El Wed, Aug 10, 2016 at 09:34:37PM +0100, Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo deia:
So, in the case that the goal is not achieved, what's the plan to begin production if the money cannot be collected?
I think there's not plan yet. The only sure plan is if it makes 150000$ production should start. If it reaches less it might or might not depending on the rewards claimed and the cost of producing that.
http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/pipermail/arm-netbook/2016-August/011499.html http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/pipermail/arm-netbook/2016-August/011530.html
Strictly speaking the deal was that nobody pays unless they collectively pay 150000$, but then it depends on whether the claimed items can or cannot be produced with the pledged amount in the end. If they can't be produced, then it seems obvious that they won't. If they can be produced with the available money, then either crowdsupply is strict and declares the campaign failed or they arrange some change of goal or something and collect the money as long as Luke will have agreed to provide the rewards with the money raised. Worse case crowdsupply does not collect the money and Luke sets up a new campaign with the goals closer to what has been achieved in the end. The problem there would be if the campaign had to take 2 more months and that would delay the project, maybe cause scheduling problems or higher costs... But if the new campaign can last one week or two, and all backers are contacted, and the same rewards are offered at the same pledge amounts, I doubt many if any backers would not join the "new" campaign. Since that seems logical, and it's hard to argue that most backers pledged because of the 150000$ goal instead of because of the reward and its associated pledge amount, which they could get despite the 150000$, it does not seem too likely that crowdsupply even requires this second campaign. But I'm not Luke, I'm not crowdsupply... I don't know.
As to MOQs, there was talk of needing 250 PCMCIA connectors of each type. For one type we are beyond that already, and for the other there are maybe 18 missing and it looks on track to reach MOQ (and even if it didn't it would mean at most a 360 $ loss, since the breakout board is 20$, so no big deal).
The non recurring costs are possibly estimated so that those 100000 $ you quoted would pay the cost of producing the rewards currently pledged for, but nobody knows what will the people ask for in the end, so it is premature to evaluate.