the surface mount packages we use for the chip components on the WakeMate are a little difficult to solder by hand, unfortunately.
It may be a little more costly, but you know what they say, undercommit & overdeliver.
from http://blog.wakemate.com/2010/04/26/questions-answered/
>As previously stated, we misjudged demand for this product. Having too many people wanting to buy your product is a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem. Our original method for assembling and shipping devices simply wasn’t scalable in terms of cost and time. It was no longer good enough to get easily accessible parts, buy a few hundred or a thousand of them, and pay somebody to assemble them; time and expense would be too much.
Or, to state it another way, didn't they wake up one morning and realize they had enough preorders? It would be a lot easier to convert the preorder form to "Sign up for more info when we have more units available!" than to convert it to GCheckout, another way of preordering, which is what they did.
(http://www.ladyada.net/wiki/mdcpickandplace)
its great for the "first 1000 or so" - if something gets popular i can send it off for manufacture - but only because i can bridge manufacture thru the never-ending-leadtimes. having trouble getting a fantastic oven tho. the apsgold's look nice but we dont have 220 :( had great luck with some common reflow plates if you can deal with single sided
Perhaps having your own "pick-and-place" wouldn't scale up to Wal-Mart levels of demand but having a small end-to-end factory of your own gives you the ability to satisfy early-adopters who are willing to pay a little more to be "first"; and usually drive mass purchasing down-the-road.