Purism (creator of FOSS friendly phones and hardware) 2023 financial report , income grew by 350% in three years and the company is profitable

puri.sm 2023 Finance Report: Profitable, More Assets than Liabilities, Over $9m in Sales, 50% Margin – Purism

Purism makes premium phones, laptops, mini PCs and servers running free software on PureOS. Purism products respect people's privacy and freedom while protecting their security.

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Their prices are insane, $999.00 for a 11.5" tablet? $799.00 for a mini-PC? Are they fucking mental? Who would buy these?
- I did. Saved up for years and then finally pulled the trigger.
  It broke after about a week of use and took them about a year to give me a partial refund.
  
  That really sucks and isn't a good look for Purism.
- There shtick is privacy. They are selling privacy oriented machines which is a value add for people who need device privacy but don't have the bandwidth to to setup and audit everything themselves. The service they are selling is more privacy then value budget hardware.
- pricing is in line with the top ipad. I consider it kind of an activist move to buy one of these though, more about supporting a cause than getting a device with maximal functionality.
  
  With prices like this, it's kind of performative activism though. It severely limits access and makes it like privacy is a luxury only a few can afford. That's a weird message to be sending out.

From what I’ve read and listened to, they’re misleading in this report when they say all crowdfunding backer devices have been fulfilled/delivered.
- As someone who requested a refund, I can confirm to have neither the phone nor the refund :(
  
  I feel that pain, but probably not to the same degree. I've backed over 300 campaigns on Kickstarter and Gamefound. I've had around 8 that didn't fulfill and didn't give a refund -- somewhere in the vicinity of $500-800 worth overall. It's maddening when it feels like our money was either stolen or at best, wasted.

Wow, looks like there is profit to be made in scamming

I like the ethos behind Purism, I was worried they wouldn't be profitable at all. I hope this is enough profitablity to attract greater investment to grow and create economies of scale and lower the retail price and reduce lead times to be in line with the rest of the market.

Fantastic! Love to see FOSS companies winning! Maybe someday soon Puri.sm will come out with a phone that doesn't massively suck

Heard this company was involved in major scams

It would be nice if companies like this came out with a budget model so more people could participate in supporting their products. Lotta poor folks into FOSS.

I was just having a conversation about a Google free, AI Free phone option. This isn't quite where the folks I was talking to need it to be (mostly needs eSim and 5G would be nice), but it certainly something to keep an eye on.

I haven't looked at there stuff in while. They have really compelling devices. There a bit too pricey for me at the moment.

18 comments