What facts can we consider to be objective here? That depends on your preconceptions, i.e. your willingness to accept that something that the company has said is factual and truly represents the situation. Without this you immediately get into conspiracy theory, where to justify your own doubts you have to attribute deliberate malice to those people you otherwise would have to trust to be telling the truth. The world is saturated with this kind of thinking and it is destroying our civil society.
Here are some of THE FACTS - as I see them in the announcement sequence for the company. I believe it is entirely reasonable to believe the statements to be true and accurate at face value. They indicate a project that was begun with huge optimism and careful confidence but that inevitably struck difficulties that could not be anticipated or prepared for until they actually became apparent. Needless to say they are all stated in "corporate speak" so as to inspire confidence among investors and to gloss over awkward problems wherever possible. Show me any company that does not act like this.
For anyone who wants to know what has happened in this history I recommend you go and read all of the announcements that pertain to the process. They make for interesting and illuminating reading. I suggest that anyone who is considering selling out to the scavengers takes a look before throwing out their lotto tickets before the draw.
AP has been developing its MEMS chip since before 2005(?), producing a working prototype with the assistance of large industry players with FABs in the early years, leading to a joint development agreement with Sony in 2011. Over time lots of other prospective partners have been alluded to, all of whom will right now be following up their interests in AP.
http://www.audiopixels.com.au/index.cfm/investor/asx-announcements/asx-announcements-2010/audio-pixel-limited-investor-presentation/
http://www.audiopixels.com.au/index.cfm/investor/asx-announcements/asx-announcements-2011/joint-development-agreement-update/
This eventually did not seem to follow through, and from what I have heard Sony seems to have bailed, believing that making the technology fully workable was too hard. I don't have details of how this actually played out. Disappointing? Very. But not the end of the road. And probably not the end of the interest from Sony, who clearly saw the potential for such a product if it could be made.
Early chips were being tested in 2012, with high expectations of imminent mass production.
http://www.audiopixels.com.au/index.cfm/investor/asx-announcements/asx-announcements-2012/digital-speaker-development-update/Further progress in 2013, including the playing of music on the MEMS / DSR system. Fundamentally this proved that the technology itself worked as expected. Importantly this was recognised in AP being granted patents for the technology. I.e. this is not a dream nor a scam.
http://www.audiopixels.com.au/index.cfm/investor/asx-announcements/asx-announcements-2013/digital-speaker-development-update1/
http://www.audiopixels.com.au/index.cfm/investor/asx-announcements/asx-announcements-2013/audio-pixels-granted-several-patents/
In 2014 the first 1024 element Phase 3 MEMS devices, presumably made by TowerJazz in Israel (?), became available and were very promising. Demonstrations were expected to take place as soon as the devices could be turned into finished chips. Manufacturing agreements were in place for all stages of the completion, including the ASIC, sealing system, and the packaging processes.
http://www.audiopixels.com.au/index.cfm/investor/asx-announcements/asx-announcements-2014/digital-speaker-development-update/
The end of 2014 began to see some problems emerging. These clouds brought plenty of rain over the next several years, but these were all explored and eventually solutions were found. This was disappointing, but hardly surprising. These were the "unknown unknowns" that are inevitable in any such project at the edge of science and engineering. The company's track record at solving the problems is quite exemplary and inspiring. We have some smart cookies in Tel Aviv, that's for sure. Now the sun is finally coming out.
Bringing us up to the present day, we have a very courageous company that from every measure we can apply has literally solved every problem that it has faced, and many of them represented groundbreaking physics, and now has a device that can be shown to customers, playing music, doing tricks like sound directionality, and being described as meeting and exceeding all previous expectations. The obstacles that now beset the company are not technical, and not of its own making, but rather come from COVID caused delays represented by a whole series of logistics problems.
I have not included any of the references to the more recent announcements as these are readily found on the AudioPixels webpage. The question has to be faced as to whether individual investors are prepared and willing to believe what the company has said has occurred and has been done to advance what will, if it is real, prove to be a major game changing technology.
There is no denying that they have said these things. There is a complete, consistent, and coherent picture of the 15 year process that has gotten us to this point. While as a techie I would personally like to have had more information about the development process and the nature of the problems, and solutions, and the implications of both, that is not the same as choosing to believe or disbelieve that the process has occurred and has been implemented by technologists who are extremely insightful, smart, and capable of seeing what needed to be done and to think up ways of making that happen. I am personally satisfied that real people acting with full integrity would behave in exactly the way that AP has behaved. If you were trying to perform a con job this is not the way you would have done it. Especially if it meant tying so much of your own money up for so long. You could not make this stuff up.
I am confident that the company stands on the brink of commercialisation of a product that will change the audio industry forever.
And in the process it will prove to have been a smart investment on my part. And, yes, I could not resist adding a few more yesterday. Even if I have to eat marmite sandwiches for dinner today.
(20min delay)