This has been an extremely difficult year for the development of Quasar IV, as we’ve hit a few roadblocks that have caused delays and stalled our official release date. I’d like to apologize to those of you who have preordered the Quasar as much as those who have been supporting the idea of a true-trusted mobile device in the mobile internet era.
Despite the difficulties we have faced in bringing our dream to reality, we have never considered the option of giving up. In fact, we have dedicated far more resources to make it a reality and I would like to show you some engineering photos of the changes that have been made to make it viable for manufacturing.
A major problem we have faced has been related to the dual rear-facing cameras and we have decided to revert to a single unit above the battery chamber. Even so, due to the unique spaceship-like sloped rear-top and rear-bottom plate, existing camera modules were simply too tall for the design as shown in Figure 1 below. However, we were assured by our suppliers that a slimmer 13 MP camera module would become available and we were recently finally able to integrate this without comprising the design of the sloped surface (see figure 4).
Figure 1
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Figure 4
There is no doubt that we could have released a compromised version of the Quasar IV earlier this year. However, my design team and I are perfectionists and, despite criticisms, we believe that compromise only serves to jeopardize our whole modus operandi. A successful debut of the Quasar IV will only happen if we stay true to our principles and it is only by doing this that we will be able to continue on our task of changing the way that we see and use our mobile devices.
I believe that most of this community would like to see us succeed as many of you have been personally involved with it since September 2013. If it wasn’t for your belief along with ours, we would not still be in business so I am asking for a bit more time as we can now see the final shape of the Quasar and know that it will soon be moving into the hands of users.
Next, I will show you a few transparent images showing the almost-finalized PCBA board inside the Quasar chassis.
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While I run the day to day operation of QSAlpha I am also directly steering the design process of Quasar. I have very little patience for imperfection and keeping the balance between design and function has been the most difficult aspect of the production process.
We place great emphasis on biometrics and have decided to add a fingerprint sensor. While most companies place it on the bottom of the surface or the rear plate of the phone, I’ve chosen it to be placed on the side so it does not compromise the design. This wasn’t easy as the side of the Quasar has limited height compared to the usual size of a fingerprint sensor. However, we have identified and have been testing a new type of fingerprint wafer, - a rectangular size that fits into the side of the Quasar. (see Figure 7)
Figure 7
Please remember that we come from a security background so every sensor used in the Quasar is first filtered through the Quatrix encryption chip making sure your data, be that fingerprint or messages, are encrypted via your own private key. Some of you might be concerned that the process is intrusive to your privacy, but I would like to assure you that the Soft-ID encrypted fingerprint sensor may just be the most secure privacy protection mechanism on a mobile device.
Figure 7 also shows a tiny externally approachable SIM slot accessible by a pin.
Figure 8 below shows the power button above the volume keys.
Figure 8
Despite criticism of sapphire glass, I have chosen to use it because we have a very stable supplier that works closely with our engineering team. Now, to further protect the sapphire glass we are sinking the glass a tiny bit below the horizontal surface (see Figures 9, 10 and 11) to avoid direct impact should you drop your Quasar.
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Many of you have asked what exactly is the final shipping date. I am still not able to confirm a specific day although I am confident that we will be able to ship during the first quarter of 2015.
For those who have asked for a refund please note that we are setting up a new accounting system while performing a restructuring of the company to better serve our upcoming sales and marketing efforts. If you have chosen to get off the boat we will honor your decision and return your funds in November.
For those of you who have paid and have decided to continue supporting us, I am sure that you will be pleased to know that the current design specifications are already significantly upgraded from those that you backed initially.
I understand that you are frustrated by the delays and appreciate your continuing support.
Steve Chao CEO
