For now, almost nobody, amongst casual phone users, knows about /e/.
So how to make it more known ? How to expand /e/ faster amongst the common users ?
Among my colleagues for example, a lot of them are aware that Google is absorbing their data and yet none of them knows about /e/ and about the fact there’s a working alternative to this Google empire.
To me the business model of selling integrated phones with /e/ is obviously the best and it will give the financial support to expand.
So now I have two suggestions to make :
Proposing /e/ as a business phones in companies where data IS sensitive.
Proposing /e/ phones in public selling shops like ‘Fnac’, ‘Darty’ and such
I guess there’s two obstacles respectively for each solutions :
/e/ is a pretty new operating systems. Big companies would not trust it as a lasting and safe solution only if there’s something like an independent audit or entity that looks at the code and say’s it’s OK.
/e/ needs more visibility. Public and casual users will not pay 300 euros for something they don’t know about or heard about. Unless, again, we are backed-up by the trust of a big company. Remember about the ‘‘Wiko’’ phones.
Not only Wiko, but Turing Phone went bankrupt, Jolla does not make hardware anymore either. To be honest I did not know about Wiko, those devices look to me like “normal” Android phones (is it about big battery?).
I think those are important aspects you mentioned. I’m not sure a big company with sensitive data would go for plain android (after all those vulnerabilities in the past). Android is user friendly, if it’s degoogled, it looks to be a good choice for everyday consumer use.
Purism with Librem 5 or Pinephone will win. Companies do due diligence. They will not trust Duval and his “3rd party” app store, and will know about other dishonest tactics.
Wiko, before getting bankrupt, was very successful. It was a small French company that got to get known on the mobile market in France because it was doing partnerships with big companies putting forth the ‘‘design in France’’ specificity. It was starting from nothing and within a few years had phones sold in every big store in France !
In the end it got bankrupt because of the technical competition of Chinese phones. But /e/ has a true technical advantage and would probably not have known the same faith.
Maybe, but in Belgium these phones will only be soled well if https://www.itsme.be/lang-splash and https://www.payconiq.be/en apps are included in /e/'s application store “Apps”. For the time being, they can be installed on /e/ using the Aurora Store, but it is impossible to activate and use them without Google. Google, no not just MicroG, Google needs access to your phone (hardware), your location, and your phone number (cellular data) before you can use these apps. So, it was a nice idea from Gaël to create a James Bond privacy phone, even better it would be to create a Mission Impossible phone.
I think that the two of the main reasons why casual users don’t know about /e/ apart from technical issues are 1. low visability/presence and secondly lack of awareness about the issue of data security.
I myself stumbled over the Project after I’ve watched a Documentary on Netflix about the issue and did some targeted Research on how to avoid Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. Something most people don’t do!
I guess that /e/ can learn a lot from Apple. Apple has an army of followers who pray to Steve Jobs every evening and don’t miss an opportunity to spread their Gospel. That can be annoying, but it is effective in terms of creating an ever lasting presence of Apple.
The project, (Team and Community), needs to create such a presence, in order to gain more supporters and the attention of potential business partners. I don’t say that we need to annoy people into liking /e/, but I guess that a first step of gaining attention would be creating a social media presence. Every company does, /e/ doesn’t! The videos that are available on YouTube about /e/ right now are quite a Turnoff when it comes to sparking interest in the Project. Such a social media presence could serve as a official representation, and spark discussions as well as help the Idea go viral. This is where the community comes back into play. Another step that might help the effort is creating some kind of merchandise that supporters can wear. The stickers that I have on my Laptop and Phone have already sparked several conversations. I think that T-shirts etc. could do the same.
I know that both these options are not guaranteed to work out 100%, but they don’t do any harm either and are quite easy to realize. In the end it comes down to gaining enthusiastic supporters, and any way to do that should be explored.
As long as not all devices supported by /e/ have been migrated to /e/ OS 9-pie (Android 9 Pie) and the problem n-nougat (Android 7.1.2) and its “unofficial” Security patches are fought with, an increased public relations work bears the risk of image loss. Because /e/ OS is strongly related to LineageOS - and they are already on their way to LOS 17.1 (Android 1Q). Again and again the question arises why /e/ OS is lagging behind.
There is no use for smartphones if the essentials -payment and authentication- don’t work without G00gl, who installs software on the SIM, software that cannot be removed. That’s the way it is. /e/ is a nice try. Hope it becomes available on tablets without the phone function, I’ll buy a supported model. To Internet a smartphone is too small for anyway (I need glasses to read).
hey,
I’m informatics assistant, I work essentially with particulars. I bought my /e/phone last automn.
I am not technician (code is not my language…) I am more like a teacher for casual people.
My request : I 'd like to meet, for discussing, other info. professionnal for who personnal data and privacy are very important. but in the real life. I leave in the basque coast. anybody ??
Hi @sacha you can create a topic here and share details of where you want to meet other similar minded folks from your area. If possible set a time , date and location and see if it works. Not sure how it will turn out in today’s covid-19 scenario but you can meet them through the post.
I am a casual user, wanting to pursue privacy use, willing to research and follow up promising leads - my discovery of /e/ seems to be a promising lead. Casual users could be powerful in ‘spreading the gospel’. Once I get set up with /e/ I will certainly communicate my experiences on my social media. It could be useful to have a ‘casual-user friendly’ webpage of information, advice and testimonials (from casual users) to point people to.
