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Pro¹ X – state of production and delivery


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3 hours ago, Hook said:

[...] The only thing I disagreed about was the "realized they could no longer purchase" part [...]

I see your point. It is true that -- probably knowing that the SD835 was getting EOL'ed -- they tried to secure a few thousand specimens of that SoC already in December 2020 (let's not forget that, in this business, these chips are usually sold in lots of hundreds of thousands at least!).

However, in that very February 2021 update you mention, they wrote that they "were informed last month that it can no longer be purchased from our suppliers". That's the wording I adopted in my post.

I do no know what happened to the money they reportedly payed in advance to some reseller. But it is quite clear that, by basing the Pro1-X campaign on continued availability of the SD835, they were riding a dead horse -- something they realised only when it was too late ...

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Production does indeed seem to be starting...  

Please stop. You made your points, there are people here who invested in this project knowing that, you are doing a disservice to the intent of the project and to those that have supported this f

In a casual conversation in Discord today, while helping someone with a battery problem, Casey provided some information on the shipping situation. Hopefully that means there will be  an update soon, 

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8 minutes ago, claude0001 said:

However, in that very February 2021 update you mention, they wrote that they "were informed last month that it can no longer be purchased from our suppliers".

The second part of that same sentence was "...despite having paid for the components back in December when our campaign officially ended."  😉

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6 minutes ago, Hook said:

"...despite having paid for the components back in December when our campaign officially ended."

Let's not get into a nitpicking fight about this.

In my view, "paying" for some good without ever receiving that same good is not "purchasing". I think F(x)tec would agree to that.

Do not get me wrong: I do think hat F(x)tec genuinely believed (or were led to believe) they could get another round of Pro1s produced before the SD835 would fade from the market.

But does it matter? Retrospectively, we now know that it was a wrong decision to base a late 2020 IGG project on that chip. It explains why the project is such a disaster: Instead of investing the crowdfunding money into alternative-OS development as intended, they had to burn it all in development and certification of an ill-fated copy of the Pro1 based on a technically inferior SoC. That's what @xhajt03's post and my reply to it were about.

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43 minutes ago, claude0001 said:

In my view, "paying" for some good without ever receiving that same good is not "purchasing". I think F(x)tec would agree to that.

I don't know how phone manufacturing works as a small company, so if you only have an option to be in contract with a company to do the full manufacturing (even Covid may reduced other possibilities), but if we are speaking of much smaller part of the whole, PCB manufacturing and assembly (which may also be separated to only PCB manufacturing, then only assembly), that works a bit differently...

...so, these companies may have an option to pre-order necessary components, which they will use for manufacturing... or a bigger company who does full manufacturing may have an option to pre-order (and pre-pay) necessary components, so when manufacturing starts, they are available.

Usually it does not work a way I order components to my home, then I will send them to manufacturer when manufacturing starts... especially not when I am in Europe and manufacturing is in Chinese - postage is relatively slow, TAX-handling may appear in both directions and components may get damage. It rather works in a way I tell them to order these components from wholesaler companies prior assembly.

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3 hours ago, claude0001 said:

Let's not get into a nitpicking fight about this.

I'm sorry you see it that way. I certainly am not fighting with you and mostly agree with you. I'm merely pointing out, and I think it more than trivial, that even more money was needed than just for starting a new phone,

FxTec ran an IGG campaign to create a special edition of the Pro1 with more memory and alternate OSs. This was a device already in production, they just needed parts. Lineage was ready to go and UT was well on it's way (I don't know the latter, just the impression I had from others). They raised money for this limited scope project with the IGG campaign.

They later found out they couldn't get the SD 835 SOCs (and, yes, maybe, in hindsight, they should have known better, but if they had assurances from their supplier...) and thus were forced to find a different SOC to create an almost new phone, which is a much more expensive proposition than merely continuing to make an already in production phone with minor modifications. 

But the step that seemed to me to be getting short shrift in this discussion ( @VaZsoalluded to it) , which had very important consequences, is that they paid for those SD 835 SOC that were never provided, probably as soon as IGG released the money, which they would do at the official end of the campaign in December of 2020.  This put FxTec in a deep hole before they could decide how to come up with a different phone, and severely limited the choices they could make going forward.

I just thought it was a relevant aspect to the discussion.

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8 hours ago, Hook said:

I just thought it was a relevant aspect to the discussion.

If it is true that the money paid for pre-ordering the 835 parts was lost to them, then you have a good point, indeed.

But, admittedly, I've always wondered whether there was actual evidence for that 'bastards-took-the-money-and-ran' narrative ...

They way I read F(x)tec's statements was that they (pre-)ordered the 835 SoCs and related parts in late 2020 and made an advance payment for those things. As @VaZso points out, part of this pre-ordering may have been done by their manufacturer, rather than by themselves.

Then, in early 2021, their suppliers informed them they could no longer provide the 835 after all. These things happen. Especially as it was about a quite small number of chips, I do not find it unplausible that, two months earlier, some reseller had really thought they could still get a few SD835s from somewhere.

So, after that, F(x)tec sat together with their manufacturer and suppliers and thought of what alternative parts they could get for their money and that would require the least redesign of the Pro1's body and antenna system.

At least that's been my interpretation up to now: Somewhat bad timing (too close to SD835 EoL) with the crowdfunding campaign, some over-optimism on the supplier side regarding sourcing of those old SoCs, and a lot of bad luck. No gangsters in my story. :classic_biggrin: Please correct me where I'm wrong.

Edited by claude0001
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1 hour ago, halfpastsix said:

So the phone I paid for that would be shipped in 90 days 2 years ago isn't even being prepared?

No, our understanding is that they have been manufactured and are finally shipping slowly after being held up by the logistics contractor.

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On 2/12/2023 at 11:40 AM, Schket said:

The 3 months(ish) are already passed...

I don't expect to see the money this year.
I will be surprised if I get it next year.

Don't get me wrong, love my Pro1, but at this point other than their good intentions, I have doubts that they have the capability to living up to expectations or promises.

I mean, these are good guys. I truly believe that. But they are so far over their heads.
 

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Another update has published here:

Quote
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by FX Technology
Feb 16, 2023 • 1:03PM
2 hours ago
Pro1-X - February Update

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Dear Pro1-X backers,

The most recent shipping updates are as follows:

We have resumed shipping after a brief delay due to the Chinese New Year. We will be sending out more Pro1-X shipments over the following weeks. Please keep an eye out for your tracking information and get in touch with the courier if you experience any delays.

OS Developments:

We have been in touch with a number of incredibly supportive Pro1-X owners to help troubleshoot the cellular connectivity issue occurring in the stock OS. We are also investigating another issue where data packets occasionally drop on LTE B1 and B3. We will continue to follow up with community members who’ve raised this problem. Overall, we have steadily progressed over the last few months and will aim to release new beta firmware for our beta testers next month.

Many may have heard that LineageOS 20 for Pro1-X is now available for testing! A big thanks to our community developers who worked tirelessly to make this happen! This release aims to collect user feedback and help developers identify bugs. Feel free to give this a go and comment in the “LineageOS 20 for Pro1-X” thread on XDA if you spot anything!

Developments for Ubuntu Touch OS are also progressing steadily, but at this time, we do not have anything concrete to share just yet. We will update you all next month. Stay tuned!

Lastly, our support team is on hand to assist with any additional questions related to your order, shipping, delivery, or technical support. You can reach us at info at fxtec.com

Thank you for your support and patience!  

Team Fxtec 🙂

 

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I've bought a Cubot King Kong Mini 2 and put Lineage on it - loving how small it is and with a weird keyboard (MessagEase) there are no downsides.  Safe to say the Pro1 X will never be my daily phone even if it arrived tomorrow and I was lucky enough to have everything work perfectly.

This message is as useful as their "update" so doesn't seem wrong to post it here 😞

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21 hours ago, claude0001 said:

Unfortunately the long paragraph on cellular connectivity sounds like they have no clue what the problem is, let alone how to solve it. 😞 

I think they just want to start look into it... and it might takes another few month, where I can only use it as pda or sell it to thailand.

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Hello everyone,

I haven't been here for a while and now that I have read the last few pages, I am thoroughly disappointed. I ordered from the website and the last time I contacted them, they said mine would ship after the backer orders were fulfilled.

So where do we stand? Has everyone asked for a refund or are there still a few that are waiting? As a website order, I should be able to get a refund, albeit a slow one.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys.

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Not asking for a refund here (well, I backed via IGG, so not eligible for refund, but I would continue to wait even if I could).  I believe I will get my Pro1x (actually, I will end up with two), just no idea when. I am lucky enough to have my Pro 1.

If I don't, it's money I spent 2 years ago. It's been "written off" already.

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4 minutes ago, Hook said:

Not asking for a refund here (well, I backed via IGG, so not eligible for refund, but I would continue to wait even if I could).  I believe I will get my Pro1x (actually, I will end up with two), just no idea when. I am lucky enough to have my Pro 1.

If I don't, it's money I spent 2 years ago. It's been "written off" already.

Thanks Hook. I ordered last April, almost a year now - so it looks like I will have a very long way to go...

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