Xiaomi has recently launched MiKey –a tiny accessory that attaches to a smartphone/tablet headphone jack and allows user to assign tasks and/or launch apps by just pressing it. But it’s not their new product that tickled our interest, rather a similar device called Pressy which came almost half-a-year before it.
Xiaomi MiKey
It was back in October when we first stumble upon Pressy when its inventors brought it to Kickstarter with the hopes of garnering enough funds for their device to enter mass-production. It didn’t take long before Pressy caught fire and by the time the project ended, the team amassed USD695,138 worth of pledges which was way more than their goal of forty grand.
With all that money lying around, one would assume that the Pressy team would have no problems with mass-producing their product. Sadly, that wasn’t the case, and Nimrod Back and his associates is having a little setback with the production line which caused them to miss their deadline (March) to deliver the goods to the consumers.
To make matters worse for the Pressy team, similar products have started making their way to the internet. There’s one in IndieGoGo called ShutIT, another one in a Chinese Kickstarter called Kuai Anniu (Speed Button) and MiKey which was recently launched by Xiaomi.
Of all these so-called Pressy clones, the Xiaomi MiKey poses the biggest threat to Pressy’s success because Xiaomi has a more established presence in the global market, but also because MiKey is significantly cheaper ($0.80 vs $27) than Pressy.
TechInAsia highlights the similarity between the Kuai Anniu and Xiaomi MiKey’s design
According to one of his updates, Nimrod Back has stated that they will take legal actions against Pressy clones. It’s not going to be easy, but once they’ve proven that they were the first to the punch, they can possible rake in more money when in it’s all said and done.
Meanwhile, when asked by TechInAsia about the MiKey’s design, Xiaomi claims that “MiKey is its own design, and it did not acquire Kuai Anniu”.
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