Preorders Have Started. (Previously named starts in two hours)

[TrashyMG]

Well, that's for EvilDragon to decide. Personally I feel that getting to 750 may be doable, but I am skeptical about getting to 1000 for the first batch.

From what I gathered from EvilDragon's statement, 750 Orders will allow for a batch of 1000 to be made.

 

[vcoleiro1]

The eleventh 24 hours of pre-orders is now up.

It seems we got :

350 Pre-orders the first 24 hours (350)
79 Pre-orders in the second 24 hours. (429)
49 Pre-orders in the third 24 hours (478) (Some double up Pre-orders were removed though)
29 Pre-orders in the fourth 24 hours (507)
18 Pre-orders in the fifth 24 hours (525)
26 Pre-orders in the sixth 24 hours (551)
12 Pre-orders in the seventh 24 hours (563)
10 Pre-orders in the eight 24 hours (573)
17 Pre-orders in the ninth 24 hours (590)
11 Pre-orders in the tenth 24 hours (601)
9 Pre-orders in the eleventh 24 hours (610) - Note , the number would have been higher, however a number of duplicate orders were removed.

Note: Daily figures also include converted Pre Pre-orders. As such , actual new pre-orders would be a little less than quoted figures.

 

[mecksg1]

The eleventh 24 hours of pre-orders is now up.

It seems we got :

350 Pre-orders the first 24 hours (350)
79 Pre-orders in the second 24 hours. (429)
49 Pre-orders in the third 24 hours (478) (Some double up Pre-orders were removed though)
29 Pre-orders in the fourth 24 hours (507)
18 Pre-orders in the fifth 24 hours (525)
26 Pre-orders in the sixth 24 hours (551)
12 Pre-orders in the seventh 24 hours (563)
10 Pre-orders in the eight 24 hours (573)
17 Pre-orders in the ninth 24 hours (590)
11 Pre-orders in the tenth 24 hours (601)
9 Pre-orders in the eleventh 24 hours (610) - Note , the number would have been higher, however a number of duplicate orders were removed.

Note: Daily figures also include converted Pre Pre-orders. As such , actual new pre-orders would be a little less than quoted figures.

At least the sales are still going. Even thou it's small, anything helps with getting it to the goal. If I could order a 2nd one I would

 

[rygD]

If I could order a 2nd one I would

You can!

 

[mecksg1]

You can!

Wife would kill me lol. Would almost be worth it thou

 

[levi]

At least the sales are still going. Even thou it's small, anything helps with getting it to the goal.

10 preorders a day isn't bad; it's somewhere around 3000 EUR a day income with a promise of about 1500 more, and probably a chunk more since most people aren't ordering SE units.

 

[rygD]

I wish I made 3000 eurobucks a day.

I guess as long as they are steadily trickling in things are going ok.

 

[TrashyMG]

I wish I made 3000 eurobucks a day.

I guess as long as they are steadily trickling in things are going ok.

From a discussion on IRC, EvilDragon hinted that even with 1500 orders, he will still be at a loss...

 

[rygD]

From a discussion on IRC, EvilDragon hinted that even with 1500 orders, he will still be at a loss...

That sucks. So I guess he is counting on long term sales to break even. Or he really loves these things and this community.

 

[ible]

makes sense, he's put a lot into the project already. hopefully some big news outlets will pick this up, and some new pyra prototype videos will be enticing.

 

[Neelix]

I was actually surprised that he opened pre-orders before all the prototypes were out. I think that once the prototypes are out there and the results of the early dev work begin to be shown off there'll be more for people to get excited about which I hope will lead to more sales.

-Neelix

 

[matzesu]

These Modular Design got too sides for EvilDragon:
For new Models, he only needs to make a new CPU Board, not a whole new Handheld, this safes lots of money..
But on the other side: he only can sell only one handheld to one customer..

 

[Bernd]

But the Pyra will show signs of wear.
So he will able to sell replacement- & upgrade parts.

Maybe in 5 to 10 Years there will be a *new* Pyra with a new design & Pyra compatible parts.

Bur only the time will show what EvilDragon will show us next

 

[matzesu]

Well, my Pandora also shows a lot of signs of wear, but its works still well..
But the Pyra should be much toughter,
Gunproof acording to the Greece Manufaktorer..
So if Pandora survived the Yeahrs in my Ownership, than the Pyra also should be quite old..

 

[TrashyMG]

@matzesu, Odd wearing region on the Pandora... Unimog related?

 

[pmprog]

I was actually surprised that he opened pre-orders before all the prototypes were out. I think that once the prototypes are out there and the results of the early dev work begin to be shown off there'll be more for people to get excited about which I hope will lead to more sales.

I was actually going to post that question in the "Ask ED" bit. Aside from the 10 prototype units, do we know how many developers got units?

 

[Urben]

It all depends a bit on why people are not ordering yet.

• They would if they knew about it. This is an issue which can be solved with the press kit and by attending events with prototypes.
• They doubt it will be delivered at all. This is resolved by getting a first batch on to the market.
• They are skeptical about its capabilities. This can be resolved with software demos and promotional videos. Though truthfully it will be lacking at first (and like the Pandora become more and more awesome over time)
• They want an ATOM. Here the "existence" of the GPD win hurts a bit. Can be resolved with a board replacement in the future.
• It is too expensive. In the short term, price reduction seems unreasonable. This may be addressed by information instead but also may not be.
  How so? The Pyra does many things which are commonly split over multiple devices. The more things you intend to do with it, the "cheaper" it becomes (relatively speaking). E.g. the Pyra can also function as a media player, but if that is all you are looking for then it is a *very* costly choice of media player.

I am sure there are more reasons than listed here. Point is, we can somewhat increase the size of the first batch with advertising, but we should not delay too long as bringing it to market is very important as well to increase credibility. As for the proper cut-off point? Well, that's for EvilDragon to decide. Personally I feel that getting to 750 may be doable, but I am skeptical about getting to 1000 for the first batch.

I just want to note that this list makes it look like there are many reasons why the Pyra will have no really big preorder numbers even after advertising. While this is true, it doesn't mean that solving the first problem does not let the preorders jump up, even with all the doubts and with all the people who have these doubts.

 

[matzesu]

@matzesu, Odd wearing region on the Pandora... Unimog related?

No, just a Button on my workpants..
But mybe, i wants to cover it whit some tape, when i have my Pyra..
The only accident i had whit a technical device and the unimog, was, that once my Cellphone fell from the Unimog whyle whe where on fuelstation, it was a Sony K700i and it survived expect some scratches on the case...

 

[Caine]

From what I gathered from EvilDragon's statement, 750 Orders will allow for a batch of 1000 to be made.

Yes correct. My numbers were about (my) expectations for absolute numbers of pre-orders not the batch sizes they would enable.

I just want to note that this list makes it look like there are many reasons why the Pyra will have no really big preorder numbers even after advertising.

Really? It all depends on the distribution of reasons why others won't pre-order. Aside from a few comments in a thread here and there we know very little about those reasons. We can try to address them one by one and see what it does to the amount of pre-orders.

 

[Kiga]

The only downside I know of is that it consumes more power. I didn't see the need for it, so put my money towards a 2GB EU unit, but if you're happy with slightly reduced battery life feel free to go for a 4GB unit.

I highly doubt the battery life reduction will be measurable.
The N900 lasts a few hours of usage, but weeks idle with (more than) the RAM powered.

According to this post:

During normal use (screen active, cpu somewhat active), I don't expect there to be a big difference in power consumption between 2GB RAM and 4GB.
During standby (lid closed, cpu idle), I expect a quite noticeable difference in power consumption, since RAM is pretty much the only thing that stays powered in that case (except maybe wifi/3G, which could also be power drains), and since it's not going to be low-power RAM and RAM power consumption is pretty much proportional to its size. Suppose 50% of the power consumption during standby is spent on RAM refreshes, then having twice as much RAM would mean adding 50% to the standby power consumption, which means that if it would be 9 days with 2GB RAM, it would be reduced to 6 days with 4GB RAM.

Unless of course there's a way to power down part of the RAM, and let the kernel do this automatically using some kind of heuristics (e.g. if it's idle for some time, it could sacrifice some caches and reorganize the memory layout in order to be able to temporarily power down half of the RAM). I have no idea if such a thing is possible and/or implemented in Linux.

RAM power consumption is proportional to it's size. So given that n900 has only 256mb RAM. Pyra's RAM will consume 8x more power for the 2gb version and 16x more for the 4gb. Which will make a VERY big difference. So if we take 50% for RAM consumption in idle mode as the post above, it makes +350% power consumption in idle mode for the 2gb version and +750% for the 4gb.
If the N900 stay 14 days with 256mb RAM, it would stay 3 days with 2gb RAM and 1,65 day with 4gb RAM.

If we do the same math with Pandora which have 9 days idle and 512mb. = 3,6 days with 2gb RAM and 2 days with 4gb RAM which makes -45% of idle time.
If we assume that Pyra have the same power consumption as Pandora in idle time (with mobile chip and wifi off), with 6000mah battery so +43%. That makes 5,15 days (5d3h) for 2gb RAM and 2,86 days (2d20h) for 2gb RAM.

So assuming that _wb_'s post is right (RAM power consumption is proportional to his size + the percentage of power used by RAM in idle mode is 50%).
There is -45% of idle time with 4gb ram, compared to 2gb.