Shipping delayed until June
over 7 years ago – Tue, Dec 27, 2016 at 10:30:32 PM

To our Kickstarter supporters:

When we first launched the Superbook on Kickstarter, we had no idea that we’d eventually be managing a backer community of almost 17,000 individuals from all around the world—thank you, truly, for supporting our campaign and helping us make the Superbook a reality.

We’re working our absolute hardest to bring you the best experience we can—and our responsibilities to that end are not just about perfecting the hardware, but also entail growing and maintaining a strong software and developer ecosystem. As creators, we need to make decisions that balance getting the Superbook out to our backers as soon as we can with building an amazing product and a sustainable company that can continue to improve both your hardware and software experience.

With these reasons in mind, we're updating to let you know that we will be delaying the shipment of the Superbook from February to June. This decision wasn’t easy to make, and we sincerely apologize to you, our early backers, for letting you down on the timeline we set for Kickstarter. We want to let you know that we will always put our backers first in all that we do as a company, and that we’re working around the clock to deliver to you a product you’ll truly be proud to own—and that this decision was made with both of these priorities in mind.

Why the delay?

We didn't want to share this news without a personal touch. Our CEO Andrew is here to say a few words about the matter (note- all the pertinent information Andrew goes over is included below).

When you’re manufacturing 20,000 instead of 200 units, there is very little room for iteration or failure. Each mistake could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more -- and in the end, delay the process even more than necessary. As we’ve emphasized throughout the campaign, we value open communication and complete transparency, and want to share with you some of the challenges we’ve been facing in the production process.

• During the design for manufacturability process, we were advised by manufacturing experts to add in some modifications to make the Superbook easier to manufacture and better suited for our international backers. (On the plus side, it also means that the shell is sleeker and more premium, with an even better surface feel!)
• We have decided to pay all customs and VAT expenses in full, for all backers! This was a common request we heard from our international backers. However, in order for us to feasibly accomplish this, we are shipping to our warehouses via Ocean Freight, which takes longer but is easier to control in terms of customs and VAT expenses.
• Finally, we’ve faced some challenges with some of our vendors, whose quotes on component parts for the Superbook increased significantly. As far as manufacturing processes go, we’re told that this isn’t a rare occurrence, but it does mean our team is now spending time working on securing partnerships with alternate vendors and component sourcing in order to bring down the cost of production.

We apologize. 

We know that this announcement isn’t ideal for anyone—believe us, our team is just as disappointed—and we take full responsibility for the shipping delay. While we know it won’t fully make up for it completely, we’d like to offer some special benefits to you for supporting us from the beginning through our Kickstarter campaign:

• You will receive a personal backer code coupon, good for $25 off retail price for current and all future generations of the Superbook.This coupon will be valid for life - you'll be able to use it for as many times as you want! You will also be able to share this code with friends as well for up to 10 total units per calendar year.
• We will cover all customs and VAT expenses—in full—for all backers. We’ll take care of everything, and you won’t have to worry about the fine details.

As a company, we’re grateful for you, the early members of the Superbook community - your continued support means the world to us. We’re committed to our promise of transparency and communication and will continue to share our progress. 

Want to talk to us?

If you want to hear more about our decision, we'd love to talk to you and explain our reasoning in greater detail. We've set up 2 special ways to contact us about the delay:

• Email our CEO Andrew at [email protected] - he'll aim to reply in 24 hours or less.
• Want to chat with us in an instant-message environment instead? You can also join our new backer Slack group, where our team will be there to actively answer your questions.
  
  To get invited to join the group, go to bit.ly/superbookbackers and sign up. You’ll receive an invite to join in your email inbox that looks like this:

We greatly value the voices of our backers, and look forward to hearing from you!

Some teasers... 

To end this update on a positive note, we've been making great progress with improving our Andromium app for a better user experience on the software side - here are a few teasers for what we've been working on! 

Footage of Kevin, one of our engineers, working on Android Studio (running on his Macbook) over remote desktop on Andromium:

 We've also improved the multi-window capability of the app - see below:

And finally, a hardware teaser - remember how we said the modified shell would be more sleek and premium? Well, we weren't exaggerating: 

More hardware news to come - stay tuned ;) 

January update postponed

Because we've already covered quite a bit of ground in this announcement (and because it's still the holidays), we will be postponing the January update back a few days. Thank you all for your patience! 

Parting words

We know that this announcement is disappointing, and we are deeply apologetic for being unable to stick to our initial Kickstarter timeline. We welcome any inquiries or comments you may have, and encourage to reach out to us to share your questions or concerns. 

We hope you had a relaxing and safe holiday season - Happy New Year! 

Our undying love,

❤︎ Team Andromium

December Monthly Update: Opt-In Policy, App Previews, and more!
over 7 years ago – Fri, Dec 02, 2016 at 11:46:06 PM

Visit us at CES! 

We've secured a booth at CES 2017, one of the biggest consumer electronics trade shows in the world. Find our booth at 36705 South Hall 4!

Representing another tech company at CES and want to set up a time to meet? Shoot us an email at [email protected]. 

Opting in to receive an early Superbook model (please read!)

As you know, this is the first time we're mass-producing the Superbook. Over 30 combined years of hardware manufacturing expertise on our team has taught us one thing: hardware is difficult to build. New products are always a little rough around the edges in the first few production batches.

It is very likely that the first few hundred of Superbooks produced will have some roughness, which we plan to target and correct with good user feedback. We are doing extensive quality testing, and while we we strive for perfection, we want to be realistic.

So, we’d like your help. If you are willing to give us early user feedback, opt in to receiving one of the first few hundred Superbooks. If we don't hear from you, we'll automatically assume that you'll rather get the Superbook later (but with less immediate risk).

Here's how it works:

• IF YOU OPT IN - You’ll receive your Superbooks first, based on your order number. To opt in, fill out your contact information in this Google form.
• IF YOU DO NOTHING - You’ll receive your Superbooks after the ‘OPT IN’ group, based on your order number. 

We hope you understand our goal of mitigating product error and ensuring that when you get your Superbook for the very first time, you love it. Thank for your support and feedback as we bring the Superbook to life!

App previews!  

We’ve been working hard to support the apps that you suggested we feature in our recent survey and in the comments section of our last update. 

Here are the survey results for app categories! You'll be seeing app previews based on these results.

Now, without further ado, here's the app preview video for this month! We're showing you Adobe Acrobat and Snapseed, with another fun surprise at the end :) 

Lastly - we've been working hard, reaching out to the developers and companies behind apps that you’ve asked for to ensure that their app is perfect in Andromium. If you or someone you know (who you can introduce) is involved in Android app development, and would like to partner with us, please email [email protected]. 

New hires!

Luke Xie

Luke will be joining us as our Director of Revenue. He will be overseeing all things revenue related, including consumer sales and partnerships. Luke has held leadership positions in growth and business development at Airbnb, Ex-Consultants Agency, CODA, and was a consultant at McKinsey. He graduated MIT with a degree in Management Science.

Gary Jia

Gary will be joining us as our Technical Program Manager based out of Shenzhen. He will lead efforts in Shenzhen for the new product development process as well as help support our ongoing supply chain and operations needs. Gary has been a Engineering Project Manager for leading manufacturing companies such as Foxconn, PCH, and Huawei. He graduated from Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology with a degree in Mechanical Design and Manufacturing.

Administrivia 

• We're pushing back the lock down date by 2 weeks. Please fill out your Backerkit survey if you haven't already - and remember, you can always log back in to edit the answers yourself, if necessary.  
• Refunds have been closed since September. Sorry!
• Thanks to those who participated in our Black Friday special! If you ordered one during this time, you should have gotten an email requesting you to log back into your BackerKit account (so you can indicate what type of cord connector and charging adapter you want for your Superbook). We apologize for the inconvenience!
• Send all questions/inquiries/requests here for the fastest response :)  

That's all - we wish you a safe and happy holidays! 

Stay warm and dry,

❤︎ Team Andromium 

November Monthly Update: Production updates, new team members, and more!
over 7 years ago – Wed, Nov 02, 2016 at 01:05:19 AM

Hello hello from Team Andromium! 

Yet another month has flown by, and we have a great number of things to update you guys on. We are incredibly excited to share them with our backers and early supporters--that's you!--so without further ado, we'll jump right into it.

Manufacturing Update

First, a quick manufacturing update. We're still on track for delivery, working closely with our supplier through the various challenges of new product introduction process. Two members of our team will fly out to China next week to work with the manufacturers directly and to ensure that production continues without a hitch. 

We'll have photos / additional information for you all in the next update - look forward to it!

Video: "What can you do on your Superbook" Part 1

As a new part of our updates, Karthik - our head of Growth - will show you all of the things you can accomplish on your Superbook. 

This week? Excel, Word, Khan Academy, and a fun surprise at the end!

Want to see your favorite Android application in the next update? Comment below and we'll do our best to include it.

New Hires: Welcome Daniel and James!

Team Andromium continues to grow, and we're excited to bring on our newest team members. Say hello to Daniel and James!

Daniel Nguyen - Director of Supply Chain

We're excited to welcome Daniel as our new Director of Supply Chain at Andromium. Daniel has over 20 years of hardware manufacturing experience, having led 4 companies from prototype to mass production. In his previous role, he was the Supply Chain Lead at Olio Devices, a smartwatch technology company. He has also worked directly at large manufacturers, including Flextronics and Solectron. We're incredibly glad to have him on board to make sure we're delivering a high quality product to our backers!

James Hong - Fall Intern

We're excited to welcome James, who joins us as our fall intern. James is a junior at UC Berkeley studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and has previous experience in engineering roles at Virool and De Mobo. James will be working on growth and marketing efforts at Andromium -- look out for emails from him asking you to share feedback with us! 

Check out our friends!

At Andromium, we've thus far avoided using our updates for promotions of any kind - we feel they usually aren't that interesting or useful to our backers. However, our friends at Arovia are creating something we feel you'll really like -- and it works with Andromium!

Check out SPUD: a high resolution 24-inch screen that collapses and expands like an umbrella. Connect to your Android device to run the Andromium app anytime, anywhere. 

They're launching on Kickstarter today, so check them out!

Demo Day with 500 Startups

Last Friday, we had the awesome opportunity to participate in Demo Day with 500 Startups, a startup accelerator program located in San Francisco. 

The response we received was incredible - investors, journalists, and entrepreneurs alike flocked to our booth to watch Andrew and Karthik give demos of our Superbook prototypes - and we even landed a feature in TechCrunch!

Our success at the event was no doubt in part due to the buzz generated by our backer community here on Kickstarter - we thank you, our earliest supporters, for helping making our dream a reality! 

We want to say that our undying love is enough of a present to you as an expression of our gratitude, but as an ADDED bonus, you'll also get to be the coolest person in your group of friends since you'll be among the first in the entire world to own a Superbook ;) 

Administrivia

We know, we know - it's that dreaded (yet necessary) section again! 

Some lightning-fast FAQ answers:

• Refunds have been closed for a while now! See previous updates about the deadline. 
• If you haven't answered your BackerKit survey, please do so ASAP. If you're having trouble accessing your survey email [email protected] and they'll reset it for you.
• We're locking down BackerKit surveys on Dec 1. Until then, you can log in YOURSELF to change your address and your Superbook preferences, so if you've moved or if you want to add another Superbook to your order, you have a month to do so. If you have questions, email [email protected].  
• We're not issuing invoices until closer to the ship date. Sorry!
• We've inputted about half of the referral rewards into BackerKit, and will be continuing to do so throughout the next two weeks. Don't worry, we'll get to everyone soon.
• In the coming weeks, we'll be sending out a few user feedback surveys. We'll be using the information to help make a better product for you all, and we'd greatly appreciate if you took 3-5 minutes to fill them out! 

Questions about your survey or your Kickstarter campaign reward? Email [email protected] first for the fastest response.

If you've got some suggestions or other feedback, contact us at [email protected] - we welcome anything you might have to say, although responses from us may be a bit delayed. Thanks for your understanding!

Final notes

That's all from us for now - we hope you've enjoyed this round of updates by Team Andromium! Again, we're committed to full transparency and are upholding our promise to update monthly (at minimum), and with this update, we hope we've been able to whet your appetite for all things Superbook - and yet, leave you hungry for more ;) 

We'll see you in the next installment of updates! 

Our undying love,

❤︎ Team Andromium

October Monthly Update: China trip recap + meet our new team members!
over 7 years ago – Fri, Oct 07, 2016 at 12:02:27 AM

A warm hello from Team Andromium! We're excited to share some great news in this first installment of our monthly updates - a lot of awesome things have happened, and we'd love to get everyone all caught up. 

Referral Program (finally!) 

Did you participate in our referral program? We've finally emailed out the results of the program to our participants with successful referrals. 

Important information about your reward:

• It will take a few days for your reward to show up in BackerKit. (But it will show up, we promise!) 
• If you earned a Custom Cord Bundle, we're going to give you the same cord type that you indicated in your Superbook order - unless otherwise stated. So please let us know if you want a different cord type!

Don't think our records match up with yours? Your link may have been faulty - write us back and we'll try to see what went wrong. Please be patient; this may take us some time. 

Also, join us in congratulating our top referrer, Chad, who referred 30 people to the campaign (wow!). Chad will be getting a free Superbook off of our early Golden Sample batch :)

Follow Us! 

Curious about our inner workings as a startup? Follow us on AngelList - we're going through a period of exciting change and would love for you guys to stay updated! 

China Trip Recap

Andrew's back from what promises to be the first of many trips to China. Here's what he has to say:

Hi backers!

We’ve been busy at work bringing the Superbook to life. I’ve been in China making sure we’re all set up at our contract manufacturer and building partner relationships. In the US, our team has been hard at work designing for manufacturing as we head into the New Product Introduction process. Currently, we’re on track to deliver the bulk of the Superbooks by late February, with an early batch for our early bird backers.

-- Andrew

New team members! 

We've finished our first round of hires. Introducing our new team members:

Karthik - Growth Lead

Karthik joins as our Growth lead, focusing on developer ecosystem and partnerships. He studied Computer Science at Georgia Tech, where he was the co-director of TEDx GeorgiaTech. An avid Android developer himself, Karthik is the founder of Xnote as well as Chaiapp Beta.

Jesse - Android Engineer

Jesse joins as an Android Engineer, focusing on backend and SDK development. Prior to joining Andromium, he was the Android Lead at Postdates. He was formerly a software engineer building the Android app at Lookout, a leading cybersecurity company.

Kevin - Android Engineer

Kevin joins as an Android Engineer, focusing on backend and SDK development. Prior to joining Andromium, he was senior software engineer at Razer. He was also formerly a software engineer at Razer, developing the Enterprise application for Lookout, as well as a Radar Engineer intern at NASA.

Woo-hoo! We're looking forward to working with our new team members to make the Superbook and Andromium an even better experience for everyone - the next few months will be exciting indeed! 

Administrivia

Here are a few reminders (not the most exciting, we know, but still necessary): 

• Our refund window has closed. We are not issuing any more refunds - they take a lot of time to process on our end, and we need to prioritize the production of the Superbook. 
• The Superbook doesn't work with Apple or Windows phones. Sorry if you've heard otherwise :-( 
• Please email [email protected] first with any inquiry you may have. They'll respond the fastest - we aren't checking our messages as much!

Introducing the Andromium Wikia Forums! (also, Refund Policy update, and Greetings from China!)
over 7 years ago – Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 12:49:24 AM

Hi everyone, and welcome to Update #16! We've got a lot to cover, including a lot of exciting new announcements, so we'll get right into it.

Wikia Forums

We've had a pretty rough time communicating with our backers up to this point. The messaging platform on Kickstarter is laughably slow—and don't even get us started on the comments section, where we've racked up nearly 7,000 unique comments, and its lack of search capabilities.

We're happy to announce that we've opened our own Wikia page with its own forums to help make open discussion a more user-friendly experience! We invite all of our backers to hang out there and ask questions/troubleshoot with one another, or just get to know your fellow backers better. This is first the step in building a community where the backers' voice will continue to shape our product and vision, and we're excited to welcome you to it. (Also, comment champions such as JJ, Rob, John, among others will be able to receive more recognition!)

Keep an eye out for forum-related activities, events, and maybe even programs —we're excited to imagine new possibilities for our new community.

Refund Policy: an update

We've been quite backed up with our day-to-day activities; as such the refund process has not been an instantaneous transaction for everyone. If you've reached out to us already, expect our response within 1-2 weeks - we appreciate your continued patience.

As a reminder, these are 92% refunds due to Kickstarter processing fees.

iMPORTANT: We're closing refunds on Friday, September 21st, 2016 at 12PM PDT. If you contact us after this deadline, we will be unable to fulfill your refund request.

Hello from China!

The production process is now underway—Andrew is in China visiting our manufacturers out in Shenzhen to make sure that production is going smoothly. 

Here are some quick snapshots:

Look out for more of these photos soon! We're excited to share our manufacturing journey with you all :)

Referral Policy: an update

We're still processing the referral counts—apologies for the delay! We will be sure to contact those who successfully referred individuals to our campaign by the end of the month, so we ask that you hold off on worrying for now. 

Still hiring!

If you know of an awesome:

• Android software engineer
• Hardware/PCB engineer
• Supply Chain/logistics manager (in hardware)

Send them our way, cuz we're hiring! 

If you make a successful referral, there's a special reward in it for you... ;) 

Last notes

As always, if you have BackerKit survey-related questions, please direct them to [email protected] for a faster response. We're working as hard as we can to answer your inquiries and requests, but please understand that it's difficult to fulfill all requests instantaneously (we have the Superbook to make!). 

Thanks for your continued support of our product and our mission, everyone - we appreciate it greatly. See you soon for another update! 

With undying love,

❤︎ Team Andromium