Using the online crowdfunding website Kickstarter, HYPER is producing a flash drive with dual USB 2.0 and Lightning connectivity, with the full blessing of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Though the company has added and achieved numerous stretch goals since its original $100,000 goal was achieved in just a few hours on the first day, it has reached $1 million in pledges.
The iStick, the first storage device of its kind and one which makes using and transferring Apple files much easier, has proven to be immensely popular. It is also notably taking Apple’s design philosophy in a startling new direction, making it far more Windows-like and less tightly controlled by the company’s design parameters.
For example, the flash drive enables moving files from one device (such as a Mac) to another (such as an iPhone) without the need to use the Cloud or sync the devices in any way. In fact, the transfer can be accomplished completely offline. Music can be played directly from the iStick and movie files can be streamed, making it a type of multifunctional media player, too.
Sorting technology projects currently open on Kickstarter by the amount of funding they have received shows that the iStick is the 19th most funded as of June 14th, 2014, enough to put it on the first page of results. Though it falls short of the RigidBot 3D printer ($1 million in funding), Pono Music player ($6.2 million in funding), and others, it is clearly an item that many people want to actualize. Furthermore, it does so by bucking a major Apple design orthodoxy.
The iStick is therefore interesting not just as a useful piece of electronics hardware, and as an instance of the powerful potential of crowdfunding, but also represents a break with Steve Jobs’ notion of maintaining absolute control over the customer’s experience. Apple’s method has been to keep user options to a minimum in the past, and the iStick is the first truly concrete break with this philosophy and move towards a less straightjacket like design outlook.