[Other SmartWatches] inWatchUSA:
Hi Lokifish,

Yes, you are correct, without the perk. That way it is a very obviously different transaction and cannot be mistaken. We are running this IGG campaign because inWatch is not an established company in the USA and, as stated on the campaign, we need to hire a western UI and testing team. Getting our name out, gaining support for Z and possibly offsetting some of the initial costs of the western UX/UI were all accomplished by this in theory. Of course, time will still tell but crowd funding is no easy task. Will not hitting our campaign goal delay the release of Z? Well it would not help any but in all reality, we hope to be done early and beat our ship date. The reason we think we can do this (and this leads right into the next thing I want to talk about) is that the specs we advertise are not what we think we can build if we get your money. They are what I am wearing on my wrist. We waited until that was the case to tell the world. Do I wish I had been first? Hell yes I do. We were not ready. Now we are and we are going to be here, improving, iterating, discussing new designs and implementing the critiques we hear.

On that note, I had a discussion about the camera on Z with the CEO of inWatch China and the design team. It isn't feasible to remove the camera from the designs even for short runs, as it would require new tooling and board changes that dont make sense at this stage. That said, there is a device in our roadmap that is next in line for release (hopefully also 2014 but no promises!) that will fulfill this requirement and have some industry first stuff i cant mention yet as well. When the time comes, I will begin a discussion with you all here so you can help us shape it.

OK, lets talk Omate TrueSmart. I spent a bit over four months in Shenzhen at the end of last year, right as Omate got crazy huge. The CEO could be found at various startup events showing off his prototype and everything seemed fine. It was functional, the camera worked, all good. Then, once it was time for production, the classic issues with spooling up a production line and getting quality control in place, sourcing chips, I could go on but basically, ship dates started to push back. They always do, this is not thier CEOs fault. What was his fault was not anticipating this and allowing it to compromise what features made it into the final product. Also, the whole "once the SIM card slot is opened, it is out of waterproof warranty" thing is just not the way to do things. That really hurt consumer faith.

It is all of this that we avoid by being an established, although fairly new startup that has headquarters in both China and the USA. We are not learning the manufacturing game during this campaign. We are just trying to make sure Z is what people want. It is less a "help us build this" campaign and more a "hands up, who wants one" campaign. If the interest is there, we know to stay the course. If it is close but needs a change, hey at least it was close and we can change! That's the great part about being small and agile.

I hope this helps put things in perspective. My presence here is intended to be a way to really get to the bottom of some of these exact issues. If we are going to talk development and firmware, we have to first ensure you are not wasting your time. I get that, I fully expect skepticism and I appreciate the chance to address it head on.

---------- Post added at 05:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:15 AM ----------

I totally respect that assessment Jarl. Although I do want to point out that the full retail MSRP will be $299 so you are still saving a bit. If the price is a large sticking point, you can all use the 199 price and just work with me individually to include shipping. I just dont want to lose my shirt on int shipping. So message received and happy to work with you if that truly is the sticking point but I am grateful for input and discussion as well.

One more note, one of the benefits I see to have the watches in the hands of XDA community members is to explore the possibilities of what can be loaded on to it and what other fun stuff can be done. Our firmware will be skinned android 4.2.2 and will be able to run google play store apps. This is to hopefully avoid the dead in the water problem that some proprietary OS watches have run into. Our 240x240 res is the same as some of the big boys for a reason. People will make apps for it :)

Hope that helps Jarl!