There is a preorder button on the Kickstarter, I assume that is just for a notification when the pre orders go live? How long do you estimate the pre orders wi be available for once they go live until they go out of stock? Will some of the pre orders take months to ship?
Also is it a good idea to pre order, or are there often initial problems with products like this?
Anything anyone tells you will all be speculation.When they go live is not anything we can answer as they may release the preorder form once production starts for the kickstarters. It definitely will be after M1 testing because they aren’t sure if it is 100% ready. Preorders may never be considered out of stock as they may go up before they are produced. No preorders will ship until all Kickstarter backers receive theirs which is at least over 5000 units. It definitely will take months. It is a good idea to preorder if you want to have one before the retail market. They are doing extensive testing to be sure there should not be any expected initial problems with the hardware, though you may expect software bugs, but those can be ironed out through updates.This is the reason why the January ship date was delayed. It’s because they want to pump out a really worthwhile product that doesn’t have a bunch of problems.
This is all speculation and I do not work for Pimax, however I am a software developer myself and I know these things take some time. I expect if they can ship these by mid June to the backers then preorders may have theirs by Christmas or 1Qtr 2019. Again all speculation because production issues can occur. Backers could have things that need replacements. This is typical of any product assembly line. See also Tesla.
When do you think people who order them normally will get them? There will probably be a rush for orders, with headsets going out of stock as soon as they are in stock.
Also will it matter when you preorder it? If it takes me a day from the start of preorders being accepted to me being able to preorder it will I get it later than others?
I’m sure when you preorder it probably will take longer than the person who purchased day 1 but there are other factors like location and what products were in your preordered.
Without preorder, I wouldn’t expect to see them on the market until this time next year