These days, due to the failure of many high-profile projects, I am not very interested in the Kickstarter project --
Financing platform.
You see, it seems to me that no matter how promising or credible the project is, there are more failures than successes in terms of technology products that are being introduced by the masses --
Financing platform.
So, why do I talk about this in the photography column?
You see, I recently ordered a smart camera cable and dongle from a company called Triggertrap-
The cable is a really cool product to connect your smartphone to the DSLR Remote port.
As you may well imagine, connecting a camera to a smartphone allows you to use the smartphone
Remote control of many things can be done, such as using the microphone of the phone to trigger the shutter release when hearing sounds such as clapping.
Another interesting feature is that it can use the GPS of the smartphone to detect the distance of travel, for example, you can have the Triggertrap open the shutter to take pictures after a certain distance.
The problem with Triggertrap cables is that this was the result of a very successful Kickstarter campaign in 2011, and since then the company has established a relatively successful business of selling said cable and dongle combinations.
I don't buy one of the cables for the time being because it's relatively expensive when I might use it.
However, it was on sale recently and I decided to risk buying one from the Triggertrap website, waiting for my arrival.
That's why I was very surprised when I received an email a few months later
The email from Triggertrap told me that they could not find the cable for my specific camera and canceled my order and refunded my money.
A few days later, a penny fell. I got an e-
An email from the CEO of Triggertrap said that due to the failure of the company's project Ada Kickstarter project, the company was closing its business. Project Ada?
If you haven't heard of the Ada project yet, then after successfully selling the Triggertrap smart cable, the company launched a more ambitious project called Ada, which aims to become a smart trigger, detect the environment and trigger the shutter using a modular sensor.
For example, if you have a laser sensor installed, you can use it to trigger the shutter when the bullet goes through the front of the sensor.
Similarly, when an animal passes in front of it, an infrared sensor can be used to sense and take pictures.
The Ada project is actually a hit on Kickstarter
The campaign is well ahead of the original $79,000 (About RM350, 000)
Target, $464,000 (about RM2. 06mil)
It looks like this will be another successful product for Triggertrap.
Unfortunately, when the company spent five times more money on its prototype and finally found that the parts of the final product would be more expensive than the original budget, reality eventually changed.
Despite more financial help, Triggertrap eventually had to throw in the towel and completely canceled the project.
Unfortunately, the cancellation of the project Ada resulted in the domino effect of the company's failure, which is obviously something that it will never be able to recover.
So this is over.
While the collapse of companies like Triggertrap is sad, it is also a warning for the rest of us to be wary of committing too many projects.
I'm starting to believe that without a large multinational company providing a significant R & D budget outside a relatively short delivery date for the manufacture of complex electronics, most of these kind of Kickstarter projects are doomed to fail.
In fact, Triggertrap is just the latest of a growing number of companies that have been successful on Kickstarter but are unable to build profitable businesses out of it.
What do you think?
Do you have stories of projects that are supported in the crowd?
Failed financing platform?