Review by DC Rainmaker is very positive. Accuracy and correlation with 4 other power meters on Ray's bike (and with another bike sporting 3 other meters and a third bike with another single reference meter onboard) looked pretty good for the money. http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/03/powerpod-depth-review.html
$300 retail and with the 10% off code from Ray's website when purchased through Clever Training, it's downright cheap at $270.
The alternatives of a Stages single side crank arm starting around $530 or Garmin's single side Vector S2 pedals at around $700. The 4iiii unit is around $400 that's a decent unit. There is also the $100 PowerCal, but I'm not thrilled with it based on the user review information.
So $270 Wattage based on air pressure, accelerometers, RPM, cadence data? Now there's a totally new idea!
I try to stay away from power meter related posts because I work for a site that sells them and I don't want to come across as bias (full disclosure)...but this one was too hard to resist. Yea, read the review and have spoken with the owner. I think they have really figured out something here. It won't have the accuracy of an SRM for example, but if +/-3% accuracy is good enough for you (to each their own), then the price point and other benefits of this type of power meter might pretty attractive.
PMC, your opinion is as good as the next guy's and probably more informed than most of us since you are in the sales side of things. I'm glad to hear what any RKI has to say about power meters as I have been wanting one for a couple of years.
The inventor/developers didn't just think outside the box on this one...they threw the box away! It might give away a percent to a percent and a half in absolute accuracy, but a fellow could equip a team with PowerPods for what one SRM rig would set you back.
The innovation factor is really amazing and considering the first iterations were...uh...not all that good, this version seems destined for sales success. And the price point is going to lead to another round of price drops from the more established manufacturers if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly.
My 'ideal' power meter would be a 2-sided strain gauge unit built into a cartridge crank spindle and have an external charging port and an externally replaceable battery. There was an outfit working on just such a spindle-based power meter, but I haven't heard anything out of them lately.
