Nano Watch Kit Near $1M on Kickstarter(techcrunch.com)
techcrunch.com
Nano Watch Kit Near $1M on Kickstarter
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/16/ipod-nano-watch-million/
35 comments
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I think the kickstarter over-subscription thing is kind of out of hand. Diaspora asked for 10 and got 200, but it is highly unlikely the result will be 20x better. I wonder how the 128 people who just donated money to the project feel now that it's clear he had no need of donations. Also, not everything can scale well. What if he had a great tooling line already picked out, but now that he needs to do 100x the volume he'll have to find a worse one.
You should have to set a maximum as well as a minimum on a kickstarter project. The first time one of these massively over subscribed offers turns out to be a total scam, or just fails there's going to be a lot of unhappy people.
I think pre-sales projects like this are really interesting, but it doesn't really match the donation model. At a minimum, kickstarter should escrow the money and release it in $xx,000 chunks or something, and ensure people are getting what they ordered. Even better would be to not have people paying until they were reasonably close to an actual delivery date. It's one thing if you're waiting for upfront R&D, but it's another thing if you're simply on the ass end of a one year waiting list.
You should have to set a maximum as well as a minimum on a kickstarter project. The first time one of these massively over subscribed offers turns out to be a total scam, or just fails there's going to be a lot of unhappy people.
I think pre-sales projects like this are really interesting, but it doesn't really match the donation model. At a minimum, kickstarter should escrow the money and release it in $xx,000 chunks or something, and ensure people are getting what they ordered. Even better would be to not have people paying until they were reasonably close to an actual delivery date. It's one thing if you're waiting for upfront R&D, but it's another thing if you're simply on the ass end of a one year waiting list.
If people want to make donations in support of a fun (or at least funky) idea, I /don't/ think they should be barred from doing so. Discouraging goodwill isn't exactly a great stance to assert. As it is, though, the bulk of the money's coming from people who are requesting the product itself - it won't be 20x better, but there'll be 20x more of it, and hopefully sufficient profit that an enhanced tooling line can be made to meet demand.
Which is not to say that your concerns don't have merit, but do note that the success of Diaspora and the ipod wristwatch projects seem very much to be outliers. Kickstarter claims that a little under half of all total projects /approved/ actually meet their funding goals, and from a glance of the site, it seems as if most successes are rather /modest/ successes - we really only notice the outliers.
The site also does warn project organizers that failing to deliver could potentially leave them legally vulnerable. Given the relatively low success rate, the human curating and the necessity of maintaining a public and accessible persona to drive up donations, I wouldn't call it a great platform to scam with.
Of course, given my limited experience with scams, I could be totally naive about this.
Which is not to say that your concerns don't have merit, but do note that the success of Diaspora and the ipod wristwatch projects seem very much to be outliers. Kickstarter claims that a little under half of all total projects /approved/ actually meet their funding goals, and from a glance of the site, it seems as if most successes are rather /modest/ successes - we really only notice the outliers.
The site also does warn project organizers that failing to deliver could potentially leave them legally vulnerable. Given the relatively low success rate, the human curating and the necessity of maintaining a public and accessible persona to drive up donations, I wouldn't call it a great platform to scam with.
Of course, given my limited experience with scams, I could be totally naive about this.
What's funny is there are already a ton of these on the market: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dap...
He just has a sexy video and Kickstarter page.
He just has a sexy video and Kickstarter page.
Even stranger is that it doesn't seem like a very good product (in general, not just the Kickstarter ones). Not a good watch, not a good running aid (even with the ugly dongle that's required), not a good iPod.
I realise that watches are almost totally (and iPods and phones are partly) fashion accessories, but it's still strange to see something so functionally awkward associated with the Apple brand.
(As a fan of factory films though, his latest update was hypnotic in the best tradition of such videos. Made the whole project worthwhile as far as I'm concerned).
I realise that watches are almost totally (and iPods and phones are partly) fashion accessories, but it's still strange to see something so functionally awkward associated with the Apple brand.
(As a fan of factory films though, his latest update was hypnotic in the best tradition of such videos. Made the whole project worthwhile as far as I'm concerned).
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunati...
Here's Scott Wilson's update form China in which he walks through the process of getting the watches manufactured.
Integration with nike+ and perhaps a good set of bluetooth headphones make this the ideal running "watch".
Here's Scott Wilson's update form China in which he walks through the process of getting the watches manufactured.
Integration with nike+ and perhaps a good set of bluetooth headphones make this the ideal running "watch".
If Nanos had the right bluetooth and WiFi integration, you could have "Star Trek: The Next Generation" style communicator badges!
He has already sent out an update saying they're considering making a bluetooth adapter that suits the style of the watch. I hope they do, i'm one of the people eagerly awaiting my LunaTik and bluetooth would top it off perfectly.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunati...
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunati...
I simply cannot believe this. I love the idea, and I love the execution, but then I realized that I'd look like an idiot wearing headphones on my watch.
As someone with a recently approved kickstarter, I'm enthusiastic about the attention that this device is bringing to the model.
As someone with a recently approved kickstarter, I'm enthusiastic about the attention that this device is bringing to the model.
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What are they even going to do with all that funding? It really doesn't seem like the product is very complicated or expensive. (no offense or anything)
I thought the same thing when I started my startup (we make physical stuff too). Then I started learning about injection molding, tooling, materials, minimum order quantities, packaging, etc.
It turns out that very simple things are very expensive to start with because of the low quantities. I thought an order for 30,000 was massive, but some companies we worked with flat out laughed in my face.
So even though he raised a million bones, he's "only" making < 13,000 watches. That'll still be pretty expensive for him.
It turns out that very simple things are very expensive to start with because of the low quantities. I thought an order for 30,000 was massive, but some companies we worked with flat out laughed in my face.
So even though he raised a million bones, he's "only" making < 13,000 watches. That'll still be pretty expensive for him.
That's interesting. At what quantity do they stop laughing?
It really depends on the manufacturer. Some don't want to deal with you unless you're in the 100s of thousands. We were very lucky to find a company that will make a quantity as low as 300, but there would be no reasonable price we could charge for the product without losing tons of money. A quantity of 3,000 would basically be a wash, and 30,000 would give us a decent margin.
Another point I forgot to mention above is assembly cost. I was surprised to learn that automating tasks isn't cost effective even when production is in the tens of thousands (depending on the task of course).
Another point I forgot to mention above is assembly cost. I was surprised to learn that automating tasks isn't cost effective even when production is in the tens of thousands (depending on the task of course).
100,000
He does have to make and ship 18,000 watches.
I assume he planned for a lower quantity initial run, so his margins are probably pretty high now. The "fixed" costs of initiating manufacturing are probably the biggest component.
I assume he planned for a lower quantity initial run, so his margins are probably pretty high now. The "fixed" costs of initiating manufacturing are probably the biggest component.
My new theory is that kickstarter actually works best as a demand gauging/preorder tool for a completely finished product that is in the process of working out a mass manufacturing deal. These guys already knew exactly where/who to go to and took care of all the business side of things for manufacturing very very quickly. I'm pretty sure they could and would have manufactured some of those watches with or without kickstarter. The only real problem kickstarter solved for them was knowing how many to manufacture. The fact that other successful kickstarter projects such as Glif, Lockpick tools, and C-loop succeeded under similar conditions seems to somewhat back this theory up.
The pledges are actually orders for the watches.
Depends on what you pledged. You basically paying for the opportunity to pre-order at the price they want...
Only if you pledge less than $25, which is just supporting the project. Anything more is considered a pre-order, and gets you one of the watch variants. Of the 13510 backers, only 128 pledged in the <25$ bracket - so less than 1% are merely paying for the opportunity to pre-order, as you put it.
What happens when the nano gets an updated design? Wouldn't even a slight change in dimensions require expensive production/design changes?
That's about when you release a new model and reduce the price on the old design.
I'm glad someone is stepping into this opportunity, but it's plain to me that Apple had originally intended to release the iPod Nano as a watch. Look at the default clock and the square dimensions. Perhaps this developer will eventually discover the reason for Apple's trepidation--or perhaps this is a rare Apple misstep.
Some of those designs will probably mess with the touchscreen sensitivity of the Nano. My last company had some custom made touchscreen devices where the paint on the plastic bezels was messing stuff up with sensitivity.
Nice design. Now Apple just needs to open up an SDK for them; they could be much more than they are.
Yes, this is the only reason I'd ever consider this (though it does look okay, the idea of an iPod on your wrist is _unbelievably_ dorky).
On the other hand with an SDK for it I'd consider buying one, never using headphones with it and just reimplementing (that is, stealing) designs from tokyo flash (http://www.tokyoflash.com/jp/watches/1/). Customisable sleek designery-watch is cool, iPod on your wrist is not. Bearing in mind that the time-telling aspect of the watch is basically completely superfluous nowadays.
I guess it's not really apple's thing but I'd rather this design, slightly slimmer and without the audio guts of the ipod.
On the other hand with an SDK for it I'd consider buying one, never using headphones with it and just reimplementing (that is, stealing) designs from tokyo flash (http://www.tokyoflash.com/jp/watches/1/). Customisable sleek designery-watch is cool, iPod on your wrist is not. Bearing in mind that the time-telling aspect of the watch is basically completely superfluous nowadays.
I guess it's not really apple's thing but I'd rather this design, slightly slimmer and without the audio guts of the ipod.
or open their checkbook. acquire, Applefy, and release it as the iWatch
this one is actually cooler! less production quality in the video though; http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1550909969/the-ultimate-...
iPods can be very sensitive to moisture. I'd be wary of wearing one on my wrist.
So, is this a good example of using KickStarter for gauging interest and some "funding" to get over the horse-cart paradox many skittish entrepreneurs experience?
Somehow, I'm reminded of something Douglas Adams wrote awhile ago...
"Look for the accessory ecosystem- iPod/iPhone/iPad case manufacturers are making a fortune."
[1] http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/how-to-become-a-millionai...