

WakeMates are shipping! Congrats WakeMates - epi0Bauqu
http://blog.wakemate.com/first-units-shipping-new-store

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ig1
A word of advice: Don't make product announcements on April 1st.

~~~
grinich
Gmail was announced on April 1st, 2004. :-)

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reduxredacted
I, too, have been frustrated by the delays (I pre-ordered shortly after they
opened pre-orders).

However, I wasn't surprised they missed the January ship date, and probably
less surprised that they missed the Q1 ship date:

\- It's a unique product. Identifying demand is difficult. My guess is their
demand was underestimated. This is a product focusing on an area of life that
everyone I can think of wants to "fix". All of my coworkers who I consider
"early adopters", also pre-ordered after I IMed them the URL (16 people)

\- It's priced significantly lower than the few alternatives that are out
there. It's also designed in a way that is more convenient than similar
products offered by competitors (no head bands).

\- Smartphones are common now, so the barrier for entry really is the $50 for
most people

\- Hardware is difficult to get right. You can't just tweak a few lines of
code and recompile. If something is wrong with the trial units (and I'm not
saying there was, I have no idea), it can be a serious setback.

It's too late now, but here's the formula that should be applied:

\- Decide the amount of pre-orders you think you can safely get out the door
on time (be incredibly conservative). Set your web app to stop taking pre-
orders when you get anywhere near that point.

\- Before turning pre-orders back on, up the price committment, and push back
the date (while notifying your initial pre-orders that they can still expect
theirs on time). I know when I visited the site, I thought "Gee, I'm out $5 if
they fold, who cares?" It's also the only reason I haven't cancelled my pre-
order.

\- Pick a very conservative ship date, then add more time. Have an option at
check-out that says "if we can ship earlier, would you like us to?" to catch
folks who might be caught off guard by the unexpected $45 charge. Or skip that
and simply e-mail your pre-orders to see who wants one early. Nothing makes me
happier than when I get something I want sooner than I expected.

\- Hire someone with a history of dealing with sourcing parts, dealing with
vendors/manufacturers and getting stuff out the door. These are usually not
geeks and not folks who are attracted to start-ups.

\- Don't take any preorders until you are sure you have the hardware right (as
I said, I'm not sure if this was the problem but the delays are so long it
certainly smells that way)

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cmer
They should write a book: How to lose your customers' trust before they try
your product.

The way they handled this situation is disaster.

~~~
epi0Bauqu
They're being open and honest. How else should they handle it?

~~~
cmer
Many things went wrong:

\- I understand delays, but we're now talking 6-7 month delays when the
product was promised within 1-2 months.

\- They should have told us there would be a monthly fee before we pre-
ordered. I understand that there will be a free version as well but it will be
a half-assed WakeMate. They led us to believe that all the features would be
free once we buy the unit. If they plan to make money from the recurring fees,
I'm fine with that, but tell me before I buy.

\- They should give customers who have pre-ordered WakeMate a lifetime
subscription to the "pro" version to apologize. That's the least they could
have done in my opinion.

I don't feel they've been open and honest at all. But to be fair, I'm sure
they didn't intend to be dishonest, they just lack biz dev experience.
Hopefully they'll learn from their mistakes.

~~~
weaksauce
Maybe you didn't get this email but the last pointis invalid for people that
preordered:

We're very sorry for the delay and are committed to compensating you for the
inconvenience. We plan to give you premium features for free, but our priority
is to ship as soon as possible so we haven't finalized these details yet.

~~~
cmer
I sure didn't see that! I'm glad they're doing the right thing!

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zoba
To anyone who is getting one: I would really like to know how well it works.
It is cheaper than the Zeo, so it is attractive. However, I don't feel as
confident in the technology it uses to detect sleep patterns as the Zeo
technology, so I'm apprehensive about getting one.

~~~
NEPatriot
I second this - would also like to hear people's thoughts about this product.
Do you actually feel a noticeable gain in the level of energy in the morning?

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jiri
Yes ... estimate for me is July 31. Delayed a bit.

~~~
halo
Perhaps Wakemate learnt from the late-release PR disaster and have decided
it's better to offer pessimistic worst-case-scenario delivery estimates and
over-deliver than to offer over-optimistic delivery estimates and under-
deliver.

~~~
dschobel
That seems to be exactly the case. This is the full passage from the email:

 _The next batch of units will ship no later July 30th, 2010. Based on your
pre-order date (11/24/2009), you should expect your WakeMate no later than
07/30/2010, but probably significantly sooner. This is a conservative
estimate; we want to provide you with a firm date. We are confident we can
deliver many orders sooner and will continue working day and night to ship
yours as soon as possible._

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brm
They've also made it relatively impossible to figure out how to abandon a pre-
order...

~~~
mtw
it's the opposite for me; they asked for full price although I did preorder

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carbocation
I confess that I'm very confused. I did preorder ($5). Today, I got this email
telling me the product would be shipping soon. When are they going to charge
me the balance of what I owe? This was not explained...

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rrhyne
First I couldn't click to the info page from the posterous blog, so I clicked
on the store. The store's logo wouldn't link me to a product page, then I got
an insecure connection warning at the regular site because I forgot to ditch
the https.

Regular users would be seriously lost in this proceess.

Hope that helps.

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jrockway
The Wakemate doesn't seem as exciting as the Zeo. It's just an accelerometer
that you strap to your wrist?

You can just use your phone for that: <http://blog.smart-alarm-clock.com/>

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timdorr
> a mobile phone with Bluetooth and support for third-party apps, or second
> generation (or later) iPod Touch

So...Android support or no?

~~~
tpz
Android support was confirmed by Wakemate before they started collecting pre-
orders, otherwise I would not have been one of them.

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covercash
This reminds me of the fitbit delays... similar product.

