Spark first came into limelight this summer when it was successful in raising more than $560,000 for its Arduino like Spark Core Wi-Fi connector kit on its Kickstarter Campaign. It then went on to raise a whopping $4.9 million in Series A round and even launched a cloud operating system so as to give the desired power to its Internet of Things enabling hardware. It is now back in the limelight with another blockbuster product called the Spark Photon.
The Spark Photon is a Wi-Fi development board used for building connected devices. The postage sized device comes packed in a matchbox and costs just $19. It has been especially designed to put together prototype devices. Once a user has chosen his/her prototype, Spark makes the Spark P0, which costs around $10 and Spark P1, which costs around $12, Wi-Fi enabled modules available for direct integration into a product.
According to Zach Supalla, founder and CEO, Spark, the Spark Photon has the capability to become the next 'Raspberry Pi'. The main idea behind developing the Spark Photon is provide everyone and anyone an entry point into building connected devices and at the same point keep the kind of options that enterprise customers need open.
Spark has been successful in shipping more than forty thousand units of the $39 Spark Core kits since July this year. The company has also grown to a total of nineteen employees since its Series A funding round. Supalla hopes that the company will be able to sell more of its Spark Core units and achieve greater heights because of the low price point of its product.
Both the Spark P0 and Spark P1 modules are powered by Spar's own open source cloud based operating system. The Spark Operating system works by connecting the microcontrollers to the Web with a set of open standards. Spark Photon can be pre-ordered at cost of $19 here and for India it cost $29.10 in which $10.10 is shipping cost.
"We want to make the path from prototype to production quicker and smoother. What started as a simple hacker toolkit is turning into an enterprise grade solution that’s used by engineers at multinational companies to develop their new connected products", said Supalla in a statement given to thenextweb.com.
Spark has also collaborated with Broadcom in order to integrate its WICED platform into the Spark Photon. The WICED platform has the capability to simplify the implementation of Wi-Fi connectivity.
The projects/devices that can be build using Photon kit is endless, till now these connected devices has already been developed using photo kit - Wireless motion detector, solar-powered security camera, Twitter Fridge magnet, a Wi-Fi outlet or an automated cocktail dispenser.
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