Well, we finally know what’s up with Panic’s Playdate Stereo Dock. It’s not coming — at least, not for a while. In an update to the Stereo Dock’s page, the company describes the challenges it faced in getting a good prototype, but says that, in the end, the device didn’t meet its standards.
The Stereo Dock was going to be a small desktop Bluetooth speaker and pen holder that you could attach a Playdate to. Panic first announced the Stereo Dock in 2021, when it was still working toward releasing the Playdate.
On the web page, the company describes the unexpected challenges it faced getting the Stereo Dock to market:
What happened? Well, our first regret was assuming that our factory at that time — a factory that made lots of Bluetooth speakers — could easily design the electronics for us, saving us lots of time and money. That went pretty well at first. But they, in turn, outsourced the Bluetooth software and chipset to another company in another country.
As a result, the Stereo Dock would crash often — rapidly adjusting the volume would do it. The Bluetooth pairing/unpairing experience was rough. And when we played music, it just didn’t sound very good. The back-and-forth between three companies trying to fix bugs became a huge challenge. And worst of all: the cost of the Stereo Dock kept getting higher and higher.
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GIF: Panic
Ultimately, Panic says it had to “hit pause” on the Stereo Dock, because it was spending more money developing the device than it would likely make back, and the prototypes, while “beautiful,” weren’t good enough. “And if we’re going to ship a product,” the company writes, “it has to be, at least, good.”
In the meantime, Panic says it’s focusing on the Playdate, “as our new factory comes online and production once again resumes.”