Iāve been avoiding commenting on the delays because I can only imagine how difficult it is to design, fabricate, and test all aspects of a new device. Iāve been a fan of Mudita even before they launched the Kickstarter.
However, this new update has left me with a sour taste.
Iāll bring back Update #21 for starters.
When looking at your development status charts it almost immediately felt as if the Pure was further behind schedule than stated on some items which sound quite important such as Injection Molding Trials and Optimisation, PCB Production for Final Product, and even the Assembly Trials and Optimisation, not to mention the what I consider to be insufficiently advanced Certification acquisition process. Numbers from 20% to 40% progress in these areas with few-months remaining before first batch delivery didnāt seem realistic at all to me; the necessary QA/QC before first batch wouldnāt have been sufficient.
However, I let it pass, because I have no experience with putting out a new device on the market.
When it comes to Update #22, I have some skepticism accepting the fact that this production issue wasnāt discovered before making the previous Update.
The buffer time allocated for production testing seems insufficient in this case. It gives a feeling of being rushed.
If I interpret both updates in a certain way, from April earlier this year to Fall delay is about 5-6 months, and then December to April 2021 is a similar time span. These delays seem arbitrary or standard.
These elements do not give an impression of good planning. It makes me feel as if there are things happening behind the scenes which are not shared.
Also, keep in mind that it is simply an impression. I do not know how the fabrication companies work, nor the inner workings of Mudita, and the covid situation makes everything more difficult.
To close this, I want to specify that what upsets me is NOT the delay, but rather the impression of inadequate planning and preparation for all the production steps (hardware, software, certifications), plus a feeling of having things rushed (felt like a difficult promise to deliver first batches in december when in the timeline the final development phases were less than 1/3 complete).
I may be wrong about all of this, and I would be happy to be proven wrong. I can also understand obstacles appearing along the way, even those unknown unknowns. However, for such a long development time, these delays are increasingly difficult to pardon.
I am not looking for answers from MichaÅ, Åukasz, or Tomasz, because their time is better spent elsewhere. What I want is for them to simply consider my opinion and act upon it internally.
What these delays and updates do is that they set higher quality expectations; but these delays are only in place to fix issues and complete the development of the quality promised one year ago.
I donāt know what to think at this point. Iām still a fan of the philosophy behind Pure, but I canāt help but feel disconnected from it given these updates.
Can we get some reviews from people who have been testing the earlier non-optimised versions of the phone? How did those improve over time?
I just want to get a better feeling of the holistic user experience, where it started and where it is going. I feel we are receiving less updates from the human aspect of it and more from the technical part - which is also valuable - but in the end people who want to use the phone are not as interested in the technical details, rather more in how it will make them feel.