Hi Dan. Just wondering if you are looking to put an end of the month update out this month? Just something to confirm steady progress on the road to release?
Thanks in anticipation.
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His last two monthly updates have come out during the first week of the month. If that continues to be the case, we should see an update within the next 5 or 6 days.
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I am pretty sure only pre-release have been shipped so far. I too would love to know when the first production units will ship. I don’t think there will be any ramp up to thousands until the switch to production as thousands of pre-release units that need returning would be impractical.
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Right. I was talking about the “hundreds.” Are they solely pre-release.
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Not sure he meant that; his statement about vagueness wasn’t clear in meaning. 
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Working on an update. We won’t be providing month-by-month shipment information; as I’ve mentioned earlier, that’s just too helpful for people who should be doing their own homework and not peeking at ours. 
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Maybe I’m an idiot. How does telling people when you’re shipping something do anything but that?
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I believe he’s referring to the competition. It’s not a bad idea to keep some specifics of the distribution plan under tight wraps. The success that the glowforge has garnered hasn’t come from its software and hardware concepts alone.
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Uhhhh… Why? What could the competition gain from that information? They already know mass shipments will be happening within a couple of months. And?
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Ever see those people who bid $1 under the previous Price is Right contestant? Or ever see that competing brand hotel billboard right after the first one advertising additional amenities?
Some people believe the race to the moon in the '60s was a marketing attempt to get one or the other side to expend time and resources outside of strategic Cold War conflict areas.
Likewise, a competitor, armed with specifics on distribution may attempt to preempt or undermine Glowforge sales/marketshare just ahead of any announced schedules.
This is my personal speculation and opinion. It’s only a possibility. However, any bit of information (or disinformation) may be all a company might need to ride ahead of the wave of its competitors.
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If I was a competitor and ready to ship before Glowforge, I would! But knowing when they ship doesn’t magically allow a competitor to complete their product. Theirs will be done when it’s done. Not a moment sooner.
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You are definitely not an “i”-word. It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to ask and try to understand. I don’t know Dan’s full reason. I can only speculate. Most likely he’ll give his reasons.
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Oh, I know. Just that you chimed in so I was hoping you might have some general insight there. I’m looking at the statement and thinking “How does this have anything to do with competition? Sure seems like just a line about how they still don’t know when they’re shipping things and they just don’t want to tell us that again.” But I was hoping I’m wrong.
It’s February, so we should be seeing “hundreds” shipping immediately. (By immediately I mean this month.)
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If I was the competition, and if I knew details of distribution I could do more than just release a product before the Glowforge. There are many competing products already released. I could buy remarketing ads targeting people who have searched anything glowforge related, playing on my strengths of already having a product ready to ship same day. I could even advertise a hefty discount to people emailing our sales department there cancellation notice of the glowforge. When the glowforges start shipping, there will inevitably be people upset that their long-awaited tool won’t be shipping in them first. That disappointment can be targeted. If I was really unethical, I could private message people right here in the forum with a discount promotion of my competing product right at the key moment, leaving a mess for a scrambling Glowforge team to clean up. I’m sure a deeper think tank could come up with other ways a competitior could monkey-wrench things given certain specifics.
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I also heard the storyline of the next Fast and Furious movie will be about how the crew learns about the exact departure schedule, waits for the shipments to leave the production facility in order to steal the rig carrying them. But, then they realize that their buyer only wants to sell dark-web hacked black market glowforges for evil, so the Rock has to steal them back.
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Everything you listed there can be done now. Knowing the shipping schedule doesn’t change any of it. That’s kind of what I’m getting at here… Glowforge’s schedule doesn’t seem to affect others’ schedules. They’re each unique.
LOL! Thanks for that. But I don’t think they’re expecting the great Glowforge heist of 2017. 
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Okay, this made me snortle because it is a bit too feasible.
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This is like the old “our insurance won’t let us” for a response. I remember when I worked at a touring theater back in college, the crew would man the doors after, and people would want to go backstage to meet somebody. Our standard response was our liability insurance wouldn’t let them. I have no idea about our liability coverage, or even if it was permitted, it was just the excuse that sounded reasonable enough and couldn’t be assailed by the person standing in front of me since he couldn’t possible know whether it was true or not.
Same here. I imagine super detailed shipping info might in some tiny way help a competitor, but given the broad strokes are already public (e.g. hundreds in feb, mar, ramp up, etc) not sure that knowing it was 220 or 250 units that went out would help anyone. My guess, being cynical, is that the lawyers said don’t give details and use this excuse; it might be true or it might be a smokescreen, but that is what unfortunately we are given.
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I think it is simply the case GF are always trying to hide how far behind they are. I will be very surprised if they meet their roll out prediction.
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