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Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

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Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#31

Post by dogma1138 »

diego_moita wrote: post #21

Since you're announcing it at an heavy traffic like HN it is quite likely there are already 200 companies in ShenZhen reading your post and and planning to sell it for one tenth of what you're asking.

While Chinese can copy it easily the eInk display will kinda guarantee that even half the price would be pushing it.

In any case they don’t need to even preemptively copy it once you order it from a Chinese OEM they’ll use the money you paid them to make a few 1000’s units more for themselves and have them on Aliexpress before you even get the first batch shipped.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#33

Post by dogma1138 »

okl wrote: post #12
sxp wrote: post #6

Can you post some specs about the size of the display in inches & pixels? And does it run an open OS? I recently bought an M5Paper which is a 960X540, 4.7" ESP32 e-ink display for $70. So that provides a baseline for your hardware.

That price was at quantity '1' though, right?

Yes but even at 10K you’ll be looking at $50 per unit at best.

eInk displays are expensive as fuck thanks to patents.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#34

Post by konschubert »

kybernetikos wrote: post #28
konschubert wrote: post #2

Hi HN! I am trying to develop an e-paper smart display as a consumer product. The first available layout will be a calendar. I'd love to have HN's input on this: Do you think it's viable? Does it look okay? What would be a good selling price?

I know someone who needs this. The price seems high, but it might work as a christmas/birthday present, and probably wouldn't ultimately stop it from being purchased in this case. It would be replacing a paper calendar that shows 3 months ahead. A nice feature would be to be able to move between views of today, this week, 3 months. Much bigger would be nice too. Again not having these would not stop a purchase. The w…

That concept you're linking is what inspired me :)

> It would be replacing a paper calendar that shows 3 months ahead. A nice feature would be to be able to move between views of today, this week, 3 months.

I agree.

> Much bigger would be nice too.

Totally.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#35

Post by tpetry »

konschubert wrote: post #2

Hi HN! I am trying to develop an e-paper smart display as a consumer product. The first available layout will be a calendar. I'd love to have HN's input on this: Do you think it's viable? Does it look okay? What would be a good selling price?

Something which is really missing is wifi support and the ability to pull a custom image to display from somewhere. You could then easily display status dashboards, calendars, whatever someone likes.

If you have a library for easily building these screens this could be really interesting.

I have seen this idea at the joan board, but they are really expensive (attaching an ipad to the wall is cheaper) and i cant find this feature anymore. I guess it was hidden at some screenshot and small text somewhere.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#36

Post by jitl »

iamleppert wrote: post #18

The wood bezel is kind of ugly & cheap looking. The audience for this is likely to be tech people and users who want to show off their calendar or manage their time with calendar invites. I think this could do well with a more contemporary frame. You could market it to people as a solution to forgetting meetings; the price would have to be low enough (sub $100) to trigger people’s impulse buying. The lower the price…

There’s no accounting for taste. I’d prefer a wood frame to some kind of LED emissive plastic or metal

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#37

Post by konschubert »

okl wrote: post #9
konschubert wrote: post #2

Hi HN! I am trying to develop an e-paper smart display as a consumer product. The first available layout will be a calendar. I'd love to have HN's input on this: Do you think it's viable? Does it look okay? What would be a good selling price?

Hi there, I have a few recommendation: - Add an indication of the current time and date. - Add a hidden button/switch to change between weekly/monthly calendar layout. - Show a small popup with the pertinent information of the next appointment. (Location &c.) - Where do you show entries that are scheduled for the entire day? It would be nice to display them in an area that is separate from the regular entries. - Add…

Hi, thanks for your comment. Those are good ideas.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#38

Post by konschubert »

nickweb wrote: post #7
konschubert wrote: post #2

Hi HN! I am trying to develop an e-paper smart display as a consumer product. The first available layout will be a calendar. I'd love to have HN's input on this: Do you think it's viable? Does it look okay? What would be a good selling price?

The price point will be a sticking point for consumers. I understanding the pro’s of this style of device with an e ink screen, and the associated power savings and readability it comes with, but the general public may not. This could be better positioned towards an office environment but it would possibly be too small to be useful to a team. I love the idea and the design, and I hope it works for you, but I think it…

What price point would work better in your opinion?
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