Show HN: Introducing the Pack Store. The App Store for hardware. | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Introducing the Pack Store. The App Store for hardware.

packstore.anvil.net

"The App Store for hardware" So....a store?

Amazon.com!

I like the concept, but I'd suggest showing a few actual items on the landing page. I spent my first 5 seconds wondering why you were trying to sell me white plastic stars and acorns to use with my phone.

Click here and what do you see? http://www.ebay.com/ Then click here http://www.amazon.com/

In addition, I'd suggest explaining simply what each product does in each section (flip to reveal text when mouse-over of product images?).

I was also confused as to why I couldn't find the app download link. Took me a while to realise it's a website, not an app.

As usual for the cool, modern user interface for landing pages these days, no information about what you are signing up for.

Edit: sorry about that, was visiting the mobile page and was all confused ( http://i.imgur.com/hrWE8.png ). Tested on computer and got a better page.

Some more explanation is needed in some cases. For example, when I look at the "Housewares page" (http://packstore.anvil.net/collections/housewares), I am confused about what I'm actually looking at. Maybe half of the items have non-descriptive names and I can't tell what they are by the picture either.

Koubachi: Looks kind of like an upside-down golf club. Not sure.

Beacon: It's a black... thing.

FLPR: Acronymy goodness. And it attaches to the dock connector.

Re: Yet Another iPhone Dongle

What if there were a short description on each:

Koubachi - Plant Care Helper

FLPR - Universal A/V Remote

That coupled with how slow the site is in Chrome* makes browsing the store unbearable.

* Chrome 15

This is cool.

I think people are missing the idea of what this is so I'll clarify my assumption...

It's a discovery tool for consumers to help them find hardware that's smart-device enabled like Nest, Lockitron, M-Audio, etc.

This is cool.

Here's an idea for a better way to frame this, similar to your current splash screen: "You already have a smart phone. But what about a smart XXXX?" where XXXX rotates between a bunch of things that you link to on the site.

Also you need to make a better connection between the XXXX and a product. You say "Packs change every golf swing", that should show a picture of the smart golf swing glove and let me click to see it.

Yeah, I think Packs is confusing because it's not immediately clear what it means to end-user. And I totally agree with your idea on how these should be grouped and marketed, and can probably get some great traffic with a little SEM/SEO.

What's also interesting to me is like Chomp, where Apple and Google dropped the ball on discovery, this service will be useful because a lot of hardware+software products also have 3rd party apps such as ROKU.

Since I've already heard about of lot of these through Hacker News, I can't really comment on how interesting this store would be to the average consumer.

Apart from that, the website looks very nice. The "home" button (little house symbol) has an awkward animation (why can't it just highlight?), but other than that it looks very clean and professional.

On last thing: it took me a while to realize that all of the hardware featured on the store interacts with iPhones. I got the "App Store for hardware" message, but for some reason my brain didn't connect that with only iPhone hardware. Perhaps if I owned an iPhone that connection would form more quickly.

If you don't have a mobile site yet, don't refuse to show me the desktop site, rendering your site unusable.

Unless you're using flash or html5 APIs not optimized for mobile, you have no excuse.

The merchandise reminds me a lot of Brookstone. Compared to the generic cluttered "me too" Brookstone website, this is rather pleasant. It would be nice to have some captions under the products though.

Take the "Assurelink Belt" which has nothing in the little round rect box to tell me its a smartphone controlled garage door opener.

No accounts?

I like the idea, but I didn't get that it was only products that connect with iPhones until reading the comments here.

Hey, they're selling the lockitron for...the same price as lockitron.net...

http://packstore.anvil.net/products/lockitron

Hey, that's a bargain compared to the Square card reader, which sells for $10:

http://packstore.anvil.net/products/square-register

...that's, um, $10 more than Square would charge you. Or am I missing something here? Someone please correct me, because this just seems mad.

That's usually how Square handles retail of the reader, and it includes a $10 credit on your account.

Apple, for example:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/H8332LL/A/square-credit-ca...

Apple store does the same - Sell for $10, with $10 in service credit attached.

It's typical for retailers to match a recommended MSRP. We love the Pack Store and the fact that it highlights the new generation of app controlled products like Lockitron.

Hence "Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price" :)

a.k.a ECommerce site, am I right?

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