Happy Fun Ball, it ain’t.
You’d be forgiven for forgetting the Panono. The ball-shaped camera designed to take 360 ° photos when tossed up in the air hasn’t had an easy time of it. Despite a very successful 2013 Indiegogo campaign (raised over $1.2 million for a product meant to cost $600), the problems started early. Of the 2600+ backers, only 400 actually got their Panono. Four years after that, company co-founder Jonas Pfeil announced that the company had filed for bankruptcy.
The company was bought out by Swiss private equity firm Bryanston Group AG, and that’s where this particular story starts. Originally, those that bought the Panono got the image stitching services for free. Since the device uses 32 individual camera modules, this takes a bit of horsepower, which was handled by the company’s powerful servers.
So, while the Panono originally cost $600, since the acquisition by Bryanston Group, that price tag has quadrupled to $2400. And even then, Bryanston Group states that that doesn’t turn a profit for them. So in a recent email sent to owners, they announced that, starting September 1st, this service would now incur a charge of €0.79 (~$0.88 US) per use. They have already updated their terms of use to reflect this change, too.
Well, if the price hike didn’t kill it, this surely will. Name another modern camera that incurs that kind of cost per use. Because I sure can’t think of one.
Source: Gizmodo
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