They would be smart to partner with Adafruit or Sparkfun and let them handle the distribution. Although that may not be within the limits of their pricing model.
That’s the downside of KickStarter - big dreams, shaky follow through. Somebody (ARS, I think) did a great “where are they now” article recently on campaigns that were wildly “successful”. Some have utterly over promised and under delivered, but thankfully there are very few in this category. Most backers just need to be patient as schedules slip, and it (usually) works out. I’ll see if I can dig up that article link.
IMO, the benefits far outweigh risks like these.
I agree. My first supported project went very well:
I did the Raspberry Pi and it went fine., and I am waiting on the Pebble.
Does anyone know what the medical condition is when you start more projects than you have the time to finish them?
Gadgethoardetitis?
I have a serious case of that! rofl
[em]Ille qui evolvas rerum supersit[/em]
Wikipedia’s picture of this problem (Compulsive hoarding - Wikipedia) even has electronics in it !! ROFL!
One relevant article is the Forbes article about ZionEyez: The Truth About Kickstarter and ZionEyez
If you think about it, however, “investing” in a Kickstarter campaign at a high level is, well, silly. For that kind of investment, one would expect, y’know, equity. Value. A share of the pie.
Kickstarter is basically, “give me money because I might do something someday”. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Cortex M4 based Teenyduino 3.0
More expensive ($22 pledge to start) than the Digispark, but also more capable.
Now THAT is an exciting piece of hardware. Still, I think the STM32 is a more capable MCU…
Just realized that it is a “Paul Stoffregen” offer. It will be good.
I used to follow his 8051 projects back in the day 
We need a STM32F4 project like that !
STM32F4 comes in that same package, and instead of 50 MHz, 128K flash, and 16K ram, you get 168 MHz, 1MB flash, and 192K ram. The chips themselves start at $11 or so in ones instead of $5 or so in ones, but at higher quantities the prices converge somewhat. Also, with that kind of flash available, you wouldn’t need the external flash. That would save a bit on cost as well.
Apart from 24 as opposed to 40 pins how would it differ from a Cerb40?
Yea… I’m not getting this discussion either…
off topic… it’s a nice kickstarter if you (like me) live in hopes of someday being able to write Processing or C on a board more capable than a first gen Arduino. The Arduino team does have a 32 bit board coming out at some point called the Due, but the duino-weenies aren’t the patient type Paul has a great track record, so he can probably make a decent living doing this kind of stuff.
Well, in fact, it wouldn’t, not really.
The real advantage to this thing is not in the hardware, as breakout boards for ARM microcontrollers are a dime a dozen, and simple enough that I even designed one back in the day (remember FEZ Ant?). The real advantage is in the software ecosystem, just as it for NETMF. If Paul & co can make it easy to write the software (as the Arduino folks have for AVR, and are trying for ARM), then they will indeed have a real winner on their hands.
So, yes, the hardware is YAAMBB (Yet Another ARM Microcontroller Breakout Board), but the value lies in the software. It’s why one might pay $35 for an Arduino with a $2 AVR on it.
@ godefroi - I do remember the Ant 
Someone with more Arduino knowledge than me, is Wiring (as it exists in the Arduino world) simply a library? When one writes code for Arduino, one is simply (under the covers) writing C++ and using the Wiring library?
I never liked it…this from wiki
Arduino hardware is programmed using a Wiring-based language (syntax and libraries), similar to C++ with some slight simplifications and modifications,
Grab yourself an STM32F4-Discovery board, they’re super cheap ($15 from DigiKey: STM32F4DISCOVERY STMicroelectronics | Development Boards, Kits, Programmers | DigiKey )
Any of the free limited environments will get you started. It’s not THAT hard, if you have any C knowledge at all. The board itself is a beast, and has lots of interesting things on it.