Not looking good for the Hoverboard

[thegreck]

Looks like Onewheel's potential competition might not make their Kickstarter goal.
$223,592 pledged of $500,000 goal
24 hours to go

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/552747221/hoverboard-the-next-evolution-in-personal-electric

[thegreck]

Interestingly, they've already raised over twice as much as what Onewheel's original goal was ($100k) but OneWheel raised over $600k by the end of it (thanks to all you guys).

Looks like they either shot way too high, or else most of the possible backers already ordered a Onewheel.

[lardnicus]

A flood of new onewheel orders could explain the delay in current orders...

[njcustom]

Looks stupid..

[MichaelW]

I actually think this board looks kind of cool. I love that it has music speaker built in and lights that light the outside perimeter. Problem is price ($4000 is crazy) and I'm guessing a rough ride. I would love to try one out though... I wonder how hard it would be to ride after getting used to the OW?

[thegreck]

I think the wheel design that they chose really limits the terrain you can ride over, and the fact that it's so thin apparently makes it a lot more difficult to balance. I love the simplicity of the Onewheel design over this thing.

[lynnpreston]

I hope they make their goal. Competition in this space is great for us consumers. FM is fantastic, but we all (myself included) do better work when under a little competitive pressure.

[Newheel]

lol --> https://twitter.com/RideOnewheel/status/656959713347702784

[Franky]

I'm all for competition but this thing is a ridiculously priced toy. Selling a device that works like onewheel but takes a week to learn, two and a half times the cost, and cannot ride on wet surfaces is not innovative nor competition. If onewheel did not exist it might be a different story...but not regarding price.

I think there is probably huge market potential for a self balancing rideable toy for kids it might even look like the hover board and be hard to learn. But $299 would need to be the max price for mass market penetration.

[Brutha Man]

"Moving Forward!

Hello future Hoverboarders!

We didn’t make our ambitious Kickstarter goal, but have still never been more excited! While backing in the hundreds of thousands is impressive, we have been overwhelmed by positive response to our “wheeled” Hoverboard.

With over 5 Million Social Media impressions since our announcement on September 1st, close to 100 major articles in the US alone, and people contacting us from all over the world as buyers, dealers, manufacturing partners and investors, we are set!

We are ready to deliver the best product you have ever seen, and deliver it on-time, if not even earlier!
As a reward for the loyalty and first-adopter passion of our Kickstarter supporters, we will be contacting you with a Coupon Code that you can apply in replacing your Kickstarter order with one on the Hoverboard website. This will secure you the same Kickstarter discount, and the first to place their orders will be the first to get their Hoverboards. The arrival of your coupon code will indicate to you that hoverboard.com is ready to take your order.

Be one of the first to order on Hoverboard.com and we'll "loan" you an Alpha Board until yours arrives!
Also, at least ONE buyer will be chosen out of the first 50 people to place their order directly on our site and that lucky one will be LOANED an Alpha Prototype as early as this year, but no later than January, to be used and abused until their Hoverboard arrives early Summer to replace it.

Hoverboard "Light" for $1,000 Less and Hoverboard "Semi" for $500 Less.
On “Price”, You Spoke and We Listened! While the Hoverboard price is based on its astonishing capability and manufactured cost, many of you asked “Can we have it without all the bling?”. So YES, we will be offering a “Light” version of the Hoverboard that will deliver 100% of the street-carving experience for $1,000 less, and a “Semi” with just some of the bling for $500 less. Your coupon code will still apply, on-top of these discounts.

But don’t feel you are settling for less; one of the great things about our Hoverboard is that it is Modular and User Serviceable. YOU can later build your Light or Semi board all the way up to the full enchilada, with all the lighting, the music, the full App functionality, but only if and when YOU want to.

(But please keep to the FULL MONTY if you can, it is awesome beyond description)

Finally, anyone with a standing Hoverboard order on our site is invited to free factory training on the Alpha prototypes starting this December. Those who can’t make it to the factory, if you want to get a good head-start in learning the Hoverboard, we suggest you get a Rip-Stick and learn it. With that, you will take 60 to 80 percent of the time out of your Hoverboard learning curve, unless you surf, then you are already there!

Please hurry and secure yourself the KS discount, and the earliest deliveries! And thank you so much for your support!

Best,

The Hoverboard Team."

[Franky]

Well that is good news since they apparently have some customers. It will be interesting to get some of those in the wild and get the low down on owner experience. I think it is funny that they suggest riding the rip stick(kids toy and much harder to learn than onewheel) for 80% faster learning. I've ridden rip stick and it's a fun toy that takes time to get down..which I've never taken the time to do.

I have a neighbor who stopped me on my first day with my board and grilled me about it. He started telling me of an invention he created years ago that never took off and he showed it to me. It looked like a toy skateboard plastic deck with a line of rollerblade wheels down the center. I could tell it would be very hard to ride and that is what hoverboard reminds me of.

[jim]

I was able to test ride the Hoverboard and if you are proficient on Onewheel you will need 15-30 min practice on the Hoverboard to the hang of it. The ride is not as rough as you may imagine with a solid tire but it's not going to go off road like Onewheel. The hole in the middle of the tire makes for a nice handle and the board is very easy to cary around and it's the same weight at OW, 25 LBS. The board I rode had beta software and it still needed work to get the anomalies worked out. i.e. the motor would occasionally engage even when you had picked up the board up off the ground. There are some innovate design features like the tire with no center axel and the ground sensing sonar system which helps adjust acceleration and balance. For the market segment that buys Onewheels I think only a small subset are willing to pay the higher price of the Hoverboard. If you can truly afford it and want something new and different to learn I would recommend getting a Hoverboard in addition to a Onewheel. If you are saving for only one board get Onewheel as you have a shorter learning curve and you have more types of terrain you can ride on.