Great stuff! Would also be great to have your own x-ray results in a embeddable 3D some day...Imagine going to the dentist and say:"want to have a 3D view of my mouth ? Go on www..."
Or share on Facebook a 3D version of the leg you broke after a skiing session...etc
The counter is in real realtime, in fact we'll slow it a bit so that you have the time to see the flap going down.
We focused on Facebook for this first launch in order to stay focus on one product well designed for businesses, and to "market" it the simplest way (and as you said, it's still a bit costly for a particular).
And for NFC, we didn't announce it for now cause we have a lot to work on but our goal is to deliver Fliike with NFC tags to our clients.
Well done to you guys. This is a very good idea. I can see many potential extensions and applications. I was asking myself if this would have been as cool had this been just an LCD screen? Does this look cool because there is something exciting about manipulating a physical object with a simple digital signal? Is it the simplicity of this counter? I can't put my finger on it, but it certainly looks very cool to me :-)
I would love to understand the philosophy that drove you to create this - if you can share. Because, you are on to something! :)
I have shared this link with a friend and a cousin, both of them run their own store. Maybe you will hear from them soon.
If you are interested in bringing this to new markets (e.g. India/SE Asia), drop me a note - maybe I can help.
Why didn't you put this project on kickstarter? Also, what are those numbers/bearings made of? Wondering how much that material can withstand since it looks like the numbers flop around for every like... or was that effect just for the video?
In the meantime, people could probably print up signs with a QR code and instructions telling people to scan the code, 'like' the store, and watch the sign.
Facebook should include a QR code scanner in their app to do this. I rarely scan QR codes because I would rather type in a short URL than find some QR scanning app. (I realize Google's app can do this, but you end up in an in-app web browser where you are likely not signed into Facebook.) If I could get to a business' official page in a couple of taps in the Facebook app, my chances of interacting with the page would definitely increase.
It turns out the iOS Facebook app has this feature already under the sidebar > Find Friends > QR Code > Scan Code. The URL is in the form https://www.facebook.com/qr?id=###########. Unfortunately when I scanned codes, the app did nothing even though it said it would bring me to a Facebook page, so the feature does not appear to be working properly.
It looks like it only works with other people's QR codes from the "Find Friends > QR Code > Your Code" area and not random codes. Worked for me with those codes though.
Yes we will, we are working on including some NFC tags in the package but as this is still not totally sure for now we didn't publicly announce anything on that. QR Codes might also do the job but we are not totally sure that people actually use it... (Damn Apple & Android, this SHOULD be native in their camera...)
Totally agree re: the price tag. Especially since most smaller stores have 100-1000 fans. They can pay $100 to get an additional 100 real fans. $400? I don't think so.
I agree that the $450 price tag is too steep. At a stretch, I think that anything more than $100 is not attractive, even if its a novelty item. Why don't you raise the money for mass scale production on Kickstarter. IMO its better to sell 10 K for $100 than a few hundred at $450.
If it provides business value, you can charge way more than 100 bucks. My brother had a (solari?) train-station clock of a similar shape, which was dead-on-arrival, didn't have a wood finish and probably costed about 400.
Is this project serious, or satire? If it's the former, we have no interest ($450? Who do you expect to use this, no major Brand Retailer will green light this, for both cost, practical application (a plug? Just how do you think retail space is planned out?), non-focus group aesthetics (97% of your market will not enjoy the '70s retro look) and the idea / concept cannot be protected at all legally - in fact, it probably breaks at least two patents I can think of); if it's the latter, you might be the top viral PR company of 2013.
No-one in 2013 can produce retro-1970's SF Geek-chique like this and not being framing a viral hit, especially with Face Book as its target. And yes, we do mean "hit" in a dual sense.
If you've not even seen the latter, I'd strongly suggest quickly (ahem not going to use the usual buzz word, but you should know it) your start-up, mulling over your skills, and seeing how much money you could make in an alternative market.
[Edit - I re-read the FAQ, I will remove complaints in lieu of a serious question, and alter the tone; unprofessional of me, and I apologize to the longer-term member base]
Since this was disliked, would the person responsible kindly explain their reasons? I'm 100% certain my critique is true in business terms, and any start-up should be 100% considering the retail market they're attempting to sell to.
I did not mean to be overly critical, however any Start-Up should surely brain-storm these basic questions immediately?
I am still 50-50 on this not being run by a professional PR team, however, I lack the motivation to really investigate their background at this point[1].
Am I too cynical to imagine that HN is popular enough to be targeted by K-street professionals? I'd have imagined that HN was a far more lucrative target than other social media, however, I apologize if this is not the case (and I have no knowledge of how the HN founders police this, so again, I do not wish to step on toes).
Since the polite version didn't work, here's the scoop:
The CEO[1] of this start-up has a long back ground in the Advertising and Media Relations industry[2] and still works in his this field on current projects[3].
In this light, asking if this was viral marketing was entirely valid, and could have brought him work. Instead, abuse of the "down vote" system occurs (my second post removed this complaint, as the FAQ stated it shouldn't be referenced: however, I feel it should be acceptable to do so now).
shrug I'll ask a third time: is this really a product, or is this viral marketing?
I'm Gauthier, the CEO @Smiirl & I can confirm you that it's a real product, the fact that I've worked in various companies in the Advertising Industry is indeed linked to this project, I had the idea by working closely on social media campains & issues for great brands...
Don't understand though why you've been downvoted...
Thank you for the answer: in developed / high culture markets (i.e. fashion, or targeting boutique++ markets) it's often hard to tell when someone is pushing an aesthetic trend (through prototype or catwalk) over a real product.
I loved the retro-chique of it, but it didn't appear HN was grasping the references. Since you seem happy to respond, I guess (and hope) you'll understand the humor of my replies (in that, I really don't think you're targeting WalMart with this, or would that be unfair? Yes, that's rhetorical)
Anyhow - I wish you the best, you have a unique style. (I still think you'd make an expert viral marketer over product, but that's only my opinion). As an uninformed guess, look into how the MENA market responds to it (aesthetically), as I could see this having more impact in elite stores (where the personal like is more connected to social / economic status).
We've build this device for local businesses such as little stores, shops, bars, restaurants...etc, it seems that the average number of fans of these types of fan pages is comprised between 0 and 99 999 fans.. Plus we are sure that Facebook pages with over 100 000 fans would prefer a custom version of Fliike.
This could be solved by adding a period and "K" flaps. That way if it got bigger it could display 212.5K... not big deal for small businesses but I could see you offering that to a bigger chain of businesses.
I like that approach too, but a big part of it is seeing the numbers change in real time. Your approach would have to wait 100 like's, but I guess at that amount it still can change fairly frequently.
Just tested it with our product ;)
https://www.facebook.com/smiirl/posts/621966491269880