Et spændende og succesfuldt USB-C Hub projekt på Kickstarter har måtte kaste håndklædet i ringen ifølge dem selv pga. dårlige chipset.
HUB+ skulle have været den ultimative USB-C hub med både USB-3, SD-kort læser og displayport indgange, samtidigt med at man stadig kunne lade sin Macbook.
Projektet blev finansieret med over 883.000 USD inden sommerferien, men p.g.a. problemer med de forskellige chipset som skal drive de mange funktioner har man valgt at sætte projektet på stand-by og tilbyde de mange støtter deres penge retur.
For de mange backere må det være en kedelig nyhed at projektet skrinlægges, men det er god stil af Nonda at refundere beløbet.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nonda/get-your-macbook-ports-back
Håber stadig på at skabe produktet
Nonda har dog ikke helt opgivet, og selvom de refunderer alle, håber de på at kunne lancere produktet på et senere tidspunkt.
I et længere brev forklarer de deres backers hvad deres strategi er:
Dear Backers,
Hope you are doing well. We understand that you may be feeling frustrated and maybe even angry at the moment in regards to the delay. We, like you, don’t enjoy the delay. So in thinking what would be best for you, we made a big decision today. Please read on.
The Key Issue at Hand
For the past months, our hardware team has been working with all major chipset manufacturers, such as Cypress, TI, VIA, and Etron. We’ve tested all engineering samples with the promise of USB 3.0 and mDP and we’ve developed PCB boards based on those samples. After the last few months of thorough testing, we are finding continuous problems.
A few chipsets work but via our various testing, we are finding out that they don’t work 100% reliably and not at the standard that we want. Despite our efforts to secure working and stable chipsets, the chipset manufacturers don’t appear to have viable solutions based on our testing and they do not know when they will. This is the key reason why no one else have been able to produce a USB-C hub for mDP and USB 3.0 for the new MacBook.
The Best Solution
Full Refund: Instead of having you, our backers, wait indefinitely until there’s a stable chipset solution for USB 3.0 and mDP, we feel that the fair thing to do is to refund you 100% of your Kickstarter pledge for those who bought a Hub+. We will also go through previous refunds and refund the other 8% that we’ve paid out to Kickstarter. We understand the unpleasant feeling of waiting for something and we don’t want to put you through more of that.
Discount for the Future: If and when we do have a USB-C hub with USB 3.0 and mDP, we’ll let you know and we’d be happy to offer you the product at the same Kickstarter price as thanks to being an early supporter.
Free Gift: On the other hand, we’re happy to gift the mini adapter that was included as part of select reward tiers as a show of appreciation for your early support for our product. It means a lot to us since that was our first crowdfunding project.
Dates
To obtain your refunds, no action is needed on your part. We just ask for your patience. Our customer support team will go through each Hub+ Kickstarter order and refund all Kickstarter backers their full amount within 1 month byNovember 12th if not earlier. We’ll need the time to go through 8000+ orders.
For those who were refunded their pledge previously but minus the 8% that was paid out to Kickstarter, we will refund you your 8% by November 20th.
Although this was not how we wanted to end our campaign, we hope that you’ll agree with us that this was the best solution given the situation. We appreciate your being part of this journey.
Warm regards,
Nonda Team
