It vaguely registers. Our kids had pink DS when they were younger. They were utter crap. I've just looked up what a 3DS is and can't believe people buy them.

I don't really do games though and especially not consoles. I live in the Pennines with loads of hills. Why on earth would I need Mario when I've a mountain bike.

Cause in your mountains there is no donkey throwing barrels in your way (which would be fun ). Or?

The Nintendo 3DS was the first device to use stereoscopic 3D screen without the need of 3D glasses... believe it or not, the 3DS rocks!!!!
(anyone noticed my signature?)

on topic: When the price dropped, they gave the first owners of the 3DS (called the Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors) 20 games to download. 10 of them are ambassadors exclusive

Jolla gave the First Ones an exclusive tshirt and a back cover.

All they gave the TOHKBD supporters though was a useless discount code, wedged between the Slush discount and a permanent price drop.

I don't believe it. I used it for about a minute in a store and it gave me a headache bigtime. A gadget with a stereoscopic 3D screen isn't something I would give to kids.

But then again I'm also not a fan of 3D with the use of glasses (be it active or passive). It takes longer but also results in headaches plus there simply is no added value when watching a movie in 3D.

The market play in China is completely different.
Here is a blog post from Bunnie Huang, that guy that e.g. made the Chumby and an open-hardware laptop called Novena:
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=3107

BTW, his latest blog post about how IP work in China is also very interesting.

I think you (and others) are a bit unfair to Jolla. TOHKBD is a nice project but it is not officially from Jolla. This is their interest to promote it and they tried to promote it (by working closely with Dirk, by providing a coupon for helping some consumer to make up their mind and by spreading the message through their official media tool).
Nothing is free in this planet and they did help that project. They provided to those without that discount a way to get it before the price was officially decreased.

This is not a very great deal but this is something at least. We could of course dream to have a half-price TOHKBD. We could think about tons of free stuff Jolla could provide. But there are other things in consideration: for instance don't you think that if Jolla give something for a TOHKBD, then maybe other partnership Jolla have may ask for the same amount of deal ?! This is not because you price-in a lot for a TOHKBD that it must be the top priority for Jolla (they probably sold more Jolla than that one thousand TOHKBD ).

Some are probably a bit skeptical about the number of coupons that were available in the period before the price dropped. Maybe that was not the best idea to cumulate those coupons in a limited time-period (especially when you received all of them) but come on, this is not the end of the world. This is just marketing and there is a lot of marketing around you but you pay probably more attention to what Jolla does: there are tons of special price in the world and marketing people are imaginative about ways to stimulate buying
They are unlike but they are a company that needs to sell products and their image. Sometimes they make mistakes but they learn. Marketing is not well considered but this is something you need to do if you want to reach people outside the fans.
At the end, talking about me, I am a TOHKBD backer and I already had a Jolla (like most TOHKBD subscribers) and I am happy that Jolla is helping this project. I like very much that they provide technical assistance to Dirk and that helped me to decide to back that project up (not the coupon).

I am not saying it's the end of the world. Or even malicious. No. Just mishandled.

Running a business is all about PR. The whole coupon saga was the worst PR Jolla has done in all of 2014. By pointing it out we are doing Jolla a service. Maybe they will avoid similar disasters the next time.

On the 3DS, I have read other complaints about headaches too. I cannot comment either way as I (or my kids) don't have one.

As a person who still doesn't understand what was disastrous about it (other than 3-5 guys complaining on TMO) or even bad, I certainly hope for many more similar disasters in 2015!

Jolla is cheaper, TOHKBD was a great success, Jolla Tablet as well, many people got their phones earlier for a discounted price, the coupon campaign generated a great buzz on social media...
If anything, it was a great PR success in my opinion. Even if there was nothing else, having mainstream tech media reporting about the possibility to buy the phone cheaper if you contribute to the tablet campaign is worth it PR wise.
Seriously, IMHO the coupon campaign was one of the best things that happened to Jolla in 2014, as it was pulled of perfectly. There were many mistakes before and after that, but seeing the whole coupon campaign, I was actually amazed by how well it was done. Then I saw this thread and was greatly amused.

Everyone it entitled to their opinion, though

It certainly was in the long run. Two years - heck, I give it 6 minths due to people's short memory - down the line, everybody will forget about the coupons but they will remember the name.