Donation Drive to Get WP7 on HD2 Raises $1350, Most Likely Will Produce Mediocre Product

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6523099#post6523099' target='_blank'>http://forum.xda-developers.com/sho...099#post6523099</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Well guys, the only JTAG unit i'm aware of that is supported on Win CE/WP7 for debugging is TRACE32, and it costs more than a brand new in box HD2.. so unless someone is aware of a cheaper alternative, or has access to one of those units, it's not very likely that getting donations going to get me a device is going to go far enough to purchase one of those too."</em></p><p>Two and a half months ago, I wrote <a href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f396/why-half-baked-windows-phone-7-release-hd2-bad-idea-97185.html" target="_blank">an editorial</a> that argued that a Half-Baked Windows Phone 7 ROM would be a bad idea and now it looks like that bad idea has some serious steam in the form of around $1350 in donations (Mostly in small amounts, although a few site proprietors threw in some considerable cash, and I'm not quite sure why). Honestly, I think it's a great thing for people to tinker around with their devices, even going as far as to buy diagnostic equipment to learn more. But in this case, I can only see problems down the road. In addition to the points I raised a few months ago, now I see an even bigger issue: sunk costs. Sunk costs refer to the amount of money one has invested in a project, and the subsequent attachment one has to that project. Simply put, if people pay for something (even if it's in the form of donations), they expect an end-result that was worth the investment. I'm not saying that the people behind this HD2-WP7 implementation aren't sophisticated enough to do it - I just don't think they'll produce something half as useful as a true Windows Phone 7 device, which will let people down (especially those who invested).</p><p>What do you think - are "community" funded projects like this a good idea (ignoring for a moment the legal ramifications, which make this a definite no-no)? And what do you think will come out of it? And more importantly - if you donated and didn't get a working WP7 ROM for your HD2, how would you feel?</p>

[Fritzly]

I see the possibility to use a better OS than the one MS or hardware manufacturers sells to users.
For example my HTC HD2 runs much better thanks to the WM 6.5.3 build than the original one.

We are all entitled to have opinions and speculate about the future so my ones are what I stated above.

And while I am, as well as you, just speculating about possible, future scenarios, if as G.B. Vico wrote "History repeats itself", a scenario where what happened for the HD2 will happen for the WP7 and related hardware is the most likely.

As for your last question you actually answered it by yourself: a donation is a donation and I would surely not feel as frustrated as when I bought smartphones that shipped with half backed OSes and drivers that never got fixed.

[vangrieg]

A successful port doesn't necessarily need to be a replacement for a real WP7 device. It can simply serve to satisfy some curiosity.

But apart from that, it is very likely that this attempt will fail. Even in this case the OS will be better understood, which will help hack it in the future. We will need a jailbreak anyway, so let it start with this.

[Jon Westfall]

As for your last question you actually answered it by yourself: a donation is a donation and I would surely not feel as frustrated as when I bought smartphones that shipped with half backed OSes and drivers that never got fixed.

Donations may have the definition of "freely giving money without expecting something in return", however in the world of behavioral economics, we know that people feel some commitment when they make any sort of investment. And in this case, I can only see resentment on a level higher than when a company produces a lower-quality than expected product.

[UCCOFFEE]

we know that people feel some commitment when they make any sort of investment

I pay for my HD2, how come the bug that happen while composing sms , it jumps and highlights last SMS never get fixed since january? I have been emailing HTC every 15 days, but I just got email from them saying technical support representative will contact you at the soonest possible time. And when they call , they ll tell me they ll try to fix it, but do not know when.

Little things like this HTC never take care of. That's why we are hoping for WP7, but I dont really believe WP7 will be less buggy than WM6...

[Fritzly]

Donations may have the definition of "freely giving money without expecting something in return", however in the world of behavioral economics, we know that people feel some commitment when they make any sort of investment.

Have hope: the vast majority of people do not hang out in Capitol Hill....