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High-end home entertainment manufacturer Xperinet has shut up shop, blaming the US economic downturn and the fragile housing market. We only wrote about the company once before here at SlashGear, at the launch of its clever but indecently-expensive Xperinet RAIDsync system that promised to synchronise various media servers whether in the same or spread across different properties. However it was software issues that apparently pushed Xperinet into the red, in trying to enable Blu-ray functionality.
“This decision was driven largely by certain economic factors resulting from the downturn in the US housing market. Reduced investment in housing resulted in a marked reduction in revenues for Xperinet, as with many CEDIA manufacturers. Secondly, the soft market caused numerous dealers to default on their credit terms, dramatically increasing our bad debt experience. These events came on the heels of a major development effort that drained the company of cash” Xperinet letter to dealers
Xperinet’s “major development” was in fact a two-pronged attack on high-definition distributed content. Firstly, the company had difficulty integrating Blu-ray into their Linux-based systems, in the end moving to a Windows platform merely to take advantage of the OS’ native support for the next-gen format. A stop-gap solution in the form of a server preloaded with Blu-ray content failed to impress customers. Secondly, development of a media extender called Tarpon stalled when software failed to be completed.
A compact box roughly half the size of a sheet of paper and just 1-inch high, Tarpon’s hardware has been ready for almost eight months. However the software never arrived, leading Xperinet - and its distribution and reseller partners - with useless boxes.
Unless Xperinet can find a $400,000 injection, they’ll file for bankruptcy. It remains to be seen how the economic climate will affect other high-end home entertainment companies, many of which started up to take advantage of the recent housing boom. I’d be surprised if Xperinet were the only ones to be lost along the way, as consumers tighten their belts.
[via CE Pro - thanks Julie!]
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