Oh we do love to play with that companies name in news headings don’t we. The opportunities are endless!!
Pepper Computer have been somewhat quiet recently. We’ve seen them showing off new user interfaces on Pepper Desktop 4 and even working with Canonical but when it comes to the Pepper Pad hardware, there has been very little official response to worried users in the Pepper forum. Many people had suspected that the company was in trouble and it appears to be true. Read on for the full story.
Len Kawell, father of the Pepper concept has posted an official update in the Pepper forums:
Pepper Computer is not dead, nor is it the end of Pepper Linux or the Pepper Pad 3. However, it’s true that Pepper Computer, Inc. is going through some significant changes right now. I apologize that we haven’t been very responsive to the forums and some Pepper Pad support requests.
As you probably can surmise, the original Pepper Pad and Hanbit’s Pepper Pad 3 have not sold as well as, say the iPod. Since the original Pepper Pad (Pepper Pad 2) is no longer on the market and since Pepper Computer is just the software developer for the Pepper Pad 3, we only receive revenue when our OEMs sell devices. If they don’t sell enough Pepper-powered devices, we don’t receive enough revenue to employ enough developers, so can’t significantly develop the Pepper Linux software.
Ken goes on to explain that some staff are no longer with the company and that they are considering two options: “sell Pepper Linux to another company to finish it and/or open source it.” Which actually sounds like one option to me because I can’t see that going open source is going to bring them any money.
A few weeks ago someone asked me what I thought was happening at Pepper and here’s what I had to say:
I don’t actually know anything but it wouldn’t surprise me if they are putting the hardware to one side and focusing on a buy out of the software business by Google, Intel or Canonical. I know that Len Kawell, father of Pepper, is working as a consultant for canonical and they are working extremely closely with Intel/Moblin on Ubuntu Mobile.
Remember they showed off the new user interfaces a wile back? I suspect that was a showing of feathers to Intel.
Obviously things have gone past the point of a Google or Intel buy-out so what’s left? Pepper have a core Linux build, a java-based UI and a software distribution architecture. Intel and Canonical are building Moblin so I’d say that there’s little value in their core distro. As for the user interface, there might be some value in it but I don’t think its up to scratch for the style-conscious mobile device consumer at the moment. I’d actually target it at Grandma and Grandad buy making it work at a higher res and offering it for sale as a simple OS for old PCs. They would need to partner with some sort of official body and choose one hardware platform to get the best out of that opportunity though. The software distribution system might be worth looking at because its not bad. Full, automated software upgrades is something I have never seen working so well on a consumer device before.
Maybe they should just focus on auctioning off Pepper.com to start with. It has to be worth well over a million dollars because its an absolute peach of a domain name. After selling it they could get back to focusing on slim, consumer focused Linux distributions.
I feel for you Len. You came up with a superb concept just a little too early to catch enough of the wave. The Pepper Pad 3 was a great home surfing device and I still miss having one around. Maybe someone here has ideas or contracts for Ken. If so either drop them in the comments or contact me privately and I’ll pass the information on.
Len did an audio interview for us earlier this year (hosted by Thoughtfix) which you can find here.
