Toronto’s Bubl Technology, creators of the Bublcam, announced today that it has successfully completed the first round of shipments to Kickstarter backers and pre-order customers. Thousands of early adopters should now have the camera, which captures 100 percent of the spherical range in photos and videos without blind spots, in their eager hands.
“We are all so happy and enthused to get the Bublcam in the hands of some of our biggest supporters and see the amazing moments they are creating,” said Sean Ramsay, CEO of Bubl Technology, in a statement to BetaKit. “This is a huge milestone for our company and is just the beginning of bringing spherical technology to everyone.”
While Ramsay is correct that his company has passed a significant milestone, Bubl’s path to ship has been anything but easy, and should serve as a lesson to all Canadian hardware startups.
Following a successful Kickstarter campaign at the end of 2013, which saw the company raise $350,000 CAD, Bubl had hoped to start shipping the Bublcam in September of last year. However, problems with production consistency, lens focus, and other technical issues delayed initial shipment until June of this year. In that time, Bubl has seen both YouTube and Facebook commit to supporting spherical video.
The year-long delay in shipment following well-deserved hype during Bubl’s Kickstarter campaign points to two valuable lessons to Canadian hardware startups: hardware is hard; a successful crowdfunding campaign is only the beginning of a long process. Congrats to Bubl for getting it done.
Related: Talking 3D cameras and the new uncanny valley with Bubl CEO Sean Ramsay