I understand delays, and I always thought their February promise was optimistic. But it really sucks that they'd wait until three weeks before it's promised in our hands to announce a 6-month delay. With a delay of this scope, it had to be something they've known about for quite a while; why wait so long to tell those of us who financed the project from the start?
-CWuestefeld
^This!
I'm a little disappointed since I backed this one too. I felt somewhat confident in doing so because they had already shown a working prototype.
I'm thinking they're having trouble clearing the legal hurdles for content licensing and DRM. If that's the case, all bets are off since those deciding on yea or nay can be quite arbitrary in their decisions - to say nothing of being subject to influence (i.e. pressured) by existing players who generally wish to shut newcomers out of the market. Which they can do.
Alternatively, there's also a very real chance that they're actively trying to find someone to buy them out and walk away. I say this because they've done a lot of talking about partnering with developers and content providers on a come-one come-all basis. So it's not like they haven't touched bases with companies in the same line of business.
A buyout might also be necessary because their open sharing of technology, schematics, etc. is more than enough to dampen the interest of venture capitalists. VCs like secrets and generally insist on exclusivity, preferring not to have competitors too up on what their funded businesses are doing.
The optimist in me thinks it's just a delay because they kids are letting their 'geek' get in the way of their
business.
The businessman (as in pessimist) in me thinks they've either run into a snag that is
not technological (i.e. legal, licensing, real or threatened IP lawsuit, etc.) -or- some of their earlier stated goals conflict with operating as a 'smart tech business' and therefore any hoped for "big money" investors are now giving them the cold shoulder. Which could mean serious cash flow issues despite the resounding success of their campaign. Especially since $500k doesn't go very far when you're tooling up for mass producing inexpensive electronic devices.
But since they're not publicly traded, they're under
no obligation to share info about what the problem (if any) may be. And (if there is a problem) they've simply decided not to.
My
gut tells me something unexpectedly went sideways on them and they're now trying to buy some time.
My
heart tells me: "I want your gut to be completely wrong about all this."
Be interesting to see how it plays out.
