Ok, here's a little story dedicated to the early pre-orderers, telling the tale of how things are playing out for most of them still waiting (including me):
Early 2008, you notice there's a discussion of a fine piece of handheld heaven. Eagerly stand by, gather more information and wait for pre-orders to open up.
Tell every living person and their dog about the Pandora, hype it to the skies. Maybe even get some of them interested.
Pre-order date, late Sept/early Oct 2008 arrives. Type that credit card number faster than your keyboard accepts input. (Fry and his "Shut up and take my money" goes quite well with this one)
Set-backs. Huge, multiple, set-backs. Defend and rationalize the delays to the people to whom you hyped the Pandora earlier, who are now asking how the project has gone so far. You still show uttermost confidence in the project, maybe even still trying to invite others to pre-order and join the fun.
Your significant-other and/or your parents start to get worried it's a scam, and plead you to cancel the order and to get your money back. You stand firm and defend OP's actions, and ask them trust you. From this point forward, you quit advertising it to others.
After two years of delays and problems, you begin to avoid bringing up the subject, and if directly asked about it, you give vague and/or evasive answers, possibly even try to change the subject. Every time there's a mention of Pandora's Box, or introduction of a new game console, etc, you dread that someone is going to ask you about the Pandora project.
Now, after over 3.5 years and counting, you start to lose hope. You have already pretty much written the cost as gone. But not because you think it's a scam. You just have started to develop serious doubts about whether the company will stay up long enough to send you your Pandora. And cancellation is simply not considered as an option, you've invested too much time and energy for this.
Now fearing to respond to the forums, in case you add fuel to the fire of giving an impression of OP being in trouble, you're silently hoping for new people to pour in, or somebody to upgrade. Now it also seems that the people around you have forgotten about the Pandora (or don't want to ask about it anymore, for your sake - and you don't care which). So now you're secretly waiting for a miracle and/or for OP to suddenly deciding to send out all the early pre-orders in one big swoop. Unfortunately, this fleeting moment of bliss is just beyond your grasp, even though at times you feel like you're SOOOO close.
And a little extra ode/side remark to the people who already have their Pandoras: I can only imagine the sweet relief of getting the "Your Pandora has been shipped" -email. But as more time goes by, they are surely getting only sweeter and sweeter.
And there you have it, maybe this helped someone get a little more insight on what goes inside our heads. Thank you for reading, I know it was a long post.
