The future of Little Printer
We, at Berg, have some sad news which will affect your Little Printer.
Berg is wrapping up its activities. We might be back one day, but right now we have to go into hibernation. (See the Berg blog for more.)
It’s simple to wrap up most of our activities (like our design consultancy for clients), but for Little Printer it’s a bit more complicated. This is because we want Little Printer to stay running for as long as possible, but it takes specialised technical maintenance and customer support to do so. So a skeleton staff is going to stay on part time till next year. We will be maintaining the platform and services until the 31st March, 2015. Subscriptions, direct messages, and haircuts will keep running for a little over 6 months from today.
We’re examining opportunities to give Little Printer a new home. If after March 2015 no arrangement can be found, all Little Printer features (publications, messaging, and face changes) will stop working. In the meantime we’ll be opening up the code behind Little Printer, and seeing if the community would like to take it on. See below for details.
How about selling it?
We’d be open to selling Little Printer to a company who could commit to supporting and developing it. That means having hardware, software, and service capabilities, and being able to put resources into the product.
We’ve also been providing evaluation units of fleet-managed commercial printers, based on the same Little Printer technology. We’re supporting those customers for the six month period (and providing a migration plan), so that’s part of any sale consideration too.
What might an opened-up Little Printer look like?
Little Printer is a web-connected product, and it is entirely controlled by a backend website. This website is currently bergcloud.com. This code provides publications, messaging, face changes, the Direct Print API, and a website to control your Little Printers, together with services like a back-end print renderer and developer tools.
The current plan is to open source the code that runs at bergcloud.com, and to release a firmware update that allows Little Printer to connect to alternate installations of that code. If Little Printer isn’t sold as an ongoing service in the next couple of months, that’s what we’ll do.
The code is complex, so it isn’t easy for non-technical people to install. But we’re hoping that, by making it open, the life of Little Printer might be extended. Maybe other uses for Little Printer, ones that we haven’t considered, might emerge.
Can I get a refund?
We are able to provide refunds for purchases made on or after 1st August, 2014. If you have a Little Printer you would like to return for a refund then contact us at info@bergcloud.com for a returns number and the returns address. For a return to be accepted, you need to request a returns number by 20th September, and the item received by us within two weeks of that date.
Any more questions?
We love Little Printer as much as you do. It is with great regret and much sadness that we make this announcement. However we will be working as hard as we can, in the time that we have, to make the very best of the situation. If you have questions or would like to get in touch about providing a future for Little Printer then please email us at info@bergcloud.com.
