Yes. Working in the consumer products industry is frustrating, especially when dealing with evolving components, requirements, and market. It takes a lot of development to get a flashlight plan completed. Concept, plan of features (Output, runtime, LED choice, lux, UI, battery, price point), circuit design (efficiency, voltage range), part planning (Reflector geometry, body layout), design for manufacture (How do we make this great idea in an affordable way), and then. THEN You can try to get things started. Prototype run, full-unit tests, feedback, redesign. Rebuild, re-test. Now is it good enough? Find a manufacturing contract. I can't remember where ZL makes theirs. Many projects find it tempting to manufacture in China. Unknown time to set up machining and fabrication, 4-6 week shipping turnaround. Let's hope the plan for the original concept hasn't evolved. Are there new LEDs, UI features, or new requirements from the lighting market? Each step costs money. Money to investigate, research, develop, build, and test. Money to buy parts, turn on the lights and feed your geniuses, money to pay factories. Some projects fall through once they don't seem likely to pay back that money. Some planned lights are over-capable, and are downgraded to a lower price point. Others push through and fail to make money. Getting new product in a shiny box on shelves is HARD. I didn't mention marketing, dealer deals, and packaging because that's outside the scope of making the light itself.
