Opt: How Would Investments Help You?

[Pleng]

I don't want any people who would change the course of things. Investors of any kind would not have any say in what we did, but I could assure them of our total devotion to making everything a superb success.

I've been holding off for a while, but you seriously think an investor is going to look at your operation and say 'yes im willing to invest without asking you to change one single way about the way you do things'?

I'm absolutely certain we would obliterate any competition.

I'm quite certain if any company with a decent amount of money and any prior knowledge of making electronic devices were to go after your market they would, in fact, obliterate you.

What you have is an awesome product, that can do amazing things and has even greater potential, which has been put together shoddily. And with no UI able to make the most of the features/form factor. And of course, you can't produce the thing in the quantities you need. 90+% of pre-orderers who cancel will not come back to you. They are customers that you have lost for ever. Sure there, right now there are people queing up to take the place of people who cancel, but your product like any only has a finite about of shelf-life which you should have been capitalizing on for the last 18 months.

Quality wise, there are reports of batteries having to be held in with pieces of paper. There is advice that batteries need to be aligned carefully with contacts to avoid any funny happenings. MWeston has cast into doubt the Pandora's ability to handle USB devices which request too much power, insinuating there's a possibility that you can fry components by plugging in power-hungry USB devices. There have been reports of dpads which haven't been glued down properly and nubs that feel gritty.

So far we've been told that you are learning from your mistakes. Well I received my replacement Pandora yesterday (my first Pandora was number 70) and the build quality is much poorer that the original. The original keymat was firmly placed. Pressing the keys required quite a push, but it was consistent. The keys on my current keymat are all over the place. Some are low down and very light to press, some are high and firm like my old unit. This case has splodge marks on the case. And it STILL has the bowing front. Admittedly it's not as severe as the original unit, but it's still noticeable. Worst of all, when I lifted the lid up to turn the unit on first time, I found what appeared to be several flakes of tobacco around the keyboard and screen area.

UI wise we have a desktop interface where most windows are too big for the screen, and a menu system which is overly simple. I'm sure plenty of your initial market LOVE using XFCE and LOVE using it as a tiny weeny laptop. But your sustained market are going to want a finger-friendly, intuitive interface. One which includes built-in media playback, wifi mangement, menu-based configuration, perhaps some kind of basic calendar/task management and contact manger.

Don't get me wrong. I love the Pandora. I wouldn't want to be without it. It's fantastic. For me, there's nothing better out there. But it's still not as fantastic as could (should?) be. And it's certianly not the 'perfect' device that you spent so long convincing us it was going to be. So, yea, I think anybody with a decent amount of knowledge and industry experience would be be able to bring a produce just as good, if not better, than yours. They'd also be in a better position to keep up with demand.

And they'd probably include the TV cables, too.

 

[SomeGuy99]

I don't want any people who would change the course of things. Investors of any kind would not have any say in what we did, but I could assure them of our total devotion to making everything a superb success.

I've been holding off for a while, but you seriously think an investor is going to look at your operation and say 'yes im willing to invest without asking you to change one single way about the way you do things'?

I'm absolutely certain we would obliterate any competition.

I'm quite certain if any company with a decent amount of money and any prior knowledge of making electronic devices were to go after your market they would, in fact, obliterate you.

What you have is an awesome product, that can do amazing things and has even greater potential, which has been put together shoddily. And with no UI able to make the most of the features/form factor. And of course, you can't produce the thing in the quantities you need. 90+% of pre-orderers who cancel will not come back to you. They are customers that you have lost for ever. Sure there, right now there are people queing up to take the place of people who cancel, but your product like any only has a finite about of shelf-life which you should have been capitalizing on for the last 18 months.

Quality wise, there are reports of batteries having to be held in with pieces of paper. There is advice that batteries need to be aligned carefully with contacts to avoid any funny happenings. MWeston has cast into doubt the Pandora's ability to handle USB devices which request too much power, insinuating there's a possibility that you can fry components by plugging in power-hungry USB devices. There have been reports of dpads which haven't been glued down properly and nubs that feel gritty.

So far we've been told that you are learning from your mistakes. Well I received my replacement Pandora yesterday (my first Pandora was number 70) and the build quality is much poorer that the original. The original keymat was firmly placed. Pressing the keys required quite a push, but it was consistent. The keys on my current keymat are all over the place. Some are low down and very light to press, some are high and firm like my old unit. This case has splodge marks on the case. And it STILL has the bowing front. Admittedly it's not as severe as the original unit, but it's still noticeable. Worst of all, when I lifted the lid up to turn the unit on first time, I found what appeared to be several flakes of tobacco around the keyboard and screen area.

UI wise we have a desktop interface where most windows are too big for the screen, and a menu system which is overly simple. I'm sure plenty of your initial market LOVE using XFCE and LOVE using it as a tiny weeny laptop. But your sustained market are going to want a finger-friendly, intuitive interface. One which includes built-in media playback, wifi mangement, menu-based configuration, perhaps some kind of basic calendar/task management and contact manger.

Don't get me wrong. I love the Pandora. I wouldn't want to be without it. It's fantastic. For me, there's nothing better out there. But it's still not as fantastic as could (should?) be. And it's certianly not the 'perfect' device that you spent so long convincing us it was going to be. So, yea, I think anybody with a decent amount of knowledge and industry experience would be be able to bring a produce just as good, if not better, than yours. They'd also be in a better position to keep up with demand.

And they'd probably include the TV cables, too.

+1 Everything this guy just said.

 

[craigix]

I don't want any people who would change the course of things. Investors of any kind would not have any say in what we did, but I could assure them of our total devotion to making everything a superb success.

I've been holding off for a while, but you seriously think an investor is going to look at your operation and say 'yes im willing to invest without asking you to change one single way about the way you do things'?

I'm absolutely certain we would obliterate any competition.

I'm quite certain if any company with a decent amount of money and any prior knowledge of making electronic devices were to go after your market they would, in fact, obliterate you.

What you have is an awesome product, that can do amazing things and has even greater potential, which has been put together shoddily. And with no UI able to make the most of the features/form factor. And of course, you can't produce the thing in the quantities you need. 90+% of pre-orderers who cancel will not come back to you. They are customers that you have lost for ever. Sure there, right now there are people queing up to take the place of people who cancel, but your product like any only has a finite about of shelf-life which you should have been capitalizing on for the last 18 months.

Quality wise, there are reports of batteries having to be held in with pieces of paper. There is advice that batteries need to be aligned carefully with contacts to avoid any funny happenings. MWeston has cast into doubt the Pandora's ability to handle USB devices which request too much power, insinuating there's a possibility that you can fry components by plugging in power-hungry USB devices. There have been reports of dpads which haven't been glued down properly and nubs that feel gritty.

So far we've been told that you are learning from your mistakes. Well I received my replacement Pandora yesterday (my first Pandora was number 70) and the build quality is much poorer that the original. The original keymat was firmly placed. Pressing the keys required quite a push, but it was consistent. The keys on my current keymat are all over the place. Some are low down and very light to press, some are high and firm like my old unit. This case has splodge marks on the case. And it STILL has the bowing front. Admittedly it's not as severe as the original unit, but it's still noticeable. Worst of all, when I lifted the lid up to turn the unit on first time, I found what appeared to be several flakes of tobacco around the keyboard and screen area.

UI wise we have a desktop interface where most windows are too big for the screen, and a menu system which is overly simple. I'm sure plenty of your initial market LOVE using XFCE and LOVE using it as a tiny weeny laptop. But your sustained market are going to want a finger-friendly, intuitive interface. One which includes built-in media playback, wifi mangement, menu-based configuration, perhaps some kind of basic calendar/task management and contact manger.

Don't get me wrong. I love the Pandora. I wouldn't want to be without it. It's fantastic. For me, there's nothing better out there. But it's still not as fantastic as could (should?) be. And it's certianly not the 'perfect' device that you spent so long convincing us it was going to be. So, yea, I think anybody with a decent amount of knowledge and industry experience would be be able to bring a produce just as good, if not better, than yours. They'd also be in a better position to keep up with demand.

And they'd probably include the TV cables, too.

Just watch.

We shall laugh at you like we laughed at the trolls who said the Pandora would never happen. I have precisely no doubt
at all that the Pandora will get better and better.

Edit: And as for the competition, where are they? We will obliterate them when they show up.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Just watch and learn.

We shall laugh at you like we laughed at the trolls who said the Pandora would never happen.

Um... we've been watching since the very beginning. I think Pleng bases his words on having watched everything you've been doing.

And the difference between people like Pleng and myself, and the Vapourware Twats is that we actually care about the Pandora. We would love nothing more than to shut up and see it do brilliantly. And yet for some reason, you don't even see that! Go after the right people Craig.

You're a weird person... but then I am too. You come across as a really nice guy and despite all the internet rage, we would actually get on very well in the real world. I think you and Pleng would get on fabulously too. What is with the internet that turns nice people into weirdo jerks? :rolleyes:

 

[craigix]

So then don't invest if we ever give the opportunity, but the fact is the project is in such a rare position we are regularly offered money by investors and we turn it down.

Funny if the project was so screwed and such a mess that these people with big money would keep trying to become part of it.

We will still be here making awesome consoles when many companies you see today with apparently huge market values are long bust.

 

[peelie]

Worst of all, when I lifted the lid up to turn the unit on first time, I found what appeared to be several flakes of tobacco around the keyboard and screen area.

eeek!

 

[SomeGuy99]

So then don't invest if we ever give the opportunity, but the fact is the project is in such a rare position we are regularly offered money by investors and we turn it down.

Funny if the project was so screwed and such a mess that these people with big money would keep trying to become part of it.

We will still be here making awesome consoles when many companies you see today with apparently huge market values are long bust.

That's cool, and I appreciate that you guys are in this for the long game. However, by saying to your fans 'Invest in us! But you get no say in anything!' is kind of an insult... you owe your success entirely to Pandora fans.

 

[DaMummy]

but then again the only thing i would say as an investor would be exactly what pleng said and its stuff craig and ed know about and are fixing it, me and everybody should know that this wouldnt be a nintendo product, but we should see the beauty in its flaws, and i was never really interested in a flawless product delivered to me, especially not software, and i have strong belief in whatever OPT is doing and would let them continue doing things the same way and would be pleased to put my money into it

 

[Loon]

Worst of all, when I lifted the lid up to turn the unit on first time, I found what appeared to be several flakes of tobacco around the keyboard and screen area.

This was worse than the dodgy keyboard? :blink:

As for the general feel about investments and the OP business model, my personal feeling is that the team have got it about right.

i.e. Have tight control at the beginning so the device that they wanted to make gets made. Go for relatively small runs so that if it all goes tits up then bankruptcy, if not homelessness is avoided. If all goes well and huge demand is generated by the first 8000, then seek investment to really crank up production.

It would be great to think that in a year or so there will be a little factory somewhere in the North East of England with a couple of moulding machines cranking out cases and accessories.

This is the dawn of the second age of the UK computer industry. Who knows one day OP could be mentioned in the same breath as Sinclair & Acorn.

Though to be fair the Pandora is of course a global project, where would we be without MWeston DaveC & of course ED?

 

[relliker]

What is with the internet that turns nice people into weirdo jerks? :rolleyes:

It's the Vodka.










EDIT: Cento bollicine e' una stella. 100 posts and an edit... WHEEEEE!!!

 

[Evil Star]

Worst of all, when I lifted the lid up to turn the unit on first time, I found what appeared to be several flakes of tobacco around the keyboard and screen area.

This was worse than the dodgy keyboard? :blink:

It really is horrible. This is the reason I was pissed that the Pandoras weren't being assembled on a professional sterile assembly line, were the workers are wearing gloves and aren't rolling filthy cigarettes over electronics like morons :angry:

 

[torpor]

I think if I were to receive a product like the Pandora with tobacco flakes scattered around it, I'd send it back.

Thats disgusting and its very disappointing that this sort of quality control is happening ..

 

[mitosis]

I think if I were to receive a product like the Pandora with tobacco flakes scattered around it, I'd send it back.

Thats disgusting and its very disappointing that this sort of quality control is happening ..

I have to agree... even as someone who occasionally enjoys a cigarette after a few beers, if there were tobacco flakes inside the packaging for ANY electronic device I received I would return it simply because I wouldn't want to risk there being tobacco flakes inside the actual product.

Of course, I take every complaint and overly-high praise with a grain of salt around here... so if it REALLY was tobacco flakes, then yes this is disappointing and gross.

Somehow I doubt any of the main team would have been so careless... probably one of Craig's assemblygrunts, IF it actually happened.

 

[mali]

I'd like to have mine with White Widow
Ok, not funny.
*takes coat*

 

[mitosis]

I'd like to have mine with White Widow
Ok, not funny.
*takes coat*

I laughed

+1 me too!

 

[DaMummy]

white widow +2

 

[senorgomez]

I would agree with everything Pleng said (without making the quote pyramid). The fact that craig, predictably, reacted to the criticism with hostility and further grandiose claims (obliterating any competition) kind of confirms his post. No investor is going to just give money without having a say in the conduct of OPT, or the very least knowledge about how the OPT conducts itself.

Even though I wasn't hoping for the most polished device from a homebrew team, which is what OPT is, I have been disappointed with the final leg i.e. production as well. I was really disheartened that producing them in Texas fell through, though admittedly that seemed too good to be true.

EDIT: Also, OPT should probably not discuss this till after the 8000 are produced.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

A lot of people have emailed me an expressed an interest in shares/investing/us floating the company.

It's something we will look at and speak to you all about after Christmas.

I think we need to have a good ~8000 units out there and have proven we can do it before we do anything else.

I do kind of love the idea of you all being even more a part of this though, we would make one amazing, massive force.

Brilliant im game.We can make things happen together if we want.please consider this idea and do get back to us after chrimbo.

 

[torpor]

Home grow!

 

[Gerix]

I just read an article the other day about mistakes small business owners make. One of them was underestimating the competition or even worse, believing it doesn't exist.