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


Any clues as to what caused the acceleration in preorders? Because whatever it is/was we need more of it :)

I imagine it was the photos of ED in Greece with a prototype Pyra that was in an opaque case. If there are more pictures of something new (like ED playing a Dreamcast game -- maybe Shenmue? -- on a prototype Pyra) next week, I would expect a few more waverers to commit.
 
You are both wrong with the timeline. The number of unclaimed pre-pre-orders was dropped on June 30, in the week before (and since it had stayed at 57 for quite a while, I guess it was stretched out over more than one week), same with the photos. The only correlation seems to be comments of backers on the hilarious PGS Kickstarter campaign, on the same day where the number of pre-orders suddenly jumped by six.
 
Fwiw, I'm not tracking pre-preorders at all - I consider a converted pre-preorder the same as a paid up preorder, because I've not found any reliable data about converted pre-preorders.

Edit: Sorry for the dp. Stupid N3DS browser not giving me any indication that it's posted anything. I can't wait for my Pyra so I can use it in the bath like I used to with my Pandora before I broke the display.
 
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Its also quite a few people realizing the PGS is operated on dreams with no evidence to the contrary.

I'd be very surprised if that was a deciding factor in any of the Pyra pre-order purchases. If potential PGS customers decided to purchase a different device on that basis I would expect them to go for the GPD Win, rather than the Pyra. It's OS and price point are much closer to how the PGS has been marketed.

-Neelix
 
@Neelix

The PGS is marketed as a phone, and the GPD win has no cellular/LTE modem.
How the PGS is marketed, (the topic of earlier and episode 9 of today), is really something you _don't_ want.
For the people who don't buy into it, an open handheld with transparent information and production details is really lucrative in comparison.
The GPD win is far behind the Pyra in that aspect.
 
Well, I do know at least one person who had backed the PGS, then when things started to look shaky recently, they backed out and pre-ordered the WIN.

I also, wouldn't be surprised if some people had held off on getting something until the PGS campaign kicked off, and they could see what was what. Wouldn't surprise me if some also then jumped onto the Pyra after seeing the PGS campaign unfold.

The WIN has had a little kick in pre-orders, some were people converting from the PGS. Some jumped in after the Z8700 upgrade news. Plus videos via testers have also helped I'd imagine. But as I said, I do know at least one person who jumped ship from the PGS.
 
The Pyra also has the advantage of no monetary penalty for joining now, whereas with the win, you can no longer get the earliest price. That is a very sociologically important aspect.

The sense of being able to influence the Pyra is proven, and it also depends on its community. GPD has a company behind it, to the point it doesn't matter that much if the pre-order is that successful, or even takes place. Crowdfunding sells a lot of entitlement to making something possible.

As dragonbox gets as established, and GPD gets into the idea of community, I think there will be interesting synergy.

They are the new small laptops, and tools of the trade, rather than phones with extra functionality.
I'm toying with the idea of a Pyra with trackballs, it seems interesting. Maybe underneath or on the back of the lid.

ED managing to share the most intrinsic deep insight on Pyra, Win and PGS is quite puzzling, but nontheless true.
 
I would prefer a thumb trackball, however there is no space for that in the existing design.

A trackball on the underside might be a good location, although it is extremely impractical with the battery there. It would also need to be sunk a little below (or would it be above?) the bottom surface so that it can be placed on a table or whatever and be stable. I think a lot of testing would be needed to find an optimal location on the underside, and I really don't see anything happening with that.

If it was on the back of the lid I wouldn't use it, as it would be more of a headache than the touchscreen, and my only real interest in it is for the mouse, which already has 2 methods of input with the touchscreen and nubs.

The nubs are good enough for me for most things, and the touchscreen fills in when I prefer a bit more speed and accuracy (on the Pandora, but the Pyra nubs may be way better).
 
tapestry5.jpg
 
Just put some mouse optics into the bottom on the hinge side, where there is no battery, and some sliders, too.
 
It's passed 11 weeks of preorders now, and a bit of a slow week to start - and we were stuck on 828 for what felt like far too long - but as usual the prospect of the weekend tends to give things a push.

Week 1 (1/05-7/05) : 563 preorders (0-563)
Week 2 (8/05-14/05) : 82 preorders (563-645)
Week 3 (15/05-21/05) : 53 preorders (645-698)
Week 4 (22/05-28/05) : 28 preorders (698-726)
Week 5 (29/05-04/06) : 29 preorders (726-755)
Week 6 (05/06-11/06) : 16 preorders (755-771)
Week 7 (12/06-18/06) : 16 preorders (771-787)
Week 8 (19/06-25/06) : 15 preorders (787-793)
Week 9 (26/06-02/07) : 10 preorders (793-803)
Week 10 (03/07-09/07) : 20 preorders (803-823)
Week 11 (10/07-16/07) : 10 preorders (823-833)

Order 834 is in as I write by the way, but it happened after the deadline of midnight in Germany, so it'll count next week instead.

Actually 10 orders a week looks about right and is the same we managed two weeks ago. It's more that last week was an anomaly for some reason. And even at this rate, we'll enter the 850-950 window that will allow a first batch of 1000 units within two weeks. The more the merrier!
 
Another week has ended, and this week we're a little down on preorders, but not desparately so. Another two weeks (tm) to 850 at this rate.

Week 1 (1/05-7/05) : 563 preorders (0-563)
Week 2 (8/05-14/05) : 82 preorders (563-645)
Week 3 (15/05-21/05) : 53 preorders (645-698)
Week 4 (22/05-28/05) : 28 preorders (698-726)
Week 5 (29/05-04/06) : 29 preorders (726-755)
Week 6 (05/06-11/06) : 16 preorders (755-771)
Week 7 (12/06-18/06) : 16 preorders (771-787)
Week 8 (19/06-25/06) : 15 preorders (787-793)
Week 9 (26/06-02/07) : 10 preorders (793-803)
Week 10 (03/07-09/07) : 20 preorders (803-823)
Week 11 (10/07-16/07) : 10 preorders (823-833)
Week 12 (17/07-23/07) : 7 preorders (833-840)

Ignoring the outlier of week 10, the recent results of 16-15-10-x-10-7 is a fairly smooth statistical descent, and given we're still waiting for a proper video (hopefully that TILER work will come through) that's probably not surprising. At least numbers are still positive unlike some other hardware project I could mention! ;)
 
Week 13; unlucky for some, but not for the pyra!

Week 1 (1/05-7/05) : 563 preorders (0-563)
Week 2 (8/05-14/05) : 82 preorders (563-645)
Week 3 (15/05-21/05) : 53 preorders (645-698)
Week 4 (22/05-28/05) : 28 preorders (698-726)
Week 5 (29/05-04/06) : 29 preorders (726-755)
Week 6 (05/06-11/06) : 16 preorders (755-771)
Week 7 (12/06-18/06) : 16 preorders (771-787)
Week 8 (19/06-25/06) : 15 preorders (787-793)
Week 9 (26/06-02/07) : 10 preorders (793-803)
Week 10 (03/07-09/07) : 20 preorders (803-823)
Week 11 (10/07-16/07) : 10 preorders (823-833)
Week 12 (17/07-23/07) : 7 preorders (833-840)
Week 13 (24/07-30/07) : 12 preorders (840-852)

No big event seems to have triggered those preorders, unless it's the PGS kickstarter folding, but it came over a few days mostly midweek, which is unusual.
 
Seems to me , and we have said this for a while now, but ED really needs to do some marketing.

I would suggest a thunderclap. See how that goes as a start.
 
No big event seems to have triggered those preorders

Well, ED released a new video (comparing sound vs the Pandora and the GPD XD). The last time there was an uptick in orders was from the release of a picture of ED in Greece with a fully assembled Pyra with an opaque case. I think that this correlation indicates causation. People like to see the product they are interested in buying -- is it real, does it look decent/not-too-cheap? Who decides to get a computer game without first seeing a screenshot or video or several?

More videos, with the Pyra looking more complete, should give more orders.
 
Yes, I suspected that, but ED published that video (or at least the news story than links to it) on Thursday morning. By that time we had already had 7 preorders this week - and therefore only another five after the video went up. In this case, that would suggest posting news actually slows down preorders!

Regarding a thunderclap, hopefully zmatt's work will produce fruit soon, and then ED will be able to produce videos of it actually doing something landscapey. I imagine the sound of that would certainly reverberate.
 
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this is all in ED's mind, as we've been continually reminding him (and i'm sure he had an inkling before we suggested anything). i suspect when it comes down to things, he'll do something like the One-Video-Per-Day for the Pandora, except for the Pyra. but only really when everything's almost set in stone.
 
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