[Coco] Introducing the next generation of Color Computer, the CoCo-X

[Mark McDougall]

On 25/03/2013 11:55 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:

> While everyone seems hot on this kickstarter thing I feel it is
> necessary to point out the fact that I supported one of these
> kickstart projects last year.  It attained its goal, supposedly
> started with projected delivery of December 2012.  As of this
> point I have seen nothing and visits to the site have no current
> date when people can actually expect to get anything.

Unfortunately hardware development of any kind is an expensive and 
time-consuming process. And production ten times more so. The issue is 
compounded by economies of scale - to make a product more affordable you 
need to make more of them, which of course requires more capital investment.

A lot of hardware projects would never see the light of day without some 
sort of funding from the crowd.

I'm involved in "Commercial R&D" where clients come to us to turn their 
ideas into electronics products. 9 times out of 10 they never even get off 
the ground, because most people don't appreciate the level of effort (and 
expertise) required, and how that translates to $$$.

Even from those projects whose development _is_ fully funded, there are 
abject commercial failures. So it's little surprise that many "hobbyist" 
projects on Kickstarter never eventuate. I would expect however, that most 
backers go in with their eyes open.

That said, I think Gary's track record and the fact that he already has a 
significant portion of the IP complete is very reassuring. There's nothing 
particularly technically challenging in the actual hardware design itself 
(Gary's done a lot of the hard work already); his challenge I suspect will 
be designing a board at the right price point for the market.

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"