Product1 publisher2 min readPublished
HIDIZS cleared its HK$40,000 Kickstarter goal almost 99 times over on the AP30 Music Boy player
The AP30 Music Boy, a Game Boy-styled hi-res player from HIDIZS, took HK$3,954,885 in pledges on a HK$40,000 target. The device sold as a break from the phone also reads e-books and plays Snake.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- The AP30 Music Boy Kickstarter reached HK$3,954,885, about $504,311, against a goal of HK$40,000, or about $5,100, which is more than 98 times the target.
- HIDIZS, which has run several successful audio campaigns before this one, has the AP30 slated to start shipping in October, and the page still takes late pledges now the main run has closed.
- The player has a 2.0-inch 296x240 HD IPS screen, a CS43198 DAC chip, 3.5mm and 4.4mm outputs plus Bluetooth 5.3, and decodes PCM up to 192kHz/24-bit and native DSD256.
- Buyers pick between an 80g aluminum shell and a 56g plastic one, carried by magnetic phone case, lanyard or bag clip.
- The 1200mAh battery is rated at eight to 10 hours wired and six to eight hours wireless.
Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- constraint Time-to-value on this device starts with a second purchase, because nothing plays until the owner buys a card and moves a library onto it.
- contradiction Engadget files the AP30 with minimalist offline gear while the feature list keeps adding modes, so a buyer escaping one multipurpose screen is handed a smaller multipurpose screen.
- decision Anyone citing this raise as proof of demand for single-purpose hardware has to account for who set the HK$40,000 goal: a maker with several funded campaigns already behind it.
- exposure Backers have paid for a production run that does not exist yet, and their first real check on HIDIZS comes when units land in October.
Unbox the AP30 in October and the first task is ordering something else. HIDIZS built it with no internal storage and support for a microSD card up to 256GB [6], so the first listening session begins with a card purchase and a file transfer in MP3, WAV, APE, FLAC, ALAC, OGG, WMA, DSF or DFF [7]. That is a ten-minute job for anyone who already keeps a folder of FLAC files, and not for anyone coming off a streaming subscription.
The multiple being quoted rests on a small denominator. HK$3,954,885 divided by a HK$40,000 goal is 98.87 [19], and Engadget converts those figures to about $504,311 and about $5,100 [2][1]. HIDIZS has launched several successful campaigns for audio players and equipment before this one [5]. In my view HK$40,000 is a target set to clear on the first day, and the 98x is a fact about the goal as much as about demand for offline gear.
Engadget places the AP30 in a rise of "dumb devices" that aim for minimalism and offline capability [15]. The device does four separate things: it plays local files, it works as a portable DAC over USB-C for a phone or computer [11], it reads e-books, and it runs six retro-inspired games, among them a Tetris-esque one [12][20]. There are also six EQ presets, or a custom one [10]. According to Engadget, the campaign page tells backers that smartphones "killed the dedicated music player" but "also killed the magic" [16].
The company selling minimalism here is selling a second screen with a menu on it. The hardware is specified for people who care about DSD256. The raise is still not proof that buyers want less.
For anyone shipping a focus mode, a distraction-free editor or a single-purpose gadget, the AP30 is a clean test case, and the test is subtraction measured against supply: what a user can no longer do once they adopt the thing, and what they have to bring before it works at all. Here the subtraction is one screen nobody else can interrupt. The supply side is a card, a library, and a format decision. I'd expect the products that stay in daily use to be the ones where that second list is the shorter of the two.
A campaign total measures intent to buy. Engadget's writeup does not state a pledge price [21], so HK$3,954,885 cannot be divided into units. How many of these still have a loaded card in the slot next spring?
What to watch
- Whether HIDIZS holds the October ship date for a run funded at almost 99 times its goal.
- A published pledge price or backer count, which would convert HK$3,954,885 into a unit number.
- Whether HIDIZS sets a larger goal on its next campaign now that HK$40,000 has been cleared this far.