The new Azure IoT Developer Kit is a pretty nice IoT prototyping board with tons of sensors and things built-in. On Aug 11, 2017, Microsoft, MXChip and a few distributors opened up pre-orders for the Azure IoT Developer Kit board. The pre-orders were taken and the original estimated ship data was September 1, 2017. A wait of only a couple weeks isn’t too bad, right?

Well, as it turns out September 1 came and went, and no Azure IoT Developer Kits were shipped… (At least as far as I am aware of.) Then on September 8, Seeed Studio sent out an email notifying customers who placed pre-orders. This email was to notify that there have been “abnormal issues during production”, and the shipping date is currently being postponed to September 21.

Here’s the full email message that was sent:

Dear customer,

Thank you for supporting us!

We are deeply sorry that the shipping date of AZ3166 IOT Developer Kit is postponed on Sep 21th, because of the abnormal issues during production.

The AZ3166 IOT Developer Kit  are still undergoing testing as the suppliers had some more delays during certification.

Because of the complexity of the product, changes to the hardware take longer than other modules.

We understand the delay has been long on this product.
We will push our suppliers to acceletate the delivery and keep updating the shipping status.

Really appreciate your support and understanding. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks for your patience.

🙂

Best Regards!

I do not know at this time if this is a broad production issue affecting all pre-orders for the Azure IoT Developer Kit (AZ3166), or if it’s a limited issue. If you’ve pre-ordered the Dev Kit from any other distributors, please post a comment on this post if you’ve received a similar email.

Overall, we’d rather have working boards that are in good condition, and pass all testing done. Even though the delay to notify customers was 1 week, I’m glad Seeed Studio updated me on the process and offered some transparency. Also, as a good customer service courtesy, Seeed Studio has offered me a $5 coupon code as well. Gestures like this are nice, especially since the production delay doesn’t appear to even be Seeed Studio’s fault.

Hopefully they get the manufacturing issues resolved and start shipping these awesome boards soon!

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