Actually, Joerg said yesterday evening in the µBlog that the FAQ has been updated.
So it's a bit more than "site under construction".

I think freemangordon, we just need to wait and see how things evolve. I don't think that Neo900UG trying to steal your money, or to make huge earnings on their first project. Also think of this phone as custom made hardware, and not as another commercial fruit device.

With this price range, I also could not afford it, but there is always an option of some government agencies order for secure device or something similar that could drop the price.

I don't think that the price will drop. To be honest it's more likely it will rise further, because there will be more like me, which simply can't make such a huge invest for a mobile phone. We had already the cost discussion in the past:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...21#post1405521
and don't forget the poll. There were only 20 people ho voted they are willing to pay more than 1000€.

I still use the N900 as my main device but the battery life and screen resolution of the Neo900 makes the price of €1000,- too expensive.

I actually continue to be impressed by the Neo900 team's transparency.

Since they are sourcing a lot of the parts from outside of the Eurozone, the sharp price increase makes sense since the value of the Euro has tanked since the start of the project.

For what it's worth, the projected cost isn't increasing appreciably for me since I am US--well, I better hope that the US Dollar remains at relative parity to the Euro for the remainder of the project (or consider locking in a big payment now).

I'm also very disappointed by the price rise but I'm not sure if there's an alternative other than to pay up. They have justified the reasons, I've already donated €100 and there's no other device on the horizon that comes close to what the Neo900 offers. It will probably mean I'll now just go for the board-only option and use it with my 5 year old N900 case which isn't in the greatest condition. If we ever want to see the "Step 2" successor, this needs to succeed.

The disappointment seems to be widespread so this surely affects their plans for down payments for securing parts.

I think they have to find a way to secure funds to make it feasible build at least 1000 devices in order to bring down the costs. Either find an investor or launch a crowd funding campaign that ensures that the buyer has nothing to lose if they don't reach the target. This is more likely to succeed once they have demonstrated a fully working final prototype.

Sorry, i'm one step before out although i'm one of the first supporters but waiting 2 years and seeing this increasing price? No.
And i doubt that the price will get down any time, because with every step up more people will leave. Mmh, devils end.

Please let me attempt a few quick clarifications regarding the transparency of the communication:

The update of the cost estimate is part of the preparations for the next project phase, where the project will incur larger external expenses, such as component purchases.

We don't mean to "hide" this. It's in fact linked from the FAQ, and the latest changes to the FAQ are not even a day old. So please treat them gently, for the ink is still wet :-)

We want to announce the whole ensemble of closely connected things (shop, how payments are calculated taking into account existing loans, and the new cost calculation) together, to avoid mistakes and confusion.

We're currently testing the shop and preparing the corresponding announcement and usage instructions. We hope to have the grand opening in a few days.

Also, we would like to ask you to wait with payments until the shop is open. Part of why this is so much work is that we have a jolly mess of payments from different sources and with different characteristics. We have now consolidated that data, and, going forward, want to use the shop as the only channel for orders and payments.

Thanks a lot for your support and your patience !

- Werner (on behalf of the Neo900 team)