Misty Robotics, a spinoff of Sphero and the creators of the Misty programmable robot have announced that the Misty II will start shipping to its backers in April, according to TechCrunch. It will mark a four month shipping delay, as Misty originally planned to ship its robotics platform in December of last year.
The Misty II robotics platform will cost $2,399, which might sound like a costly entry fee, but that’s actually an $801 price drop — the robot’s original price was $3,200. At that price it’s not competitive with robotics platforms like the Lego Mindstorms EV3 kit (which costs $349) as it’s not intended for the average consumer just yet.
Instead, Misty is looking to employ the collective skills of STEM students, tinkerers, and robotics majors to begin programming and using the Misty II for their own projects. In an ideal scenario, Misty’s strategy would mean the Misty II’s full set of skills would be birthed from the developer community and would eventually become a consumer-facing robotics platform that could appeal to less savvy consumers.
Hopefully this time they can meet their shipping date.
A note on crowdfunding:
Crowdfunding is a chaotic field by nature: companies looking for funding tend to make big promises. According to a study run by Kickstarter in 2015, roughly 1 in 10 “successful” products that reach their funding goals fail to actually deliver rewards. Of the ones that do deliver, delays, missed deadlines, or overpromised ideas mean that there’s often disappointment in store for those products that do get done.
The best defense is to use your best judgment. Ask yourself: does the product look legitimate? Is the company making outlandish claims? Is there a working prototype? Does the company mention existing plans to manufacture and ship finished products? Has it completed a Kickstarter before?
And remember: you’re not necessarily buying a product when you back it on a crowdfunding site.