Cursed? China’s Smart Hardware Shipping Strife

One headache haunting smart hardware manufacturers able to convince customers to pre-order their products is to meet the shipping schedule as promised. Unfortunately, the problem often affects most Chinese smart device makers, both big companies developing products with their own capital and small hardware makers raising money from crowdfunding sites.

T-watch, a smartwatch developed by Tomoon Technology, was opened up for pre-order in Sept. last year, promising to ship on December 22nd. Prompted by the endorsement of co-founder Wang Feng, who is also the CEO of game developer LineKong, T-watch snapped up nearly RMB37 million worth of orders. But its shipment has been delayed several times and there’s still no sign of shipping. Backers are becoming irate, demanding refunds from the company.

Smartisan, the ambitious smart phone startup, also had problems in meeting its shipping schedule and offered to refund pre-orders. A host of other domestic smart device makers have failed to their promised time frames, including big ones like Geak Watch, Xiaomi’s router, Qihoo’s child tracking bracelet, and startups like inWatch and Cuptime.

What you get

Full access to all premium content and our full archives

Members'-only newsletters

Preferential access and discounts to all TechNode events

Direct access to the TechNode newsroom