The ghost of Ponzi schemes past.
I was doing a bit of research for the NYT on the Phantom Lapboard and I remembered that Alienware was supposed to carry it online. After trying to pry a photo out of Phantom itself, I emailed Alienware to ask if they had a photo. Their reply was fairly curt:
Alienware does not carry the Phantom lapboard. There were plans a couple months ago, but from what I was told, Phantom couldn’t meet our unit/delivery needs.
I saw the Lapboard last year and if it had come from Logitech or Belkin or any of the peripheral guys, it would have been a fairly good product. However, given Phantom’s track record of shady dealings, I wonder just what’s going on. Has anyone ordered and received the Lapboard yet?
Full disclosure: I am one of the lapboard inventors. There is still a niche for this product. I’m surprised that no one has taken a try at this idea or some variant. I still want one for me.
I have no current involvement with PHEI, but have seen the lapboard here:
http://www.ione-europe.com/component/page,shop.product_details/flypage,shop.flypage/product_id,1640/category_id,12/manufacturer_id,0/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,1/
It doesn’t appear to be 100% dead, though it doesn’t appear to be 100% alive either.