tl;dr - Jolla tried to make a tablet based on an existing Chinese tablet design (Aigo X86). [0] They screwed up the project management to legendary levels, lied to backers, and kept the money. Backers have received NOTHING from Jolla and still don't have a refund. What Jolla did to Jolla Tablet backers borders on fraud. Jolla had the chance for a popular product with people who wanted an Apple/Google alternative, but destroyed their relationship with the community through their repeated delays and lying.
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I would celebrate, but I have first hand experience with the incompetent management at Jolla. So, I don't expect this to really make an impact at all.
Jolla ran an IndieGoGo campaign to manufacture a Jolla tablet. [1] They raised over $2 million dollars, then spent the next 18 months mismanaging the project into the ground.
By early-2016, their ODM in China had manufactured all the tablets for the backers, something like 10,000 tablets were made. But Jolla ran out of money to pay the factory for the units (and in the mean time, mislead all the backers and said there were no tablets at all).
Now, I know people are going to say "it's crowdfunding, they're not required to give you anything" and that's true.
But what Jolla did next was really, really angering. They only delivered a hand full of the tablets manufactured [2]. The factory actually started selling the finished tablets directly on Taobao, so people who weren't even part of the IndieGoGo campaign could buy them for LESS than the IndieGoGo perk amounts. [3]
It was only after the community found out about the factory direct sale that Jolla admitted to anything. There was extreme backlash from the community for being lied to, and eventually to stop the extremely negative PR, Jolla offered a partial refund for contributors. Their CEO even showed up for a token apology, it was lip service at its best.
In May this year, they offered backers 50% of their contribution back as a refund, with the other 50% being refunded in 2017 with "our financial situation permitting."
===
I would celebrate, but I have first hand experience with the incompetent management at Jolla. So, I don't expect this to really make an impact at all.
Jolla ran an IndieGoGo campaign to manufacture a Jolla tablet. [1] They raised over $2 million dollars, then spent the next 18 months mismanaging the project into the ground.
By early-2016, their ODM in China had manufactured all the tablets for the backers, something like 10,000 tablets were made. But Jolla ran out of money to pay the factory for the units (and in the mean time, mislead all the backers and said there were no tablets at all).
Now, I know people are going to say "it's crowdfunding, they're not required to give you anything" and that's true.
But what Jolla did next was really, really angering. They only delivered a hand full of the tablets manufactured [2]. The factory actually started selling the finished tablets directly on Taobao, so people who weren't even part of the IndieGoGo campaign could buy them for LESS than the IndieGoGo perk amounts. [3]
It was only after the community found out about the factory direct sale that Jolla admitted to anything. There was extreme backlash from the community for being lied to, and eventually to stop the extremely negative PR, Jolla offered a partial refund for contributors. Their CEO even showed up for a token apology, it was lip service at its best.
In May this year, they offered backers 50% of their contribution back as a refund, with the other 50% being refunded in 2017 with "our financial situation permitting."
[0] https://together.jolla.com/question/110875/we-hadnt-jolla-ta...
[1] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jolla-tablet-world-s-firs...
[2] https://blog.jolla.com/jolla-tablet-closure/
[3] https://together.jolla.com/question/124628/the-jolla-tablet-...
(P.S. Jolla, if you don't want backers to post negative things about your company, maybe you'd consider refunding their money you kept?)