Backed Or Whacked: The Shape Of Sounds To Come
Editor’s note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and blogs at Techspressive. Each column will look at crowdfunded products that have either met or missed their funding goals. Follow him on Twitter @rossrubin.
Whether you rocked your New Year’s Eve Gangnam Style, fed your Bieber fever, or just took in a traditional Auld Lang Syne, there was an opportunity to get that music out of your smartphone and share it with the rest of the party. And as long as that party wasn’t larger than, say, a half-dozen people, any number of the more than dozen Bluetooth speakers on the market could help you with that task.
Indeed, despite being a poor vehicle through which to demonstrate audio quality, Kickstarter did its part in 2012 to fund a few such products. These included the stylish Hidden Radio in January, which raised nearly $1 million; Carbon Audio’s silicone-encased, tablet-gripping Zooka in March; and the weather-resistant Turtle Shell from Outdoor Tech in October. With 2013 barely underway, though, three more Bluetooth speakers have set out not only to amplify tunes but crowdfunding’s unceasing cry for financial support.
Deep bass requires deep pockets. The more than 1,100 backers eager to encourage the mostly healthy-living, product-development equivalent of The Real World — and perhaps pick up one of the $80 powerhouses — have contributed more than three times the compaign’s $27,000 goal. And that’s with about six days left in the campaign. The Rex is due in March; that is, assuming the team can tear itself away from the lives you wish you had.
But the campaign is in its final days with less than 20 percent of its goal reached. It’s difficult to see where the XyloBeats campaign went wrong. The goal was not outlandish at $10,000, and the reward prices were downright cheap – not only by Kickstarter standards but even in comparison to the overall market for Bluetooth speakers. People may have been turned off by needing to add a second unit to achieve stereo, but that was also true for the pricier and more powerful wooden 1Q that raised nearly $200,000 last summer.