The Story Behind Instacube
By
Kathy Turner
The story behind the curtain of Instacube is really not that atypical of a lot of start-ups developing uniquely new product categories. As most people are aware the innovative products we purchase today don’t happen overnight; they have been in development for months or even years. Even when using readily available solutions, such as the Android platform upon which Instacube software is built, there are many skills employed and stages of design and development required before a product is a product.
Instacube is a tool for liberating your social media from the confines of a smart device. Instacube is hardware, Instacube is software, Instacube is a curatorial tool for your visual streams; a Spotify for your social visual content, if you will. Through an exclusive distribution agreement with an Australian supplier of consumer electronics products, the Instacube is not only seeing the light of day, but has a retail presence simultaneously with reaching it’s over 3,400 Kickstarter backers.
Currently the Instacube is streaming feeds from Instagram to its hip touch-screen face. Future software releases will support streaming video and additional social streams, such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.
Instacube supports curating a users preferred visual stream by providing a unique way to “like” images and organize a content library. It will also allow users to view their multiple social channels in one location, all the while on a cool device that works in today’s environments. The user chooses the Instagram stream they wish to follow by entering the Instagram account username and password, just as they would on a smart phone. Instacube supports viewing of any public user, hashtag, popular stream or the specific feed associated with the Instagram account. All of this navigation is accessed through the touch-screen interface and the user-friendly tactile buttons on the device.
Eighteen months after a successful Kickstarter launch that raised an initial $620,000 in funding for the project, Instacube has gradually begun shipping devices to its backers. The delivery of the product was admittedly late and there were many unexpected challenges encountered and overcome during its process, but as of April, backers are starting to take delivery. In a recent post an early recipient, Brian, tweeted “Got my @goinstacube! It looks GREAT on my desk!”
The great look of the Instacube is just one of thousands of details that have been considered during the product development. UX expertise, quality of viewing screen, the addition of a speaker for the eventual support of video playback, and many other nuances have been addressed and incorporated into the product. As Kickstarter backers and consumers get their Instacubes, they will have the liberation of their Instagram images at long last.
Kathy Turner is the Marketing and
Business Development Director for Instacube.
