Comments on: Notion Ink prompting concerns with lack of hardware demo, sky-high return fees [Updated]

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:42:40 +0000

You should want people to buy, if they don’t you are going to end up with a product that comes from a dead company . That means no support at all. No upgrades, no research and development and if the product craps out a 500 dollar paper weight.

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:40:44 +0000

I have been a big supporter of this company for just over a year now. I am now less enthusiastic about NI. Most of this concern is that I now do not believe that if they keep the management they have in place now they will be able to stay in business long. Not even a staunch supporter can deny that it seems that NI is than incompetent in this department. Its fine if you have a great product, but if you have a poor business plan there is no way you can survive. NI clearly doesn’t have a customer service department in place and that also worried me. When the pre-order was going wrong there was no one to reach out to. Ni continually compares what it is doing to other companies, such as their return policy. NI seems to think that their policy is generous and above or equal to others, this is just wrong. Not once have I bought an item from and found it defective then they charged me for shipping, conducting an investigation and shipping another one. Ni wants to blame blogs for their posts and they just crazy. Those blogs did their jobs and reported what was going on and it was that simple. The rollout just went horrible and no one can deny that. How bad it went is not the blogs fault. My thinking is with NI being so small and new the only way they are going to be able to sell units to more than supporters, tech geeks, and the likes there of is to have serious POSITIVE word of mouth. They need the average consumer, the masses and without positive word of mouth this doesn’t happen. If this doesn’t happen we end up with a closed business, or a business that doesn’t have the funds to continue research and development. In effect it would be like buying a HD DVD player. I have confidence in the product but none in their business plan at this time and I think that’s what people should be worried about more than anything.

By: aj

aj — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:53:42 +0000

Ha Ha :) the Adam phenomena..! a satire..
http://analytech.blogspot.com/2010/12/adam-and-notion-ink-analyse-this.html

By: fozylet

fozylet — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 06:15:51 +0000

last year they went with nvidia
this year PixelQi or any of their suppliers could be taking them

http://pixelqi.com/blog1/2010/12/11/notion-ink-tablet-with-pixel-qi-screen-sells-out/

yeah, but that thought is not as appealing as a conspiracy theory. so continue to cry scam

By: Singapura

Singapura — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 03:03:40 +0000

I really hope that people remain cynical and don’t buy the product so I can get it whenever the Pixel Qi screens are in stock again.

By: Madhavan

Madhavan — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 07:10:17 +0000

I am glad so many are cautious +/- cynical. Otherwise My order wouldn’t have gone through before it sold out. Yes it’s a risk, like so many others in life. However, It’s a risk I would take many more times for a brilliant concept and passionate start up.

By: Eddy

Eddy — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 19:10:06 +0000

I am not a marketing expert. However, as much as modern society has gone “Digital”, nothing beats holding the thing in your hand. That is why, as expensive as it may seem, Apple has their “Apple Stores”, and their products are available at many retailers. If they really want people such as myself to purchase, they need to make physical models available to the public. Until then, as much as I got excited about the product, I will wait, until the actual release in the U.S. . Incidentally, I was waiting all summer for the release, and got tired of waiting. Went in to an Apple Store, and bought an Ipad. Of course, for the price of my Ipad, I would have gotten more out of an Adam. However, the Ipad, with all it’s limitations, and impositions, was something I could try out. I don’t own a “Nook”, or any other e-reader. However, they too are available for the public to “touch”.
If the marketing strategy is to hold off, and exploit human curiosity, then I think that history will be on my side, and this will flop…

By: Mann

Mann — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 09:28:12 +0000

I admit, it was handled amateurish, but I still don’t find anything shady. If Notion Ink was really trying to rob people of their money, they could have started the pre-ordering immediately after the CES 2010. The product had generated considerable buzz then. But the company waited almost 12 months to start taking pre-orders. Also if Notion Ink was really a scam they wouldn’t have tried to stay in the public gaze all this while.

Pre-orderers will perhaps not get a refund if the product doesn’t ship. But do you think that Notion Ink and Rohan Shravan will be able to outwit the laws of the land?

By: Donnie

Donnie — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 01:55:21 +0000

Well I guess that until 18th we need to be satisfied with this http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/notion-ink-adam-tablet :D

By: tbc

tbc — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:44:01 +0000

My original interest in NI started with a slashgear hands-on. I followed the blog for a good 4 months and posted about a dozen times. NI is going to release the demo video as a response to request on the blog (i.e., a video prior to CES did not appear to be planned). I am going to wait to order for several reasons. First, no online video of Adam in use since October and that was showing a FLASH video from July (i.e., chance that video made in July). Second, some of the more loyal bloggers seemed to complain about not receiving the pre-order email. Third, posts by people accepted into EAP saying they have not received an Adam and have not heard about EAP or SDK. Fourth, people whose logo’s made the final round saying they did not receive the steep discount they were promised. Finally, the whole return policy/ordering/customs/paying in full before shipping/etc, debacle. Adam will be an amazing tablet if NI can pull it off. I will just wait until it has received some hands-on reviews and is available from vendors that I know and trust (NewEgg/JR/etc). I do not think it is a scam. I do not, however, think NI has gotten their act together. Nothing else is really available other than the iPad, so might as well wait until CES.

By: Yea right

Yea right — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:24:05 +0000

Unfortunately my friend. Your trust in Rohan might not have too much warranty.

He or Notion Ink are not registered at 2011 CES. Please try to find him or the company and tell us which exhibit they are attending.

http://ces11.mapyourshow.com/3_0/search.cfm?

By: rajesh

rajesh — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:40:46 +0000

@bbman
humm..may i know which tablet/computer companies.. are shipping internationally to 217 countries…..

By: bbman

bbman — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:38:04 +0000

BTW-I just noticed your posts are just copy/pastes from the NI blog site…your credibility is now ZERO!

By: bbman

bbman — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:32:58 +0000

Dumb comparison…which of these companies requires you to ship the device internationally and pay customs fees? Not Apple, not Dell, not HP, only NI. Oh, and per their website it could run somewhere between 0-100% of the invoice cost…perfect!

And I would assume you think their shipping policy is a good intention as well? Charge everyone $50? Then I guess other companies have bad intentions of requesting payment for what the shipment actually costs them, often times they eat that cost with free shipping. You think it costs the same to ship to Libya as it does to ship to Australia or Miami? I doubt it, somebody is subsidizing someone else..LAME!

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:44:16 +0000

Possible scam ?

By: rajesh

rajesh — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:14:46 +0000

@ketty
Return and Refund Policy: Lets look at this page for a moment: http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/salespolicies.html#topic-21 This is one of the better policies followed by any company, others are much worse. For Toshiba, the number of days are 10. Let’s take a look at this one:
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/policy/en/policy?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&~section=018#total
return policy of dell, restocking fees of upto 15% applicable. Upon receipt of your return, Dell will issue a credit or a refund of the purchase price paid, less shipping and handling and any applicable restocking fees subject to this policy.
Ship the products at your expense, and insure the shipment or accept the risk of loss or damage during shipment.

By: Ketty

Ketty — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:22:47 +0000

How do you call charging a bunch of unreasonable fees (not to mention a fee just for canceling an order) good intentions? Also, if Rohan and his company do believe they’re selling a good product, they wouldn’t they have a good warranty/return policy to back it up? Their return policies and the miscellaneous charges sound like a scam to me.

By: earthzero

earthzero — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:18:51 +0000

Quite frankly, the return policy doesn’t have to be compliant with any country’s trade laws except their own if you are willing to basically “import” the product into your country from another at your expense. If they do not have a presence in your country and are not specifically licensed as a retailer there, you are on your own. This is to be expected.

By: earthzero

earthzero — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:14:35 +0000

I don’t see any reason for a retraction to be printed in this case at all. The concerns are valid and the pre-order process did indeed go wrong. This will just have to be chalked up as growing pains and a lesson learned for a young company and a youthful, though creative and well intentioned, CEO and staff.

By: rajesh

rajesh — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:18:38 +0000

Humm..yess..i think there were few problems..so what! still they got publicity… good or bad; publicity is publicity..
but i think you need two things to make your product successful
1.good product
2.good intentions

NI got both.. and rest is typical mechanical process….which get smooth-en by time and little greasing…

By: Brett

Brett — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:45:33 +0000

I was excited about this, but seeing that it’s going to take 6 weeks? Then reading about the return fees/etc… Sorry Notion Ink, this is all just shady and looks like their still pushing things back, but now, their taking money and doing it. As stated by a previous poster, very amateurish and shady. I definately won’t be buying one of these until I see some user reviews and can get one shipped a day or two after ordering. I’m all for supporting the underdog but this is getting a little silly.

By: mal

mal — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 11:21:11 +0000

I disagree. You want other sites to be positively enthusiastic, but how can they if they haven’t even seen the product. In fact, no one has.
As for not expecting them to have the same processing system as Apple and HP, these are the companies they’re competing with. If they can’t at least match them, then I’m afraid NI will not last long.
It’s a real shame because I was excited about this product, but the pre-order thing has been handled amateurish and I might even add, a bit shady.

By: sola

sola — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:21:46 +0000

I have postponed/stopped my pre-ordering as well even though I received a pre-order offer email (I am an early commenter on their blog).

I have been burnt by scams and even if I think that this is not one of them, I don’t want to suffer disappointment again with a substandard product.

For example: There is no information AT ALL about the viewing angles of the PixelQi screen they are using in the Adam (It is likely NOT the wide-view version). My primary concern with the Advent Vega (which is much cheaper) that it has bad viewing angles. Good viewing angles are a MUST for a tablet which may be used for reading as well (PixelQi warrants this).

This could have only been helped by a timely, independent review of the final production unit by someone I trust with impartiality. E.g. Slashgear. A December 18 self-review will NOT help this, I will certainly not order it for Christmas.

Another big negative factor is that they only ship the machines in the second part of January. Which means it cannot make it to the Christmas tree. This is a HUGE mistake by Notion Ink and cools down the buying fever considerably. A present-card is nice but it is not the same as a real present.

At this time, it is impossible to make an informed decision about the Adam. Which means I will not make one.

I will probably buy a Kindle for Christmas because I wanted to buy something which is very good for reading.

As for the Adam: I will wait until CES and see what products launch there. I will also wait for the Adam reviews. If there are no comparable tablet products launched there and the reviews are sufficiently positive, I may order an Adam. But, since by that time, I will also have a Kindle, the PixelQi screen of the Adam will not be an advantage. A real Ubuntu or Meego running tablet device will stand a good chance for becoming the new tablet-favourite-to-be-purchased.

By: Mann

Mann — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:00:18 +0000

I entirely agree with shakeelc. Most tech sites are biased against Notion Ink. In fact, Slashgear and Liliputing are the only sites that seem positively enthusiastic about the tablet. There may be issues, but that is nothing unheard of. After all, this is a start up company trying to sell its first gadget. You can’t expect them to have the same processing system as Apple or HP.

By: shakeelc

shakeelc — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:35:14 +0000

I have a new respect for Slashgear, every other site has written biased and taunting pieces but you guys (even after all these problems) have kept it unbiased and informative. Well done.

By: Chris Davies

Chris Davies — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 09:31:46 +0000

They won’t release schematics, test photos, user manuals and the like, but the product has to have a listing of some sort – even if it’s just to show the final test report and a confidentiality request.

By: LateNightOwl

LateNightOwl — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:51:08 +0000

FCC won’t release the certification information if a company requests secrecy till a certain release date listed in the application. That’s all.

By: Chris Davies

Chris Davies — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:36:49 +0000

Thanks Anand, corrected.

By: john

john — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:30:01 +0000

don’t know about the us or anywhere else, but I doubt these return policies would be compliant with australian trade laws. unfortunately, the entire process seems dodgy, and has really put me off pre-ordering one for now. i’ll wait until independent reviews for the unit are released.

By: Anand

Anand — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:29:56 +0000

Video demo is on “December” 18th, Chris!

And what I said, turned out correct ;-)

By: Chris Davies

Chris Davies — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 07:49:37 +0000

I’d certainly like that to be the case, but I still think there are too many red flags for us to go without putting up a warning.

I’d rather be proved wrong and issue a retraction later, than see people get scammed.

By: Anand

Anand — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 07:47:20 +0000

I just think it is a marketing ploy gone wrong. Rohan Shravan has probably tried too hard to emulate Apple’s successful marketing strategies. Notion Ink has had some wonderful marketing strategies till date to stay news-worthy all along. They kept coming with new updates every week so that they remained top on the mind of the readers. Heck, they also have the mystery feature thingy to stay relevant even post-release.

Considering that CES is three weeks away, I think the thought process would be to open for preorders this week (and thereby stay on news). Get the early adopter crowd this week. Next, put up a video and demo the following week. This way, they will stay news-relevant until CES happens when more publicity could come up.

But unfortunately, Notion Ink does not enjoy the same twenty year history of Apple and when Steve Jobs says white iPhone is coming to only stop talking about it, nobody cries scam. But when this twenty something does it, it is bound to get sharp criticisms.