The Commodore Callback 8020 flip phone looks like it’s from decades ago but its price was definitely a sign of today’s times. That’s changed, with Commodore’s announcement today that it will drop the price $100 for most models before pre-orders start next week.
The phone caused a stir when it was announced a week ago. First, there was the thrill of 80s computing legend Commodore making a phone. Then the phone being retro in both look and function caught attention, with a flip-phone form factor combined with a focus on privacy. But one of the most unique features of the Callback 8020 is that it runs Android apps on Linux-based Sailfish OS instead of Android. Among all of the praise though, was criticism that a $500 starting price for the basic models was too high.
…
I think the problem is that they grossly over estimated how many people actually wanted to buy a “legit” Commodore branded Commodore Ultimate when they came up with the idea to buy the Commodore brand.
Now they are trying to come up with ways to make it profitable but they don’t really seem to understand Product Market Fit.
I think it would be a better idea to do some high quality branded merch.