Grab your salt shakers and gather 'round, folks. It's time to share a rumor that's beginning to seem a little less like fiction and a bit more like fact as the days go by.
I received an email tip early last week about Raon Digital – makers of the Vega, Everun, and Everun Note UMPCs – being in some kind of financial trouble that recently landed them in bankruptcy court. I hadn't heard even a whisper about this previously, so the news came completely out of left field for me. The tipster had sent me solid information before, though, so I had no reason to immediately distrust the email. Since the Korean company has issued recall notices on its website in the past, the first thing I did after reading the email was head there to check for an official announcement. The site looked exactly like it always did, with the Everun Note still appearing on the front page and nothing new or exciting anywhere else.
A few days later, word about the company and what looked to be a confirmed bankruptcy appeared on a couple of small Korean websites. I checked the official site again: no change. At this point, I emailed Raon Digital for a comment.
I haven't received a response yet but today, a week after the first tip rolled in, I went to check on the main site again. This is what I saw (and at the time of this writing is still there).
Gabia is the domain registrar and according to public info, Raon Digital still has more than a year left on its ownership of the raondigital.com domain. So although a site being unavailable could mean many things that have nothing to do with bankruptcy, it's clear that the issue isn't one of Raon simply forgetting to renew the domain.
Whether these three separate incidences (email tip, news on small Korean sites, unavailable Raon website) are just well timed coincidences remains to be seen, but the evidence sure is mounting that something is going on. If nothing else, this rumor will either cause someone "in the know" to come forward with some information or at least increase your sodium intake for today.
Shame.
I do think smartphones are accelerating the demise of pure windows UMPCs, though I think there will be a small niche for windows umpcs for a while yet. At least until moorestown delivers both windows 7 and win mobile in the same package (if it every does..)
Oh come on…not my dear Raon. What if my Note breaks again
I never once got a reply from press inquiries to those guys, even when representing Wired.
Good to know. Now I won’t feel so bad if I never hear from them.
Have you received tech support from them before?
I hope something official turns up soon.
Yes, I had to send mine to Dynamism last year for a broken screen cable and didn’t get it back for 2 months. I hope the screen doesn’t break again or I might be in trouble.
WTF!!!!! MY EVERUN NOTE IS IN FOR REPAIR RIGHT NOW!! WILL I GET IT BACK!? A REFUND!? this sucks, i’m screwed…
2 months?! Yikes! If Raon really has gone under, I wonder if their customer support will continue to be handled through middlemen. Dynamism offers a pretty long warranty, don’t they?
Did you send it in directly to Raon or are you going through a distributor?
I probably should of said: it appears Dynamism has removed all of their Raons from the site except for the D16S http://www.dynamism.com/#Product=everun_note and on the D16S, it now says “Note: This item includes full Dynamism technical support, but does not include the Dynamism Rescue Warranty. Please note that there is NO MANUFACTURER WARRANTY, but Dynamism does provide a 30-day replacement policy for DOA units.” This doesn’t make me feel good, I’m going to call Dynamism some time this week and ask about it.
Well I went through mobilx, but they have yet to reply to a message I sent last week. Just sent them another one today asking how we go from here.
sent my note back to kim at raon for a repair,this was organized through chippy at umpcportal,now they are tits up and my note is still with them,i have an empty box a battery and a charger,bloody mtron ssd is in the machine as well,nevermind its only money.
Hmm. And that note about the manufacturer’s warranty wasn’t there before? That sure doesn’t sound promising.
Raon filed for Bankruptcy Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in January 2009, court granted stay in late Febuary, they were to give a reorg plan by late April and that did not occur. As of now they are one step from being put into Chapter 7 and sold out by creditors.
There is still hope…There is a US group looking at Raon now, working with a major law firm in Korea, something about a company named Yippy may be coming to the rescue if time allows.
OK that’s all I know. Your ear in the sky, out.