Mail From Ed (with Estimated Shipping Dates)

[gibberish]

you people who keep saying that a 3 month delay is not that bad. you should have been here a year ago when we were told itd be ready by march or april 2008.

almost a year late, actually. now stfu.

 

[mali]

I was around, just in lurk mode. There was no real reason for me to join, vaporware was still possible. The actual preorder made me finally join the forum.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well... in Europe, the PSP had 6 months delay, the PS3 had a lot of delay worldwide, the eeePC had 4 months delay (at least here in Germany), the Toshiba G900 Portege had about 4 months delay, the Glaxy7 from ASUS which should have been released in October is not even mentioned on their site yet...

Is there anything today WITHOUT delay?
And most of the above were BEFORE the worldwide financial crisis...

Geez, we're not cancelling or quitting, we're just taking the last stepping stones to finish the product as it should be, not halfworking, but a fully, good working device

 

[gibberish]

Unlike some companies I think Michael is trying to ensure no one sees a red ring of death

but how is this going to be tested? you only find out about long term problems when the device has been used long term! it would require a bunch of completely finished pandoras to be rigourously tested for upto 6 months to determine if there were going to be any serious problems somewhere down the road.

 

[gibberish]

Well... in Europe, the PSP had 6 months delay, the PS3 had a lot of delay worldwide, the eeePC had 4 months delay (at least here in Germany), the Toshiba G900 Portege had about 4 months delay, the Glaxy7 from ASUS which should have been released in October is not even mentioned on their site yet...

Is there anything today WITHOUT delay?
And most of the above were BEFORE the worldwide financial crisis...

Geez, we're not cancelling or quitting, we're just taking the last stepping stones to finish the product as it should be, not halfworking, but a fully, good working device

the main difference is that none of these companies have already taken payment for their non-existant, repeatedly delayed devices. i do understand that you want to get it right before you let us all at it, but at the same time i find it slightly weird that you took all our money before you were ready for production and still keep delaying the bloody thing! ho-hum!

 

[plopperz]

Are preorders for the second batch still expected for December?

 

[EvilDragon]

the main difference is that none of these companies have already taken payment for their non-existant, repeatedly delayed devices. i do understand that you want to get it right before you let us all at it, but at the same time i find it slightly weird that you took all our money before you were ready for production and still keep delaying the bloody thing! ho-hum!

Well, as said multiple times: Without that damn financial crisis, which didn't exist when preorders started, there wouldn't have probably been anymore delays. ho-hum.
We could send you a broken board right away, if that's what you want - then you can get something for your money.

The problem is, that Sony and Nintendo have slightly more cash in their pockets than we do - so they can simply finance everything and release it.
That doesn't work out with such small devices. The GPH has been produced with the preorder money - and the Pandora will be.
Does this mean your money will be lost when the Pandora doesn't work out? Nope, as we all gave some stuff to insure (i.e. houses, etc.)
It wouldn't make sense to sell the house to finance the Pandora, then buy it back. Instead, the house is an insurance - when the Pandora doesn't work out, you get your money back and we're all broke and lose everything we have

So basically YOU ALL made the Pandora possible.

There are multiple ways financing such a project:

a) You are a big company and have the money to do so. Isn't the case here.
B) You take a large credit which is pretty expensive to pay back. This makes the device much more pricey, as you need to get the money back.
c) You develop the device from your own funds and THEN get preorder money to actually produce it. This keeps the device as cheap as possible. But to insure that nobody actually loses the money he paid for the preorder, you need some kind of insurance like houses, cars, etc. which can be sold when the worst case happens.
d) You see that you don't have money to finance it and give up before you even start.

We decided to go for c).
Yes, some may be pissed as they paid it and it gets delayed. However, the Pandora wouldn't exist otherwise.
And we should even be more pissed - the more delays we have, the higher is our risk. We basically all risked our life to insure you'll all get your money back in worst case, so you can really be assured we make sure and ARE sure this project will work out

 

[Arakasi]

The problem is, that Sony and Nintendo have slightly more cash in their pockets than we do

Bahahahahaha. That just made my day.

I hope the Pandora helps you guys make up the difference. :lol:

 

[TaG]

Geez, we're not cancelling or quitting, we're just taking the last stepping stones to finish the product as it should be, not halfworking, but a fully, good working device
I think most people are in agreement with that attitude for getting the device right. I don't want the thing to be rushed at all; all I was saying previously is that those delays can cause different problems, especially with loved ones that don't understand...

Anyway, I'm not going to be negative today, but instead ask a couple of questions:
Are there any more (guestimated) dates that can be given regarding the finishing of refunds and the credit card link? People are wondering about how long the link will be up for too.

If you are unable to answer yet that is fine, but I do think positive information will help.

 

[renegadechic]

Does this mean your money will be lost when the Pandora doesn't work out? Nope, as we all gave some stuff to insure (i.e. houses, etc.)
It wouldn't make sense to sell the house to finance the Pandora, then buy it back. Instead, the house is an insurance - when the Pandora doesn't work out, you get your money back and we're all broke and lose everything we have

Well i dont know about anyone else but i'd rather lose £200 than see you guys lose everything. That would be terrible. It just makes seeing all the irrational panicers hollering for refunds seem even more unreasonable. Its just a case of staying in it to eventually get what we want or make a load of very good people very homeless.

 

[PoisonedV]

you people who keep saying that a 3 month delay is not that bad. you should have been here a year ago when we were told itd be ready by march or april 2008.

almost a year late, actually. now stfu.

January 08? You have no room to be talking
now stfu.

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

@Evil Dragon: I haven't received this email so far. Have you send it to all people who preordered and paid in advance?

 

[mahousaru]

Feb for non far eastern countries seems pretty good for me. Coming up to Christmas is the time for lost post and annoyed couriers to use packages as a football.

 

[Kyo]

you people who keep saying that a 3 month delay is not that bad. you should have been here a year ago when we were told itd be ready by march or april 2008.

almost a year late, actually. now stfu.

January 08? You have no room to be talking
now stfu.


I bet you are a nice, respectful and supportive person in real life.

Tell me I'm right.

 

[gibberish]

you people who keep saying that a 3 month delay is not that bad. you should have been here a year ago when we were told itd be ready by march or april 2008.

almost a year late, actually. now stfu.

January 08? You have no room to be talking
now stfu.


i had no reason to sign up until i decided i was definitely going to be part of this project. admittedly iam not one of the original forumites, and i never owned a gp2x but i have followed this project since it was merely a single thread on these forums and therefore have as much right to voice my concerns and disatisfaction as you. :rolleyes:

 

[hch]

when i read through this thread i only had one thought

i find your lack of faith disturbing....

honestly, people, what did you expect? craig&the gang are a bunch of hobbyists that put their lifeblood into creating a device they thought would be cool. if you think that's peanuts, well, you are welcome to go ahead and do it yourself! seriously. when i made that preorder i was fully aware that things might slip, have delays and whatnot. the only thing i was and still am concerned is, that the crowd that wants a pandora is big enough and willing enough to make a down payment so that any of the manufacturing companies would be interested in making it a reality in the end. for me at least this payment was not a mere preorder, it was my little contribution to making this happen after all. and when i first read about the pandora sometime in spring '08 it took me about 5 minutes of checking the web page to find out that this was the state of affairs.

i know that waiting is hard and people have to vent some steam. please, go ahead. but let me tell you that bitching around about delays will a) make you look like someone who didn't get the idea of this whole project and B) contribute a bit towards making the developers feel bad and reduce the fun they certainly have in developing and by this means suck energy from the project. probably next time 'round they will think twice about taking some risk again. and that is bad. it might mean that the probability of a pandora-2 might be smaller. or they will be less confident in mass marketing it. or they will decide to not let the comunity in on any developments next time 'round.

well, anyways. what i wanted to say was: cheer up! and for the super impatient: stay away from the drug that is this forum, forget about the pandora and be pleasantly surprised when you get it. and for those so fed up that they can't stand the sight, sound and smell of anything pandora anymore: do the rest of us a favor, take your money out of the pool and leave. this initial round was not meant to be for 'consumers', but rather for 'supporters'

 

[sold]

MAJOR EDIT: Deleted previous comment. Gonna bow out and hopefully a good dev gets my place in line for a Pandora. Gonna go back to lurking and order when round 2 comes about. I hope to see glowing posts of praise soon. I really wanted to be part of the first batch, but bills and eating come before pleasure unfortunately. Good luck to all the devs and first-batchers.

 

[Eniko]

Hmm, I hope the devs didn't actually put their houses up for collateral and that was just an example ED gave. It'd suck if the project went bottoms up for some unforeseen reason and the devs lost everything for trying to provide the Pandora.

That makes me curious about how many people so far have cancelled their order. Not that I think the project's in trouble, I'm just curious.

 

[Svartalf]

Hmm, I hope the devs didn't actually put their houses up for collateral and that was just an example ED gave. It'd suck if the project went bottoms up for some unforeseen reason and the devs lost everything for trying to provide the Pandora.

I'm fearing that this is actually what's going on. It's not uncommon to see this sort of thing. I almost did a similar thing (if I wasn't already in hot water because of a cash crunch in a startup that I'm the CTO for...) to help try to get the funding for completing a demo/production prototype of a security system for the utility industry. Keep that in mind, folks, when you complain about delays.

Yes, as TaG put, there is problems with loved ones understanding. Can't help that one.

But this is not any different than ANY product start up with a start-up venture, especially one like the Pandora project. Beagleboard's supposed to be doing a third rev of their board and they can't seem to get the financial resources to actually do a spin of that for varying reasons.

Delays like this happens, folks. You just never hear about the "fun" the company went through that brought about the delay in most cases, unlike the Pandora.

If you're having issues because of loved ones and need to bow out, you probably ought to.

If you're bitching because there's the money you put on the line for a Pandora on preorder, then you might want to consider that you funded the development of the device and you should see the money back if things continue to go sideways. If you couldn't afford to take the chance you did on the preorder, then perhaps you shouldn't have preordered....

 

[TaG]

Yes, as TaG put, there is problems with loved ones understanding. Can't help that one.

You can't? Dang! what a half assed project! I was going to pm her number to you so you could call and smooth it out. Perhaps I should just tell her it is a charitable donation to help the (otherwise) homeless.

On topic: Personally, I think the word February surprised me after all the positive noises that were made. The 'don't worry, everything is on target' type info. I'm not concerned, not panicked, not stressed. A little disappointed but want it to be done properly. My only real point to all is that remember that people have different tolerance levels and different viewpoints. They are customers or potential customers and possible contributors. As a group we don't want to tell them to go away...

edit:typos