors, the people paying money to develop their phones, and the people paying money at interest to fund the company are definitely investors. And even if they think that's not the case, they never disclosed anything. So much for their transparency.

[danmcgrew]

"Update 12:37AM EST: The Purism Shop now is showing a $1999 USD price tag, not $1199... Ouch."--Michael Larabel.

I was going to update my earlier comment (#3).
Now, I think it will be a lot funnier if I simply let others express their sentiments.