The design of that thing is just terrible. It's like walking around with a Toblerone bar in your pocket. While I like the idea of a music store offering FLAC files, the benefits are lost on an portable music player because the subtle differences would not heard when you're out in the noisy world, especially not if you're using the cheap earplugs or headphones most people use.
Well most people who use cheap headphones and earbuds wouldn't buy this anyway, I don't think that's who this device is selling to. A portable dap that can play flac files would be a dream come true for me and anyone who wants to bring the nice sound they have at home with them throughout the day. There are a few options for this already, but they're either crazy expensive, or, like this one, designed so poorly that it ceases to become truly portable. My iPod Classic is a GREAT player with an awesome ui and tons of memory, but it can't play flac files (it plays ALAC but I don't use iTunes). I think 300 is a totally reasonable price for anything that can meet these needs, but the Pono is too oddly shaped and can't store enough of the flac files I keep at home for it to be useful for anything. It sucks, because I was excited when this thing was first announced.