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iHub’s Internet backup generator, BRCK, is set to ship this April if all goes well as planned by the team according to latest information obtained by TechMoran.
Erik Hersman, writing today in a blog post said: “Assuming all of the final issues lined up around components, assembly and regulatory issues, the BRCK should ship in April. We’re bending all of our time, energy, sweat and tears towards making that happen.”
When TechMoran contacted him, Hersman said the BRCK will retail at $199 and will only be available to buy online at BRCK.com for a few months, then they will ship it anywhere. Though Hersman’s update doesn’t really mention all the troubles the team went through, the journey was not an easy one.
Hersman told TechMoran,”Truly designing and engineering a complicated product like the BRCK in Africa is difficult, but it’s doable, and I hope to see many more companies in the consumer electronics space coming from African in the future. ”
Hersman added that, “This is the date we’ve been hunting as much as you. It’s been a longer road than we though, due mostly to component manufacturing issues and having to redesign things at the last minute. While we could have pushed out a basic BRCK earlier, it would not have been something that you (nor we) would have been happy with.”
Hersman is slated to speak at this year’s SXSW in Austin today and much of his visit and maybe talk will be around the BRCK and building solutions for Africa in Africa such as the iHub, Ushahidi, and Gearbox.
Austin is particularly special to the BRCK team, not only for the SXSW but because that’s where manufacturing for the BRCK is done. Yes, in Austin, TX and not in China.”Though Austin is always a fun place to be for SXSW, this isn’t the only reason we’re there. While the BRCK is designed and engineered in Kenya, the final assembly and manufacturing is done in Austine, TX,” said Hersman. “We’ve started our production orders, production boards are being flashed, and we’re doing regulatory testing now as well, trying to get that all accomplished quickly so we can get your BRCKs to you as fast as possible.”
Kenya’s Sandstorm team is working on special pouches for the BRCK backers who gave over $300. The pouch is made of amazing and rugged case made of canvas, leather and brass.
The BRCK is an internet back up generator to help users access the internet easily wherever they are . The BRCK is cloud managed and has an internet router with built in fail-overs and programmable GPIO expansion according to the team.
For more specs, check here.