The crowdfunded Jolla tablet is also being impacted by the funding crunch, with ongoing delays to shipments and most backers still waiting to receive their tablets. Saarnio said it’s now considering options on that front — including potentially canceling the tablet and refunding backers — now it has secured fresh financing.
“This is a quite challenging situation because it’s not linear what is the harm done on the tablet program,” he told TechCrunch. “It’s something that if you delay or stop working with your production partner for a couple of months it basically means that it’s difficult to [re]start the process as well.
“So we are now looking into different alternatives. One of them is to continue with the tablet production. One is refunding of the tablets… We are now working to find out what is the realistic way to serve our customers.”
Assuming the cost of the tablet, till last November, was ~4.2 M$ they "pre-sold" 12K units and raised funding ~2.8 M$. The loss at that point was ~1.4 M$ but meanwhile they have finished both sw and hw designs.
If they go for a refund that will cost them 2.8 M$, and they have to write off hw designs cost as a loss too.
On the other hand if they produce the tablets they have to pay manufacturing costs only which I think(?) it must be less than $220 per device at the moment, plus hw support costs.
Assuming the cost of the tablet, till last November, was ~4.2 M$ they "pre-sold" 12K units and raised funding ~2.8 M$. The loss at that point was ~1.4 M$ but meanwhile they have finished both sw and hw designs.
If they go for a refund that will cost them 2.8 M$, and they have to write off hw designs cost as a loss too.
On the other hand if they produce the tablets they have to pay manufacturing costs only which I think(?) it must be less than $220 per device at the moment, plus hw support costs.
Well, it's hard to tell which option would be a clear winner. Unless I misunderstand the numbers, looks like refunding would be a little more costly to Jolla. While I would think that delivering tablets would initially generate more good will, the question would then be does Jolla want to put the effort to support it. I also find it a bit depressing that they plan to focus on Indian and Chinese and Russian markets, although I don't fault them if that is where the money is coming from.
On the other hand if they produce the tablets they have to pay manufacturing costs only which I think(?) it must be less than $220 per device at the moment, plus hw support costs.
The evidence says that the manufacturing costs are currently below $180 per unit.
”So far Jolla as a start-up has been solely carrying the high investment cost of the Sailfish operating system. It has been very challenging to finance this operation. We are now moving into a model where our partners in the BRICS countries, especially in Russia, India and China, will invest in the R&D of local market operations, while Jolla will focus more on the development of the core of Sailfish OS, producing Sailfish software releases, and supporting its licensees & app developers. Further licensing deals will be announced soon," Antti Saarnio continues.
