There is this huge banner ad on nyt.com of a pretty low quality 3d rendered watch that links up with your smart phone and they are asking for pre-orders.
I just find it interesting that in the age of net shopping you can put up basically a sketch of an idea and ask people to buy it. I wonder how they go about breaking the news to the people that pre-order it that the final product looks completely different than the sketch.
Do you guys see a future in this kind of business model?
Thanks for the link. I’m as amazed as you. I wonder just how much liability there is for the people involved if they never develop the product…
I think the truth lies in the name of the company at the bottom of the page…
Copyright © 2011 Blue Sky
Hehe, good catch!
I just find it interesting that in the age of net shopping you can put up basically a sketch of an idea and ask people to buy it.
This would appear to be an offer to purchase a product before an “official” release date.
(*) Special offer for pre-orders with 20% advance payment.Conditions are valid until July 18th, 2011. Full prices will be applied for pre-orders from July 19th, 2011.
Prices include VAT.
Products shipping will start November 30th, 2011.
I wonder just how much liability there is for the people involved if they never develop the product…
I’m guessing… none.
16. > If unable to deliver goods ordered due to sudden unavailability/shortage, even temporary, Blue Sky shall timely inform Customer by email. The amount which may already have been paid by the Customer shall be refunded as soon as possible and, in any case, not later than thirty days from receipt of the purchase order.
See: imwatch.it
I think this kind of business model is very smart, to test consumer reaction before you commit to tooling. It’s something which we always advise our clients to do whether it be through SLA castings, machined ABS or other high quality finish prototyping, heck even a high quality photo-realistic image…
…but the execution of this example and the standard and quality of the work on display is very poor.
The concept of a smartwatch is very sleek and perhaps that alone will be enough to engage consumers but my guess is that they’d generate a lot more pre-orders had they given the presentation of the concept more attention.
So I take it we’re not all rushing to pre-order just yet?
Correct, but 9’999 euros is just dying to be spent on a computer rendering of a gold lcd watch.
I believe the product is a nice one, being an android watch, I had never seen one before. It should be much more capable than a iPod nano slapped onto a bracelet. However preorder thing is another topic. It is popular with likes of kickstarter, yet they charge you only when the product is delivered in kickstarter. Also the pricing is interesting. They did strike over some prices and wrote lower ones for a product that does not exist. Also the prices are a bit in the range of luxury swiss watches for golden ones, which is a hard territory to be successful, if you are not swiss. The low range pricing is very attractive. Titanium one is excellent.
In the end I hope they will be successfull in their quest.
I think this form factor will continue to be explored,but I also think aside from this seeming very shady with preorders off renderings, the execution will relegate this version to a small niche of tech geeks, if it goes to production.