Bug Labs going live on Monday
Here are the first shots of the BUGBase Hiro P model that goes on sale this Monday when the store opens up. This is the final production model, but is, sadly, sans Wi-Fi. Yeah, seems that open source Wi-Fi drivers were causing some issues and Bug Labs decided …
Context & Ripple Effects
Bug Labs spent late 2007 building anticipation for its Lego-like modular hardware platform: first production photos surfaced in November, a prototype was shown running Android on the open hardware, and Robert Scoble walked through the reconfigurable design in early December. The company's pitch throughout has been aimed at tinkerers and engineers who want to assemble their own digital devices from swappable modules.
The Monday store opening turns that preview cycle into an actual product on sale — but the final BUGBase Hiro P ships without Wi-Fi, because open-source Wi-Fi drivers caused problems the startup chose not to carry into launch.
First-order effects
- Early buyers of the Hiro P get the modular base unit but no built-in wireless networking at launch, so any connected application they build has to wait on a later fix or add-on.
- Bug Labs opens its storefront with its flagship connectivity feature missing — the driver problems force it to choose shipping on schedule over shipping complete.
Second-order effects
- The module ecosystem Bug Labs is counting on for revenue takes a hit at the starting line: a base unit without Wi-Fi weakens the value of the very attachments the platform exists to sell, and the company must win back that capability before the tinkerer audience judges the platform viable.
- For the open-source-hardware category Bug Labs represents, the launch sets an early precedent that open drivers can delay consumer-grade features — a trade-off closed-platform rivals do not face.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, open-source hardware startups will routinely ship around immature open drivers rather than block launches, pushing connectivity fixes into post-launch updates and making release cadence a competitive variable alongside modularity itself.
- The episode also previews a recurring tension between community-developed software stacks and the reliability bar of retail hardware — one reason many later open-hardware efforts end up pairing open boards with proprietary radio modules.
The trend: Open-source modular hardware is moving from prototype demos to commercial shelves, with the maturity of open driver software emerging as the gating factor for what actually ships.