Looking back on the road we have already traveled, Purism has pioneered many areas. These include securing boot firmware (PureBoot), manufacturing in the USA (Librem Key and Librem 5 USA), and creating the first truly convergent operating system (PureOS) by authoring the foundational pieces for mobile GNU/Linux (Phosh, Phoc, Squeekboard, Calls, Chats, etc). These innovations and growth have happened due to the unflinching support of our team, early backers, supporters and customers. As we look ahead to 2022, we wanted to share where we are going next.
Purism in 2021 transitioned from a Just In Time business toward the goal of holding stock and shortening lead times. Our current In-stock products are Librem Mini, Librem Key, Librem 14, and various accessories. Our Librem 5 USA will be shipping through backorders and in stock (adjusting based on new sales) sometime in Q2, 2022. Our Librem 5 continues to sell at a pace that means—based on CPU availability—it will hope to be in stock later in 2022. This transition to reliable short lead times and consistent delivery will mean we are not artificially constrained, and able to meet the exceeding demand for our secure laptops, phones, servers, and services.
Purism is planning some new hardware products to be brought to market later in 2022, this will allow us to serve a broader and growing market for our devices. Purism also has been able to transition from the crowdfunded research and development (very risky) toward announcing products when released. While we may do crowdfunding in the future for really innovative or new technology, the more proven product expansion we are executing in 2022 will not require that.
With the growing percentage of people selecting PureBoot as their boot firmware choice, we will be transitioning to having this be the default for all our Intel based hardware; this ensures a future where the defaults are the best possible security offering to users. This also includes expansion with Librem Key capabilities that spill into the ease of use with applications, offering securing communications, drives, documentation all with the convenience of a single key.
Purism continues to invest millions in PureOS and the ecosystem. In 2022 this will expand with growing emphasis on the developer ecosystem around PureOS Store, app payments, documentation, tutorials, and core development (from kernel, OS, and core apps).
Purism planted the flag on what freedom respecting services could look like with the initial launch of Librem One (a bundle of services that started with Chat, VPN, Social, and Email). Purism added Librem AweSIM to easily provide cellular VPN-like service to customers. In 2022 we will see greater investment and growth around these services to stabilize and scale existing services as well as adding new services that will enrich the entire offering. A primary area we will see is tighter integration of Librem One services with PureOS, driving the convenience of integrated services into all Purism products.
Having a socially responsible business model that invests in a technological future that we all desire—one that respects human rights—also requires products to increase in convenience, to a point where the early adopters grow to mass market. Gaining appeal to a larger audience requires Purism products to be just as easy (or easier) to use than the proprietary rights-stripping alternatives from Apple, Google, Microsoft and others. Purism will continue to invest millions each year to expand products, software, applications, and services to make it ever easier for people to have convenient products that give them peace of mind that they are respected by their technology while able to participate in digital society.
We will be posting new jobs, interviewing, and hiring in 2022. If you desire to see a future that aligns with Purism’s social purpose, please apply here!
All of our success, growth, and innovations have come from the continued support of early backers, long-term supporters, patient customers, and happy users. Thank you all for the kind words, for sharing product stories, and sharing compliments around our innovations and contributions. It is with your continued support of Purism’s social purpose mission that we will all see a more convenient rights respecting technological future for humanity.