Today, I'll talk about the customer segmentation strategy of my new tablet.
The thing about the tablet market is that it is an expensive market to enter. Apple is dominant and is able to garner both premium pricing due to the design and OS ecosystem, and lower sourcing cost due to its massive scale.
Others, over the years, have struggled mightily. The big ones like HP just gave up, ASUS, Acer and so on have struggled, Blackberry Playbook is a bit of a joke. Was there a Motorola tablet? I don't even remember, xoom or something, right? The smaller companies tried too. There was that Singapore based tablet that vanished, there was that Techcrunch crunchpad debacle, and I've also heard of this company called Notion Ink that had 100 employees at one time and after 5 years have no viable product. So, we know that this is a hard market to enter. To make money, we need to sell in big volumes, hope to keep sourcing cost low, and make money.
As I like to tell everyone, you need to know exactly who your customer is. In our case, it's everyone - doctors, engineers, students, hipsters, grandmothers (we will have dual rotatable cameras so grandma can see two grandkids at the same time) and all others.
And therefore, to make sure we reach that market, I've decided on the following three extremely important design consideration.
1) My tablet will be rootable - in fact, it won't work properly out of the box at all. This is a brilliant move in engaging the community and as everyone knows, their grandmother, doctor, dentist and others can easily root their tablets and compile OS'. I'm amazed no one thought of this before! It is critical that users be able to customize their tablet.
2) I believe slim tablets are passe. In fact, after spending hours poring over design, we've decided to take a fresh perspective on tablets. And you, my dear reader, get to glimpse at this beautiful concept.... and we call it "double bezel bombshell" - concept pictures coming soon (and real pictures coming soon after that)
3) An Awesome "middle kingdom screen" - this is our new partner and we will introduce them soon. The MKS, as we call it fondly, is a cross between a laptop screen, a retina screen, an e-ink screen. It's not quite as vibrant as retina, not quite as bright as a high-res laptop screen, not quite easy to read as an e-ink screen and that's where our genius lies. You can't quite watch a movie happily (we assume you've customized your video player with kubuntu and bigbuntu), the books won't quite be as good as a kindle, the working quality won't be as good as most other tablets, but NO ONE ELSE CAN DO ALL THREE, YOU GET IT!!
This is the differentiator! And this is something our customers have always wanted, a truly mediocre experience.
So, with those design principles, we've been busy. In my next post I will introduce you to two of our close partners, true game changers.
I have an idea! Make those two rotatable cameras like the eyes of chameleons! You know, independently rotatable, not by 180 +- 5 degrees, but by a full 270 degrees! Finally Grandmas would be able to know how cross-eyed the chameleon feels!
ReplyDeleteAlso, no tablet has two microphones, so no one can record in stereo! You need to have two microphones, preferably at the top, with rotatable dog ears so that they can pick up sound from any direction!
Also also, please make sure you get your components from very obscure obscurantist companies who don't release source code! This should guard against copycats like Apple and Sony.
Will Somebody please tell JKS that I need atleast 10 USB ports...Can't tell you why, though!!
ReplyDeleteIf you are not putting 10 or more ports, its a useless tablets...You don't know how important that is!!!! Don't send me a pre-order invite until then (I am sure you will send one coz i've been commenting on your blog since the very first post...Loyalist am I .....!!!)
You're being unreasonable. I was thinking 6 USB ports and 2 serial ports because that's the future.
ReplyDelete2 microphones? We are already thinking about that :) We also believe that donkey ears are better than dog ears.
ReplyDeleteAll components will come from unknown companies and source code, well, that's coming from -- you'll know soon.
Also the screen should be readable under the water, while I scuba-dive. I would love to flash it underwater when I plugin a Ray fish through 20+ ports on it. I can use donkey ears as Sonar and camera to record anomalies underwater and try to understand why turtles are slow to understand the quick logic.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I get a strange feeling that you're not taking me seriously? I'm super serial, you guys!
ReplyDeletePlease also add a parallel port! I have a list of amazing legacy devices that can be connected to that.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with SR. You need 3 USB 3.0 ports, one USB micro port, one USB mini port and one Thunderbolt port.
Also don't forget to put in an IR port. I will use LIRC to convert the MADAM 2 into a super cool unified remote for my TV, DVD, Satellite receiver etc.
ReplyDeleteAlso also, please don't forget the wi-fi and RF! Can you emulate a wireless keyboard + mouse on the MADAM 2? I want to connect my HTPC to it because that combo wireless keyboard+trackpad is so expensive!
I love all these inputs from fans! What about a tape drive? I'm sure some will want that too and Apple is a failure because it doesn't have it. Right?
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