[andrewljohnson]

If I were a Wakemate pre-order, I wouldn't be happy to see three mobile apps before anyone shipped me my device.

The Wakemate team seems dedicated and smart, but as an outside observer watching the it all unfold, their communications skills are sorely lacking. Hopefully a great product will overcome in the end.

edit: On second thought, they have got to be just crazy. How is it possibly the right idea to have three unfinished mobile apps than one that works?

[jey]

The time consuming part is probably getting the HW manufactured. Why not code up the software for multiple platforms while waiting on that? I think covering both iPhone and Android is a pretty good move.

[cullenking]

I am not a hardware guy, but the few pieces of hardware I've seen ordered took a week to get a run of 100 test units, they spent two weeks working some bugs out, then put in an order of 1000 which came a week after placing the order.

This was done out of a shop in the US, not sure what it is like doing production runs overseas, but I can't imagine it's much slower.

This of course ignores the time spent designing/redesigning units, however, ordering batches of something from a manufacturer doesn't take long.

[tesseract]

Unless you are dealing with supply chain issues on new(ish) or rare components, which can take many months to resolve. The WakeMate is simple enough that I wouldn't expect this to be an issue, but who knows?

[cullenking]

Their blog talks about how you have to have a special auth-chip to pair with an iPhone, that could be an issue...Though I think Apple would make sure those were in large supply.

[ujeezy]

I saw an FCC stamp – getting FCC approval would have taken at least a month. And I have no idea whether something like this would require FDA approval, but I'm sure they had to at least research that.

[joe_bleau]

Sure looks like a pre-approved BT module to me, such as the ones SparkFun sells (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_i...). Buy it and solder it down: done.

[oscardelben]

But these should have been done before selling.

[dmix]

I preordered when it was announced earlier this year and they said that they would support both iPhone and Android phones on the sales page, and possibly Blackberry (I'm not 100% on BB). Today's post wasn't to announce that they are doing 3 apps, its to show they are working.

Why do you think they should not of worked on all 3 platforms at once? For the sake of a minimum viable product?

[andrewljohnson]

See my response to the other commenter's similar comment... but yeah, basically so you start with a good MVP instead of three products based on preconceived notions about users.

[jlgosse]

I'm sure you already know this, but the mobile apps aren't just complimentary to the wristband, they are mandatory. For the device to work the way people expect it to, interaction with the phones is necessary. So trust me, you want both the device and an app shipped at the same time.

[banjiewen]

I suspect that the wakemates themselves aren't doing the mobile dev work, but are outsourcing it and spending their time on the difficult stuff - getting the hardware operational and approved. In that case, if you've got the money, why not get them all developed simultaneously?

[andrewljohnson]

The reason you don't do all simultaneously is they all will likely suck, and then you have to redo three apps instead of one.

I would think you would want to do one mobile app just right, and then port it to other platforms. You might do a spec for all three up front so you think through each platform, but why not push one platform, iterate, and then take what you've learned before building?