Mould Creation Time

[rv6502]

@craigix, I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread ,and IMO the poster was right, do keep a close eye on quality and have conditions for same in your contract, initial batches are usually very good and will be made by higher level workers/lower management, later ones will be done by lower grade workers with minimal supervision and may suffer accordingly, the Chinese don`t always seem to be very good at quality control over time, I hear some larger firms had handed their QC over to locally trained staff after an adoption period (cost cutting measure), and brought their own people home, and then had to send their QC people back a few months later due to high reject levels of one sort or another.

That's the reason we only used China for the cases, it's something I feel they can't get wrong once the moulds are good. We did look at making these in the UK/USA but the price was insane. Like close to a million dollars.

they could use cheaper plastic or gradually wrong injection pressure or cooling time due to cheaper staff or sub-contracting maybe ?
I'm trying to offset the "nothing could go wrong" bad luck

its tempting to insert a

Like close to a million dollars.

Confirmed: Pandora will cost a million dollars

 

[Bosbeetle]

they could use cheaper plastic or gradually wrong injection pressure or cooling time due to cheaper staff or sub-contracting maybe ?
I'm trying to offset the "nothing could go wrong" bad luck

They could also just use cheap labor

 

[elwing]

they could use cheaper plastic or gradually wrong injection pressure or cooling time due to cheaper staff or sub-contracting maybe ?

thinking that chinese product are bad is quite stupid, most highend product also comes from china. the problem is not the country, it is about what you pay and about the quality control you setup. targeting the cheapest china industry or let the manufacturer do all by themself would surely end worst in china than in US. but as long as you choose well, china is better than US, you can get the same quality for much less.

 

[sold]

I have personally seen the result of questionable ethics when it comes to the quality of samples compared to production run units from Chinese tools. I suppose it depends which company is being used and the relationship formed with them.

Seriously, I've seen some shocking dies arrive from China, but the samples sent for approval looked ok. In some cases it could be because the people who have ordered the tools have tried to squeeze the tool makers for a ridiculously cheap price, so it could be a case of you get what you paid for. But I know of one case where the tool was a disaster and had to be taken apart and worked on extensively once it arrived because it wasn't fit for molding. And it wasn't a cheap job. The tool could've bee made locally for a reasonable extra cost without the lengthy delay that we encountered before shipping.

On the other hand, I have seen some real nice Chinese work too. Alot less nice work than crappy work, but still. I hope the Pandora team gets a shining example of good Chinese tool making.

 

[droneb]

It al depends, and as always you will get what you pay for (or less).

the most hig quality and top tek is now HQ at China thats because of low cost on material production and mantime.

you can have a better quality of a product on China or Taiwan,than even some of the products made in Germany Japan or USA.

it is because industrial in china is so cheap that if you payed the same cash to china and same cash to japan, you will definitely
get better Quality on China.

it all depends in what is available and the 3d party C&QC that some CO uses.

its just as some pp in colombia says "why so expensive? does it run jumps and spits?"

 

[SNESFAN]

ohh question, not sure if this is agianst the NDA or not, but what company are you/they going through in china? And what other products have they produced in the past other than the recently shown pandora A/V cables? While very nice quality, I've got some pretty nice RCA cables with some shotty built gadgets in the past.

Showing some examples of their gadget track record, so to say, might put some rest to the squabble about build quality. Just a thought.

 

[Monk]

At the end of all this we will make pretty decent consultants on these things!

No! Don't go do contract work for Nintendo and SONY!!!!

 

[Fishbong]

plus mould making is actually more modern in china an for last china has the largest ammount of iron and therefore steel.

I am afraid i don´t follow your logic.

 

[rv6502]

they could use cheaper plastic or gradually wrong injection pressure or cooling time due to cheaper staff or sub-contracting maybe ?

thinking that chinese product are bad is quite stupid, most highend product also comes from china. the problem is not the country, it is about what you pay and about the quality control you setup. targeting the cheapest china industry or let the manufacturer do all by themself would surely end worst in china than in US. but as long as you choose well, china is better than US, you can get the same quality for much less.

I never said Chinese products are bad, please don't put words in my mouth.

I was mentioning things that theoretically could go bad with plastic case production, what I said is valid for production in any country.

 

[Pleng]

At the end of all this we will make pretty decent consultants on these things!

No! Don't go do contract work for Nintendo and SONY!!!!

What exactly about the promptness of the Pandora's delivery makes you think that Sony or Nintendo would come head-hunting the development team?

 

[craigix]

We will reveal the details of who we used to do what once everything is finished.

 

[amortvigil]

We will reveal the details of who we used to do what once everything is finished.

Verry wise! oeeh hopefully the cases will be sent this week Thanx Craigix! youre awsome, please can you give us a pandora vid in the zoo? or will flying in a parashute?? i still miss those!

 

[Phawx]

Why are people still requesting this video? What is Craig gonna show you that is new?

 

[calc84maniac]

Why are people still requesting this video? What is Craig gonna show you that is new?

Hmm... it breaks up the monotony? Also, I think what would be new is a mass production Pandora. I'm sure a lot of people would like to see something other than a prototype or 3D render.

 

[Monk]

We will reveal the details of who we used to do what once everything is finished.

Verry wise!

Oh I dunno - I still remember the "case of the knock-off Microsoft Mice" that were actually made by the factory that made them for Microsoft... I personally would be very happy for OpenPandora to NOt reveal who has the blood-sweat-and-tears case moulds until at least Pandora II or Pandora III time (at which time I'd be happy for them to release the whole Pandora I design under GPL, say).

 

[second exodous]

I still remember the "case of the knock-off Microsoft Mice" that were actually made by the factory that made them for Microsoft... I personally would be very happy for OpenPandora to Not reveal who has the blood-sweat-and-tears case molds until at least Pandora II or Pandora III time (at which time I'd be happy for them to release the whole Pandora I design under GPL, say).

The company that made the 'Microsoft Mice' made the entire mouse, inside and out, they were the exact same quality as the official. In this case it's just one part that is being made by a company. If someone did want to make knock offs of the Pandora they would have more trouble than it's worth, they would have to go to every company that made the original parts individually and convince them to make the parts for them. At worst you would get a company using the Pandora case with the same innards that every other cheap 'MP4' player has. Or anyway I would think.

Is the knock off threat the real reason that the Pandora team isn't saying who makes what at this point?

 

[Monk]

The company that made the 'Microsoft Mice' made the entire mouse, inside and out, they were the exact same quality as the official. In this case it's just one part that is being made by a company. If someone did want to make knock offs of the Pandora they would have more trouble than it's worth, they would have to go to every company that made the original parts individually and convince them to make the parts for them. At worst you would get a company using the Pandora case with the same innards that every other cheap 'MP4' player has. Or anyway I would think.

Agreed. So there'd be a bunch of really crap bits of kit flying around that look and possibly feel like Pandoras, but really dissapoint the end user. More like a rolex knock-off, I guess. Not an improvement on the Microsoft Mouse scenario

 

[fiori_musicali]

Agreed. So there'd be a bunch of really crap bits of kit flying around that look and possibly feel like Pandoras, but really dissapoint the end user. More like a rolex knock-off, I guess. Not an improvement on the Microsoft Mouse scenario

Which would be an indication of Pandora's success. I don't understand how this would hinder OpenPandora in any way, as they would still be the number one distributor of the one and only real Pandoras that are admittedly more expensive than the Chinese plagiates but much cheaper than what a person could individually create (at this point), and higher quality than any of the options. The modern consumer is so quality- and brand-conscious that they will go for the real thing rather than a cheap clone. Maybe some people can't afford a real Pandora, but in that case they weren't a target group to begin with so it can't be considered a loss.

 

[Monk]

The modern consumer is so quality- and brand-conscious that they will go for the real thing rather than a cheap clone.

This would be why all those people making fake rolex's and fake Gucci handbags, fake perfumes, fake SD cards (that are really only a fraction of their stated capacity), fake Tamiflu supplies and so on and so forth went out of business this year, I assume?

Oh wait - they didn't.

http://www.ealing.go...rds/fake_goods/

Well-known high street products and branded goods are frequently faked and copied. Fake items such as watches, perfumes, sports goods, CDs, DVDs, often leave the public with sub-standard goods and manufacturers with financial losses. Counterfeit car spares and medicines can kill.

http://news.bbc.co.u.../uk/8215519.stm

Seizures of counterfeit goods on the continent more than doubled in 2008, with customs authorities seizing 178 million fake items - mostly imported from China.

http://www.dailymail...fake-goods.html

Just a decade ago, the global market in counterfeit goods was worth just £3bn a year - today, it is worth more than 100 times more. New figures show that three million people bought counterfeit clothes, sunglasses, handbags, watches and jewellery in Britain alone last year - part of a £14 billion-a- year business, which is robust enough to withstand the most brutal economic storm.More surprising still, these goods were not bought solely by people who are unable to afford the real thing; according to the survey, Counterfeiting Luxury: Exposing The Myths, by law firm Davenport Lyons, one-in-five Britons buying fakes earns over £50,000 a year.

http://news.bbc.co.u...ire/8243358.stm

Officers find £1.6m of fake goods

Customs officers have seized more than £1.6m of counterfeit goods at East Midlands Airport.

The goods, including trainers, handbags and mobile phones, have been seized over the past four months.

Officers have said the haul is equal to the total amount of fake goods seized at the airport in the whole of 2008.

Chris Bagley, from the UK Border Agency, said most of the goods are from countries in the Far East including Hong Kong, Thailand and China.

The goods, which were discovered on cargo planes at the Castle Donington airport, will be destroyed.

Mr Bagley said: "It is a huge amount.

"I think it's a response to demand - there has been a huge increase in demand with the economic climate."

The quotes barely touch the content of the links - there's a lot more at those links and others. Fakery is big business.

 

[pshunter]

The quotes barely touch the content of the links - there's a lot more at those links and others. Fakery is big business.

If only original products were sold for what they’re worth, and not the maximum price sellers think people would like to pay for it, fakery would be less an issue.