At least that's what their strategy appears to be. Sleep on the problems, ignore them and hope they will go away. No they won't. Not in this Internet age where people can resort to blogs, twitter, facebook, comments, articles...
Companies have an ethical duty to their customers if they are having difficulties. The Notion Ink Adam Tablet has so far proved to be a dud with bad hardware quality and buggy software. Not to mention horrendous customer support (what the hell was that about hiring 'iTunes customer support'?!!) I will say 'dud' in spite of some users saying they like the hardware - that's because for they are a rarity and in most cases there are issues with one component or the other.
Visit their official forum (conclave.notionink.com) or a fan site (notioninkfan.com) and see the comments and complaints. Read the stories and reviews and draw your own conclusion. For heaven's sake, an unscientific poll on the forum shows that 36% of the people are not happy with the product and of the other 64% many are 'conditionally happy' - i.e people who are happy even in a part of their Adam doesn't work! Kind of like 'My iPad camera doesn't work but I still like it anyway.' A product with nearly 40% 'unhappy rate'?! How many consumer electronics companies have made fame with that rate?
And Notion Ink's response to all this? Silence. A few silly customer support emails, and a grandiose nonsense blog post from the founder.
I will have good words to say when I see evidence.
some people think product execution, customer satisfaction and professionalism are important - that's just silly!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Who are early adopters?
One of the comments I've seen on NI forums is that "We have to accept the (pathetic) state because we're early adopters."
NO.
Don't twist the meaning of early adopters. An early adopter is the one who wants to be among the first to invest in a product while accepting its limitations. An early adopter is NOT the one who is an early investor in a malfunctioning product! Limitation does not mean malfunctioning. It means "there is a clear promise and possibility of additional features and benefits, but they do not exist in the current version", and not "50% of what we promised won't work." or "I need to hack the device to make it work"
The iPad is a good example. Lots of people plonked > 500$ in the first version knowing that it would not have the fastest processor, or a camera, or any interfaces, or retina display. But what they knew was it was a tablet, it would work well on a touch interface, and that it would most definitely be outdated in 6 - 12 months because of Apple's release cycle. Yet they purchased it, and when they had it in their hands - it worked. Not '20% worked'
Which brings me to the next version - why did NI release a buggy, not-ready-to-market device to those who greatly anticipated it? I have my theories. That's for next time.
NO.
Don't twist the meaning of early adopters. An early adopter is the one who wants to be among the first to invest in a product while accepting its limitations. An early adopter is NOT the one who is an early investor in a malfunctioning product! Limitation does not mean malfunctioning. It means "there is a clear promise and possibility of additional features and benefits, but they do not exist in the current version", and not "50% of what we promised won't work." or "I need to hack the device to make it work"
The iPad is a good example. Lots of people plonked > 500$ in the first version knowing that it would not have the fastest processor, or a camera, or any interfaces, or retina display. But what they knew was it was a tablet, it would work well on a touch interface, and that it would most definitely be outdated in 6 - 12 months because of Apple's release cycle. Yet they purchased it, and when they had it in their hands - it worked. Not '20% worked'
Which brings me to the next version - why did NI release a buggy, not-ready-to-market device to those who greatly anticipated it? I have my theories. That's for next time.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Notion Ink - Why words mean nothing
I've talked about how words don't mean much but delivery does. Yes, there are a few die-hards for whom faults of Adam are no faults and it's all well and they're happy hacking. Well, NI is dead if their target market is the hacking community.
Having said that, let me draw your attention to a post by Rohan on Aug 30 2010. That's what - like 8 months ago. Quite a while. In it, he talks about 'Early Access Program', '24 x 7 support to developers (e-mail and phone)', A test Adam (I presume), full access to OS and UI.
What happened to the program?
Where are the developers? Why does NIH have to do all the heavy lifting if there's a EAP?
Why isn't the software high quality? Did no EAP devs identify/fix issues?
Why is the hardware this buggy?
Did he actually deliver the promised 24 x 7 support?
Is he delivering on his words?
What astonishes me is the way so many are eating out of his hands for empty words. Theoretically I could start a blog, come up with an idea (doesn't need much thinking. I could talk about a super slim 8" tablet with Thunderbolt and HDMI, 2 Gig memory, bright high-res LCD, Near field comms and 3D capable display. Voila!). All I need to do is
a) Write fancy visions of the future
b) Choose a beefier hardware spec
c) Keep promising delivery
and boom! I have a bunch of fans who will believe what I say.
And then I take their money and deliver a crappy product. They'll still sing my praises. Apparently taking the company to task on its word isn't all that important.
The consumer hardware is a very different game when compared to software. It takes more than words to get it out right.
I'm going to pick a few more posts from the past - just to demonstrate. Keep tuned.
You know what I prefer? People (including CEOs) who keep their mouth shut and do their job - which is to deliver on their promises to their customers.
Having said that, let me draw your attention to a post by Rohan on Aug 30 2010. That's what - like 8 months ago. Quite a while. In it, he talks about 'Early Access Program', '24 x 7 support to developers (e-mail and phone)', A test Adam (I presume), full access to OS and UI.
What happened to the program?
Where are the developers? Why does NIH have to do all the heavy lifting if there's a EAP?
Why isn't the software high quality? Did no EAP devs identify/fix issues?
Why is the hardware this buggy?
Did he actually deliver the promised 24 x 7 support?
Is he delivering on his words?
What astonishes me is the way so many are eating out of his hands for empty words. Theoretically I could start a blog, come up with an idea (doesn't need much thinking. I could talk about a super slim 8" tablet with Thunderbolt and HDMI, 2 Gig memory, bright high-res LCD, Near field comms and 3D capable display. Voila!). All I need to do is
a) Write fancy visions of the future
b) Choose a beefier hardware spec
c) Keep promising delivery
and boom! I have a bunch of fans who will believe what I say.
And then I take their money and deliver a crappy product. They'll still sing my praises. Apparently taking the company to task on its word isn't all that important.
The consumer hardware is a very different game when compared to software. It takes more than words to get it out right.
I'm going to pick a few more posts from the past - just to demonstrate. Keep tuned.
You know what I prefer? People (including CEOs) who keep their mouth shut and do their job - which is to deliver on their promises to their customers.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Notion Ink Adam Tablet - I wanted it to succeed...
I've been a lurker for a long time. Been following NI since pretty much the early days when news of the product and the blog came out.
The latest post in Notion Ink's Blog finally made my jaw drop with incredulity. This company will die soon unless it brings in someone with a modicum of sense into the management. If I were a VC looking to invest, I’d be very worried right now – or if I’m determined to invest, I’d bring in real manager.
Startups need to heed one mantra - "do one thing and do it really well", and NI needs to keep its mind fully focused on just that - deliver a great functioning tablet now, even if to a small number of initial customers, and thrill them.
The results so far are pretty awful if you ask me - poor media coverage, problematic hardware/software, unhappy customers (with the exception of a few die-hard fans), absolutely horrid customer support, vacuous promises and no delivery. This is death-knell. You HAVE to earn your customer ‘s trust before painting pictures of future glory. NI isn't a start-up anymore as it's been a while in the making. Rohan needs to get off his 'I'm a visionary' nonsense and deliver a great product. Speeches on computing history and grand future means nothing and a lot of us can do that sitting on our chairs. What makes a difference is delivery - and we know where NI is on that front so far. As much as I want to make this tablet sound incredible, my mind sums it as ‘a reference design with more hardware features’, and that’s pretty much it. Because software on it is badly done and if you’ve looked around, tablets must offer an ‘experience’ not a hardware with more ‘features’, and there’s a big difference.
Those fans that criticize the complainers saying “you signed into the pre-order as a beta user” are missing something critical. The company should have fully geared itself around supporting the small set of pre-orders to ensure that this closed group was superbly supported while they sorted their issues –whether supply chain or software, and NI failed to do that. The issue is not pre-order, but an abysmally managed pre-order. It is inexcusable to not just botch the pre-orders but then fail to support your greatest proponents (the one who put down their hard earned cash), and then come back talking a vague future which I’ll admit, I did not even understand.
Successful startups I've observed in the past focus on swiftly reaching out to their customers and making sure word-of-mouth is great, and NI has failed at that. Adam is turning out to be a tablet that's good for a few tech-nerds and well short of general market, and in a competitive, fast moving market they will have to sell a LOT to make decent margin $. If there is no rush of second level general customers, they don't have a market to sell. My sense is their customer base has hardly grown - if any at all.
The few die-hard fans, in my view, are doing a greater disservice to the company than they are helping. When you see obvious problems, take the company to task. Meaningless cheer leading ("my gps is broke, I have to root my device, my s/w crashes, the screen isn't great...but I LOVE my adam!") isn't helpful. Fan sites like NotionInkSpot should direct some of the grievances and sharp rebuke towards NI, and perhaps then NI will take notice.
I see little evidence of NI having improved substantially with user feedback, and that’s a pity. They’re slowly, but firmly and unwittingly positioning themselves in the ‘hacker hardware’ market which is the market you definitely do not want to be in, in the long run.
The latest post in Notion Ink's Blog finally made my jaw drop with incredulity. This company will die soon unless it brings in someone with a modicum of sense into the management. If I were a VC looking to invest, I’d be very worried right now – or if I’m determined to invest, I’d bring in real manager.
Startups need to heed one mantra - "do one thing and do it really well", and NI needs to keep its mind fully focused on just that - deliver a great functioning tablet now, even if to a small number of initial customers, and thrill them.
The results so far are pretty awful if you ask me - poor media coverage, problematic hardware/software, unhappy customers (with the exception of a few die-hard fans), absolutely horrid customer support, vacuous promises and no delivery. This is death-knell. You HAVE to earn your customer ‘s trust before painting pictures of future glory. NI isn't a start-up anymore as it's been a while in the making. Rohan needs to get off his 'I'm a visionary' nonsense and deliver a great product. Speeches on computing history and grand future means nothing and a lot of us can do that sitting on our chairs. What makes a difference is delivery - and we know where NI is on that front so far. As much as I want to make this tablet sound incredible, my mind sums it as ‘a reference design with more hardware features’, and that’s pretty much it. Because software on it is badly done and if you’ve looked around, tablets must offer an ‘experience’ not a hardware with more ‘features’, and there’s a big difference.
Those fans that criticize the complainers saying “you signed into the pre-order as a beta user” are missing something critical. The company should have fully geared itself around supporting the small set of pre-orders to ensure that this closed group was superbly supported while they sorted their issues –whether supply chain or software, and NI failed to do that. The issue is not pre-order, but an abysmally managed pre-order. It is inexcusable to not just botch the pre-orders but then fail to support your greatest proponents (the one who put down their hard earned cash), and then come back talking a vague future which I’ll admit, I did not even understand.
Successful startups I've observed in the past focus on swiftly reaching out to their customers and making sure word-of-mouth is great, and NI has failed at that. Adam is turning out to be a tablet that's good for a few tech-nerds and well short of general market, and in a competitive, fast moving market they will have to sell a LOT to make decent margin $. If there is no rush of second level general customers, they don't have a market to sell. My sense is their customer base has hardly grown - if any at all.
The few die-hard fans, in my view, are doing a greater disservice to the company than they are helping. When you see obvious problems, take the company to task. Meaningless cheer leading ("my gps is broke, I have to root my device, my s/w crashes, the screen isn't great...but I LOVE my adam!") isn't helpful. Fan sites like NotionInkSpot should direct some of the grievances and sharp rebuke towards NI, and perhaps then NI will take notice.
I see little evidence of NI having improved substantially with user feedback, and that’s a pity. They’re slowly, but firmly and unwittingly positioning themselves in the ‘hacker hardware’ market which is the market you definitely do not want to be in, in the long run.
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