What do people think of the 1ghz Pandas?

[EvilDragon]

Yes, certainly. The more money comes in, the faster we can afford the production of the classic preorder units.

Why?


I thought the investment money that you brought in when swapping over to German production has already covered the cost of that??


Running the production of two different boards at the same time will only slow down the pre-orders further than what they already have been.

Nope, it never did, who said that?


I always said loud and clearly that the investment capital was to get the production in Germany rolling so that we can use the profit made from new sold units to produce the old preorders. It never has been different.


About 1200 old preorders were left. That would need about 400K EUR, and I got 350K from the investors.


However, even if I got 400K from the investors, I could not simply produce 1200 units with that. Besides the fact that I can only produce in batches of 1000 (so it's either 1000 ot 2000), it would mean that after I shipped all preordered units, all the investors capital would be gone and we wouldn't have ANY money left to continue the production. These are investors, not sponsors. They DO want the 350K EUR back at some day, so I cannot just use it to please all classic preorders and call it a day.


The PCB production has now been tweaked. GC could easily populate 150 PCBs a day now (in fact, we got 500 PCBs already finished which are currently being assembled).


The reason we'll have units in stock from next week on is that the production has now catched on the demand, which is great


So having a production of both in parallel wouldn't cause any slowdowns. There's no bottleneck there anymore.


The delivery speed of the classic preorders now depends on the sales speed and amount of profit we make from there to be able to afford these units.


Anything that adds money into the pot will get speed up the delivery of the classic preorders.


As said: 500 PCBs are already finished, and with 70 normal units sold, we'll ship 30 classic preorders.


This ratio changes drastically when there are Pandoras sold for a higher price.


Also, classic preorders might want to upgrade to the new 1GHz unit as well.


Every upgrade allows us to ship one more classic preorders - so every upgrade will double the delivery speed to old preorders.

 

[Mr_Loon]

Hey all!


So.... does anyone have a picture to upload of what the new stronger case, silver version look like....?


Cheers, S.H.

Have a look here

 

[Trip]

So having a production of both in parallel wouldn't cause any slowdowns. There's no bottleneck there anymore.


The delivery speed of the classic preorders now depends on the sales speed and amount of profit we make from there to be able to afford these units.

Are GC assembling the Pandora's now, or are you guys still doing that? Have you taken on someone else to help you get the Pandora's shipped off to customers?

 

[quartercast]

So OP is effectively valuing our old units for $699 - 500 = $199 if we upgrade. Given pandoras are going for ~$300 on ebay some people may be better off flogging their old one and buying a 1GHz unit outright. Especially if they can manage to sell within their own country and not have to pay shipping to UK or Germany.

 

[EvilDragon]

So having a production of both in parallel wouldn't cause any slowdowns. There's no bottleneck there anymore.


The delivery speed of the classic preorders now depends on the sales speed and amount of profit we make from there to be able to afford these units.

Are GC assembling the Pandora's now, or are you guys still doing that? Have you taken on someone else to help you get the Pandora's shipped off to customers?

GC are assembling, testing, flashing and packing all Pandoras now.


We're only shipping them, and yes, I hired someone to help here.

 

[Trip]

So having a production of both in parallel wouldn't cause any slowdowns. There's no bottleneck there anymore.


The delivery speed of the classic preorders now depends on the sales speed and amount of profit we make from there to be able to afford these units.

Are GC assembling the Pandora's now, or are you guys still doing that? Have you taken on someone else to help you get the Pandora's shipped off to customers?

GC are assembling, testing, flashing and packing all Pandoras now.


We're only shipping them, and yes, I hired someone to help here.

Cheers for the update. You might want to think about doing an official announcement to make sure people know what's going on with all that's changed in the last couple of months.


This seems like the Premium Pandora debacle all over again. I really don't see why you couldn't have waited and sold off all the 600Mhz chips before starting with all this. This just comes across as being another bad move pushed forward by greed.

 

[MasterJulian]

I like the 1Ghz Pandora. Technology evolves and its only a matter of time until the old omap is not available anymore. I already initiated an upgrade from my initial order from Oct. 09 to a 1Ghz Pandora at EDs shop. That way I am supporting the Pandora and I make room in the old pre-order queue so someone is going to get his unit earlier. Its a good idea to finance the test run with "beta units" for the community. This way the team knows that everything will or will not work with the new chip and the members with the new chip are hopefully happy with their new special unit.


Just my two cents

 

[quartercast]

This seems like the pre-order debacle all over again. I really don't see why you couldn't have waited and sold off all the 600Mhz chips before starting with all this. This just comes across as being another bad move pushed forward by greed.

Why? This a small run of 150 units, its all there in the news post.


I can understand why you'd feel frustrated but I don't see how that leads to all these assertions, it doesn't seem very objective to me...

 

[Trip]

Why? This a small run of 150 units, its all there in the news post.


I can understand why you'd feel frustrated but I don't see how that leads to all these assertions, it doesn't seem very objective to me...

The last lot of Premium Pandora's were only supposed to be a small run too, and they're still being sold and shipped out before the original pre-orders.

 

[EvilDragon]

Premiums were never limited in NUMBERS, but in %age of delivered units.


And, sure, it's pretty sure we'll continue to populate the DM3730 if the demand is there and the first run works properly.


If this wasn't the plan, what use would this first run be...?

 

[sepp256]

Why? This a small run of 150 units, its all there in the news post.


I can understand why you'd feel frustrated but I don't see how that leads to all these assertions, it doesn't seem very objective to me...

The last lot of Premium Pandora's were only supposed to be a small run too, and they're still being sold and shipped out before the original pre-orders.

I'm not sure what you're saying. ED is always selling a part of the new batches to finance the production of the old "classic" pre-orders. Also, Craig has been moving anyone who upgrades (goes "premium") to the front of his pre-order queue.


This separate run of 1GHz pandoras is independent from the ongoing production plan to fulfill all of the "classic" pre-orders.

 

[craigix]

Yes, us trying to achieve a profit margin where we can pay ourselves wages is an extraordinary development. It's just not on.

Oh please don't try crying the poor tale like that. I have no problem with you guys making money from this (I really hope you do) but there's a certain point where your just taking the piss.

How are we taking the piss? Ask Ed, ask me, ask anyone on the team, we currently don't make enough money to even pay WAGES. We are doing all this work for NOTHING.


So exactly how are we 'taking the piss'?


How can there be any future in a company which makes no money and pays its staff no wages?

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Will the i-controlpad turn a profit after a while?What ye are doing makes sense but some people are understandably going to be pissed about it.That idea you had of people paying in installments for a 1GHZ pandora is a good idea.Can it be guaranteed that people will make all the payments though? Perhaps there's some kind of insurance that can cover such things.Throwing the classic preorders a bone could be a good idea.

 

[craigix]

The iCP profits have been supporting the Pandora for a long time. Pretty much all the iCP profits have gone on shipping Pandora preorders.


It's a shame and it's part of why we knew we had to raise the price.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

The iCP profits have been supporting the Pandora for a long time. Pretty much all the iCP profits have gone on shipping Pandora preorders.


It's a shame and it's part of why we knew we had to raise the price.

That's quite understandable and the i-controlpad deserves to give you a slap up feast at least.I guess the profits are needed for a potential pandora 2 as well.

 

[frostfall]

Anyone can tell me how much a $699 1Ghz will cost in euro?


I'm asking because of the VAT and things like that in the european zone . Perhaps that the price will not be a straight conversion between dollars and euro because of that...

 

[Trip]

How are we taking the piss? Ask Ed, ask me, ask anyone on the team, we currently don't make enough money to even pay WAGES. We are doing all this work for NOTHING.


So exactly how are we 'taking the piss'?


How can there be any future in a company which makes no money and pays its staff no wages?

..and that's the problem right there isn't it?


Although I'd like to see the Pandora devs making money from this, making a steady wage from it is a different thing altogether. That was supposed to come from your regular jobs.


Wasn't the point of the Pandora project to make a device that people can develop for freely without being screwed over by companies who were just wanting to make a profit?


The original plan (as it was sold to us) was that you (Craig), Ed and Fatih would make profit in your private shops by taking orders and selling add ons etc; whilst you would try to break even on the Pandora side of things to cover all costs of production and distribution.


When you (Craig) saw how much Pandora's were being sold for on ebay, you decided to go full time and your shop GBAX.com was scrapped and OpenPandora.org suddenly became the private profit making company owned by you.


Unfortunately the aim of any company like that is purely profit, and is (by it's very nature) incompatible with the original idea of the Pandora project.


If you guys want to get a steady wage out of this, you should make openpandora.org and OpenPandora.GmbH Not for Profit Companies.. That way you can all get steady wages from the project without jeopardising the integrity or original purpose of the project. You can also continue to run your own private companies that don't have anything directly to do with the Pandora project itself.


As it is you've used the good will, support and money of the gp32x forum members and general public to finance and create a private profitable company for yourself. I guess those people who called the Pandora a scam were right after all

 

[craigix]

You're probably trolling, but most of your above post is pure bullshit.


The goal has always been to make a profit.


If it was not the companies would be registered as charities, but even then you still pay wages.


No one would do all this work for free.


What you're saying is insane.


I suggest if that's how you feel you leave the forum and the general Pandora scene.


None of the team are willing to do anything like you suggest.

 

[erico]

@trip,


I really can´t see it that way.


The most amazing part on this project for me is the transparency the owners are dealing here, even with people thinking that it is a bad idea to announce testing on an upgraded 1ghz version, I can´t see it that way.


I find the best part of the project to be their creators and the way they attend the community, you don´t get that from anywhere else, I have never seen a company deal with their clients this way.


It is really great and I hope they keep it up this way.


As for "Not for Profit Companies", such thing does not exist in this world and the highest profits I tend to see around are on companies that state so. They are usually backed up by taxes from other companies instead of going to the government. And yes, any charity or NFPC has workers and board of directors who get wages higher then ours. That is how it goes, their wages are that as their responsibilities are also big.


OPP is doing a great job on its projects and an excellent job taking time to discuss things with its community, this is the most important aspect on this for me.

 

[erico]

No one would do all this work for free.

You are wrong ,


If there is no profit, you ARE paying to do work. Free work is when you cut even and get a little extra to cover standard life costs, so it should be like this:


"No one would pay to do all this work."