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.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Announcing...The JKS-MADAM 2, the only competitor to iPad
My fans have been waiting for a long time for this announcement. I have been working feverishly on various elements of JKS-MADAM 2 to take a fresh perspective on the whole tablet development concept.
Since the 2nd world war we've seen various development in computing, but what is clear is no one has achieved singularity. Not cingular mobile, not Einstein, not Apple. Borne of a strong desire to change the market, I first had to conceptualize my vision statement, and after much thought and study of various companies vision statement, my brilliant marketing department (with my help of course) came up with this:
"We aim to transform the computed transformation landscape by schrodinger imaging and technicrystallizing such that every aim of singularity is achieved. We will take our customers on a journey of quantum characteristics, especially the uncertainty principle, while we dazzle with world with synergetic multi-scopal transformational serendipity. We are young at heart but ancient in capability. We will change your lives"
Clearly, as you can see, anyone will find it easy to understand what we do, and that is exactly the point.
Once we achieved this, it was time to think of a transformational product. But as my idol Steve jobs said, nothing without focus on design, and that's where this new journey began. In the next post, genesis of MADAM 2.
And hold on to your panties, the pre-order announcement will come in a few posts. I invite all leading technical companies, especially light reading, to begin speculating and get ready to interview me. I limit all my interviews to questions about my visionary capabilities and what I think of the world 5 years from now.
Since the 2nd world war we've seen various development in computing, but what is clear is no one has achieved singularity. Not cingular mobile, not Einstein, not Apple. Borne of a strong desire to change the market, I first had to conceptualize my vision statement, and after much thought and study of various companies vision statement, my brilliant marketing department (with my help of course) came up with this:
"We aim to transform the computed transformation landscape by schrodinger imaging and technicrystallizing such that every aim of singularity is achieved. We will take our customers on a journey of quantum characteristics, especially the uncertainty principle, while we dazzle with world with synergetic multi-scopal transformational serendipity. We are young at heart but ancient in capability. We will change your lives"
Clearly, as you can see, anyone will find it easy to understand what we do, and that is exactly the point.
Once we achieved this, it was time to think of a transformational product. But as my idol Steve jobs said, nothing without focus on design, and that's where this new journey began. In the next post, genesis of MADAM 2.
And hold on to your panties, the pre-order announcement will come in a few posts. I invite all leading technical companies, especially light reading, to begin speculating and get ready to interview me. I limit all my interviews to questions about my visionary capabilities and what I think of the world 5 years from now.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Week 5...and MADAM is near.
Week 5. Silence.
Anyone know what's going on? drop me a mail.
“Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!” - April 5 2012, Rohan Shravan, “CEO” of Notion Ink.
No shame, not one bit.
Fear not friends, I'm busy getting an announcement ready for the best tablet that will never be made, the JKSAUR MADAM tablet! You can copy cells from one to the other! you can workflow and even funeral directors can build apps on my app! It comes with a revolutionary software never made called HO, imagine the possibilities with inbuilt voice recognition control, for e.g. you could say 'what's up ho?', and we will also be introducing the greatest comic store. Anyway why am I rambling, wait for an official announcement in the next couple of days, we also have plenty of partners signed up!!
Anyone know what's going on? drop me a mail.
“Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!” - April 5 2012, Rohan Shravan, “CEO” of Notion Ink.
No shame, not one bit.
Fear not friends, I'm busy getting an announcement ready for the best tablet that will never be made, the JKSAUR MADAM tablet! You can copy cells from one to the other! you can workflow and even funeral directors can build apps on my app! It comes with a revolutionary software never made called HO, imagine the possibilities with inbuilt voice recognition control, for e.g. you could say 'what's up ho?', and we will also be introducing the greatest comic store. Anyway why am I rambling, wait for an official announcement in the next couple of days, we also have plenty of partners signed up!!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Week 4...
So, week 4.
"Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!" - April 5 2012, Rohan Shravan, "CEO'' of Notion Ink.
Nothing in last 4 weeks. And they were back from "Hibernation" and wanted to keep us busy reading on weekends. Once in a while it would be nice if they didn't mislead.
"Our mission is to promote and pursue community based development, and this is the only way we can work on simultaneous projects." - Rohan Shravan, January 2012. hey can someone show me how they're promoting and pursuing community based development in Adam 2?
"Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!" - April 5 2012, Rohan Shravan, "CEO'' of Notion Ink.
Nothing in last 4 weeks. And they were back from "Hibernation" and wanted to keep us busy reading on weekends. Once in a while it would be nice if they didn't mislead.
"Our mission is to promote and pursue community based development, and this is the only way we can work on simultaneous projects." - Rohan Shravan, January 2012. hey can someone show me how they're promoting and pursuing community based development in Adam 2?
Monday, May 14, 2012
Week 3...
http://notionink.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/back-from-hibernation/ - April 5. "We are back from hibernation now! Sorry for the break (much-needed on our end). Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!"
3 weeks now without a post. Guess they went back to hibernation after 2 exhausting weeks.
Credibility? pssht, who cares about useless concepts like that, right?
3 weeks now without a post. Guess they went back to hibernation after 2 exhausting weeks.
Credibility? pssht, who cares about useless concepts like that, right?
Sunday, May 13, 2012
tablet opportunity can be as big as a billion dollars in 5 years!
http://www.lightreading.in/document.asp?doc_id=220713
Latest interview with Notion Ink's Rohan Shravan. I love the softball questions, and how you read so many words and learn so little. But here's two things I learned
- "The product is near completion" (but no timeline when it will be release
"The tablet opportunity can be as big as a billion dollar for us in the next five years." - Right. Just like how it was going to be 100 million dollars as he said 2 years ago.
Why are these "journalists" so afraid of asking hard questions? I don't know.
Just so you all know, my MADAM tablet opportunity is worth $10 billion in 3 years. I swear.
(the 3 comments to the article, if actually true, would be quite telling)
Latest interview with Notion Ink's Rohan Shravan. I love the softball questions, and how you read so many words and learn so little. But here's two things I learned
- "The product is near completion" (but no timeline when it will be release
"The tablet opportunity can be as big as a billion dollar for us in the next five years." - Right. Just like how it was going to be 100 million dollars as he said 2 years ago.
Why are these "journalists" so afraid of asking hard questions? I don't know.
Just so you all know, my MADAM tablet opportunity is worth $10 billion in 3 years. I swear.
(the 3 comments to the article, if actually true, would be quite telling)
Monday, May 7, 2012
Two weeks...
"Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!" - April 5 2012
That lasted all of two weeks. Nothing last two. Now I wait for a NI knight to come and tell me that what NI really meant was "some weekend in a month and not every weekend because he really didn't say that"
That lasted all of two weeks. Nothing last two. Now I wait for a NI knight to come and tell me that what NI really meant was "some weekend in a month and not every weekend because he really didn't say that"
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Just so you know: This isn't about quicklogic. And one more thing...
I guess need to make it explicit. This isn't about QuickLogic - though if the NI CEO publishes two posts calling them partner it's only natural some attention turns to them.
However, it does seem like they're a pretty interesting, technically highly competent company, and hopefully their new product lines (with their VEE technology, which I've been told and corrected multiple times after my last post, that it is effective and based on a proven background) will significantly help propel them forward. Oh, their pico projector is very cool (here's the actual product link), I might even buy one because I see some real practical usage with it. Now I sound like a salesman ;)
One more thing: WordPress gives me backlinks to threads that link my blog or posts. In a recent TR thread one of them responded to this "partnership" thing with something along the lines of "the CEO of the company doesn't know everything that's going on."
Uh. Listen to the webcast. The CEO of QuickLogic said that he met with both the NI founders. He said more, but listen to the webcast. Aside that, QuickLogic isn't a huge corporation, and in smaller companies CEO's will almost always have knowledge of the prospect pipeline and how further along the key prospects are to conversion. OK, even if you ignore all this, partnership announcements will almost always have a reciprocal announcement at the same time. Just find me one before today's date. And while you're at it, get me one for TI and Amazon too please.
However, it does seem like they're a pretty interesting, technically highly competent company, and hopefully their new product lines (with their VEE technology, which I've been told and corrected multiple times after my last post, that it is effective and based on a proven background) will significantly help propel them forward. Oh, their pico projector is very cool (here's the actual product link), I might even buy one because I see some real practical usage with it. Now I sound like a salesman ;)
One more thing: WordPress gives me backlinks to threads that link my blog or posts. In a recent TR thread one of them responded to this "partnership" thing with something along the lines of "the CEO of the company doesn't know everything that's going on."
Uh. Listen to the webcast. The CEO of QuickLogic said that he met with both the NI founders. He said more, but listen to the webcast. Aside that, QuickLogic isn't a huge corporation, and in smaller companies CEO's will almost always have knowledge of the prospect pipeline and how further along the key prospects are to conversion. OK, even if you ignore all this, partnership announcements will almost always have a reciprocal announcement at the same time. Just find me one before today's date. And while you're at it, get me one for TI and Amazon too please.
Friday, May 4, 2012
QuickLogic - Notion Ink Partnership story gets more interesting
In a post a few days ago, I commented on why I'm skeptical of this being a partnership. Over the last few days, this story has become more interesting - so read on.
First, let's look at Rohan Shravan's statements on the Notion Ink blog (bold emphasis mine)
"Our partner for VEE and DPO technology, as you already know is: Quicklogic (image)"
"both of which are a part of a single brilliant package developed by one of our partners (who also holds the trademarks for VEE and DPO). In the next blog we will introduce our partner and what exactly DPO does"
So, anyone with a rudimentary understanding of what the term "partnership" means (as opposed to 'supplier', for e.g. Apple is not my partner because I purchased an iPad.), will infer that there is some sort of a mutual agreement between the companies and they're doing something together.
Now, let's take a step ahead. On May 1st, QuickLogic had its 2012 Q1 conference call. You can listen to the call by registering here. You can read the full transcript here (though the Q&A is not in there). Perhaps it was my blog post, or something else, one of the analysts pointed out about Notion Ink's claim of working with Quicklogic and posed a question to the CEO of QuickLogic about the "nature of the engagement or prospective customer" (you can listen to it around the time in the image below. It doesn't have a time tracker)
And this is what Andrew Pease, the CEO said (I'm summarizing/paraphrasing - listen to the call for the full detail)
"First of all I was surprised to see that appear on his blog..... we have no indication of the production schedule..."
He goes on to say multiple times that he has no indication of what the production schedule is. Think again - on his blog, the Notion Ink CEO calls them a "partner", touts the technology, and yet the partner is surprised to see the blog post and has no clue of the production schedule! It seems they unwittingly became a "partner" and they didn't even know that. The QuickLogic CEO does indeed make a few complimentary comments on NI (though he seems to think Adam 2 is for the Indian market) and says "they're grateful to be mentioned on the blog", of course he'd say that - you don't want to diss your potential customers. Even if they're Notion Ink.
Read that again. The CEO of the "partner" was very surprised to see this on Notion Ink's blog. Shravan pulled a fast one on this again - think this from QuickLogic's perspective, it is a surprise.
Also, given this is a public company that is trying hard to do well, associations or implications of any potential revenue streams will garner interest. This post on Yahoo finance is an example. And therefore, companies like Notion Ink should at least have the sense to clear their post with the partner company before splashing announcements. Recollect that he called Texas Instruments a "partner" and made a "press release" except that I've never found an equivalent from TI.
And as far as the followers of Notion Ink are concerned, just remind yourself once more if they are being honest in how they communicate. Remember once more that one of their most critical technology suppliers has no indication of the production schedule even at this point.
First, let's look at Rohan Shravan's statements on the Notion Ink blog (bold emphasis mine)
"Our partner for VEE and DPO technology, as you already know is: Quicklogic (image)"
"both of which are a part of a single brilliant package developed by one of our partners (who also holds the trademarks for VEE and DPO). In the next blog we will introduce our partner and what exactly DPO does"
So, anyone with a rudimentary understanding of what the term "partnership" means (as opposed to 'supplier', for e.g. Apple is not my partner because I purchased an iPad.), will infer that there is some sort of a mutual agreement between the companies and they're doing something together.
Now, let's take a step ahead. On May 1st, QuickLogic had its 2012 Q1 conference call. You can listen to the call by registering here. You can read the full transcript here (though the Q&A is not in there). Perhaps it was my blog post, or something else, one of the analysts pointed out about Notion Ink's claim of working with Quicklogic and posed a question to the CEO of QuickLogic about the "nature of the engagement or prospective customer" (you can listen to it around the time in the image below. It doesn't have a time tracker)
And this is what Andrew Pease, the CEO said (I'm summarizing/paraphrasing - listen to the call for the full detail)
"First of all I was surprised to see that appear on his blog..... we have no indication of the production schedule..."
He goes on to say multiple times that he has no indication of what the production schedule is. Think again - on his blog, the Notion Ink CEO calls them a "partner", touts the technology, and yet the partner is surprised to see the blog post and has no clue of the production schedule! It seems they unwittingly became a "partner" and they didn't even know that. The QuickLogic CEO does indeed make a few complimentary comments on NI (though he seems to think Adam 2 is for the Indian market) and says "they're grateful to be mentioned on the blog", of course he'd say that - you don't want to diss your potential customers. Even if they're Notion Ink.
Read that again. The CEO of the "partner" was very surprised to see this on Notion Ink's blog. Shravan pulled a fast one on this again - think this from QuickLogic's perspective, it is a surprise.
Also, given this is a public company that is trying hard to do well, associations or implications of any potential revenue streams will garner interest. This post on Yahoo finance is an example. And therefore, companies like Notion Ink should at least have the sense to clear their post with the partner company before splashing announcements. Recollect that he called Texas Instruments a "partner" and made a "press release" except that I've never found an equivalent from TI.
And as far as the followers of Notion Ink are concerned, just remind yourself once more if they are being honest in how they communicate. Remember once more that one of their most critical technology suppliers has no indication of the production schedule even at this point.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
I will keep you busy on weekends! Oops, I just made that up. And Adam2 will be AMAZING
"Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!"
Er. Weekend's up.
Also, ever wondered why the latest posts have just 10 and 17 comments? It's got to be one of the two things (a) No one is commenting (b) They're moderating most of it out
I'm guessing (b) because whatever is "flowing across" our minds isn't what they want to publish. The cheerleader chicks too seem to have given up on the praises, which is a pity because I much enjoyed their comments.
Since Notion Ink mentioned that they're partnering with Quicklogic, I looked around for a reciprocal partnership announcement or press release from QuickLogic, but I can't find one. Anyone knows where? I mean when I search for "Quicklogic" and "Notion Ink" all I get are... MY BLOG posts. That's crap ;)
And in other news, there's that guy from G Tech Labs proclaiming that Adam 2 will be ... Amazing. So he apparently knows something we don't. I really hope he isn't basing it on plastic models and pictures. Would be nice if NI's partners stopped hyping them until we SEE the product in action, and as I said, it needs to fulfill some lofty promises that have already been made.
Hey, where did Dhyani go? I mean infographs were supposed to be a "long and fun project" out there and we've heard nothing more about it.
Update: Just a quick trip on the web -- publicly available information seems to indicate that "Dhyani" isn't with Notion Ink anymore. But of what I found, I think this man is quite talented in what he does.
Er. Weekend's up.
Also, ever wondered why the latest posts have just 10 and 17 comments? It's got to be one of the two things (a) No one is commenting (b) They're moderating most of it out
I'm guessing (b) because whatever is "flowing across" our minds isn't what they want to publish. The cheerleader chicks too seem to have given up on the praises, which is a pity because I much enjoyed their comments.
Since Notion Ink mentioned that they're partnering with Quicklogic, I looked around for a reciprocal partnership announcement or press release from QuickLogic, but I can't find one. Anyone knows where? I mean when I search for "Quicklogic" and "Notion Ink" all I get are... MY BLOG posts. That's crap ;)
And in other news, there's that guy from G Tech Labs proclaiming that Adam 2 will be ... Amazing. So he apparently knows something we don't. I really hope he isn't basing it on plastic models and pictures. Would be nice if NI's partners stopped hyping them until we SEE the product in action, and as I said, it needs to fulfill some lofty promises that have already been made.
Hey, where did Dhyani go? I mean infographs were supposed to be a "long and fun project" out there and we've heard nothing more about it.
Update: Just a quick trip on the web -- publicly available information seems to indicate that "Dhyani" isn't with Notion Ink anymore. But of what I found, I think this man is quite talented in what he does.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Hello, support site?
update: It's back up again. Thanks to...me? ;)
http://conclave.notionink.com/
Remember this site? It's the "support" site for Notion Ink. Has been down for the last 2 days.
Guess no one really noticed ;)
I'm a bit surprised, this amazing site took over 6 months to develop after significant research of leading support systems like, gasp, FedEx!
It's a very lame site, the least they could do is keep it running or say why it's down for so long. Guess that's too much to ask.
Coming soon - a compilation of all the new promises for Adam 2.
http://conclave.notionink.com/
Remember this site? It's the "support" site for Notion Ink. Has been down for the last 2 days.
Guess no one really noticed ;)
I'm a bit surprised, this amazing site took over 6 months to develop after significant research of leading support systems like, gasp, FedEx!
It's a very lame site, the least they could do is keep it running or say why it's down for so long. Guess that's too much to ask.
Coming soon - a compilation of all the new promises for Adam 2.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
A bit more on VEE, DPO, ORMIT, QuickLogic and Notion Ink
In this post I dig around a bit on this new VEE, DPO, ORMIT and QuickLogic, and summarize what find. I think you should read it even if it's long.
My thinking was simple. This is being pimped on NI's blog so I need to know what this technology is, how proven it is, who else had adopted it, who makes it, what independent reviews say about it and how good the company/ies behind it is/are. And here's a short journey.
Preamble
See this paragraph from the latest post on Adam 2 design
". It is a sophisticated method of dynamic range compression which differs from. …[snip]… different viewing conditions. ORMIT was developed as a result into biological visual systems, with particular emphasis on the humans."
Guess what? It’s almost a cut-paste from here - the original paragraph from this 2008 / 10 Quicklogic whitepaper reads as follows
"It is a sophisticated method of dynamic range compression (DRC), which differs from conventional methods such as gamma correction in that it applies different tonal and color transformations to every pixel in an image. These algorithms implement a model of human perception, which results in a displayed image that retains detail, color and vitality even under difficult viewing conditions. VEE technology specifically addresses the problem of the low contrast ratio of mobile displays to bring a more television-like viewing experience to mobile devices. (Later in the paper)... ORMIT was developed as a result of research into biological visual systems, with particular emphasis on the human."
It's kind of funny that he cut-pastes the paragraph and then makes some mistakes CEO style. See the bolded words for differences - they're subtle. Hey Rohan, at least link or mention the source when you copy things almost verbatim from your "partner's" whitepaper.
So, with that behind us, I looked into a bit more about VEE/DPO. Just like the cheerleading chicks on the blog, I too thought perhaps this is some great tech that a company like NI could rely on because of a proven background etc (you know, important given the history of incompetence, you'd think they would choose tech and partners wisely). But then I'm not too sure anymore because this is what I found.
1. The whitepaper was first written in 2008 with an update in 2010. So it's at least 4 years old (see last page of whitepaper). The algorithms and discussions are since 2006
2. I did some searches to understand who else uses it, who is talking about it, what independent reviews say etc. considering the white paper is 4 years old, and here's what I found
· VEE Visual Enhancement Engine - and hmm... first 2 links are Quicklogic's own promo material. And the 3rd link is Notion Ink's blog post?!
· Now try VEE DPO for the last 1 year and my blog is the second link?!! WHAT?!
· Now try ORMIT retina and a student paper is 1st, Notion Ink blog is the second link?! The more worrying aspect is that a search for ORMIT with its full expansion “Orthogonal Retina-Morphic Image Transform" gives us only 13 unique results, a few of which are quicklogic and Notion Ink, and the oldest dates to 2006.
What did I miss? Why am I not seeing a bunch of articles, examples, reference designs - it's either Quicklogic promo or this and that, nothing specifically exciting or demonstrative? And NI's blog and my blog are on the first page for even basic searches? That can't be good!
So now I’m trying to find a proper reference and a review. And I find two products that appear to have VEE and DPO – and that’s Kyocera’s DIGNO mobile and Pantech South Korea’s Vega 5 Tablet Phone. Heard of either product? Neither had I. So I dig a bit more.
It seems in Oct 2011 Kyocera released its DIGNO mobile with VEE/DPO which sounds exactly like what Rohan Shravan has been talking about. First of all - Kyocera? Meh. That's it? Dig around QuickLogic's press releases and that's all you will find relevant in the last 1 1/2 years.
Alright, fine, Kyocera's DIGNO is our first real reference, so what can I find about DIGNO? You can do your google searches and it's all pretty disappointing really. Mostly press releases and re-blogs and barely any fresh independent review of the phone - which isn't unusual for a phone limited to one market (Japan), and is just a middle-rate phone.
· It was released only for the Japanese market in Dec 2011. Not available anywhere else
· I can't find one full independent review of the device, and more specifically one which says how its display (which is AMOLED) is much better because of VEE
· I found 1 thread talking about it and the guy says "Not top of the line at all, but it'll hold me over for now."
Phone looks like crap though, but that irrelevant to the discussion. There's nothing in the thread talking about quality of display. I mean, it's a me-too, also-ran, kind-of-in-the-middle forgotten-already phone created by a meh smartphone company. Not inspiring.
Then I move on to Pantech Co's tablet phone, which is apparently the first high volume order - and this is from July 2011 (10 months ago) and it has VEE and DPO, the same tech that NI's Adam 2 will sport 1 year from now (if at all)
OK, what about Pantech? Can we find something about Pantech's tablet phone? Did it wow the critics? Is it a blockbuster? Is the display a killer feature? And here’s what I find after some painful searching.
It seems that the phone-tablet with VEE and DPO is the Pantech Vega 5 released in South Korea. And I can't find a single full-fledged post-release review of the device. But here is a pre-release review and here's another review, but says nothing about whether the display is anything worth writing about. Search for it, and you hit more Quicklogic PR's and some pre-release garbage. It's probably a hit...nowhere. Sure some people in South Korea purchased it, I guess.
By now I’m bummed, this is all pretty lame if you ask me, so I try to get more data out of Pantech’s website, but good luck with that. It's a horrid site and searching for Vega 5 gave me 0 results and I can't find it in the product list. If you can, let me know.
So, the round-up? Two barely heard of devices from two "yeah whatever" companies (As far as the tablet market goes), neither from US or Europe, with barely a review of the display capabilities. Now that sure stirs up confidence. Deja vu? All the pre-release hype of PQi and camera capabilities and batter capabilities of Adam 1?
OK, so I’ve spent time trying to get a background on the tech and who else uses it. It was time then to move on to the company that Notion Ink is calling it’s “partner”
Quicklogic.
This is a ~$21 M (revenue) company, a quick latest coverage is here - revenues down 40% YoY, Net profit margin -72% (Q1 2012), known # of employees 81 (they're smaller than NI if you believe Rohan Shravan's story about having 100+ employees *smirk*)
Now here's a quote from a Bloomberg report - "“They are in Kyocera and Pantech, but it’s all non-U.S.,” Khorsand said. “They are looking for any kind of win.” Is Notion Ink "any kind of win?"
Here’s something more interesting – in this 2010 article we hear that QuickLogic has 10 reference designs with VEE/DPO. The author also says that in the future VEE/DPO will be a standard etc. etc. And yet fast forward three years to 2012, we only know of two barely heard of products and VEE/DPO is nowhere near standard. Ask why? If this gave such a dramatic competitive advantage, why hasn’t anyone else used it? Why? You can also read that back in 2008 the QuickLogic CEO stated that Nokia is interested in VEE. This was four years ago! Why hasn’t it widely been adopted then?
When something isn’t adopted for that long in a booming market with many, many entrants and existing players, it is usually not a good sign.
So here’s what I’m thinking at this point.
A company that failed in its first execution is now relying on a technology that is hardly proven and marketed by a small, kinda struggling company that has been trying to sell it for years, not very successfully, and adopted by two products that are barely known and not even available outside Korea and Japan. Yes, gentlemen and cheerleaders, that’s what it is. Don’t spin it in any other way. Does it mean QuickLogic's technology is crap or a failure? No, it doesn't mean that. It means it's still not widely adopted after years and that's something to be very cautious about. We don't know "why" because if something could extend battery life, give better viewing conditions, one would think it would be grabbed by now.
I would do a turnaround if I could only find one really proven, blockbuster product that used this tech, and I can't.
And guess why Quicklogic is “partnering” with Notion Ink? The same reason Pixel Qi probably did. They need someone to carry their tech so they can talk about it.
Now consider that Adam 2 probably won’t be out until the end of this year, assuming whoever is "intelligent" enough to keep funding them, and it will have an unproven technology on a lower res screen, and will face a market already pampered by beautiful displays. I just don’t get it. And if it doesn’t work, hey let’s blame QuickLogic now. Like blaming Pixel Qi.
Finally, in his blog post, the CEO of Notion Ink says “Once ready, I will share videos on this, comparing the best know devices around." I am really, really looking forward to seeing this in real working situations.
What should you ask on Notion Ink's blog after their next post? Ask who else is using it, and for independent reviews of those devices. Maybe I missed some, who knows? If QuickLogic is really a "partner" surely they can share more with Notion Ink.
My thinking was simple. This is being pimped on NI's blog so I need to know what this technology is, how proven it is, who else had adopted it, who makes it, what independent reviews say about it and how good the company/ies behind it is/are. And here's a short journey.
Preamble
See this paragraph from the latest post on Adam 2 design
". It is a sophisticated method of dynamic range compression which differs from. …[snip]… different viewing conditions. ORMIT was developed as a result into biological visual systems, with particular emphasis on the humans."
Guess what? It’s almost a cut-paste from here - the original paragraph from this 2008 / 10 Quicklogic whitepaper reads as follows
"It is a sophisticated method of dynamic range compression (DRC), which differs from conventional methods such as gamma correction in that it applies different tonal and color transformations to every pixel in an image. These algorithms implement a model of human perception, which results in a displayed image that retains detail, color and vitality even under difficult viewing conditions. VEE technology specifically addresses the problem of the low contrast ratio of mobile displays to bring a more television-like viewing experience to mobile devices. (Later in the paper)... ORMIT was developed as a result of research into biological visual systems, with particular emphasis on the human."
It's kind of funny that he cut-pastes the paragraph and then makes some mistakes CEO style. See the bolded words for differences - they're subtle. Hey Rohan, at least link or mention the source when you copy things almost verbatim from your "partner's" whitepaper.
So, with that behind us, I looked into a bit more about VEE/DPO. Just like the cheerleading chicks on the blog, I too thought perhaps this is some great tech that a company like NI could rely on because of a proven background etc (you know, important given the history of incompetence, you'd think they would choose tech and partners wisely). But then I'm not too sure anymore because this is what I found.
1. The whitepaper was first written in 2008 with an update in 2010. So it's at least 4 years old (see last page of whitepaper). The algorithms and discussions are since 2006
2. I did some searches to understand who else uses it, who is talking about it, what independent reviews say etc. considering the white paper is 4 years old, and here's what I found
· VEE Visual Enhancement Engine - and hmm... first 2 links are Quicklogic's own promo material. And the 3rd link is Notion Ink's blog post?!
· Now try VEE DPO for the last 1 year and my blog is the second link?!! WHAT?!
· Now try ORMIT retina and a student paper is 1st, Notion Ink blog is the second link?! The more worrying aspect is that a search for ORMIT with its full expansion “Orthogonal Retina-Morphic Image Transform" gives us only 13 unique results, a few of which are quicklogic and Notion Ink, and the oldest dates to 2006.
What did I miss? Why am I not seeing a bunch of articles, examples, reference designs - it's either Quicklogic promo or this and that, nothing specifically exciting or demonstrative? And NI's blog and my blog are on the first page for even basic searches? That can't be good!
So now I’m trying to find a proper reference and a review. And I find two products that appear to have VEE and DPO – and that’s Kyocera’s DIGNO mobile and Pantech South Korea’s Vega 5 Tablet Phone. Heard of either product? Neither had I. So I dig a bit more.
It seems in Oct 2011 Kyocera released its DIGNO mobile with VEE/DPO which sounds exactly like what Rohan Shravan has been talking about. First of all - Kyocera? Meh. That's it? Dig around QuickLogic's press releases and that's all you will find relevant in the last 1 1/2 years.
Alright, fine, Kyocera's DIGNO is our first real reference, so what can I find about DIGNO? You can do your google searches and it's all pretty disappointing really. Mostly press releases and re-blogs and barely any fresh independent review of the phone - which isn't unusual for a phone limited to one market (Japan), and is just a middle-rate phone.
· It was released only for the Japanese market in Dec 2011. Not available anywhere else
· I can't find one full independent review of the device, and more specifically one which says how its display (which is AMOLED) is much better because of VEE
· I found 1 thread talking about it and the guy says "Not top of the line at all, but it'll hold me over for now."
Phone looks like crap though, but that irrelevant to the discussion. There's nothing in the thread talking about quality of display. I mean, it's a me-too, also-ran, kind-of-in-the-middle forgotten-already phone created by a meh smartphone company. Not inspiring.
Then I move on to Pantech Co's tablet phone, which is apparently the first high volume order - and this is from July 2011 (10 months ago) and it has VEE and DPO, the same tech that NI's Adam 2 will sport 1 year from now (if at all)
OK, what about Pantech? Can we find something about Pantech's tablet phone? Did it wow the critics? Is it a blockbuster? Is the display a killer feature? And here’s what I find after some painful searching.
It seems that the phone-tablet with VEE and DPO is the Pantech Vega 5 released in South Korea. And I can't find a single full-fledged post-release review of the device. But here is a pre-release review and here's another review, but says nothing about whether the display is anything worth writing about. Search for it, and you hit more Quicklogic PR's and some pre-release garbage. It's probably a hit...nowhere. Sure some people in South Korea purchased it, I guess.
By now I’m bummed, this is all pretty lame if you ask me, so I try to get more data out of Pantech’s website, but good luck with that. It's a horrid site and searching for Vega 5 gave me 0 results and I can't find it in the product list. If you can, let me know.
So, the round-up? Two barely heard of devices from two "yeah whatever" companies (As far as the tablet market goes), neither from US or Europe, with barely a review of the display capabilities. Now that sure stirs up confidence. Deja vu? All the pre-release hype of PQi and camera capabilities and batter capabilities of Adam 1?
OK, so I’ve spent time trying to get a background on the tech and who else uses it. It was time then to move on to the company that Notion Ink is calling it’s “partner”
Quicklogic.
This is a ~$21 M (revenue) company, a quick latest coverage is here - revenues down 40% YoY, Net profit margin -72% (Q1 2012), known # of employees 81 (they're smaller than NI if you believe Rohan Shravan's story about having 100+ employees *smirk*)
Now here's a quote from a Bloomberg report - "“They are in Kyocera and Pantech, but it’s all non-U.S.,” Khorsand said. “They are looking for any kind of win.” Is Notion Ink "any kind of win?"
Here’s something more interesting – in this 2010 article we hear that QuickLogic has 10 reference designs with VEE/DPO. The author also says that in the future VEE/DPO will be a standard etc. etc. And yet fast forward three years to 2012, we only know of two barely heard of products and VEE/DPO is nowhere near standard. Ask why? If this gave such a dramatic competitive advantage, why hasn’t anyone else used it? Why? You can also read that back in 2008 the QuickLogic CEO stated that Nokia is interested in VEE. This was four years ago! Why hasn’t it widely been adopted then?
When something isn’t adopted for that long in a booming market with many, many entrants and existing players, it is usually not a good sign.
So here’s what I’m thinking at this point.
A company that failed in its first execution is now relying on a technology that is hardly proven and marketed by a small, kinda struggling company that has been trying to sell it for years, not very successfully, and adopted by two products that are barely known and not even available outside Korea and Japan. Yes, gentlemen and cheerleaders, that’s what it is. Don’t spin it in any other way. Does it mean QuickLogic's technology is crap or a failure? No, it doesn't mean that. It means it's still not widely adopted after years and that's something to be very cautious about. We don't know "why" because if something could extend battery life, give better viewing conditions, one would think it would be grabbed by now.
I would do a turnaround if I could only find one really proven, blockbuster product that used this tech, and I can't.
And guess why Quicklogic is “partnering” with Notion Ink? The same reason Pixel Qi probably did. They need someone to carry their tech so they can talk about it.
Now consider that Adam 2 probably won’t be out until the end of this year, assuming whoever is "intelligent" enough to keep funding them, and it will have an unproven technology on a lower res screen, and will face a market already pampered by beautiful displays. I just don’t get it. And if it doesn’t work, hey let’s blame QuickLogic now. Like blaming Pixel Qi.
Finally, in his blog post, the CEO of Notion Ink says “Once ready, I will share videos on this, comparing the best know devices around." I am really, really looking forward to seeing this in real working situations.
What should you ask on Notion Ink's blog after their next post? Ask who else is using it, and for independent reviews of those devices. Maybe I missed some, who knows? If QuickLogic is really a "partner" surely they can share more with Notion Ink.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
All that VEE and DPO blah blah... it's got to be QuickLogic
There's no big secret about this VEE, DPO. It's got to be QuickLogic.
Anyway, I'm not going to comment on the blog post. It's technical, and the blog is supposed to be technical so I suppose it's all what it's supposed to be.
The best part of the post are the comments. The same cheerleader chicks are back with much needed hilarity, and of course don't forget that whenever the CEO of Notion Ink says "partnership" you have to take it with a bucket of salt
1) He said 'partnership with Amazon' -- total BS. They sold Adams on Amazon via G tech, hell I can sell in Amazon, anyone can sell on Amazon, it doesn't make them partners
2) Remember that whole thing about partnership with TI and press release? Please find me an equivalent release from TI (all PRs tend to have statements from both companies)... it was just a NI release, and TI isn't their partner just as Dell isn't my partner because I purchased their laptop ;)
3) remember that Kivy.org mumbo jumbo? NI even forgot that the contest was won by some people who were unlucky to get their low class tablets, but the post was all about how NI was supporting Kivy.
So -- when Rohan Shravan or Notion Ink says "partnership", don't believe it just yet. It's all words until we see it in action.
Anyway, I'm not going to comment on the blog post. It's technical, and the blog is supposed to be technical so I suppose it's all what it's supposed to be.
The best part of the post are the comments. The same cheerleader chicks are back with much needed hilarity, and of course don't forget that whenever the CEO of Notion Ink says "partnership" you have to take it with a bucket of salt
1) He said 'partnership with Amazon' -- total BS. They sold Adams on Amazon via G tech, hell I can sell in Amazon, anyone can sell on Amazon, it doesn't make them partners
2) Remember that whole thing about partnership with TI and press release? Please find me an equivalent release from TI (all PRs tend to have statements from both companies)... it was just a NI release, and TI isn't their partner just as Dell isn't my partner because I purchased their laptop ;)
3) remember that Kivy.org mumbo jumbo? NI even forgot that the contest was won by some people who were unlucky to get their low class tablets, but the post was all about how NI was supporting Kivy.
So -- when Rohan Shravan or Notion Ink says "partnership", don't believe it just yet. It's all words until we see it in action.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Hey look, a new Rohan Clone* on the blog!
So, perhaps stung by all the criticism, or whatever else (trying to drum up investment from tomato farmers?), Notion Ink put up a new blog post. Would be nice if someone proof-read it, but I guess Rohan did and it shows.
Fine. For a refreshing change, it's from "V" -- I guess it is "Vikram Dutt" if it's his real name (that's what it says in the post title bar), and I personally don't care. On the first read, it sounded OK. But then I read it again. And again. Because what I was asking myself is "what new information did I learn?"
That's when it became clear - this isn't an original post. It seems to have gone through the "Rohan reality distortion field*" which usually manifests itself as many paragraphs with useless information.
Let's go back to the post.
1. We learn again that Camera is WIP. Well, it's been WIP for over 6 months now. Everyone knows why it's in WIP. And the action to resolution -- well "you guys help us", uh oh - that's what TR has been doing. The post he links to a developer asking Nvidia is from Dec 2011. What is it now? April 1st week 2012. So given most devs are slowly walking away, does this implicitly mean it's never going to happen?
2. Then he goes into RenderScript. Wait what? Er... Renderscript and SVG will be in focus... um, so? Just like how "infographics' were going to be a "long fun project" in NI, remember? Now we're onto RenderScript (Rohan Shravan mentioned RenderScript in February 2011, go look it up)
3. Sharing anything on next version of Eden doesn't make sense if Camera isn't resolved? So if Camera is the critical bottleneck then why would you spend a lot of time on Eden, which from your own admission doesn't sound useful without a camera. The two topics are unrelated. The reason you can't share much on Eden 2 is because you don't have much to share. And if Camera does not get resolved, does it mean there will be no Eden 2?
4. Blah blah micro-apps. This one has CEO touch all over it, "refer" a value in one cell of a sheet to another - indeed.
5. Some more weasel words - "great products need stronger fundamentals", er could you share what those "fundamentals" are? Your employer's first product was awful so it'd be great to know "fundamentals" you plan to adopt.
6. "There is truck load of information yet to come" - like how your CEO wanted the readers to keep their notebooks open for design details? They're still waiting. When will this truck load of information come.
"First things first", like what? What specifically is your next step? What exactly are you out to do now? What is the "first thing" and what should your users / prospects expect?
How about sharing something concrete instead of vague details and promises?
There's one concrete commitment in this post - " Unlike Adam 1, there will be no short-cuts for 2. If something not working, it won’t go out". Well, at least there's an admission that there were short-cuts in Adam 1. I have absolutely no faith that they will follow-up on this philosophy, but it's something I can point to later.
I'm really disappointed at the lack of "you are a visionary" posts from his long time fans, please, entertain us. Where's the chroot guy when his idol wants him ;)
* and ** - I had a much ruder title, but then I realized that "V" is an employee doing his manager's bidding. The language/content has all hallmarks of Rohan in it, so it isn't fair to blame V I guess.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
There we go: utter stupidity and cluelessness
See this post? After a big break which shouldn't have happened in the first place because he promised his readers regular design updates, the CEO of Notion Ink is back at it again - and you can see how he takes his readers for utter fools (which he always has, for a long long time).
It's amazing that apparently they're back after a "much needed break", are you fucking kidding me? They abandoned their customers who've been screaming for support, but he's the one needing a break? How about telling people that he'd be gone on a break - why didn't he say that? How hard is it to put a blog post that says "will be gone for 4 weeks" - Why tell them to "open their notebooks and be ready for design details"?
If I were running a company, I'd have to be a complete moron and an utter idiot to not know what people are thinking and asking for, especially with the plethora of evidence in all the past post responses, threads, emails, posts that my company has received.
It's astonishing that he comes in, asks people what what their "thoughts" are and makes another empty meaningless promise. How stupid do you have to be to believe in this anymore? I've said this before, and I'll say it again - the TR folks need to stop supporting this charade. The company and its CEO have zero respect for its customers - and if the Adam followers have any more sense, forget about Adam 2 or anything out of this company led by this man.
(I find it hilarious that one of the fans even "liked" that blog post...seriously)
Edit: As I was writing this, there were 27 comments on the blog with 2 very critical ones at the top. I refreshed, and boom - there's 25. The two vanished. Yeah, that's our dear leader at work, deleting critical messages and seeking out those who praise. Hey, you 4-5 guys, stop chrooting and wiping your Adams and come and post a few "you are a visionary / Adam 2 will be perfect!" posts! ;)
It's amazing that apparently they're back after a "much needed break", are you fucking kidding me? They abandoned their customers who've been screaming for support, but he's the one needing a break? How about telling people that he'd be gone on a break - why didn't he say that? How hard is it to put a blog post that says "will be gone for 4 weeks" - Why tell them to "open their notebooks and be ready for design details"?
If I were running a company, I'd have to be a complete moron and an utter idiot to not know what people are thinking and asking for, especially with the plethora of evidence in all the past post responses, threads, emails, posts that my company has received.
It's astonishing that he comes in, asks people what what their "thoughts" are and makes another empty meaningless promise. How stupid do you have to be to believe in this anymore? I've said this before, and I'll say it again - the TR folks need to stop supporting this charade. The company and its CEO have zero respect for its customers - and if the Adam followers have any more sense, forget about Adam 2 or anything out of this company led by this man.
(I find it hilarious that one of the fans even "liked" that blog post...seriously)
Edit: As I was writing this, there were 27 comments on the blog with 2 very critical ones at the top. I refreshed, and boom - there's 25. The two vanished. Yeah, that's our dear leader at work, deleting critical messages and seeking out those who praise. Hey, you 4-5 guys, stop chrooting and wiping your Adams and come and post a few "you are a visionary / Adam 2 will be perfect!" posts! ;)
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