Is FlipStart closing up shop?

Look, we're not saying that FlipStart is on the way out, but when you only sell one product, put it on fire sale, and then your "store" page tells people that the stock of your device has been "sold out" and then directs them to a third-party retailer for accessories, well, things might not be looking so good.

[Thanks, Marke]

[Pochi @ May 4th 2008 11:33PM]

How could something so svelte... so modern... so fast and so competitively priced be closing up shop?

Baffles the mind.

[Vic the One @ May 4th 2008 11:42PM]

Oh, you deceptive, witty man...

You dont really believe the FlipStart is any of those things do you?! AHAHAH! It's funny because he's being sarcastic!

[JohnTitor @ May 4th 2008 11:48PM]

I see what you did there!

[Jordan @ May 4th 2008 11:51PM]

*Blam* Everything is good, uhh , we had a slight weapons malfunction but everything is good now. How are you?

[Abuzar @ May 5th 2008 12:34AM]

Vic, nice futurama reference!


(If you think I'm serious, go shoot yourself.)

[mymaclife @ May 5th 2008 3:34AM]

If Iron Man can build the outfit he did in a cave in Afghanistan, then surely these guys can build a decent unit at the right price?

[melloncollie @ May 5th 2008 9:38AM]

@mymaclife

But they're not Tony Stark.

[Pollywog @ May 6th 2008 12:53PM]

I have a FlipStart and I was not disappointed with the purchase, though I bought it when was priced at $1499. Too bad the company will not be making more of them.

Yes, it runs a "crappy OS" as someone said, but I also run Linux on mine via Virtualbox and I needed something portable that could run Windows apps for reading ebooks. I only run Windows for a few apps that won't run on Linux and for which there is no Unix equivalent. I run XP on one other machine for games.

[gabe @ May 4th 2008 11:38PM]

perhaps the "flipped" out over the lack of sales - har har har

woot

[Derek @ May 4th 2008 11:40PM]

I would be surprised if they sold ONE of these.

[michaelk @ May 5th 2008 12:06AM]

A couple of thoughts...

Although not the sleekest of designs, it works well when on the road. With the optional 5mp camera there are all kinds of uses in an IT shop. Actually sometimes easier to use than an OQO or a Sony UX390N, though it lacks a touchscreen.

Flipstart dropped the price to a reasonable $699, and then the accessory bundles were blown-out cheaply too... Hopefully, the company is working on something new with the Atom proc.

Not sure why this is such news- The sales have been routed through Dynamism for the last couple of months, at least.

[angelicbeef @ May 5th 2008 12:10AM]

This was just ahead of it's time. It was a full computer but in a sidekick- sized form. I wish it was cheaper so I could have gotten one. Also it's image always made it look much bigger than it actually was. It was the right size and had full-functionality but price was too much for a pocket-puter.

[Quix @ May 5th 2008 1:00AM]

"Also it's image always made it look much bigger than it actually was."

So you're saying they bucked traditional wisdom and found hand models with *tiny hands* to make the thing look enormous?

An odd marketing strategy...

[Nate @ May 5th 2008 1:30AM]

"So you're saying they bucked traditional wisdom and found hand models with *tiny hands* to make the thing look enormous?"

Here's an idea. Click the FlipStart link up above and see how many of those pictures included a model's hands...

[Flashpoint @ May 5th 2008 12:13AM]

If I could play Quake 2 on it, I'd buy it.

[Vic20 @ May 5th 2008 12:35AM]

Actually I'm running QII in software mode on mine right now... Hey, you reminded me, I wanted to try something...

~
map space

Dude, floatin' in zero grav with my railgun, poppin' daleks on a FlipStart. Aw yeah.

[Quix @ May 5th 2008 12:56AM]

Come on, running a full desktop OS like XP or Vista on a 5" screen? What's not to love about that???

Fail.

[atomicthumbs @ May 5th 2008 1:02AM]

We've still got the Pandora.

Or we will have got it soon.

[john @ May 5th 2008 1:11AM]

Too bad it runs a crappy OS.

[ethana2 @ May 5th 2008 1:15AM]

Indeed.

Small screens need two panels. The only DE I know of that defaults to that is gnome. 1280 or more px wide needs just one panel at the top.

[Technex @ May 5th 2008 5:23AM]

You fail.

[Adam @ May 5th 2008 4:58AM]

This would be great if it were a lot thinner, and running XP.

[gadjitfreek @ May 5th 2008 5:13AM]

At $699, I would have bought one, but they all sold out by the time I realized the price had dropped. Oh, well, my OQO works just as well! Just addicted to small form-factor computers.

[David @ May 5th 2008 2:17PM]

This would be great if it was much thinner, had a larger screen, weighed less, was silver-colored, ran MacOSX, had an apple logo, and fit inside an envelope.

[PEZ @ May 5th 2008 6:34AM]

That thing was a pile of crap anyway. Big Junk.

[w @ May 5th 2008 7:28AM]

i hope they close and get sued for wasting plastic.

[DrXym @ May 5th 2008 9:01AM]

Wow is that really a PC? It looks great though I shudder to think what the price is like. Or having to use that screen for any length of time. The biggest issue with these small form factor Windows machines is they cost too damned much especially in this age of cheap Eee like laptops.

[acey @ May 5th 2008 5:53PM]

hmmm.. looks like someone else bought the design...

http://www.gd-itronix.com/index.cfm?page=Products:MR-1

[K @ May 5th 2008 11:56AM]

These were almost 2 pounds with the standard extended battery and used the old pentium processor. The keys were "chiclet" like and the thing was too big and bulky for a pocket. It even included that stupid small LED screen in the back.

It was bound to fail given the price started out at $2000 then $1500 then clearanced at $699 which is still too much for that crap. With Asus and the EEE computers, the Flipstart had no where to go but to the discount bin.

If they designed it smaller, less busy, with a touchscreen that slides out from underneath like the HTC Shift, included XP, and maybe some directional pad on the right side and some gaming keys on the left with some shoulder buttons, they would've had a real honest to god winner of a device. Incompetent design all the way as it was.

Paul Allen should just stay on his yacht and sip his root beer instead of milk the dumb early tech adopters out there.

[Cassini @ May 5th 2008 3:50PM]

The physical design on this thing was something you might have imagined seeing in the mid-90's.

The specs were alright, but nothing to write home about.

And the way it flipped open was all wrong. A device as thick and bulky as this can't be a flip-open device - that design was and is completely out of touch. It has to be thinner, and a slider-type device like the OQO.

And I couldn't figure out why the small outer display was set off-center, low and to the left - very odd. It should've been placed smack-dab in the middle (and maybe programmed with the option to display something to onlookers (like an icon, etc.) when the screen was flipped open).

Everything about this device was wrong - even the timing of its initial release; there was no buzz surrounding it. So it's no surprise to me as well as many others, that it failed to succeed.

[Keith Amodt @ May 6th 2008 2:10PM]

Wow, interesting to see how many people are completely out-of-touch when it comes to these things. There was buzz (too much, too soon), there was a ton of user research into the keyboard, software, display, etc., and the clam-shell design was preferred to all of the tablet-style devices (OQO, Sony UX, etc) because it protected the screen. Yes, it was priced too high initially but it sold well in verticals where a semi-rugged, full-Windows XP device was needed. It's performance beat the crap out of all other UMPC's except the Sony UX (also using Intel). The reason it went away was that it didn't meet someone's expectations. When you pay the bills you get to decide.

[K @ May 6th 2008 3:21PM]

Keith Amodt(Vulcan's Product Manager), sorry your poorly implemented product unsurprisingly tanked. Maybe you need to re-learn the definition of "out of touch".

Here's a linky to what this delusional fellow thinks of his product: http://www.handtops.com/show/blog/157

and some highlights from Keith about the failed product:

"extremely portable form-factor"
Bulky at 1.6 inches thick and 1.75lbs. Extremely portable indeed.

"The motherboard supports only the integrated 512MB of RAM (no expansion capability)."
Yeah, truly innnovative for mobile professionals who want to run full power applications.

"Our customer research showed that most users preferred our clam-shell form-factor and did not want a touch-screen."
Yep, you sure did your research thoroughly.

"The FlipStart design works equally well in the hands or on a flat surface."
Jenn at pocketables.net says this is so far from the truth using the standard extended battery and a flat tabletop. http://www.pocketables.net/2007/07/review-flipstar.html

Mr Amodt seems to of fallen in love with his product, but he should of thought further before he proposed. Pay the bills indeed.
K