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Comment by ascorbic | Hacker News Reader

The article says they working to commercialise it. That will presumably involve selling a machine.

If they sell a reasonably priced machine (say, under US$400) which is easy to clean, doesn't use any sort of pod/cup, doesn't have any subscription malarkey, and is reasonably sized, I'll give it a very serious look.

The whole idea sounds like it could be really simple once implemented, and in a world of super complicated coffee brewers with small little crevices that are hard to clean, it'd be very welcome.

That’s comically cheap. The gaggia classic, arguably king of the entry level espresso, is that same price. They could release it at $900 (MSRP of Rancilio Silvia) and easily sell a million if it’s worth it. I’d guess they could easily start at $1200-1500 and drop the price from there after the first couple of production runs.

I dunno... I can get a Moccamaster for that price, or another pretty darn good other drip maker for under $200.

If this just has to agitate the brewing area with ultrasound and not much else, there's no reason for it to cost a lot. Something like the Silvia you mention is just a lot more complicated.

Indeed but I still feel my original point stands. If you can achieve their process half reasonably with a bodged espresso machine there's a reasonable chance it will become popular (assuming of course it does provide unique coffee!). If it's complex precision engineering even if they're directly working on commercialisation it'll be a struggle.

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