We are uber-thrilled (which is like "really really really" thrilled) to announce that CNET has selected us as a Best of CES finalist in the "emerging technologies" category!  Thank you CNET editors & judges, we are honored, especially considering the quantity of huge companies we were up against.

Now friends and fans of Bug Labs, there is a "People’s Voice Award" from CNET, and we’d love to make a decent showing of it.  You can vote online here, or you can text in your vote (text PV14 to 26381).  Thanks for your support (we’re up against humongous companies who spend more on CES than we spend on marketing in a year, so we need the help)!

UPDATE: I just noticed that CNBC/Donny Deutsch show is also polling for their favorite, and we’d love a little help there too!

It’s the day before CES and all through the Labs not a creature was stirring, except for the marketing guys who are going crazy preparing for the show.

The company has a lot to announce today, and I’ll start with the topic that gets the most questions: pricing. But, before I get there, I want to take a moment to introduce a new concept in pricing for consumer electronics devices: the Early Adopter Discount.

Just as it sounds, the BUG Early Adopter Discount is going take a shift away from tradition, and actually reward the first wave of customers with a 13% (or greater) discount on products for the first 60 days of sales. Retail pricing for the first run of products is as follows:

• BUGbase $349 ($299 w/discount)
• LCD module $119 ($99 w/discount)
• GPS module $99 ($79 w/discount)
• Camera module $79 ($69 w/discount)
• Motion detector / Accelerometer $59 ($49 w/discount)

There will be an additional discount to customers who purchase the base plus all four modules, which we’ll announce on the 21st.

In addition to the Early Adopter Discount, we are announcing a second pricing program called BUG+EDU. BUG+EDU is actually a series of programs and promotions aimed at introducing BUG to the education market. Different programs will be established for primary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions, as well as for individual students. We believe the BUG is a great platform for aspiring engineering students as well as kids who just like to tinker. BUG+EDU will hopefully get more units into the hands of those who will really use their imagination to drive the next generation of cool gadgets.

Also important, the Bug Labs online store will be open for business starting Monday, January 21st. At this point we will begin taking pre-orders for the BUGbase and all four BUGmodules. We will begin fulfilling orders on or before March 17th, and will ship based on the dates the orders were originally received. Our initial rollout will only include domestic orders, but we aim to fulfill internationally later in the year.

Lastly, because we want to encourage users to make the most of their BUG, we are pleased to announce the von Hippel module, a new addition to the collection of BUGmodules. Named after MIT professor and “Democratizing Innovation” author Eric von Hippel, the von Hippel BUGmodule adds an interface of inputs and outputs to the BUG, allowing users to “hack” their BUG even further. Professor von Hippel’s book was a big inspiration for the foundation of Bug Labs, so having his name associated with our products is an exciting accomplishment. Final pricing and timing for the von Hippel BUGmodule is not yet set, but we are targeting the first quarter as well.

We are looking forward to a great 2008!

Entrepreneurs, by necessity, suffer from a type of blindness that
allows them to operate in a parallel universe where risk and reality
are merely annoying variables, not hard and fast certainties.  Optimism
reigns supreme.  No mountain is too high to climb.  And so it was when
we set off on this quest to build BUG in April 2006.   And while we
suffered our share of setbacks and challenges, I never lost my sense
that hard work and a bit of luck would get us to the finish line -
shipping product by the end of the year as we’ve been promising.  The
good news is, I haven’t lost an iota of optimism.  We are very, very
close to getting BUG out the door.  But there are some realities that
we can’t overlook, and we’d be remiss to ignore them.

First and foremost, we want BUG to be very reliable and durable and capable of getting really USED.  So we’ve been
testing it in lots of different scenarios – hot, cold, dropping it,
twisting it, etc. Jeremy almost tried to set one on fire.  After the first batch of testing we noticed that we could make some improvements with respect to how the
modules connect to the BUGbase.  Those improvements involved adjusting the
design of the plastic housing to better absorb the shock involved when
the unit is dropped.  We made those changes and went through another
round of testing and confirmed that our changes did the trick.  The
upshot of all this activity is it pushed our ship date back.  It wasn’t an easy decision to make but we pulled the trigger
because it was the right thing to do.

It’s never easy to break a
promise.  Especially one that you’ve made to many others whom you know
are depending on you.  So it is not without a long face that I tell you
we need to postpone our ship date into the first quarter of 2008.  But I would hope that you’ll
agree with me that we’re doing it for the right reasons.  We want you
to be using your BUG for years and years.  The result is a short term loss
for a longer term gain.  It’s a moment where reality collides with
optimism.  But thankfully it’s just that, a moment.

Thanks very much for all
of your support and enthusiasm over the past couple of months.  While we’ve always hoped and dreamed for the best, I don’t think any of us expected such amazing support from so many communities so quickly. It has been a ton
of fun sharing it all with you and we look forward to continuing to do
it.  We ask now for a tad of patience while we make BUG the best it can
be.  Rest assured we’ll keep you in the loop every step of the way.
Thanks and stay tuned for CES where we’ll get specific with a firm ship date, pricing, and some other fun news!