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


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.
 
Week 14; better late than never

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)
Week 14 (31/07-06/08) : 7 preorders (852-859)

Still ticking over; I'll take that.
 
Week 15 - a stormy week, but here's hoping next week is smoother with gamescom coverage.

Week 01 (01/05-07/05) : 563 preorders (0-563)
Week 02 (08/05-14/05) : 82 preorders (563-645)
Week 03 (15/05-21/05) : 53 preorders (645-698)
Week 04 (22/05-28/05) : 28 preorders (698-726)
Week 05 (29/05-04/06) : 29 preorders (726-755)
Week 06 (05/06-11/06) : 16 preorders (755-771)
Week 07 (12/06-18/06) : 16 preorders (771-787)
Week 08 (19/06-25/06) : 15 preorders (787-793)
Week 09 (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)
Week 14 (31/07-06/08) : 7 preorders (852-859)
Week 15 (07/08-13/08) : 4 preorders (859-863)

It's not quite as bad as it looks - there are at least 3 cancellations this week by my counting. Perhaps that's something we should get used to though, with almost 1000 preoderers any of whom could cancel at any point. But hopefully even with amateur videos coming out of gamescom, that should get a few more eyeballs on the project, and a few preorders out of that. And then ED's properly produced video of the Pyra OS running on an almost perfect Pyra at some point later should open a few wallets and purses too. Real promotion starts soon, folks!
 
Yep. Hopefully we won't have another week of initial gains getting cancelled and basically ending up where were were after the first day after the whole week. But I'd still happily take 7 preorders right at the moment.
 
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