WakeMates are shipping! Congrats WakeMates | Hacker News Reader

WakeMates are shipping! Congrats WakeMates

blog.wakemate.com

49 pointsepi0Bauqu30 comments

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

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

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)

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

The way they handled this situation is disaster.

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

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.

uhm, they are offering a lifetime subscription to pro for pre-orders. http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/23/wakemate-delay/

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.

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

Wakemate may or may not have handled the situation as best as they can. I do not know. I, for one, pre-ordered and wanted this thing in my hands soon. I am mighty pissed at the expectations set and what was delivered.

Giving premium features for free? I don't even have an idea of what the basic features look like, to get excited about premium features and accept the delays.

You might say 'take your 5$ and go some where else'. They definitely are losing me as a customer. If only they saved me the trouble and time, I would have bought and made use of other products months ago.

i have to agree with you. they were completely misleading on initial availability date when we "preordered" then there was nothing but static for months until they got enough complaints (from me included) to have to write their first apology email.

This company needs to get it's shit together...

How is being so popular that you can churn your product out fast enough a disaster? Sounds like a resounding success to me!

If you make something that people are desperate to own, time heals all wounds.

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.

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?

Yeah, but the Zeo is impractically goofy. At what point in a relationship are you going to want to strap a sensor to your head in bed?

I take medication for Parasomnia (sleep walking/talking/eating/doing) and I have done a few over-night sleep studies. I know my quality of sleep is very poor, but I've chosen to just "sleep more" rather than take a cocktail of medications.

I will be happy to share my experiences after I receive mine and see the results on their site. I don't expect it to compare to what my sleep doctor can get, but it'll be interesting to see how close/far they are. I don't have a blog, so I guess it'll just be a reply to this thread.

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

"Based on your pre-order date (11/25/2009), you should expect your WakeMate no later than 07/30/2010, but probably significantly sooner." :-/

I ordered mine on the 24th, so I hope significantly sooner! :P

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.

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.

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

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

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...

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.

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/

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

So...Android support or no?

Android phones would seem to be in the set of phones with bluetooth and support for third-party apps (as is the iPhone). The iPod Touch is not a phone. ;-)

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

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

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