The MOTA SmartRing has reached its $100,000 funding goal on Indiegogo, so the leagues of people who pledged support for this Bluetooth-connected notification ring can now look forward to receiving their finished product in the spring of next year. And by leagues of people, we mean roughly thirteen hundred, of which around a hundred folks just want T-shirts. A thousand people said they were willing to pay at least $60 to own one of these snazzy rings, which isn't much when we're talking about hardware.
Pebble's Kickstarter campaign resulted in close to 70,000 people calling dibs on one. By comparison, the SmartRing appears to have as many pre-orders as a college yearbook. Nevertheless, the funding goal's been reached, so backers have hit the point now where they can justifiably expect to receive a unit someday. Of course, expectations and results don't always match.
To rewind a bit, let's talk about what this thing actually does. The MOTA SmartRing goes onto your finger and delivers short notifications. The campaign shows it being used to see who's calling, read text messages, and receive social network alerts discreetly. Just look at how inconspicuous this guy is.
I'm not going any further in-depth here, because there's this other smartring thingy that hasn't done much to instill confidence in crowdfunded finger-wear. You can watch the trailer for yourself to determine if you think the promised hardware is intriguing.
The MOTA SmartRing Indiegogo campaign still has a few days to go before it closes, and there's a chance the number of backers will grow since people sometimes pledge in large numbers after they know a project is "guaranteed" to deliver. But unless most of the people who have shown support bring along a couple dozen of their closest friends, don't get too excited. These shipment numbers are abysmally low.
In a way, it's kind of sad, because at least MOTA has shown off a working prototype. This doesn't mean it's sure to become an exciting piece of tech--it's just nice to see that the thing at least already exists in some form.
There are still five days left to claim a ring on the Indiegogo page, but the MOTA is also accepting pre-orders on its own separate website, so you and several thousand friends can come in and give this upstart piece of hardware the support it needs to actually make a dent in the future, assuming you're all still trusting enough to throw your money behind such a thing. I'd understand if you weren't.