Not long ago, I remember writing something about an exceptional startup reaching, breaching and exceeding their goals. The group of bright minded Danes who make up Airtame have been busy adding more and more perks into their particularly successful crowdfunding campaign in IndieGoGo. First at $200,000, then at $350,000 and then all the way to $1 million, Airtame has been reaching their extra goals one by one, long before their campaign reached its end.
Their original goal of $160k seems almost like a joke by now.
How did this happen?
Long story short, good timing with CES mixed with an awesome product that will (hopefully) solve a very modern, down to earth problem. Basically the Airtame device and application creates a personal Wi-Fi channel which allows all computers within its range to connect and share the contents of the “home screen”. The Airtame hardware, the wireless HDMI dongle, allows you to connect your computer and share its visual and audio content with HDMI devices, such as monitors, TV’s and projectors, in high definition and without the need of cables.
The beauty of the product is how relatively cheap it is, $89 for the dongle plus shipping, and how essentially cool it can make social computer experiences. Meetings, classes and even get-together’s will all find their practical uses for somethings as simple yet exiting as Airtame. Simplicity is definitely the key factor here; Airtame does not technically provide anything completely new, it just makes the existing technology and installation hassle much easier. Just plug the dongle in and you’re good to go.
So after all this money poured in (currently $1,077,437), what are we supposed to get in return?
The original $160k goal was just to launch the one and only Airtame dongle. $200k meant a complete makeover in the hardware design. $350k on the other hand expanded the dongle with an entire arsenal of Airtame hardware that will make sure your dongle will never fail you when you most need it.
The HDMI-VGA and HDMI-DVI converters will solve things out for devices that don’t work with HDMI while the USB soundcard will connect your speakers separately if your device doesn’t support sound systems. The USB-Ethernet hardware can and will connect your Airtame to your local network and, of course, we mustn’t forget the Airtame T-shirt, which will help those who wonder what to wear when using the dongle.
Additional gadgets will surely inspire Airtame collectors to catch ’em all, but when it comes to the hardware capacity, two significant changes have been made after reaching the extra goals of $500k and $750k.
First of all the dongle will be equipped with a dual-core processor. This will guarantee the users an ever smoother device that can take up a lot of action at the same time. With lowered risks of overload, the quality of the product will be more relevant to the price.
Secondly the dongle will support dual band wireless networking. In short, this means the home network set by the device will support a broader range of simultaneous connections, without influencing the existing ones. How much does an Airtame dongle actually need all of this dual-tech gibberish remains unknown, but it can’t really do any harm either.
The last, and perhaps the most significant, perk was set on $1m. It guarantees an Airtame app that will be built on the iOS, Android and Windows platforms. This means Airtame will be compatible on all touchscreen devices, which might potentially make of Airtame the next angry birds of home entertainment apps.
Airtame’s IndieGoGo campaign will reach its end in 23 hours, but I can assure you they won’t disappear anywhere. With the campaign goal exceeded by over $900,000, I think they’re just gonna have a few day’s pause to think how they pulled this off in the first place.
