Zolo Liberty Available for Order on Amazon (11-20 UPDATE)

Still no link for Liberty+ that I can find. :thinking::eyes:

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Patience patience :slight_smile:

I created an account here just to ask these questions.

Did they use the Kickstarter money to manufacture and distribute Liberty (non-plus model)?
Or did Anker pay for the Liberty (non-plus model)?

And if Anker was willing to invest money to do this, why did Zolo need a Kickstarter campaign?

Why didn’t Anker invest money to ensure that the Liberty+ was manufactured and shipped within the promised time?

From the Kickstarter campaign update #24 today: the Liberty+ will be available on retail once they ship all units to Kickstart backers.

Here’s the link if you want to read it - though you have to be a backer to have access: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1792059063/liberty-the-first-zero-compromise-total-wireless-e/posts/2045407

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Hi there @gseveri07!

Anker is not, yet, such a big company able to develop all their ideas at once without external money input. It’s not an uncommon behaviour. Peeble - rest in peace - used Kickstarter for their second edition even after the first one was a tremendous success. Bose, a big company, is using Kickstarter right now for a side-project.

The thing with Kickstarter is that it is simultaneously a funding and a marketing platform. Given that you advertise your product well, you can measure with quite a degree of confidence how interesting a product is to the market. If your product don’t get enough funding, it probably means that there’s no real interest. If your product gets funded within hours of launch and surpasses your initial assessments, it means there’s potential market for it.

I don’t work for Anker, but my guess is that they used Kickstarter as a funding/marketing platform for a “pet project”, in this case the Liberty+, while developing a simpler version of the same product, one that already had potential market. Think of it in terms of asking yourself a question such as this: “I have this product. I could go further into its development to add this, this, and this improvement would cost me XX while the price of the product would go to YY. But I’m not sure if the market would pay for those improvements. How could I test it?” And the answer is a Kickstart campaign.

As for “shipping within the promised time”, well, most Kickstart campaigns meet roadblocks in production. It is important to stress that the language used in Kickstarter campaigns - I believe it’s standard from the platform - is “predicted shipment”. Projects change along the way, all the time. If you even back a Kickstarter campaign it is important that you know what kind of game you are entering.

That said, they did started shipping within their predicted time of October 2017. The First Batch backers units were shipped. But, again, let’s mind the language. Shipping and delivering are two separate things. I have no idea how the logistics goes to ship from a manufacturing facility in China to India, which is just across the border, let alone to other continents. To keep costs down, companies such as Anker rely on bundling shipments, both with other products they manufacture and with products from other companies - much like it is cheaper for you to fly with an airline because they bundle a bunch of people in the same place, instead of you charting a plane for yourself. The trade-off is that you don’t get to choose your date and time of flight, you have to pick what the airline has available. So does Anker - and every other company for that matter. As a Kickstarter backer, you trade off paying a smaller price and receiving the product before everyone else for a little waiting time. It’s a fair trade.

I’m a Liberty+ backer. So far, compared to other projects I’ve backed, they are doing an excellent job. They communicate and answer questions, and they are open about what’s going on. They even addressed the very subject you pointed out in their latest campaign update.

Let’s all have a little patience. Our Liberty+ will arrive soon enough.

Thanks Tiago, for the perspective.
Tbh, I understand that delays do happen.

However what I feel in this case is that there were needless delays.
That is what I find upsetting.

A few of the backers feel like some of the Kickstarter money may have been diverted to manufacture the basic Liberty model.

And if that is not the case, and Zolo received extra funding to make the basic model, then that is resources which could have been used to ensure the Liberty+ kept to it’s schedule.

Thus needless delays.
As the points made by another few of the backers.
Zolo is not a small team working from their garage.
They had budget and resources which went unused, or used for another purpose thus delaying the Kickstarter project needlessly.

Zolo Liberty in stock on Amazon.

Selling for $99.

I see that the liberty model is on Amazon for $99, but no sign of the liberty+. I’m holding out for the plus model.

So far they have only had enough stock for the backers. Once they get caught up they may list them

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I’ve seen that yesterday night !
Not sure if it’s worth waiting for the Liberty+. These ones seem already pretty great.

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Liberty+ delayed until 2018.

Yeah, I would guess $130ish as regular discount.

Mmmhh yeah. The standard Liberty model will do then.

Yeah, I would guess in the $119-130 bracket once in full swing, followed by the normal discount drops to boost the word and sales.

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Guys, for everyone still waiting for the Kickstarter version…email them and check the address they have attached to your email.

Multiple people have reported their units were sent to wrong addresses.
I checked mine, and they had the wrong address.

Zolo Liberty available on Amazon today at a discounted price of £56.24 - Just picked a pair up!

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Zolo Liberty appeared on the Canadian Amazon this week: https://www.amazon.ca/Total-Wireless-Earphones-Bluetooth-Technology-Sweatproof/dp/B075JBP2P7 Still at full price, but it will probably have a deal soon enough!

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Now available in white.

https://amazon.com/dp/B075YRL73Y

Keep in mind these are not Liberty+ so if you’re considering getting, wait for price to drop. Should be soon.

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These look so much better than the airpods. Waiting for the liberty+ to show up on amazon.

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The liberty plus have been on Amazon for about 2 weeks, but because of the demand, they have been in and out of stock.

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Liberty+ now available in white. Which color is your favorite?