[Skylab]

You guys should be ENCOURAGED about this move in terms of the ability of Pono to succeed. Do you really think Neil Young would make a good CEO??? Highly unlikely. This is a very common thing to have happen and makes perfect sense.

EDIT: I misread the news...see post below...

 

[barmar46]

Huh? If it's highly unlikely that Neil Young would make a good CEO how would his taking over said position serve as encouragement? What am I kissing here?

 

[Makiah S]

... honestly I glad to hear Flea could hear the differance ;3, gatta love us bassists, we got them magic ears meng!
 
More importantly... good to hear he's going forward with this I might be following this thread or impressions ^^ 

 

[Skylab]

Apologies, I misread the news. I agree, Neil Young taking over as CEO is NOT encouraging. And I'm into Pono for $400...ugh...

 

[doublea71]

It's anybody's guess what this means, but I'd be a bit nervous if I backed it. Their business model may not be mainstream enough as many have pointed out that subscription services seem to be the way forward for the masses. Worst case scenario for backers is they get a nifty player but a content source with a shelf life. 

 

[Saraugie]

Is Neil the new CEO? I think it's an attorney who was CEO of the CA teachers retirement plan.

IF it's Neil I do not think Pono will make it. Artists, especially tempramental ones do not a good business person make.
I'm a big fan but not of his business acumen which I know little about.

 

[doublea71]

I wonder if Hamm saw that subscription services are the future and tried to make that a part of the plan by adding streaming capabilities to the Pono player (while retaining the downloadable hi-res model) even though it meant deviating from the original vision. He may have left knowing that this will never draw the mainstream crowd in light of where the market is heading. I could see Neil saying "Hell no!" to that and agreeing to man the ship. Thank you for letting me use my imagination.

 

[phalanger]

A CEO resigning prior to the product launch is unlikely to be a good thing. A musician taking his place is even less of a good thing. As is typical for Pono, the backers of the project are not being kept informed, let alone involved. I wonder what the conflict was about that made the CEO step down and Neil step up. My guess is that the Pono will be dead in the water upon its launch. There are plenty alternatives to the Pono and instead of gaining momentum, it seems to be losing it. Eversince the kickstarter money was in, here has been a complete lack of relevant updates or anything else to keep the buzz going. I can only hope that at least the pledged players will be delivered. I'm guessing they may become more 'unique' than anticipated, even the non-limited editions.

 

[flatmap]

All we can do is speculate.  So far as we know, this makes it more likely to get product delivered on time.  There's just not enough information to know
 
I've worked on numerous projects -- some much larger than the Pono effort -- and it is routine to see changes in top management.  It's not necessarily a bad thing  either -- and often has no impact on the technical staff.  Very possible that there was not room for a both a CEO and NY at the top.  So my first guess is that the reason for the change are "creative differences."  
 
Sorry to see John Hamm leave, in any case.  Obviously a nice guy who loves music.

 

[oneway23]

http://www.whathifi.com/news/ponomusic-teams-omnifone-to-deliver-high-res-audio-catalogue

 

[miceblue]

Hey this sounds familiar.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/its-masters-damit

 

[Saraugie]

Hey this sounds familiar.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/its-masters-damithttp://www.innerfidelity.com/content/its-masters-damit

"The requested page "/content/its-masters-damithttp://www.innerfidelity.com/content/its-masters-damit" could not be found."

 

[Llloyd]

Haven't checked in here in a while.  Just as funny as always.  Keep it up neil.  Hope that car stereo playing a pono player is the ultimate jam that can only be contributed to the device itself.

 

[Mython]

  "The requested page "/content/its-masters-damithttp://www.innerfidelity.com/content/its-masters-damit" could not be found."

 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/its-masters-damit
 
 
LOL

 

[Ableza]

From the kick starter site discussion thread:
Let me clarify some confusion here. John never demoed a Meridian based PonoPlayer as no such device exists. The partnership with Meridian revolved around a DRM-centric approach where their technology was to be used primarily to implement the DRM functionality. But we parted ways before any of their technology was actively incorporated into Pono or ever impact playback. The internal design of Pono has always been Pono's. Charlie Hansen from Ayre just took it to a whole new level of clarify and perfection. We are now in our fourth generation prototype with Ayre technology and each generation keeps getting better and we're on track to deliver the PonoPlayers to you on-time. The next generation prototype we're producing will be of high enough quality to be shipped to customers.

The fact that Neil stepped into the CEO role is something that was long overdue. He is the creative force and the soul of Pono. With this new arrangement, Neil is in the right position to make all the key executive and strategic decisions of Pono, but without having to run the daily operations since he has a very busy schedule of his own. It is working out very well so far and we expect it to be the best decision for Pono in the long run.

John's a friend of the company and an investor and we thank him for his contributions to Pono and helping us get to this level.