Meizu announced a new wireless speaker back in May. The speaker which gives off the illusion that it floats hence the name Gravity, was designed by Kosho Tsuboi. The speaker was crowdfunded on Indiegogo and marked the company’s entry into the US market.
According to the timeline of events provided on the Indiegogo page, the Gravity wireless speaker is supposed to ship this month to early backers who paid less ($169) instead of the official $249 price when it launches. However, that won’t be happening as a statement from the company this morning says shipments have been pushed to the first quarter of 2017. The reason for the delay is as a result of design problems related to the main speaker.
The product manager of Gravity, Lola Wu, took to Weibo to explain about the delay. In her post, she said the design issues of the main speaker unit has caused them to replace the mold of the speaker up to seven times. They still have not gotten the desired effect and will rather achieve that than ship a sub-par speaker. Supply partners are not happy with the multiple changes and backers will be dissatisfied as well.
While this is not a new thing when it comes to crowdfunded items, it usually creates a negative impression of the company. Let’s hope the company meets up with their Q1 2017 delivery promise and throws in a free gift as compensation for the delay.
READ MORE: First Look at Meizu’s New Flyme 6 OS
The Meizu Gravity uses a prism to display what song you are playing. You can stream songs from popular platforms like Spotify, Last.fm, Soundcloud, and Tunein. Meizu says support for Pandora and iHeartRADIO will be added later. Do note that Gravity doesn’t have a built-in battery, so it will have to be plugged in at all times.
