We need your help designing our new phone!

[RasVoja]

Sounds right and proper, but not all fixes can be done in software, thus new phone. It cannot fail if all problems of first phone are fixed.
P.S. Rarely seen a device where ALL bugs were fixed during modern 2 to 3 years phone lifecycle, sadly

[RasVoja]

Agreed, plus QWERTY, HQ mp3 playback etc. In those few functions phone has, it should excel.
My proposal is also great NOTE application (based on WriterP), mp3 player based on Dub etc. In fact, hiring those companies to implement their tech to MuditaOS and to support it. Real good way is combo of durable HW and high quality CUSTOM software as contrast to plastic phones of low quality parts and stock software

[joshalb]

Honestly, the current iteration of the pure is so close to my dream phone that it is a little crazy that it actually exists. If the antenna were made stronger (signal isn’t super amazing in my area) I would be overjoyed and get one immediately. So that’s the biggest thing to me.

Although not a deal breaker, I do use small group chats and frequently do group calls to keep up with my sisters and some other family members. And having these has helped us stay in touch without needing to use things like FaceBook.

Expandable storage could also be nice so I could ditch the iPod But again, not a deal breaker.

Everything else I have wanted can be done with software and appears to be in the pipeline.

[parawizard]

I cancelled my order because of the low sar antenna and the state of the OS. The low sar antenna probably wouldn’t have worked well with the crappy signal here. The OS was looking too early for me to daily drive.

What I would like to see is a focus on the foundations such as call quality, stability and good desktop software.

I am running a lightphone 2 now and it seems like it’s doable. MMS and links get sent to my email! Texting works. Calling works. Audio quality is decent even with headphones or bluetooth.

Basically you need the core features that allow someone to integrate this into their life for communication.

[forest_cat]

@pawiecki

When I saw these three mockups at the top of the page, it became clear to me that you are lost.
It looks like you are lacking a clear vision for your product and don’t understand your customers.
I’m not sure if you know your place on the market and what has made your project so popular.
I think I know a bit about it though. So let me tell you what, in my opinion, you should not, and what you should focus on.

Mudita Type: No.

This will not work. You have mentioned the name Blackberry. They used to make phones like this, that’s true. This idea is nothing new, nothing good, nothing that the market wants. It has been tried before, by a giant company, which is now dead for a reason. It’s an attempt to make a device that wants to be two things at the same time and ends up being worse versions of both of them - a worse smartphone (smaller screen) and worse feature/keyboard phone (small, clunky keys, no chat applications, so an overkill solely for sms or notes). Even if it would be just a dumbphone with querty keyboard and e-ink screen, then it’s not a very usefull combination with a simple UI in my opinion. Standard “dumbphone” keys are more ergonomic and simpler to use for most people, who mainly call and occasionally write.

Mudita Compact: No.

If you want it to be yet another rectangle smartphone, like there are now literally thousands of, on a very competitive market, then good riddance. That’s not your target audience and Lightphone has this niche covered.
If you want it to be a LightPhone clone then that’s even worse. They are already on the market with the second iteration of their successful product, miles ahead of you, and if your response would be try to copy their idea and start to slowly build it from scratch and hope for the best, then that will not work. Lightphone 3 would probably be out before you will even release the finished product and then you will be even more irrelevant than you are now with Mudita Pure as it is. Another bad idea in my opinion.

Mudita Pure 2: Yes.

Now this is where it’s at and you seriously have a very simple job to do - just make a good, reliable and simple phone. Make it a great phone, first. That’s it.
Not a smartphone… Not a semi smartphone, semi keyboard phone… Not a copy of an existing, established product… Not any of this.

All that most of your audience wants is a simple, reliable, well designed, well made, long lasting… Phone.

Make the phone calls always work with excellent voice quality.
Make the messages always work and be easy to write and read.
Make the keys always work, with good feedback and a clever input method.
Make the UI simple, focused, readable, fast, responsive and intuitive. It should give a user an impression that the phone is waiting for their move, not the other way around.
Make it connect to 4G and tether internet to other devices through cable and Wi-Fi.
Make it export and import contacts information using established standards.
Make it look nice, make it sound nice, make it simple and easy to use.
Make the battery last all week with standard phone usage. Make the battery larger if you have to, phone does not have to be slim. It’s not a tall, wide and slim smartphone, it can be different.
Make it long lasting and repairable (consult with iFixit, why not?) with removable battery and updates for at least 5+ years. Or design it so well that it won’t need updates.
Make it a device that brings peace of mind and is a joy to use, maybe even introduce a nice game or two, maybe in co-op or online. Something like Playdate comes to my mind, maybe contact Panic and work together, why not?
Make a phone, people would be happy to use everyday. Poeple like me, who do not need or want a smartphone, but still want a good quality device.
People who are ready to pay for it, but want to be taken seriously and treated with respect when they give you their money.

This.
This is what you should be making next.

I can’t even begin to express how much I agree with this post! A touchscreen device, QWERTY device, smart or semi-smart device misses the point entirely and I would never buy one.

My perfect Pure 2 would be a Pure 1 that was stable and handled calls/texts well, preferably retaining its low SAR output, optionally boosting the SAR as needed in poor signal areas. I have had all 3 form factors and I can type SMS messages much faster with T9 on a numeric keypad than on a QWERTY phone, or touchscreen phone, because the buttons on a complete keyboard are simply too small (and additionally, touchscreens are not tactile like real buttons).

If you produce a touchscreen phone, you’re basically just reinventing what’s already on the market. If you use Android or KaiOS, you’re introducing all the unnecessary complexity, security and privacy risks that accompany them. And based on KaiOS phones like the Nokia 800, text-messaging will be simply painful to use.

Just like the traditional Unix philosophy, just do one thing and do it well. A Pure 2 running MuditaOS with T9, bugfixes and tweaked hardware is, to me, the optimal direction.

[kirkmahoneyphd]

@pawiecki: I voted in the survey for Mudita Type, but you convinced me to vote now for your description of Mudita Pure 2 IF it can include a speech-to-text feature like what I get with my premium subscription attached to my Sunbeam Wireless F1 Orchid. (SW’s site explains well why they charge for a subscription to speech-to-text, weather radar, and points of interest (POI) in navigation.)

The Orchid’s speech-to-text feature is so good that I rarely modify the text that it generates from what I speak.

[cardio79]

Yup its speech to text is better than the light phone 2 , hands down better

[urszula]

@pawiecki

Mudita Type: No.

This will not work. You have mentioned the name Blackberry. They used to make phones like this, that’s true. This idea is nothing new, nothing good, nothing that the market wants. It has been tried before, by a giant company, which is now dead for a reason. It’s an attempt to make a device that wants to be two things at the same time and ends up being worse versions of both of them - a worse smartphone (smaller screen) and worse feature/keyboard phone (small, clunky keys, no chat applications, so an overkill solely for sms or notes). Even if it would be just a dumbphone with querty keyboard and e-ink screen, then it’s not a very usefull combination with a simple UI in my opinion. Standard “dumbphone” keys are more ergonomic and simpler to use for most people, who mainly call and occasionally write.

@pawiecki As someone who still used a Blackberry Q10, I can tell you that there is a quite a sizable community which likes phones with QWERTY keyboards.
Unihertz Titan keeps releasing phones with keyboards & they sell very well.
I’ve had my Blackberry sine 2013 & I LOVE it! It still works & I use it everyday. I think the Mudita Type could do very well, if released.

[pawiecki]

I see your point and there is some merit to this. The problem is, as I see it, that Mudita is mostly recognized only because of the Mudita Pure phone. This was your attempt at making something unique and there was some success to it (making something unique, that people are interested in) and in my opinion you are now strongly associated with this product as a brand.

Most of your (potential) customers were interested in this phone first or exclusively. And Mudita Pure is not really in the same category as Blackberry Q10 or Unihertz Titan. These are different kinds of products in my book, with different goals.

Sure, making Mudita Type might be exciting, but it misses the point. There is no good simple phone device on the market right now. Punkt MP02 had great potential, it was designed well, but the execution is very bad and it seems like they can’t handle their own software (just take a look at the recent Pidgeon shenanigans).

I know, I have this phone, and there are a lot of bugs and it’s frustrating to use (I’ve reported almost 30 bugs to Punkt after using it for only a few months). And yet, there’s nothing better on the market right now - no alternative… Mudita Pure is not an option with it’s current hardware issues and Lightphone2 is a different device for different audience.

So there is a clear gap on the market for a simple phone with good quality. To me it’s obvious and I’d happily buy one on the spot if there was a product like this.

[forest_cat]

I want a phone with no touchscreen and proper tactile keys, preferably a T9 numeric keypad. I’d consider the Mudita Type if nothing else was available, but I’d use it rather begrudgingly.

The Pure Type seems a little bit superfluous. If the whole point is being offline, then it is really only used for short messages, not e-mails or internet - and for situations where longer messages are needed, there’s Mudita Center for that. But I’d give it a go unless Punkt suddenly release a “Mudita Center” type program for the MP02.

I wouldn’t bother with a Mudita smartphone. Smartphones (even e-ink ones) already exist. I actually bought a HiSense A9 to use until the Pebble Grey Pures to go on sale (and possbly the Pure software-bugs are fixed).

I agree, lots of people were interested in Mudita because of the original Pure. There’s nothing like it, and it’s desperately needed. Just a good quality, simple phone based around minimalism and ease of use (other offerings tend to focus on one or the other). We shouldn’t let the initial problems with the Pure lead to the abandonment of the concept. If the existing Pure just worked properly (which I’m sure it soon will), it’d be perfect.

I’m still planning to buy a pebble grey one. The cellular signal in my area is very poor, but as long as I know where to go nearby, to get a signal, it would be OK for me.

[urszula]

@pawiecki I completely understand where you’re coming from. However, at Mudita, we believe that GREAT things happen when you venture out of your comfort zone.
Here’s something you might not know- I’m old enough to remember how NETFLIX started as a DVD rental service through the US mail. When they wanted to enter into the video streaming area, they were met with backlash. Back in 2007, Internet speeds were not what they are today. They even toyed with the idea of a NETFLIX BOX which would download movies overnight, so people could watch them the next day.
The bottom line is: Just because we started our journey in technology going down one path, that doesn’t mean that expanding into other avenues is a bad idea & won’t work.
You never know- sometimes taking the road less traveled makes all the difference

[kirkmahoneyphd]

@urszula: There’s a multi-part podcast series, still in progress, about Netflix. “Red Pilled America” is the podcast feed. “The Algorithms” is the series. The podcasters released part one on November 4th and released part two on November 13th. Part three likely will be available within the next week or two.

[cardio79]

THe light phone is a better option than the Punkt

[worldcitizen88]

I would also like to see a perfected Pure 2, with all the functions working & all the features implemented. Also, more storage is key.

[roberto]

I’m excited about the Mudita news. As a natural evolution, I would like to have middle-term digital healthy options from you. Having a Mudita pure with hardware capable of 5+ years of new updates and software features would put it above all the other companies. Having an e-ink touchscreen phone, 90% made in Europe, with several features, including keyboard language capabilities, will put Mudita on top of all the others, as far as I know.

A future tablet able to read DRM from apple, amazon, and google books would be game-changing for people like me that is still stuck on an ecosystem (apple in my case) due to all that limitations.

I don’t see evolution as a problem but as a consequence. Mudita has a middle-term market to explore, and I am following your next step. Your software team is hardly working on the current pure, and the design team is tickling to start a new brainstorming (not blamestorming) for further options.

Thank you for showing us how you are willing to grow and provide several options to all the customers with different cultures and needs worldwide.

[RasVoja]

@pawiecki

. Even if it would be just a dumbphone with querty keyboard and e-ink screen, then it’s not a very usefull combination with a simple UI in my opinion. Standard “dumbphone” keys are more ergonomic and simpler to use for most people, who mainly call and occasionally write.

I second this, it might be niche market, but there are successors that make QWERTY phones. Looks like sacrifice to usable screen, but I can tell you, touch typing is awful, annatural and based more on autocomplete. No typing at all like QWERTY. If we could look back there was no unplopular QWERTY phone from cheap Nokia ASha to exclusives like Vertu Constellation Quest.
Its not QWERTY that made downfall of Nokia or BB, it was sticking to OS that was outdated by Android or iOS instead of paying license.
Combo of great readble screen and QWERTY is amazing

[RasVoja]

@pawiecki

Most of your (potential) customers were interested in this phone first or exclusively. And Mudita Pure is not really in the same category as Blackberry Q10 or Unihertz Titan. These are different kinds of products in my book, with different goals.

It will be once it gets QWERTY. Nokia and other manufacturers started with candybar and evolved to QWERTY.

If I was Mudita I would have same tech candybar and QWERTY models, not making us fight each other. I mean 3 presses for letter or just 1?

[RasVoja]

@forest_cat

The Pure Type seems a little bit superfluous. If the whole point is being offline, then it is really only used for short messages, not e-mails or internet - and for situations where longer messages are needed, there’s Mudita Center for that. But I’d give it a go unless Punkt suddenly release a “Mudita Center” type program for the MP02.

No, I keep notes of everything in phone, type in search of mp3 etc. there is a lot of use.

Just think of real keyboard and not shrinked candybar 10 keys. Even think of additional keys with programmable functions.

@worldcitizen88

Also, more storage is key.

Yes even for just mp3, FLAAC, maps and notes. But at least we can use it as USB mass storage too!

[urszula]

@kirkmahoneyphd I found it. Thanks. I will check it out.

[whyoungblood]

I completely agree. Certainly a Pure 2 should be on Mudita’s roadmap, but texting on a numeric keypad, even with T9, is cumbersome and results in more screen time. The reality is that almost all of my family and friends still use smartphones and vastly prefer texting over calling, so a QWERTY Mudita phone would be a good option for people like me to quickly respond to them and get back to life.