Leap Motion Delays Ship Date to July 22

Those who pre-ordered Leap Motion's 3D motion controller will have to wait a couple months longer to get one.

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Leap Motion

Those who pre-ordered Leap Motion’s 3D motion controller will have to wait a couple months longer to get one.

Leap has delayed the ship date for the motion controller until July 22. The company had planned to start shipping on May 19, but says it needs more time to test the software. In addition to the 12,000 app developers who are testing now, Leap plans to involve more people in a broader beta test.

“Given that this is our first product, and we can only launch once, and we really believe in polish, it wouldn’t be in line with our culture to skip the testing,” Michael Buckwald, CEO of Leap Motion, said in a press call.

Leap Motion is a small device that plugs into a Windows PC or Mac, and detects motion in three dimensions. At $80, it’s less expensive than Microsoft’s Kinect, and much more accurate for hand and finger movement. The company will have its own app store for gesture-controlled programs.

The company mainly needs to work on polishing the user experience, including the app store and the installation process, Buckwald said. Previously, testers had been focusing on the more technical aspects of the device, such as the quality of gesture recognition. Buckwald admitted that Leap is behind schedule, and while he said that 600,000 units are ready to ship right now, the company didn’t want to sacrifice testing just to get the product out the door on time.

Buckwald said the delay will have no impact on the recently-announced partnership with HP, which will bundle the device with select PCs and eventually integrate the technology with future products. Leap hasn’t given a new date for retail availability, but Buckwald said it will be “shortly after” pre-orders begin to ship.