Time Flies
Dear Qleek backers,
Long time no see. It has been 3 months since the campaign ended… time flies!
First, the whole team wants to thank you for your amazing support. Thanks to your contributions we’re now able to produce Qleek.
This update summarizes what we’ve been working during this summer. Other updates will come as we go further in the manufacturing process.
Finalizing the design
After testing the first prototypes for a while with various users, we have designed a better version of Qleek which is simpler to use, way more robust and sleeker based on the feedback we received.
We kept the player as minimalist as possible. Its straight lines are designed to frame your content while keeping a compelling aesthetic. The new beechwood casing blends pleasingly within any home. Its inner cavity is CNC’d to contain and hide the Qleek machinery. Lastly, it is varnished and finished with a satin lacquer clear-coat.
When testing it with users, a lot of them reported that it was a shame to buy a premium high quality product without seeing much of the beechwood Qleek is made of. So we studied different form factors and layouts to give you the warmness and organic feel of wood.
This new bolder look, its form and function are a marriage of craftsmanship and modern aesthetics. Because this design is also more robust than the plastic one, the new player relates more to what we think technology should be : a timeless piece.
The tactile interaction with the player has also been overhauled, because it was unclear for users how to use it without visual hints. This new version provides a better experience thanks to a more familiar interface using iconic playback buttons.
Manufacturing
We have been also consulting manufacturing experts to ensure that producing Qleek at a large scale is possible and efficient. We sourced the electronic components that are optimized for the player. We are currently working on the firmware and finalizing a custom printed circuit board (PCB).
From October 1st we are officially designing the latest pieces of your Qleeks at Usine.io, a single place for prototyping hardware in the heart of Paris. It is paradise for us as we can work on every component of Qleek whether it is wood, plastic or electronics in one place.
We’re also fine-tuning the magnetic attraction of the Tapps in order to have the best pick & play experience when grabbing them out of the hive or when piling them together.
What’s next
There’s still a lot of work ahead for us. We have to work a lot on the software, because it is what will make Qleek shine. We also have to test our PCB in the next weeks to check if everything works as intended and if we can move it to production. By mid-November we will select our preferred suppliers for the wood and the plastic parts. And we still need to build the whole Qleek online store.
Unfortunately, we have accumulated a month and a half of delay at this point. Considering that we couldn’t access the prototyping tools during August, that we had to rethink the whole design of the player and by adding the certification delays, the christmas rush at some suppliers, we wanted to tell you that we are not going to be able to ship your Qleeks by the end of December as planned. Our current estimation for shipping is February.
We are sorry not to meet the deadlines that we gave you and we understand if you are disappointed. We did some time estimate mistakes, but we are learning a lot, and be confident that we are still committed to ship your Qleeks as soon as possible without compromising the experience or the quality we all expect.
Thanks to you all, we’re almost there! We hope that you are as excited as we are.
Stay tuned, we’ll be writing soon with more news to share. This update was a big one because a long time has passed since our last email. We will try to make smaller and more regular updates from now on to be transparent about our how the production is going.
Cheers,
Ismail, Johanna & Pierre
