Is It That Time Of Year Again? Phantom Announces Another 'Delay'

from the credibility dept

Tue, Nov 7th 2006 1:03pm — Carlo Longino

Few companies are as aptly named as Phantom, given its long history of vaporware. But, Phantom's back with another of the one thing they do know how to produce: press releases. This one says that it's signed a deal with a company to manufacture its long-promised special gaming keyboard. This is the keyboard that was supposed to be released last month, after being pushed back from the second quarter, but one would imagine that it's pretty difficult to actually sell the things and deliver them to people if you aren't actually manufacturing them. Now, it will supposedly ship the keyboards to the suckers dumb enough to give Phantom any money customers who preordered them in January, and promises "broad retail availability" in the US by March. And failing that, they'll certainly be able to produce another press release trotting out some excuse for the delay, or promising another new product that won't materialize.

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10 Comments

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Say No to Crack, 7 Nov 2006 @ 1:39pm

Keyboard?
That keyboard is HUGE! I haven't used/seen one in person, but by the looks of the various pictures (e.g. on Wikipedia), it seems like it would be rather unwieldy. This company just needs to give up.
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Bender1012, 7 Nov 2006 @ 1:40pm

Wow
All this makes me wonder if the company really is just a bunch of tools sitting around thinking up ways to con people's money.
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Joel Coehoorn, 7 Nov 2006 @ 1:45pm

Interesting: I followed the link under "signed a deal" to see who they signed with (it does look like a legit company), and the article there had another link explaining how Phantom had shown off the keyboard at the DigitalLife show. I didn't realize they had a working model, so I followed that link as well, and the article there pre-dates the actual DigitalLife show by two weeks and talks about how Phantom will show off the keyboard. Not has shown off the keyboard.

Has anybody actually seen this thing? Because if they do have a working prototype and a manufacturer, there's really no reason to believe they won't at least fulfill their pre-orders. On the other hand, if they never made it to the DigitalLife show then I wouldn't hold my breath.
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- Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2006 @ 3:41pm
  
  Re: Joel Coehoorn
  That article was written on October 3...^^
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- Johnny Ow, 7 Nov 2006 @ 4:38pm
  
  Re:
  I saw the lapboard at E3 3 (or 4?) years ago. I think it was corded at the time, but it seems to work well. I wanted one as soon as I saw one (yes, I pre-ordered one). They had about 10 of these around their booth that people were using to test the Phantom console with. I didn't bother to stand in line for that, but I did manage to get a t-shirt that says "I Believe, Phantom Lives"
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SimplyGimp, 7 Nov 2006 @ 2:04pm

Screw delays...
If their investors were DUMB enough to not see progress being made, then I feel that it should be amended to the constitution that whoever shall invest in a product under the both party's understanding that some predetermined milestone be reached in a reasonable amount of time. And if the receiving party of funds fails to produce even 50% of their promised 'object' they shall then be publicly decapitated on national TV. As a FUCKING warning to stop dicking around with the read GODS of industry. THE WORKING MAN!
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A Sucker, 7 Nov 2006 @ 2:25pm

I preordered one,
At least I tried to, again and again even. I couldn't get it to work. There seemed to be a problem with their order page when you went to select the shipping. It would send me back to select shipping again every time so I couldn't complete the order. Later they sent me a password to access their order page, but I can't find anywhere I could login. They haven't charged my credit card or contacted me in any way so I don't know what's up with the order.

Alienware has a deal with them to bundle the lapboard with their media PCs, but I've heard that they are having trouble shipping too so maybe it's a good match!
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Adam, 7 Nov 2006 @ 4:09pm

Keyboard was never shown at DigitalLife
I went to DigitalLife 06 and I can confirm that I seen no such keyboard anywhere at the show.
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Matt, 8 Nov 2006 @ 4:03pm

I've seen it
It was at DigitalLife - theres a video on WebProNews from DigitalLife http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_outmGUKJ2E

Also, CrunchGear went and took pictures of a funtioning Lapboard with the new Alienware prototype.

http://crunchgear.com/2006/10/30/phantom-lapboard-and-alienware-entertainment-center-i n-the-wild/
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Chris, 9 Nov 2006 @ 6:55pm

I got to touch and feel it at Digital Life...
I had the opportunity to see a LapBoard at Digital Life and play with it. It was a display model, and wasn't hooked up to a computer, but it looked fairly nifty. They were over at the AlienWare booth.

Chris
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