iPhone killer on Indiegogo

[DomesticHacks]

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-dragonfly-futurefon--3

I think they have to add a radio, a flashlight and a bottle opener. Then it is the perfect phone.

[electr_peter]

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-dragonfly-futurefon--3

I think they have to add a radio, a flashlight and a bottle opener. Then it is the perfect phone.

Do not forget to add solar panels and a lighter.

All I can say is that this thing broke my BS detector

[corrado33]

Jack of all trades syndrome.

Sure, they may get this thing to work, but it will never be GOOD at any of the things it claims to do. It'll be a crappy cell-phone, and a crappy (too small, not powerful enough, etc) computer.

There's a reason that there aren't any mass produced computer/cell phones yet. They inherently need different interfaces and apps. I don't want a computer like interface on my phone and a certainly don't want a phone like interface on my computer (I'm looking at you windows 8.)

[janengelbrecht]

Bull Shitty products are all over
Well cant see any real market for that hybrid.

[ExclamationMarek]

Looking at projects like this gives me the shivers! Just like the "Kreyos" smartwatch, a $1.5 million project that ended up being a horribly bad quality product with it's creators admitting that they are "Marketing experts with no hardware experience".

This one is so incompetent that even the design specifications don't match the 3d model:

Oh and he is claiming that it will be manufactured by Benchmark Electronics in the USA. And that he is already working with them. Yeah right.

[gabhex21]

They already did an IG campaign one year ago and collected 18K.
Can't find any news of what happened after that (altough I can imagine ).

the-if-convertible-by-idealfuture-3-devices-2-screens-1-data-plan

I also found a few "prototype" pictures on the VP of Social Media linkedin page

[tszaboo]

OMG I went blind! Does it even have speakers to be able to use it as a phone?
Once, I'll do the KS campaign for the Sabre pyramid.
http://media.engadget.com/img/products/445/9jhs/9jhs-800.jpg

[wraper]

[wraper]

OMG I went blind! Does it even have speakers to be able to use it as a phone?

Sure they will licence tissue conduction technology http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/27/3045848/kyocera-urbano-progresso-au-launch-may-30-announcement

[carpelux]

fön is the swedish name for hairblower.

Go figure :-)

[jc101]

For the ultimate phone, you need one of these...

 http://www.pomegranatephone.com

[cloudscapes]

you've got to be joking

whoever stretched the screenshot over the photo in Photoshop did a really shitty job. nice ribbon cable between the screen and the main part too. or not.

I think for every crowdfund of over a couple tens of grand, they have to fly over somebody from IGG/KS to inspect the prototype personally. it'll never happen... but that's how it SHOULD be.

[tom66]

It would be virtually impossible to design a smartphone, especially one that complicated, for less than $2 million.
My opinion.

[wraper]

It would be virtually impossible to design a smartphone, especially one that complicated, for less than $2 million.
My opinion.

Therefore they have $10 000 goal and flexible funding 

[Corporate666]

It would be virtually impossible to design a smartphone, especially one that complicated, for less than $2 million.
My opinion.

That's why IGG and KS are complicit in this.

Anyone who knows anything about the industry knows that the promises being made are completely impossible to achieve.  The backers are encouraged to back these projects without having a full understanding of the risk involved and, having heard of IGG or KS, believe there is a legitimacy to the project because it is on that site.  The creators tend to be young, naive, doe-eyed morons who don't understand the technology or design, and just presume that engineers are paid to build what designers create, and anything which can be designed can be created. 

Then those designers run into a brick wall called "reality" when everything takes 10x as long and costs 100x as much as they expected.  So they disappear from the crowdfunding website and offer sporadic and shitty updates along the way to blowing all their backers money on a stupid fantasy.

Kreyos, Lifx, Mu Thermal, Battery Vampire, 30-second rechargeable battery, that modular phone, ORSTO watches, Agent smartwatch... all of them have either not delivered or haven't come close to delivering on the promises they made.

The only KS projects that seem to ever work out are the incredibly simple ones - and even then, they deliver very late and tend to have unhappy backers.

Regulation will be coming soon.

[Warhawk]

It would be virtually impossible to design a smartphone, especially one that complicated, for less than $2 million.
My opinion.

That's why IGG and KS are complicit in this.

Anyone who knows anything about the industry knows that the promises being made are completely impossible to achieve.  The backers are encouraged to back these projects without having a full understanding of the risk involved and, having heard of IGG or KS, believe there is a legitimacy to the project because it is on that site.  The creators tend to be young, naive, doe-eyed morons who don't understand the technology or design, and just presume that engineers are paid to build what designers create, and anything which can be designed can be created. 

Then those designers run into a brick wall called "reality" when everything takes 10x as long and costs 100x as much as they expected.  So they disappear from the crowdfunding website and offer sporadic and shitty updates along the way to blowing all their backers money on a stupid fantasy.

Kreyos, Lifx, Mu Thermal, Battery Vampire, 30-second rechargeable battery, that modular phone, ORSTO watches, Agent smartwatch... all of them have either not delivered or haven't come close to delivering on the promises they made.

The only KS projects that seem to ever work out are the incredibly simple ones - and even then, they deliver very late and tend to have unhappy backers.

Regulation will be coming soon.

It could not be told better. I guess those "morons" have Steve Jobs bibliography next to their bed and are dreaming about "visionary life" whole night.It s interesting how these people try to rule the business although they have no touch with the reality. "Start-my-own-consumer-oriented-company-in-father's-workshop-days" are gone and they didn't get it.

[cloudscapes]

*we* know you can't develop a competitite smartphone for less than a million, but the general public sees things like arduino celular kits, and things like these:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/26/2976703/mit-high-low-tech-diy-cellphone

and assume that with an extra few tens of thousands, you can up the resolution of the monitor, add a few clocks to the cpu and have some cases 3d printed. and from their perspective, it's not entirely unreasonable.

[Corporate666]

*we* know you can't develop a competitite smartphone for less than a million, but the general public sees things like arduino celular kits, and things like these:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/26/2976703/mit-high-low-tech-diy-cellphone

and assume that with an extra few tens of thousands, you can up the resolution of the monitor, add a few clocks to the cpu and have some cases 3d printed. and from their perspective, it's not entirely unreasonable.

I think the backers are incredibly naive, to the point of stupidity.

I don't know much about the mechanics of space travel, but if someone told me they could build a magnetic coil propulsion system to launch objects for 1/10th the cost of current technology, and he just needed $50k to build it and then could sell his system for $100k/ea, I wouldn't believe it... it's just so far ahead of what is currently possible as to be unbelievable.

These smartphone people are claiming to build a phone that is more capable than an iPhone, has (many) more parts, drastically more complicated to build, will be sold in much smaller volumes, and this company doesn't have 1 hundred-billionth of Apple's buying power or expertise... but yet they can do it for $100k (or less).

The backers are tremendous idiots, of course... but the only reason they are suspending their disbelief is the legitimacy given to these projects by virtue of being on KS or IGG.  Those sites go out of their way to not tell you that these projects are totally unvetted and there is zero due diligence done by them.  They also don't give backers the tools to perform that DD so, IMO, they are complicit.

[PointyOintment]

fön is the swedish name for hairblower.

Go figure :-)

…which is named after a meteorological phenomenon. Still doesn't make sense for this crazy thing.

[LabSpokane]

It would be virtually impossible to design a smartphone, especially one that complicated, for less than $2 million.
My opinion.

I think that # might even be conservative. The tooling alone would blow through that amount quickly.  Let alone salaries and overhead for the two to three years it would take to get to market.

[mamalala]

It would be virtually impossible to design a smartphone, especially one that complicated, for less than $2 million.
My opinion.

I think that # might even be conservative. The tooling alone would blow through that amount quickly.  Let alone salaries and overhead for the two to three years it would take to get to market.

And let's not forget to add a few million more to the budget to hand over to the lawyers. After all, this is supposed to be a mobile phone/tablet/whatever. That area is just a huge minefield of patent lawsuits about pretty much every aspect of such a device, thanks to a patent system that is broken beyond belief.

Greetings,

Chris

[tom66]

Additionally:
 - RAM upgrade from 4GB to 8GB. KISS guys, now you've got two SKUs to manage.
 - new operating system / dual boot "Windroid"  will require additional software development
 - advanced mechanical flip screens will be fragile and require careful testing
 - mechanical keyboard? great, time to engineer every single part of that very carefully.

I bet this would cost $20 million to actually develop.

[mikerj]

Has this just reinvented the Motorola Atrix which I had a few years back?

[janoc]

That's why IGG and KS are complicit in this.
The only KS projects that seem to ever work out are the incredibly simple ones - and even then, they deliver very late and tend to have unhappy backers.

I think you are a bit unfair to KS at least. There have been quite a few even complex projects there that have worked out just fine, with minor delays - Oculus Rift, for example.

I don't want to look like I am defending the scammers, but how would you want to regulate something like KS or Indiegogo without killing the crowd-funding concept (which is genuinely useful)?

How is it different from a pushy guy roping you into buying some dodgy speakers from a white van in a parking lot? Should we regulate parking lots because they facilitate this sort of activity and don't vet everyone coming to park there? Regulation won't protect against human stupidity, unfortunately.

I think Kickstarter is doing quite a bit to combat these scammers already and is pulling projects when it comes to their attention. Indiegogo plays a dead bug, I guess they will change their mind after a first successful class-action lawsuit.

[tom66]

Well, Oculus had a prototype, these guys have nothing.

If they can show a prototype of the final or near-final product then they have, in my opinion, most of the skills necessary to bring the project forwards.

Otherwise, they're either terribly misinformed about the costs required to bring such a product to market... or they're scammers.