The last time Christmas time involved a tablet delivery, it went horribly wrong. Anyways, on the IGG Comments theres an update that only the SoC seem to be missing.

Did you mean the old "October update" on https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/y...t#/updates/all?
This has been superseded by Michael's comment on 2017-12-06/07 on https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/y...blet#/comments, which was already mentioned here in So no news AFAICS, unfortunately.

I know this is not Chen's project and his responsibility, he is helping Michael (and thereby all of us), but I was rather hoping we could get some info from Chen since Michael is not informing the backers properly even though there are always many requests for info at IGG. And the little info he is given is usually inconsistent with previous info. If possible please ask Chen for his view. If he won't/can't share his view so be it, at least we tried...

Yep, recent communication has been terrible. I would rather have a list of 10 things that have gone wrong than sit here wondering what is going on. It's michael's responsibility to update us though, not Chen.

Looks to me like Chen has tried to distance himself from the project. Reading the first post , it’s all ‘we’ will do this/that and now it’s all the mysterious Michaels problem .
Maybe Santa can pitch in and save us!

I share this view. There are reasons for this tho; one, Chen is not responsible for the money. Michael is. Two, Chen has Livermorium which takes all his time. So this means by stating it he's not hinting at anything - that'd be accusing. He's clarifying things.
Come to think of it a bit closer;
the fact Chen is not involved with the project might actually be a part of the reason for the slowdown. Not in a negative way, as stated many times by Chen, his main interest is the Livermorium (btw do I spell it right?) project. Perhaps his absence has a bigger-than-expected impact on the speed of things. If he for example was helping with communication, and components suppliers.

Latest info in the comments looks pretty sketchy:

Deja-VU

This sounds way too familiar

I'm trying to push Michael for a refund. This is the most I can do.

I personally don't think this project can go any further - It relies solely on Michael/Youyota side, and that shouldn't be like this.

He has purchased a few Ks of certain components at own cost, but a lot of parts has increased price dramatically recently. Especially memory. Now it all comes to cost, and opportunity cost.

This project has gone wrong from beginning - I connected Youyota and "the other party" (yes as certainly they will not be happy for me mentioning their name) in the hope of bringing this product back to real. But "the other party" was in such a deep trouble with their own version of this product, they seem not motivated in taking part in too much of this one - for whatever reason.

So it all comes down from a project suppose to contribute jointly, down to Youyota's own game. But Youyota is just the manufacturer, there is no investment on PR, marketing, and they cannot afford to have it.

And because of the above reason, Youyota can't start production because the number is way too low. I did push them to invest for a minimum quantity, and they did. But this time of the year, everything has become much more expensive, and they are spending extras which to be honest, they should not do so. But they did.

The problem is now the cost was even higher than their expectation, and they are struggling as they need to spend money and efforts generating revenue.

Why should any of a healthy business cooperation invest money and effort, to a project that cannot make any revenue in a while, instead of doing something else?

And to be honest, I spent a lot time and efforts in the beginning connecting two parties, and I did sort of the avocation in the beginning. Youyota has spent money and deposits and efforts buying components. And negotiating with the factory. It wasn't successful, but I know they tried. The community backed the campaign...

What the F*CK did "the other party" do? I can't remember anything.

This is the end. I will do my best to make this project to an end, either refund, or production, I don't know. But I personally think refund makes sense.

It's holiday period now in China, I will push for an update after new years' day. Hopefully early Jan.

@chenliangchen from your post I assume that the unit cost has gone though the roof? and final cost is unknown?

Maybe assebly factory would sell, like it was case with original tablet.
I have one via youbuy, an was hoping to get nice new red with keyboard.