Sunday, April 24, 2011

Silence is Golden - Gold Holds No Value in the Notion Ink Community

    It's been a long time since we last spoke. Does that sound familiar? It should. That is how Rohan started a few of his blog posts back when the official Notion Ink blog started to show signs of dying. Now he needs to start off every post with that little phrase. What has happened to the "family"? Where has the constant knowledge gone?

     The journey started way back in April (last year) when the blog was officially opened. The promise of the ultimate Android tablet kept people flocking. The teasing and constant flow of information kept the people coming back for more. The Adam would have been a beast if it were released last summer. No competition could match it on the specs. And then came the delays.

   Delay one with some investor issues. It was suppose to arrive sometime around Thanksgiving. In the weeks counting up to Thanksgiving we got post after post describing one bit of information at a time about the Adam. Weekend Specials he called them. It gave would be buyers a particular date to look forward to for more information. We knew everything about the Adam aside from a few crucial details.

     Would the Adam come with the Android Market? Nobody knew. It took an interview with Android Police to find out, and that was after the pre-order had started. Another piece of the puzzle that was completely missing was a demonstration of the actual device. We had screenshots, renders, photos, prototype photos, but no videos or photos of the actual production Adam. We were expected to buy out of trust, and many of us did.

     After the backlash of concern about a pre-order for an unknown product Rohan took charge of the situation by giving the videos we wanted. We didn't just get a video of the Adam doing its thing, we got a video demonstration every day. Now we knew everything about the Adam and how to use it once it arrived. This device still hadn't shipped to anyone.

     In January, the videos stopped because it was the time of year for CES 2011. That was a disappointment. Notion Ink didn't have a booth for whatever reason, and nobody knew they were their. Slashgear and Engadget seemed to be the only media folks that gave them any type of coverage. Maybe because they were looking for Rohan? From Engadget and Slashgear the Adam got excellent "reviews". Strangely, we have yet to receive an actual review on the Adam from either blog even though they said it was coming.

    CES marked the beginning of the end for Notion Ink's blogging record. Shipping delays and bricked Adam's destroyed the company's reputation overnight. Many people were angry; many people cancelled their order. Some people didn't even get an Adam until March. The customers that had their orders pushed backed several months didn't like silence on the blog very much either. Emails to support didn't bring back anything either.

     We know Rohan has something to blog about. The last post gave a hint of the next major software update for the Adam. Can't he give us a little teaser every weekend about the update like he's done before? Is he afraid of making promises he can't keep? Just put a little disclaimer at the bottom saying details may vary. We don't like being kept in the dark.

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