Smart startups don’t try to compete with behemoths. Dumb startups sometimes do. Fusion Garage was the company contracted to design and build the CrunchPad tablet in 2009, which, after ages in “development” … came to market as the hideous and overpriced JooJoo. (Like, just in time to compete with the iPad.) The company’s followups, the conceptually interesting but dangerously undercooked Grid 4 smartphone and Grid 10 tablet, got a bit of attention before the company, which had probably shipped no more than a few hundred units of anything, ever, collapsed under $40 million in debt.
Microsoft can afford to do this right. So can Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony. But some startup? Not a chance. When it comes to hardware, young geniuses need not apply. The line for Code Academy starts over here.
Interesting to watch the tech circles talk about hardware companies not working out. Chumby is now officially over so the question being raised is “can a start up compete in hardware”? RIM isn’t doing that great, so it might not just a world for big companies… Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android is up to $5,673,151 with 27 days to go. This might be the new model for hardware start ups to pursue, we’ll all be watching.
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I can understand why trying to come out with a hardware-centric product for consumers is all but impossible for a startup, but if you were to focus on high tech, business services, or some other non-consumer niche market, I imagine the odds would increase greatly in your favor. Go one step further, and create a service or product that combines custom software and hardware, and you’ve improved your odds even more. It shouldn’t be hardware you’re trying to sell, but a useful product or service that requires custom hardware.
I can understand why trying to come out with a hardware-centric product for consumers is all but impossible for a startup, but if you were to focus on high tech, business services, or some other non-consumer niche market, I imagine the odds would increase greatly in your favor. Go one step further, and create a service or product that combines custom software and hardware, and you’ve improved your odds even more. It shouldn’t be hardware you’re trying to sell, but a useful product or service that requires custom hardware.