This post isn't meant to be snarky, I genuinely do not understand why Notion Ink is spending time on infographics.
First, the post that's part of the Adam II development blog. Infographs are nice, I get that. There's plenty of infographics these days, and any information can be presented in the form of visually compelling infographics. I even like the e-mail distribution infographic on that post - it's actually quite nice.
But then I step back and ask myself - "What does this have to do with Adam 2?"
At the end of the post Rohan says "This is a continuous activity which we are doing now to come to a point where we can define drawing primitives and rules based on which these info-graphs can be auto-generated. This is going to be a long but fun project at Notion Ink"
Why is this project being run? Are there not other priorities for this company, more pressing issues to deal with? What is the value in doing a long research project to figure out how to create infographics from "rules?" Is this another Eden style UI experiment? Do they expect to create a infographic app on top of ICS that does... infographics? Is that truly adding value to creating a top class tablet? Why is there some random design team doing a long fun project on infographics when Adam I users are reliant on TR for a deserved update?
I just don't see it. This is one more of "we're doing a research project" story and we've heard plenty before - remember BLISS, remember the DIY kit, remember Genesis? remember that supposed long summer project in Bangalore - all that came to nothing.
A telling demonstration of why all these distractions are wearing off is the tepid response to the new development blog. Apart from the few faithful, there is hardly any enthusiastic response to the posts. To this specific infographic post, not one person asked for a new concept. Most comments are about "please do a better job on Adam 2 and here are my 95 suggestions" and I cannot blame them.
This is so reminiscent of Adam I. First, an opening to Adam II that sets impossible expectations (the whole world's first drag-and-drop whatever), and then, posts that make you wonder where their focus is.
This will be another fun watch. But for sure Adam 2 has a few buyers, and perhaps we'll see another article of how 20 Adams sold will "kill Apple" ;)
They want to be different from others(tablets) but they can't do in world changing innovation. Theirs is only dream. There were numbers of promises they said they will do on Adam. Nothing matters. A dream of a child.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why they are talking about infographics at all. Probably they got their hands on someone doing a research project, and they are examining if it can be converted to a commercial opportunity.
ReplyDeleteRe-reading this post of yours, I suddenly realized the biggest problem with NI that I had failed to see earlier: a small independent shop trying to take on both a challenging hardware design/manufacturing business and a challenging software business. They should have decided what they want to be ultimately, and picked the role of either a specialised hardware manufacturer working with stock software or a specialised UI designer working with commodity hardware. They tried to ride two horses at the same time and failed miserably and hilariously.
I guess other people may have pointed this out earlier. The unfortunate part of the affair is that they are not showing any signs of learning from their past mistakes, and are boldly going where wise men fear to tread. That, or they are just bringing out red herrings.
Agreed. I don't know if you recollect this post I wrote back in 2011 - "What do you stand for, Notion Ink?" - they are a small company, so focus is incredibly important.
ReplyDeleteIt's not clear to me at all how this could be a commercial opportunity in itself - but as you mentioned, if they decided to be a specialized software/UI/design company then I see the point of this. But clearly they aspire to be a tablet maker, and as Rohan mentioned, eventually even move into stereolithography. Space shuttles too, maybe.