On December 5th, Direct Merchandise Marketing (DMM) released a long-awaited statement that was supposed to explain just what had gone wrong in shipping its Matrix One tablet, a device we thought we might never see.

ENGADGET: Ginsu knives, psychic hotlines and a $90 tablet: the story behind the Matrix One (update: more details)

While most of us have been focused on the Matrix One, DMM was, for a time, running another brand, Pacatek, which was also supposed to be making low-end Android tablets.

ENGADGET: Ginsu knives, psychic hotlines and a $90 tablet: the story behind the Matrix One (update: more details)

Customer phone calls (including those from readers) were either ignored or met with responses that DMM was closed, just a few days after orders were supposed to have shipped.

ENGADGET: Ginsu knives, psychic hotlines and a $90 tablet: the story behind the Matrix One (update: more details)

To start, there have been irregularities in DMM's practices, some of which wouldn't have been apparent without a deliberate background check.

ENGADGET: Ginsu knives, psychic hotlines and a $90 tablet: the story behind the Matrix One (update: more details)