Introspection

Dear All,

Last night had been on the brown and dry grass for us! Let’s look at where we are and why things are the way they look now:

  • Notion Ink ships from China. We promised global pricing. That would mean no direct conversion of USD to Euros. That should apply on shipping rates as well. DHL shipping price from East Coast USA to West Coast USA for 2lb is $36. Notion Ink’s shipping rate is $50 flat for every country. Here is a reference for you all: http://www.dhl-usa.com/resources/Standard_Rate_Guide_2011.pdf Charge to Notion Ink for shipping to Russia is 1161 RMB which turns out to be $180! Now One Global Price would mean One global price. Europe has seen a lot of abuse when it comes to product pricing. We have tried to streamline this. (Do check the fuel surcharge, remote area service, address correction and other terms in the reference document.)
  • Global Warranty: Notion Ink’s warranty policy represents singularity. Unlike for other firms where cross border purchases or international purchases ensures that the warranty benefits are lost, we have proposed singular solution where irrespective of where you are and even if you migrate, policies remain same.  http://images.apple.com/legal/warranty/docs/NA_iPad_Warranty_v20.pdf This would be where the warranty does not extent to the most important part of the device which is battery. Notion Ink provides 180 days for batteries.
  • MasterCard: Notion Ink has already applied for MasterCard and theirs is the longest process. Officially we were told that it will not take more than 2 weeks, but now they need 3 more weeks for the same. Visa and other integrations took us 3 days.
  • Transaction Issues: CCAvenue is a reputed firm here in India. Worlds biggest Transportation Firm, Indian Railways, is dependent on them, and handles millions of transactions a day. Users in USA are facing difficulty because their banks are detecting fraud (extremely weird) and the server timed out in most of the cases when users were re-directed to their payment page. Our personnels are on it and querying them to know the reason.
  • 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:
    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.
  • FCC: We shared the information that it is expected in early 20s. Even if it gets delayed, it will be in December, and this is specifically the reason why first Adam will only be shipped on 6th January.
  • I believe our team did an error by mentioning the policies in few readable lines. You will see the complete document reflected on the website in couple of hours from now.
  • Pixel Qi has already sold out and the 3G variants are the next. Even though the stats for purchases is extremely good, everybody at Notion Ink is dis-heartened and sad because of all the confusion that erupted because of Mr. Murphy.
  • The Pre-Order vs CES. We do realize the lack of ‘more’ videos and hands on demo or review by our fellow technical bloggers, and deeply respect those who want to wait for the same. CES is where we intended to demo, show everything and allow for review, else there is no point for a good CES event. Pre-order was essentially for those who wanted to pre-book before Adam go out of stock (which it has already started for some variants). But now reading your comments it feels extremely unfair on our part in not releasing videos, run through and other important thing you need to know.
  • In-depth video will be released on 18th December, and till then you can hold on continuing your purchases.

We at Notion Ink love all of you, and we have tried to be completely impartial to the system, but seems it is too difficult to keep everyone happy. Earlier we discussed how we are open to your ideas, listen and implement them as well. I would be spending rest of the day in reading through your comments and understanding how exactly you want us to deviate from industry standards.

With Warm Regards

Rohan Shravan

 

2,904 thoughts on “Introspection”

  6. rohan info on why its almost 660$ in india which we indians can do without. 50$ extra which made me not to order now

  8. So sad that many long time members never got the chance to order because the mail was not sent.
    So sad that Europeans with Mastercards can’t order at all.
    So sad.

  11. but you still dint answer on how your drew the algorithm to choose people who should get the email and who shouldn’t ?

  12. Dear Rohan,

    Why are the two top models already sold out? Or is it a typo? I just woke up and wanted to preorder but now I can’t 😦

  13. Thank you for the information Rohan! Finally some clarity! The only question I have is what decided who got a mail?

    I look forward to the indepth video! Will new preorders come available around that time?

  14. This is a disaster… ONE YEAR WAITING, two nights without sleep… and when I can enter to preorder page after more than 1000 tries from my preorder link, I saw that the one I need (Pixel Qi + Wifi) is sold out… I am very sad, it´s one year waiting for nothing, and the last days was insane (no working, no sleeping…)…

    For you André, or Rohan… please give me the oportunity of buy now a Pixel Qi+WiFi unit, I am desesperate now, all work for nothing… please send me a email with an special order link if that is possible, thanks for all…………………

  16. Mastercard is coming soon. Unfortunately emails were sent to 10k people only, where it was supposed to be around 30k. We are checking why that happened.

    Regards

  17. what about those who never got the family pre-order link and thus can not order pixelQI+3G anymore?

  19. Hi Rohan, I miss a comment about the emails. A lot of peolpe doesn’t get the email with the pre order link and I think you have to explain why.

    Thanks,
    Harvey

  21. Well was hoping to order the pixel qi wifi version but guess that’ll have to wait till they have more in stock…im kinda glad i have to wait so i can see all the unboxing videos as well as the upcoming NI video : ) good luck NI!

  22. Thank you for the explanations. Glad to hear the Mastercard application is on the way. Hopefully Pixel Qi variants won’t take long to come in stock.

  24. I can see it’s not easy for a small company to start something as large as this. NI won’t be the first ones to be crushed by their own success. Let’s hope everything goes the way it should and keep the information flowing. Marketing starts in the mind of the customer and if that mind is ignored, it will go away.

  25. Help! I ordered the pixelQi 3g model, but have had issues with the order – CCAvenue took my money but said processing failed – I have an order ID that no-one recognises. I trust this will get resolved, but Rohan – does the sell out mean I wont get the model I ordered?

  26. So, now it’s confirmed that due to the fault of various other service providers, that I’m just flat not going to be able to purchase my PQ G3-850 model, even though I was pre-pre-order invite, was trying the pre-order page since 12PM EST, called in and was 2 hours late for work trying to get an order through?

    This is what what I’m being told? And yet no word of how NI is going to resolve such issues, or even that they’r e*trying* to fix it?

  27. 😥 woke up to find that the version I wanted was listed as:

    “Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G – Sold out”

    when will I get another chance to order this awesome tablet?

  28. Looking forward to the videos. I think most people have a problem with the refund policy because we don’t have a complete look at what we are ordering and yet our cards are immediately charged. That being said, I believe the coming days will bring clarity and I am looking forward to it

  30. Great info and an excellent start on providing an explanation and solution. Thanks so much for sharing that with us! 😉

  31. I’ll be watching you guys to see what happens in the future! Keep it up… My recommendation so far as the software goes: make sure you include what apps come pre-installed on the unit including whether or not the Google suite (maps, market, etc.) is included on the unit.

    I see what you were trying to do here and it did backfire a little but that’s all part of the process of learning.

    Side note: Guys, it’s a PRE order from a company that’s trying to do things differently and is still learning. Cut Rohan and the guys some slack! Goodnight from Denver, CO USA.

  33. awesome i trust you completely and understand that under so much pressure and thousands of eyes on you Murphy starts acting ;).

    Keep the good work, best wishes for the product 🙂 🙂

    Hope to see physical product after CES in some of outlets in Bangalore 😀 😀 so i can save my 50$ 😉

    Waiting eagerly for the product video

  35. I awwwed at your post, Rohan. Doesn’t mean im not dissappointed anymore for not getting pre-pre-order email. 😦

  36. Good, Thank you Rohan for this info. I will wait then for 18 Dec.

    You didnt say anything about PayPal, it is possible implement paypal also ? 60% of users will user this method i think.

  37. I didn’t get a mail to pre-order 😦
    and now Pixel Qi is already sold out 😦
    this is bad.

  38. rohan

    Have you hired some professionals to do the videos ?
    I cant imagine why else it would take so long !
    Plus when are the pixel qi units back in stock ?

  41. Hope this post came last night. These infos would have minimized many negative publicity yesterday. The created hype has converted into disappointment for many including me who was one an adam fanboy( though i am still one).

    I will wait for the hands on video on 18th of December.

    But one is never late :)Thanks a lot Rohan for your post. Wish you luck for all your future endeavors. Hope NI comes with a mind boggling videos and pics.

  42. Hey Rohan,

    But I am still not sure of the delivery time as such, is it really gonna take 4-12 weeks depending on the model we buy as your previous blog suggested ships in days.

    Cheers

  43. I actually got an order in for the QI+3G model, I really hope that they will ship it fast and it was in stock.

    I can see now 4 hours later that the preorder page says “sold-out”, so I just hope I made the cut.

    I cannot wait for it to be Jan….

  44. Pixel QI “SOLD OUT”. Damit!!.
    I Had pre-order, but I was Imposible to Order one

  46. I am presently in China.. So i can get at the Earliest if available..

    Does it still mean i have to pay the Import Duties since u are registered in India. ????????

    Other way to look at it…

    Suppose i preorder in India.. whether i would end up Paying Import Duties ?????????

    Also there seems to be deviation.. 499 + 50 = 549.. But actually it turns to be 27000 Rupees… = 600.. Not even Sure if i have to pay more on Import…

  48. To bad that you didn’t take in to account the run on Adams, especially the high end segment. Can you share when those become available again?

  49. The dual goals of pre-order release and CES2011 unveiling looks to be not so smart, but actually dumb. Didn’t nobody try to warn you? Should have been CES2011.

  50. @Rohan. Thanks for the detailed responses to some of the concerns that were raised. There are still more to go. Please do respond to them when you get time. It has been a frustrating experience over the past 2 days. Ups and downs have plagued most of NI’s ardent followers. Some of the ‘family’ did not get emails and not the Pixel Qi are sold out. There were lots of issues with the website’s stability. Are you going to be allocating more stock towards pre-orders because of the issues?

  51. Hi Rohan,

    That should indeed clear up some of the bad atmosphere that has started to be associated here. I’m sure though this will be an invaluable learning lesson for you. Kudos though for being open and letting us know these details. I specially regard highly, the publishing of December 18 as the date when videos will be released.

    I just have one grouse left if I may, why does the Adam Pixel Qi with Wireless and 3G come to be Rs 30k for people in India. I was expecting a figure around Rs 25k. This does affect my decision as a buyer.

  52. Expresing dismay in Singapore about the out of stock Pixel Qi Variants… WAH LAo eh!!~~

    Looks like i’ve gotta wait for Dec 18th.. No harm waiting anyway.

    18th is also the date my cell phone contract is up. gotta get me a HTC desire Z… hahah!!

  53. Thanks Rohan. And Please do let us know why emails were not sent to guys who were following this blog for ages(including me)

  54. @ Rohan, I really appreciate you checking out what happened (nice for the learning curve) but we fans/family/customers are still in trouble.
    Mastercard may come soon, but there are no Adams left to order by now.
    Or did you keep top model Adams apart for the 30k?

  56. Might want to add your comment to the wordpress post, otherwise people might miss it in all the comments, and I know a lot of people were upset about not getting an email, and thus missing out on preorders (since models are now sold out).

    I got my order in, can’t wait!

    Sales must have been pretty encouraging considering you anticipated sending preorder emails to 30,000 people and sold out some models already. 🙂

  57. how a non manufactured product can be sold out ???? i wan’t my pixel qi and can’t buy one because of this server disrupt yesterday evening, i’ve got a email please i want one

  58. I think that fairness went ou the window on this one…

    Many people did not recieve the email to allow for pre-ordering
    Many people (myself included) only have a Mastercard

    Either of the above and you could not make a pre-order and now the stocks are running out…..

    As for deviating from industry standards…. Presenting Full “Term & Conditions” is required by industry standards as you have pointed out by linking to them on this post.

    I missed out because of the Mastercard thing but this whole situation has left a sour taste in my mouth.

  59. Hopefully this plays out smoother than the pre-order launch… Its been a tough 2 days, but honestly, a clearer policy and a few pictures and videos should smooth things out.

    It looks like I’ll be ordering only after the official release anyway…

    Good luck Rohan…

  61. +1000
    as even if go alphabetically, even my email id starts with ‘j’ and i still did not get one. So I will love to know this info

  63. Great reply that really didn’t answer much at all, if you have the units built and ready (i assume you must have some finished Adam’s in India for testing etc) why can’t you get a video or picture of what the finished item is like up within the next couple of hours? Also what about Android market, does Adam have it?

  64. @Rohan Shravan

    Can we know when the Pixel-Qi version’s will be available again??

    Like i said in the previous post, i kept trying to pre-order till 3am IST but the page just kept telling me to “Check again at 12pm PST”

    I fell asleep at the computer!!

    And when i got up, the Pixel-Qi version was SOLD OUT!!

    Please make more available! Please!!

  65. Im still wondering where the promised SDK for us EAP has gone? Im EAP2 and was promised it the first week of December. One more deadline failed by NI…

  66. About Ideas…

    I’m very interested in the “digitizer-part” of the whole thing…
    I feel quite happy with a common Wacom on my linux system, but the thing I really miss is good pen input capable tablet. You know, that great thing some idiot at Microsoft decided to kill.
    I work in graphic design, architecture and ID, and trust me I know a lot of people that could love such a device. It could be a great potential market to reach. And if you search in the recent posts to this blog you’ll find many people that have the same needs.

    thanks for your time and your work… 😉

    b.

  67. Thanks for detailed explanation but if it was only VISA or American Express you should have informed us , now its too late its already ‘SOLD OUT’

  68. one important thing is import duties+tax, how is that going to increase the cost of adam, import duties are so erratic in India. For all I know i may end up paying close to $1000 for it

  69. Well, another lesson learnt that will shape the company in time.
    It’s never easy to trod on an unmarked path; but you will leave footprints for rest to follow.

    I ordered my PQ3G, albeit mystified by the long delivery time and early public order offering during the supposed 6hrs lead. But thank geekness my friends got to order before the PQ3G variant ran out.

    Will be looking forward to the hands-on video on the 18th.

  71. Thanks NI for the clarification on a few things…

    Im just spewing that I have to potentially wait another 3 months for something I have already been waiting a year for.

    Cheers anyway

  72. When will you start accepting more orders? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a longer lead time rather than not allow someone to pre-order? Somewhat frustrating to wait so long, not receive an email…

  75. Hi Rohan good luck with to you and your team. I went through the pre order process twice and the second time the money was taking from my account but I didn’t receive a confirmation maill that my order was being processed. Can you look into this.

    Thank you.

  76. I am glad that Rohan has updated this whole debacle. I was getting very disheartened a few hours ago, and even though I was studying for finals, I was still constantly refreshing the blog to see a respone from Rohan to console us. I almost lost faith there for a bit in the veracity of the Adam, but then it dawned on me that the number of new ideas, and designs you guys have released are far more than any scammer would dream of simply giving away for some quick cash. as many have mentioned, just the theories and ideas that have been announced are so valuable that it would be dumb to give them out without the intention of making the product because that, in the long run, would garner far more money than the initial “scam” would ever make.

    I am glad that I was already planning on waiting until after xmas, and that I am going to get the most basic version from the outset, but I am disappointed somewhat by the lack of real hard evidence that this thing exists. Would it be possible to release a short 30 second vido of the device booting up and toss todays paper in the shot just so we all have hard proof that this is a real product? I feel that the “Family” deserves som sort of small treat after all the heartbreak that was experienced here over the last 24 hours.

    How bout in Rohan?

    cheers, and glad you had a safe flight

  77. One thing that should not occur in business and in family circles is sneaky allusions: “I would be spending rest of the day in reading through your comments and understanding how exactly you want us to deviate from industry standards.”

    We don’t want you to deviate from industry standards. We want you to apply industry standards: for pricing clarity, shipping execution, and return policies.

    And if there was an actual page where we could really acces to pre-order without a PhD in hacking that would be great. I have been following this product since April. I am a regsitered developer. And I have not received my invite yet. Wt…?

  79. Can you be a bit non personal?
    I was not commenting on you and as a follower I have a right to ask why an email was not sent to me. If you want to be personal please follow up with me on my email and don’t wash your dirty linens on public.

  80. Great post, Rohan. As expected, you simply incurred in what I consider start-up possible issues.
    As I mentioned in a previous post, even though I did not get the email, I managed to pre-order the high-end version this morning at 7.00 am immediatly after getting (jumping) out of bed!

  82. @Sowmya,

    are you really get no mail ??? That’s worst. I thought only I’m the looser 😦

  83. Could you post some pictures of the final Adam , at least ?
    In addition, when I pre-ordered (PixelQI + 3G) it says that the delivery is scheduled from 6 to 12 weeks. Will it be possible to be delivered earlier ?

  85. Thanks Vector for your support.
    My earlier comment was intended to sa whose comment was totally uncalled for.

  87. thanks rohan…please add this comment of yours in the main post…all would like to hear this…plzzz….i appreciate your sincerity…..

  88. would you be able to to let us know how big of a system we are getting. is it just an 8gb or is it starting a little higher or what?

  89. Great feedback on where you are at!! I think you (NI) have done an excellent job in balancing the development of a completely new product with the (sometimes) manic expectations of the public.
    Keep up the excellent comms… I will be ordering as soon as the madness has subsided
    Much respect Rohan

  92. Thanks Rohan for answering some of the questions at least. But what about other valid questions from many of the (potential) Indian customers who find the overall pricing to be little high!! e.g, shipping cost!

  96. You say you listen, but people have been asking for many of these things for some time now (not necessarily the actual legal documents, but those are often overlooked until you actually go to order something). Everyone has been asking for pictures, video, demos, price points, shipping information, etc (i.e., every detail possible about this device) since we first heard about it a year ago.

    None of these requests are unreasonable; I’m actually surprised that pre-orders were opened this early without any of this data, and I’m even more surprised after the post hinting that Adam would be running Gingerbread when shipped. Given that most companies running some sort of Android overlay are not able to update for MONTHs, it is very curious as to how you can just plug it in and expect to ship in a couple of months.

    I respect that you are a start up company — I really do — but so much of this whole affair is simply unbelievable. Good luck. This fiasco is a PR nightmare NI will likely need a miracle (or fully working product) to recover from…of course if it is a scam, then it won’t really matter, will it?

  97. I have a feeling it won’t be sold out for too long. The second round will come when it comes… and that won’t be too long if round 1 is indeed sold out. Nothing says a product is interesting like “sold out.”

    Every company and investor involved knows that language.

  98. Too bad I can’t pre order…but yes some explanations are in order!!! Hope to see more on this topic from rohan.

    I do hope it’s available a bit cheaper in india…it’s country of birh!!

    Waiting for videos…….

  100. Rohan,

    I think the most import is, that these guys which are haven’t gotten the mail and have now make the pre order when it was public will be on a priority list.

  101. @Rohan “but seems it is too difficult to keep everyone happy”

    I am sorry Rohan , but this line is hitting me hard.

  102. Although it is nice to know at some point Europeans will be able to use Mastercard, that is not going to help the 20k people who believed to be part of your family and are now in back of the line sitting on the cold ground without even a cup of choco 😦
    I am pretty certain that most family members wanted a PixelQi/3G model, but that dream is flying away fast.

  103. Adam will be a niche item with this model. NO way it will be close to being a big player with this model. For US for this to work you need to work with either a major retailer or a big e-tailer(amazon/newegg etc). Plus cross-subsidizing Russian buyers with others will not work at all.

    I wonder how many orders actually went it. I will wait few more months waiting for reviews and initial bugs to work out. Then I will order one. I hope Notion ink will open a store in Bangalore so that folks can directly look and buy 🙂

    Also Charging 5% restocking fee for defective piece is just not acceptable. Dell is not that bad with returns at all.

  106. You guys better get that production up and running asap because the demand clearly exceeds what is available. Sadly I didn’t get the e-mail even I have repeatedly posted a comment on this blog the past few months.
    Also I wouldn’t have been able to purchase an adam because I’m stuck with MasterCard here in Europe.
    Looks like I will have to wait for the 2nd batch to be released, somewhere in 1st or maybe even 2nd Q of 2011. Anyway, those who receive an adam in January: Post back on your experiences because we all want to know!

  107. Yeah, this is not good. For a company who claims to be able to produce 100 000 products a week and then offers 10 000 people to preorder, 2 of the products should not be out of stock.

    Anyways, I’m sad I didn’t have time to preorder but it might also be for the best since and androidpolice unfortunately have put some doubts into me.

  109. I would like to comment about the processing place you mention.

    I called my bank when my payment was not going through and they didn’t even see a transaction go through on my card, this is also NOT the first time ordering overseas for me.
    My bank suggessted that those errors are on the processors side and I think they are right.

    I just wanted to note that to you. Although it doesn’t help me get an adam as the one I was trying to order over and over is sold out now…. 😦

  110. Also, I am sad because the first time Rohan replied to me had to be about this. I feel like an evangelist who has lost faith in the book of Genesis.

  111. So Murphy is now a tax collector…….. 🙂 UK sales tax increases by 2.5% as from jan 2011 😦
    Bad night at the office guys…………ah well keep smiling I suppose better to get probs out of the way at the start is this what they call a learning curve ? 🙂 🙂

  112. thanks for the last two notes. when will the pixel-qi be re-stocked again. between 503 errors last night and a late start this morning, i missed out though i got a pre-order link 😦
    and you should seriously consider charging the card only when you are ready to ship.

  114. Rohan,

    Your excuse for the Mastercard story is just a mistake on your side.
    In my opinion you didn’t check well enough on for hand and everywhere mistakes are made so some extra time should have been build in the planning.
    All Mastercard users cannot order the product they want because they are sold out by the time we can. Even waiting a whole night to be ready to order and then finding out that you can’t makes every person feeling very sad or worse.
    I hope that somehow this will be corrected on the side of NI.

    Very sad regards,

    Edju13

  117. Good luck with your CES launch Rohan. Btw just make sure your full demo videos are well lit and clear without glares so all aspects of the Adam shine.

    If you deliver the product as shiny as you’ve written about it, all the bad publicity people will convert into your unshakable supporters. So yeah, just deliver and everything will be fine.

  118. @Roahn Can you tell us how many of each variant were offered for sale in this pre-release?

    Despite all the issues with email being blocked and payment gateway problems, it seems to have been successful since several variants are already sold out.

    I can imaging if others with reservations or concerns about buying had decided to purchase that they would have been sold out a lot faster.

    So you have my condolences for the problems experiences, yet I also think congratulations are in order for the success you did see.

    Once people’s concerns are resolved they are going to wish they had pre-ordered. I expect there to be a lot of back orders and out of stock situations for a while.

    And on that note, please take care of those here that did not get a chance to order because of problems with email, etc. Though I already know you will without me bringing it up. 😉

  119. quote from my comment on “ouch!” :
    about the mystery feature, have a look to the html sourcecode of techspecs.php webpage (of notionink.com website).

    You’ll see a HTML-comment line

    Regards.

    @Rohan : congrats, but can you clarify the android market’s point and the HDD capacity’s point ?

  120. reading through, i guess i am not the only one who has been on the blog regularly, even commenting, but never got the pre-order invitation. still, doesn’t take away from the fact that i am very disappointed. especially considering that the pixel-qi version is sold out already, and no clues when it will be available again. i am happy for notion ink that there has been such strong demand, but i would love to know when more stock will become available. maybe those ‘family’ that got left out in the cold last night could be given a second ‘first’ chance to order the pixel-qi variant when it becomes available again? i did read the android police post and their suspicions are well founded, but some of us here have been following the adam’s progress here and we think we can put our trust in rohan and co and pre-order, if we could!

  121. Hello,

    I have purchased a 3g version. How can I be sure that it will be the 900?
    I have used a us address, but was it possible to send it to France? Because I think I have misunderstood this point.

  122. +1

    0 visibility – 0 clarity – As clear as the world before the light was…

  124. likely they were already planning it for a later date, but simply moved it forward. My guess is there are many other things going on behind the scenes that need to to get sorted out (like all of the failed transactions that were still charged, and other logistics that must be fixed before they can handle another rush on purchases

  125. OMG.. after a few hours the “Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G” Variant is Sold Out. When will i become the chance to order one? How long would it be Sold out?

    Greetings from Switzerland

  128. How did you have access to the order page? I have been in since Arpil and hae not received the email yet…. Wasted 24 h for nothing…

  130. Please also spell and grammar check some of the most important text on your website. This was a very valid comment in the critical post on AndroidPolice.

  132. “As soon as”

    Yup, that’s an incomplete answer. Typical Rohan style…
    He even says so on his posts “I want you to discover as you go”

  134. Alas, I got to work this morning to discover that I had lost my job as my store was closing. However, Good news!

    I still plan on purchasing two Adams, perhaps even more; I will have to wait until the wifi+3g+PixelQi variant is back in stock, but it shall be mine!

    The good news is that I get college money in January, which is when Adam launches 🙂 That being said; I’ll have plenty of time to see all the new info!

    It saddens me that I cannot be one of the first to help fund your fantastic startup (Adam is literally my dream device; even down to the UI!), but regardless; I’ve trumpeted it to many of my friends and colleagues and I will continue to do so!

    The new website is a great selling point, and being able to pre-order is extremely reassuring. A video will be great, but based on the specs and your technical knowledge of optimization; I’m sure the UI is extremely smooth. (Can’t wait to work with Unreal Development Kit on it!)

    Cheers Rohan, You’ve kept me going this past year and I can’t thank you enough.

    I look forward to pushing your platform to it’s limits.

    Regards,
    ‘Jaredu’

  136. woke up this morning hoping to be able to pre-order a Pixel Qi version but alsas, sold out! Of course i’m disappointed.
    Congratulation to NI and hopefully this early pre-order success helps to enlarge the production so that by January everybody interested can get the version one wants.

  137. It seems Hong Kong Post only costs a few bucks to ship most orders. I have ordered from DealExtreme.com (DX) a number of times. It does take 3-4 weeks to get here at times though. I suppose DHL will be shipping faster and more careful. But DX does sell android tablets, so the shipping is good enough. It would be good to look into that and see if you can provide that as a shipping option for those who are willing to wait.

    On top of that, it might be cheaper to ship many of the units to the US bulk to a single facility, and then distribute them from there. DHL might be $36 from east to west coast, but USPS ships just as safely and is much cheaper. I suppose DHL is used more internationally, but it’s reputation in the US isn’t great. Here it’s all USPS, UPS, and FexEx. All are cheaper than DHL as well.

  138. Rohan,

    As an ardent fan of NI, I really applaud your efforts and recognize that sometimes sh*t just happens. I am glad to be part of the pre-preorder but I must confess to not being able to pull the trigger right at the end.

    Perhaps I will be punished (longer wait time) for lack of trust but I think many fans here echo the same thoughts; that plonking $500 on an unseen product can be tough considering that this sum means alot to different people around the world.

    Anyhow I believe this will be a lesson learnt for the fans and especially for NI, because you have seen that it is easy for people to ride the hype, but a slightly flawed follow-through can cause even the most rabid fan to rein in pretty quickly. I am sure the next products of NI will have better processes. It’s not easy to achieve good information and expectations management.

    I look forward to the videos on 18 Dec. I am sure they are going to be awesome. Bit sorry to hear that PixelQi has been sold out. How do we know when it gets available again?

    Cheers!

  139. i think they DID take into account the demand on the 3QI segment, that’s why they increased the prices on those.
    more demand = higher prices

  140. Somehow they didn’t expect that so many people wanted to order an Adam.
    That is a bit strange.

  141. +1. If everyone is equal then why use of tagline like ” everyone is equal but some are more than equal(family)” (courtesy Animal Farm-George Orwell)

  142. Thanks for your open communication. These are all good reason and what I thought for myself after calming down and having a night of sleep 🙂

    Rohan, we share your enthusiasm and that’s why it get’s sometimes a little bit too emotional. But that’s wrong to say. I thing “emotions” is what best describes NotionInk and adam. And we need to make sure, too keep our emotions for the success of adam.

  143. I have to say that this post still does not clear up most of the concerns addressed by your potential customers Rohan. I have been a long standing supporter of yours and think that the Adam will be an amazing product but as there are still no actual pictures/videos of the product in use or any real tangible information about shipping, customs costs etc I feel that it would be extremely foolish to pre-order the device as we have no idea what it will actually cost in the end.

    It’s a real shame and I really feel for you and your team as you have worked so hard to keep the community up to date with what is happening until it got to the critical stages which has badly affected the support that you had worked so hard to gain.

    I am sure that I will but Adam when it becomes more readily available but at the moment there simply isn’t enough information available for me to take the plunge which deeply saddens me as I have been following your blog from day one as you will see from early signups.

    I am pleased that you have still been able to take large amounts of preorders and I’m sure I will kick myself when I see the device for real and have to wait even longer but for now it’s back to the waiting game.

    I hope you will be able to answer the questions that we all have over the coming weeks and pay some real attention to the people who’ve backed you since the beginning.

    Another question – is the digitizer function compatible with Macs? I am a product design teacher in the UK and love the form factor that you have designed and believe that it is a truly innovative product – enough to stop me buying an iPad but not enough to allow pre order yet.

    Come on Rohan give us the information we deserve!

  144. “In-depth video will be released on 18th December, and till then you can hold on continuing your purchases. ”

    Sorry, that’s not really acceptable.
    You said there will be videos/informations in the preorder section, but there wasn’t any.
    You also did not answer most of the important questions about the final hardware + final software yet. Rohan, is the ADAM even final yet??? This whole preorder thing with all the lack of information i mentioned really was a BIG BIG FAIL…

    What you can do now? Go through the comments, collect every single question which was asked and answer them all. It may be 150+ questions (many were duplicates), but they are worth the time…
    After that don’t even think about feeding the masses with another bunch of rendered ADAM pictures, they are worth NOTHING. IF there really is final hardware and software available make pictures from them, create demo videos with hands-on. You really can’t wait 8 more days with those informations. Blogs around the world (including me) will pick up the disaster from last night and will make their own story about it… The only way to stop this is counter-releasing the information we all want.

    Greetings Alnerion

  147. Hi Rohan
    In my opinion many misunderstandings are due to different culture, Many European and American Customer are afraid of being cheated. They (Us, as I am part of this bunch) want the new technology, maybe sooner, but are not so brave to simply dare and have “faith” in a project they followed for month.

    To reach a point: I had never bought anything before reading many review and comments on the net, and so I’ll do with Adam. In every new object triumph and disaster wait for their chance to come out.

    I just could not stand (and cannot imagine how Rohan can) All the post complaining about the lack of this and that (video, tech-spec, detailed pic, and so on).

    Every company has the right to follow a policy, so Notion Ink do. Every customer has the chance to buy it before “the masses” or after, it’s up to you (Us).

    We all are so lucky because this isnt a lifesaving device, but just a tablet (and am sure a 75% of customer will use just for games and amenities). So i sit here and look and read and when the time came also for me I could take a decision.

    Good luck Rohan!

  148. difficult to pre-order adam … I need 5 try to succeed … it always block in payment process
    I hope i will have it in 6 weeks … but i don’t have comfirmation email … is it normal ?

  150. What about people like me who got the “family” email but were never able to place an order?

    Public orders were opened and Qi sold out before you even worked out kinks in your payment system. I don’t think it is my fault that my bank doesn’t have 24-hour service to manually allow payments to foreign processors marked as a fraud risk. That is on you and your failure to have adequate payment methods available.

  151. I’m willing to bet there was ~75,000 units sold because i think there was a post somewhere weeks ago saying that NI’s monthly output would be max 100,000units. given the 4 stated versions for presale of which 2 sold one and 1 rohan said was almost gone. just a guess 😀 not bad for a buggy day

  152. +1

    At least Rohan now is sharing some of the reasons for the problems with the pre-ordering.
    Which is a good step in the right direction. And it wouldn’t be surprising if he has had a harder time than those trying to preorder.

    As for the sold out Pixel Qi screens, I’m actually happy they chose to go that route instead of selling more units than they had and just delay the shipping, which is an unfortunately common route these days. So kudos for that.

  153. About 1000 of each variant were put up for sale by NI. It was very impressive that 1 or 2 variants got sold out. Wow!!! The chinese factories must be having their hands full now. When will the next batch of 500 go on sale, I wonder?

  155. I think if there was a request poll for different variants of Adam, it would have given you guys at NI a better production estimation . I believe Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G would have been on top of the chart. In a way I felt a let down that I did not get the pre order email.

  156. I am just curious. Was anybody of the “Family” able to order one of the Pixel Qi Adams?

  157. Ok Rohan this is how it went down for me in the UK. 7PM i get my email with the token to buy my adam, i wait until 8PM for the 12PM PST time, i cant get on its saying come back at 12 PST. i try for 2 hrs, following the comments. 10PM comes round and i have to go to bed for work the next day. This morning i wake up at 6 am immediately check the site, i can get on but its all sold out.

    So i get a golden ticket but cant use it, by the time i can use it, its been open to the public and all has sold out. you can only imagine how i feel after following you since december 2009! i wonder how many people from the UK even placed orders i think you should compare your EAP applications to you actual orders and see where it was most hard hit.

    Thanks for my support, got sh*tted on in return!

  160. Murphy’s law of life: If something can go wrong, it will !

    it was just a comment in a lighter vein 🙂

  161. I was able to get my order in successfully (Pixel Qi + 3G can’t believe they sold out with so much negativity surrounding the last 24 hour’s events.) I’m really rooting for Rohan and Notion Ink collectively but I hope that this doesn’t ruin the company before it gets started. I’ve followed this particular product like many you for a year now, and what was supposed to be the crowning moment for NI has fallen a little short to say the least. I was a bit nervous after placing my order but I think I’m happy I did now that it’s sold out. I guess the coming days and weeks will bring everything to light. I guess Rohan has learned most important lesson as a CEO; always “under sell and over deliver”. I think everyone involved with this project underestimated the “hype” and popularity of this product and damage control is going to be critical to save Notion Ink’s reputation.

  162. Thanks Rohan for clarifying. If you have ordered after 6pm PST ie, 7.30AM in India , Pixel Qi +wifi was available and the whole process was completed without an issue. Even i was awake late night yesterday refreshing my mailbox to check if i got a pre order mail.
    I didn’t get one , no grumbles , i just went ahead and ordered. I understand when people take so much time to purchase as RS 30K is hell lot of money in India. Ofcourse I feel bad that other members who are outside India and couldn’t preorder because of the glitches from their banking gateways.
    Good luck Rohan and team. Hoping to get mine some time in Feb 2011.

  163. the reason for th $50 (which is explained in the blog post you just commented on) is to maintain the same price for every country in the world as far as shipping goes. sure some countries will be lower, but many would be higher, so its an average so that everybody can be treated fairly

  164. On it as well. There are around 30k emails to be send. System just sent 10k and then restricted us from sending any more. Some technical glitch. We have saved the list of all those who werent sent emails, and they will have their rights on the next shipment.

    Regards

  167. Rohan, great you’re giving more feedback now. Giving information is what all this is about. Offcourse being innovative and producing something new is difficult and you will encounter a lot of obstacles. And where you are loved by what your doing by some, others (competitors) will hate you for what you are doing… So prepare for some more dirt coming your way…. But as I started this reply, keeping your true fans close to you starts with giving lots of information…. And this thread is a good start.

    Reading this post I see people being very disappointed because they waited a long time being able to order, but they failed after all…. Offcourse this is to bad, but giving information will make the hurt a bit less I think… And maybe there is some kind of solution as in, giving them a second opportunity when the PixleQi screens are availible again…. But just keep us informed.. Not only this time, but also the upcoming weeks. Let people know how the ordering/production proces is going. Especially the people who were able to order are interested in this. And maybe it would even bring back the people you have lost now, for example because of android police. Go to the facotry, make some pictures of the proces, post them over here, etc.

    Well for me personally I live in Europe and have to wait before MasterCard is an availible payment option, and I have to wait for the PixelQi screen to be availible again. But I’m really looking forward to the video, pictures, information, etc.

  168. If first stock is ready (and sold out) for 6/1/11 then whens the next batch coming in? Personnaly i won’t splash out £350 for something without reading a review first so pre-order is not an issue, however if reviews are positive then i know i want one ASAP, just hoping you will have some more Pixel Qi ones in by mid Jan!

  169. Rohan,
    Not everyone is pissed at you! Not everyone has given up.
    I tried to order 6+ times and it finally went through. I almost did not order because I felt poisoned by all the blog comments from some and couldn’t help but think how can a 26 year old CEO really handle all that baggage? I understand the need to be communicated with but i don’t think you deserve all that mess. I guess that’s the price of free speech open forum/comment system.
    Peace to you! And get some rest…jet lag can be problematic – we have work to do. So rest up. On that note we should all get some rest take a chill pill and like grown ups, be rational about this.
    There are answers, they will take time. Rohan, thanks for your answers so far and please don’t feel derailed by the nastiness of some of your own “family.” sometimes family can be the hardest. We just want the best for you, for all of us really.
    Regards!

  170. It looks like quantity > 1 requires another order to be entered and another 50 bucks. I am looking at getting 3 of the LCD with wifi and a PQ screen (sold out). Are you expecting me to pay 200 dollars for shipping?

  171. Lame .. lame lame… its shipping from *CHINA*

    This NI doesn’t need to spend so much time and money in putting together OMS and collaborating with shipping companies … instead spend that time in producing quality stuff.

    Even with all the S&H cost and taxes its a better configuration than any other tablet in market… so relx prad and congrats for being first on this one

  172. I also got the pre order link, i also was waiting till very late to be able to pre order, i also felt asleep and also when i wake up the pixel qi variants were sold out.

    Understand me, i feel happy notion ink has sold out adam units, that means eve and the rest of planned products will see the light :), on the other hand i was waiting for a year, and now i have to wait more, so a litle saddnes is justified here 😦 ok, i´ll wait but please please, please, pretty please tell us when will be more pixel qi variants available, and please please, please, let us a functional pre order system.

    regards, Raúl

  173. It’s anti-glare, so hopefully they don’t even need to worry about that when creating a video, hehe.

  174. They aren’t unreasonable requests, but I have a feeling they’re saving the thunder (at the investor’s insistence, if nothing else) for CES and being closer to actual ship dates. That makes a lot of sense, from a longer term sales point of view.

    I agree that pre-orders before videos and other solid descriptive materials is odd. As far as I’m concerned it was the one major mistake – the rest are derived from it. Eg. questions about the return and refund policy wouldn’t be so persuasive if there was solid product information available.

  175. oh, I actually read the whole post now… you are just going to shrug your shoulders and say “weird it was declined”. This is reason enough for me to just never order anything from your company ever.

  176. No Sowmya. I will wait for *real* videos and photos. What about you?

    Feeling a bit of pinch that I cancelled my order of Canon T2i for adam.

    But saying that I firmly believe that NI will come up with flying colors allaying all the doubts with hands on videos and review from reputed tech-websites and I hope guys like all of us who have not received mails will be given priority once sale start again after CES.

  178. but i guess nothin would be done right now. all he can do is feel sad abt it when the issue is more than that… and he was the one who introduced the term family.. and we end up spending our day cribbing without any point.

    To be very rational and to leave away all the so called emotions, he is just gonna lose 1 or 2 customers if u and I dint order and here ‘family’ doesn’t matter. Its numbers and it does not matter if u continue to support or not, cos they have already launched.!!! (i am being very rational, and not being judgmental)

    So lets get back to our lives, may be wait for the demo and buy it from nearby shelves.

  179. @Rohan Shravan, It is a great achievement to bring Adam. Ignore the negative comments. Some may be from your competitors or who dont want ADAM to be released. My sincere advise is, do not get agitated / tempted. I am sure that this will product be a success. I though didnt pre-order. Waiting for the reviews.

  183. ohhhh i´m late to buy pixel-qi version, what happen for the next pack of notion ink?? the family still th first????

  185. Now this is a very good post Rohan. Will patiently wait for 18th Nov.

    There’s still some confusion about storage? It would be good if you can clarify that.

    Thanks,
    -Atul

  187. +1

    I like it on woot.com how they show the stats for the daily item sold. Like %
    from locations, % per hour, and such, it makes it really fun.

  188. Rohan, A couple of things if you can help answering –

    1. Could you please put down the expected custom rates for various countries (at least the major ones) for Adam. It would help us know the final price we would be paying for Adam.
    2. As Pixel-Qi models are SOLD OFF, please update us on the new availability timelines for the next lot.

    By the way, good post and stay transparent.

    Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and accordingly tackle each and every situation. If you do that, you will surely come out trumps..

    Cheers !!!

  189. Bah! Link didn’t work so missed out on stock 😦
    Good to see that it’s going to be popular though, there’s obviously gonna be no problem in shifting them.
    Still hoping to pick one up when you’re sorted.

    I suppose it’d be cheeky to ask for the 30,000 to get the first round of Back in stock emails……?

  190. I managed to get one, but it was a leap of faith and about 2.25hr after supposed deadline…. No color choices, no idea which 3G I am placing an order for, no details on hardware – u know the rote that everyone is cribbing about…

  194. I am wondering why NI decided to do all this on your own, instead of partnering with some well-established international vendor, like Expansys, at least until you are confident your own direct-buy system will work will, instead of overloading it from the start. Even big-name companies like HTC sell first through Expansys before selling direct.

  195. Idle speculation; gmail = google; they went out first and stopped when the average quantity available algorithm was reached?

  196. Dear Rohan,

    Your explanation provides some of the much needed answers, though not all. Listening to the online community – and not just the FBs – is the best thing you can do and have been doing. However, you can’t be everywhere and it is important that a separate CS Head be appointed who will continue to drive the customer focus with the same passion that you’ve displayed over the year.

    I believe that this very passion and not just the technical specs are what has endeared this company and this product to people all over the world. Hopefully the reality will be even better.

    Customs, and Tax are real issues when it comes to shipping all over the world. You say that you want to charge the same price all over the world. The reality is that this is impossible because every country has different taxes and duties, and as the buyer if I don’t see my final price before paying I’m in for a hell of a sticker shock when DHL wants to collect customs duty from me. That’s simply not done! This is an issue for Europe as well as India though probably not as much for US.

    There should also be a separate and specific policy for Defective piece returns or replacements. Maybe it is already out there, but not having the link for pr-eorder ( 😦 )I’m basing my comments solely on what is being discussed here.

    I recently bought something from Amazon.com by using Shopyourworld.com services. They showed me the exact amount of Customs duty payable even before I made any payment. This is the experience that folks are looking for. Anything less is simply unacceptable because of the uncertainty it introduces and not necessarily because the final price is more or less expensive.

    I’m still waiting for my pre-order link, looks like I wasn’t included… Oh well… Though not a case of sore grapes I assure you 😀 …

    Here’s to wishing Adam every success!

  197. Yeah… this is clearly a sincere post, and I don’t mean to be a downer, but the right time for much of the information like Mastercard issues/unavailability, FCC info, and the reason you were holding back videos and expansive information would have been *before* the orders, not after.

    I fear the damage from this pre-order disaster has already been done, and no matter the blog posts and videos done after the fact, it’s going to be hard to undo. There has also been very damaging (though deserved) PR on most of the major websites, and this will also be quite hard to undo. Some may have pre-ordered, but many more are wary and are waiting for reviews and a larger release, while some have been alienated for good.

    The only silver lining to come out of this is if you *actually* learn from it – now is the time to release as much information as you have – photos, videos, accurate updated tech specs. Complete transparency is the only thing that will even slightly allay people’s concerns.

    Even I, who was one of Adam’s biggest supporters (I told everyone I knew to wait and buy this), have reconsidered my purchase until I can buy it in stores in the US, even if that means getting an interim tablet in the meantime.

    I still wish your company the best, and I hope to see an amazing Adam in stores soon, but you’re going to have to do a lot to get your credibility back. I really do hope you can do it.

  200. Good explanations I think. Sometimes there’s not much you can do about delays/technical issues etc. I think people are just quite frustrated due to the preceding excitement.

    Also good work getting your product ready for sale, and through certification.

    Look forward to more updates as they come 🙂

  201. i think NI should close its doors to the world .. and only sell to the family .
    that will ensure its success

  202. so if i order the pixel Qi, how do i know if it’s sold out before i placed the order? i received the order confirmation only this morning and i can’t see the timestamp on your blog. How do i know if i was able to get in the door?

  206. Rohan and others:
    I have a doubt..
    it looks like it will take for ever to get a good 3g in India.. by the time it comes I think LTE will super-seed it…there is mention of sim card slot in tech specs page…. can we make normal phone call on all other variants even if 3g is not there?
    I am almost sure we can, but just want to confirm

  207. yest It seems so :). Alteast he has mentioned in his comments that people who were nto sent mail will be given priority.
    But yeah It sane to go back to normal life :).Will wait for a real video.

  208. +1
    @ sa, is there nothing you can’t criticize at this time? Maybe you need to chill out for a while and see what happens..

  210. URGENT

    Rohan, Please make sure you check the preorders @ Notionink . com email. I sent an important detail that may be missing from my Shipping Information there.

    Thanks.

  211. Dear Rohan,

    Now that you have told you will be spending the rest of the day reading the comments here, I am trying my luck. I have already sent a couple of emails which were unanswered. I believe the reason was this post which almost answer all my queries in the mail.

    As a tech blogger who have seen many product launches and pre-orders, the problem with Adam was that you didn’t have a SINGLE real photo (lets forget the video) of the device at the time of pre-ordering. I am not talking about the prototypes, but of the final product.

    Don’t you think that your approach of handling anything and everything only through this blog has caused some major problems? There is no one else other than you who is getting involved in PR related issues. That is definitely not good.

    Though tech bloggers have been very critical about the minute aspects of the pre-order saga, they have every right to do so, after all they are answerable to thousands and millions of their readers, isn’t it?

  212. Hello fellow fan from singapore,

    Can we get the shipping cheaper if we order together you think?

  213. No, I needed Pixel Q and 3 G; had AmEx and Visa at hand; no “family” email and then got shut out of Public ordering till those versions were sold out. Too late.

  214. Can you please share information on the import tax for United States residents. Thanks.

  215. hey Rohan……neither have I go any email till now….:-(…..checking my mail every 15 mins, since 12 midnight……and all this negative stuff needs a firm answer…..I believe a detail video demo will get some people back to where they belong……..C******. hope you will post video soon…..I feel should be ASAP….if we wait till 18th Dec….there will be more crap will be spread……

    Also I wanted Pxiel QI + 3G – never email and sold out already……:-( ????

    Thanks

  217. “In-depth video will be released on 18th December, and till then you can hold on continuing your purchases” We cannot hold on but we r forced to hold on becos they r already sold out 😦

  219. I got the email before 12 PST. I waited for over 6 hours before they started to work at all for anyone. I got into the order screen about 15 minutes too slow for the people who got Jan 9th dates and got the 6-8 week batch.

    My problem is that CCAve is detected by my bank as a fraud risk. I need to contact my bank during regular biz hours to allow some odd foreign transaction. CCAve might not be odd to you as a major Indian firm, but I certainly never heard of it in the US. This is not what I was expecting. If the website worked at 12 PST, I could have had time to contact my bank during the day to allow the charge. Now, I guess it is just sold out and I can look for another tablet maker even more months down the road.

  220. I’m very sorry, that we have now very negative feels here in the blog. I’m sad, sure, but as I and other often posted “shit happens”. So please calm down.
    It makes no sense to be angry against Rohan and NI. I thought they have done the most they can and they have to learn alot. And I think they will leran from the problems we all have had.
    The most import thing is, that Rohan will stay here and answer the questions we all have.

    Rohan, please be here the whole day.

  221. Shipping from China means 19% taxes for German customers…..wow that means 514€ for the PixelQI with UMTS if it will ever be back in stock.

  222. It does matter. Because it is not about only one product, it is about what all we can do together. But right now baton is with us to deliver.

    Regards

  223. Rohan, also, I am having trouble understanding how to tell if Adam Tablet will work on certain mobile networks. My current mobile network uses 3g bands 1700/2100, but other bands are available I think by other networks, I’m not sure. Which bands does Adam tablet use for US version?

  225. Me nether but I did order and this post make me feel happier about it 😉

    Thanks for the post Rohan

  227. @pradeept, I think he already explined that in this post. The shipping is universal, and goods are coming from China.

  228. ok DHL is expensive. So why not at least give an option to use a cheaper courier? I know for sure that something this size can be shipped world wide by some Chinese companies for less than $20. I don’t mind if it takes a few more days or even a couple of extra weeks to arrive, I would just like cheaper shipping.

  230. Thanks… This is clear communication and feels much better!

    Also, PQi variants out of stock? When can we order them now?

    Plus is the You tube profile actually yours Rohan? Or a fan?

    Thanks

  234. I feel that the EAP2 developers are being neglected. What happened to EAP developers getting there first to pre-orders as well as the perks that come with being on EAP?

  235. I live in Europe and I’ve tried several times this night to pre-order. Unfortunatly I always landed on a 503 error page. This morning, I finally reach the pre-order page but the Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G is sold out 😦 bad luck. Can you tell me when the next launch of Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G ADAM is forecasted, and if we, as part of the adam wordpress community, will still have the privilege to be the first to be able to order it ?

    Thanks for everything

  237. Dear Daniel,

    There is a production ramp up cycle. And production capacity was 100k per month than per week. We are waiting for fresh batch to give you proper shipping dates.

    Regards

  238. @Rohan smile! you guys have done well. remember what people said about the ipad when it was released? i own that (and happy at that) & i’ve placed my order for the Adam. I’d love to get it in the first week of January, I’ll even save you money by picking it up myself (wish that was on the options) I don’t mind having paid the extra for shipping either cause the Adam looks like its going to be a great device!

    There were mistakes made and anyone who’s run a company knows that they’ll happen! You guys have done well so far. Let me know where you guys are this evening and I’ll buy a round of beer to celebrate 🙂

  239. hmmm whatever cathy,.. i am just having chocolate bar,.. 🙂 and i know i need a coffee.. anyways looks like have to wait..

  241. I had applied for EAP and was promised a pre-order invitation but the mail never turned up.

    More over no provision for Master Card, and ICICI Bank NetBanking was missing while others were available.

  242. This was a dissapointment to say the least, even having the faith in the product and not being able to buy, c’mon It was not like you did not know when you wanted the preoder to begin, shouldn’t all the ordering etc be in order before that day??

    And especially dissapointing to even hear it is sold out when the intention was to send out 30k of preoder invitations and only 10 k was sent out and still they are sold out??

    I guess it all comes down to too high of an expectation..Let’s see what CES brings and what other startup will be bringing to the table this year

  243. I placed 2 orders, and only received one confirmation letter from NI, but two letters from CCAvenue. The order that I didn’t get a confirmation from was NIO2564351. I think you’ve saved the house, but the barn is still on fire…

  244. @himanshu,

    I never see a comment from Rohan about ” people who were nto sent mail will be given priority”

  246. This was much more detailed… Waiting for 18th for the detail video of ADAM…
    Then am just gonna buy this beauty…. The best gadget in my possession….

  247. Had almost no sleep tonight waiting for the e-mail. I’m sure i feel like many others, a little disappointed, but I’m sure Rohan and his team is doing what they can to make this situation more bearable for us all.
    Just hope i get an answer on my question:
    *When will it be possible to order PixelQi again?
    *Do you know when the next patch will send out? (will it be late jan, feb maybe?)

  249. Rohan can you please please try to add a paypal method of payment to the system for when it goes public.

    thanks Paul

  251. i thought they where all coming in white version and then you can buy whichever colour you because its replaceable.

    hahaha oh well, wont be developing anything for this till i get my hands on one!

  252. Dear Rohan,

    Being a startup firm we can expect all these sort of issues , but before going online with a pre-order customers need to know completely about the specs , then comes pictures and videos and reviews etc.

    The Preorder module should have at least listed the major features including the storage space. i doubt people who ordered are aware of the complete specs of the device including the hard disk space.
    Being an indian company a lot of negative speculation can occur in the western world , especially when adam is tagged as a I-pad killer.
    Finally please try to release a few good actual pictures of the working model to start with and then go for the kill on dec 18th. This i am sure will make the fans happier

  254. Leaving apart the tech-wonders ADAM seem to possess, I am astounded by the ethics/integrity shown by Rohan all through this year, and specifically, this impressive blog-post.

    Generally India is spelled/propogated as a less-integrity country. Rohan and his team truly stands too far from it! I would like to kiss his hands!

  255. a “leaked” photo on accident would be nice =)

    To everyone who is doubting and has pre-ordered the video comes out on the 18th and the product doesnt ship until the 6th so you could always cancel the order if its not what you want. There will be a 20ish dollar Charge on the low end but I think everything will be clear in the end.

  256. That may be true from Notion Ink’s perspective but that really just makes it easier for the producer.

    Knowing that the product ships from China, I would be pretty upset as a customer if i was living in Hong Kong for example but will paying part of the shipping cost for another customer who lives in Timbuktu.

  257. people chill… relax.. wait some more time… buy some other electronics or move to Oprah blog. Why so much fuss about ordering yesterday. It is actually better and wise to wait a bit while those guys get things sorted out.

  258. “CES is where we intended to demo, show everything and allow for review, else there is no point for a good CES event.”

    A suggestion: reveal the secret mystery feature at CES.(and announce that you are selling Adams via Amazon.com too 😉 )

  259. OK, than it would be a good idea, the inform the people which are on your mailing list.

  260. Your credit card company has a fraud detection and prevention department. Talk to them. They will tell you that they use heuristic and statistical algorithms to analyze your spending patterns and habits, and everytime a payment has to be authorized they run it against these algorithms which automatically allow or deny the authorization.

    This is the same if you travelled abroad to India and did not inform your credit card company in advance about your travel. They would deny any authorizations in this case too.

  261. +1 and not even a mention of the magic word,just blame superstition for piss poor logistics.

    An apology to clients for failed deadlines etc,would go further to foster lost goodwill then lies and excuses.

  263. Rohan,

    In the prebooking process, there is no info on the colour, accessories & other options… so it would be better that if these are also included in the booking process where in many has felt to wait for some more time… Hope u would take some action on this which would be great

  264. Nothing personal, but NEVER EVER ignore the negative comments, just make sure you read them first 🙂

    Cheers,
    Neel

  265. Rohan, please clarify that in 550 + 50 i.e. 29,999 we will 8 GB, 16 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB…

    and in India CUSTOMS wud be extra or it wud 0 % (zero)

  266. Same here … supposedly … I sent a question to EAP asking if I was “family” if I was on the EAP 2 waiting list and the poor response I received told me “We really appreciate your concern and would like to inform you that information about pre-ordering facility and related details will be announced soon. We would also suggest you go through our blog notionink.wordpress.com and website notionink.com for all the details which are in the public domain.

    Warm Regards”

    FAIL

  267. +1 – Surely won’t buy now at this point. I will wait to see if the reliability of the product is on par with the talent of Rohan for Buzz, or the talent of his team for logistics/sales execution.

    Let see the first few hands on… in, well, 6 weeks?!?!?

  268. So 10k were sent, and 30k are yet to be sent, and that’s just for the initial restrictive pre-order.

    I imagine these are majorly the diehard NI fans who have been following the adam for a long time, what take up rate did you expect?

    Even a 30% take up rate before the pre-order opened to the general public would result in 12,000 units.

    The average cost of the adam before postage is $462.52.

    If these figures are even remotely accurate, that would mean you were expecting to gross at least $5.5m from your devoted follows without providing them full disclosure to the spec of the product.

    Do you think that’s an ethical decision?

    I’m really not trying to add to your stress levels, I’m sure they must be through the roof, but I really think this has damaged the reputation of Notion Ink before you’ve even released the product.

  269. Good to hear the sales went that fast, although I’m not very happy I was one of the lucky ones (had to go to bed when the order page was still not working).

    Hopefully my pre-order link will still be valid for the second order round, since I really want the PixelQi version.

    And I guess this Mr. Murphy will be fired by now 😉

  271. I too spent (not fruitlessly) long hours hitting f5, getting steamed up etc. etc. It’s all part of the game of being an early adopter, there is a bit of the unexpected, the frustration. I personally loved the rush and the anticipation, and I’m not a regular fan-boy!!

  272. Well I did have my preorder link, but I wasn’t able to purchase Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G, as the site was 503 all time, and now I wake up and it’s sold out. I think the preorder system didn’t worked well enough and because of that i’m without my Adam.

  273. Well friends I am switching off for now . Time to go back to real life and finish some of the books that are pending for ages( Crooked House,Makers of Modern India).

    Will come to see a real video on 18th December. Any my support for the success of Ni is still there.

    @Sowmya,@Greg @ Vector,@Atul Tiwari, @Harvey186 do any of you guys are on Twitter? Would love to add you there(my handle is _jainhimanshu there). have a wonderful day.

  277. easy: when current stock or near term planned production numbers are exceeded!

    -Would not really make much sense to continue taking orders and saying expected shipping date 4-6 months…

  278. Was awake till 3 AM IST Yestrerday copying and pasting the link sent to my email address!
    but, it used to tell me the same thing, come at 12 PM PST!!
    Now , when i checked, Pixel Qi is sold out….
    I was not buying for myself but for a relative of mine!!
    Both are very sad now!!
    and 50$ just to ship from China to India :O!!

  280. ya even i need Pixel Qi and 3 G… i have cribbed so much to all … and the one fact that pains me more was.. I was not supposed to preorder ( i had spent several hundred dollars last week for my B school deposir) until today early morning when i realized i was getting an advance of 500$ as some prize money .. and i can make a payment using my credit card and when i woke up to no email.. i did snap big time… cos i was so hugely anticipating it!!!!

    so now good.. let me wait.. for the videos.. and more money in the pocket to spend..!!!!

  281. Rohan
    Well, I have to start by saying that I did get to order one earlier today (not gloating) and I did not get the email even though I should have(not complaining). As a person who travels internationally quite a bit and will be in foreign countries for long periods of time I am ecstatic with the global pricing. I am sick and tired of seeing a product like an iPhone which in America may cost 300 USD and the same exact product in the UK will cost 300 GBPs. Anyway, good on you and the shipping is equivalent to purchasing a computer from Dell that is shipping from Asia as well so no qualms there. But with the return policy and the best example you can give us is Apple? Isn’t one the reasons most of the people are here is because we expect more from Notion Ink than from Apple? More respect from their consumers and the understanding that we are not going to be gouged on prices and fees? I understand the costs involved in operations management and inventory control but some of the fees and the riders in your policies are a bit ridiculous considering you have never produced a product before.
    The lack of data on the product is appalling. You don’t have to release the exact specifics if it is still being worked out but how can you not tell people who are pre-ordering how much memory they will have? What is 8+? I know I am no where the first person to say any this but and I haven’t commented much since I first started following you when I was at CES in 2010 but you need to address these issues and fast. As of right now you are hemorrhaging good will in the word of mouth communities and possibly the techno blogosphere. CES 2011 will hopefully be a great launching pad for you but you also need to recognize that there are several other companies with the same intention. There will be only one winner of CES in the tablet wars. For example, if Apple were to debut the iPad2 then much if not all of your publicity is sunk, no media outlet will care. I believe that December 9th, 2010 was a PR disaster for Notion Ink but I also believe that you can recover. People will not abandon you if you give them reason to stay Rohan. Most if not all of the people here respect you and at least attempt to understand what difficulties you and the company are going through. That being said, first order of business is to recruit/hire/intern a PR person who has a complete command of the English language. Someone needs to be on the front lines addressing every (reasonable) question that arises. If you or someone had addressed the blog today in 30 to 60 minute intervals telling people that you were having issues then people would have understood and been patient. The lack of communication from Notion Ink is what has hurt/angered many of your devoted fans. Second, hire a marketing professional quickly. Very quickly. You need to rebound from this and you need to start a proper social media marketing plan. So far it has mostly been word of mouth and techno blogs and word of mouth may have just turned on you. You must maintain momentum.
    I apologize if this appears improper but as many many people here I want Notion Ink to succeed badly. I have had such high hopes for Adam and Notion Ink for so long and I know they can do it. But the mistakes that are being made are sophomoric and easily avoidable. If we are your family then you need to talk to us, it doesn’t always have to be Dad (Rohan) it can be someone else. I look forward to my Adam no matter how long it takes to get to me. Best of luck Rohan, we are all rooting for you.

  282. How do you know it went fast? Might have had only 16 for all we know, since it’s the size of a batch of PixelQi)

  283. I don’t understand why I missed the train :
    when I’ve followed the link in the mail, it was to soon. And now it’s too late ! :-((
    Really upset ….
    Please give us a second chance.

  284. @Rohan,
    Your problem is communication. Most of your messages create confusion and lot of the questions are raised.You put people guessing most of the time. Please stop teasing from now on. On top of, delaying your communication service makes annoying to many of us (especially long time blog followers).
    All the best.

  285. Oh come on…

    I tried to preorder twice but it didn’t work and now, there is no pixel-qi…

  286. Hi all,

    can we post all new comments at the end of the blog, because otherwise it’s very difficult the read all the comments.

    Same for your comments Rohan and thanks for being here.

  287. Ok this stinks. Why couldn’t you just tell us you were waiting until ces for certain things. Also looked what happened in 24 hours you want to wait 8 more days? Picture a newspaper with a bad article press saying we will fix this in 8 days.

  288. I wish I could stay up and follow this blog but I have got to get some sleep. It is good to see Rohan chasing down questions and answering where he can.

    I have one question I hope to find an answer to when I wake up tomorrow. But maybe you can’t answer it until all is revealed at CES. But here goes anyway…

    *How much internal storage will adam ship with?

    I’ve already pre-ordeed, but I’m still dying to know. 🙂

    Anyway, Thanks Roahn, and G’Night everyone.

  289. This is a nice start to clearing things up Rohan and I hope you continue to answer more of the unanswered questions later today and tomorrow.

    One question:

    -In general, how long can we expect to wait before getting a reply from an order inquiry sent to preorders at notionink dot com ???

    When I got my confirmation emails I noticed the ordering system introduced a mistake in my shipping address. I immediately sent a mail asking for this to be resolved *and* to let me know in reply. I’m hoping I will get confirmation soon about my inquiry…

    The efficiency and speed of customer service inquiries will be a big factor in your success!

    Finally, it’s too bad that it will take 10 days to put up a video -how about at least some real photographs in the next few days to calm people down (both customers and journalists)?

    Keep at it. Keep answering our questions. Thanks!

  291. Thanks for sharing more details Rohan, a bit late but still much appreciated.

    I was one of many who’s finger hovered over the Buy button and in the end decided to wait due to the lack of details and the many issues I experienced with the ordering website. I realised that I’d run the risk of missing out on the Pixel Qi display for the first batch of Adams and that seems to have already happened.

    More details about (future) availability of Adams wtih Pixel Qi screens etc would be very helpful so I can decide whether it’s worth the wait (for another X months??).

    Keep up the good work – you guys have a fantastic product and I wish the Adam will soon set the standard for tablets.

  292. Good point @ Andrew, that really needs to be looked into @ Rohan. There are people who had indicated interest in purchasing more than one item. The usual practise is to have a reduction in shipping?

  293. Rohan,

    If you have an option, do prioritize the tech specs to be updated with complete information first. Some images and if possible videos second. And the policy manuals third…

    Not just is it a more logical approach to quell the negative chatter, it will also set some early adoptors, (like me 🙂 pQI + wifi) who really took a leap of faith, at ease against all that they are hearing now…

    However, I can imagine that too many balls will be in the air at this time and this is probably just an oversimplification…

    Cheers

  294. You have already done plenty for customers!

    Even if Adam will not be the best-seller because of all kinks and little experience you have, you kicked other companies in their butts.
    All the time consumers are cheated by tech companies: They have some features developed, but they do not put them into devices, just cause they will earn more money buy holding it to the next version.
    And not only Apple does this; pretty much every big company: “Lets not give camera in this one, lets hold a bluetooth for a year, lets reduce memory, so we can increase it later, etc.”
    The introduction of Adam, feature rich and with no compromises, will move the whole industry by a year at least.

    Thanks and keep the awesome job.

  295. As computers are duty free to import into Norway, we will “only” have to pay MVA (VAT) which is 25%.

  297. Hello Rohan,
    I’m an active blogger for more than one year. I registered for EAP and you sent me an email which told me I will be one of the proorderers. But I got no mail!

    But it was probably very good for me that YOU decided for me not to preorder. Today I looked at the preorder page and I didn’t find any additional technical info. You promised that we get them on the preorder page.

    I don’t know if other “family members” ordered without
    – having seen real pictures of the final product
    – having seen a video of it
    – knowing the OS
    – knowing the memory size
    …

    When you talk about refund policies/shipping price of other companies there’s a huge difference to NI (I live in Germany):
    – they deliver from Germany and shipping cost is much less then 50$
    – they have to respect german law which states that you can give back a faulty device within half a year without any cost.

    My personal summary is:
    I will wait for adam to be available in a german shop. I hope that when this happens more info is available that I can decide based on facts, not on enthusiasm.

    Good luck.

  298. YAY! I Can’t wait for the video! Finally we get to see it in action!
    I’m glad I decided not to pre-order, not because of the scam stories but because of all the complications, =)
    Even though sometimes it does seem WAY to good to be true, I do still believe the Adam is real… a scam wouldn’t have gone on this dedicated for a year just for the hope of getting some pre-orders! =)
    NI Just had some glitches… i think honest ones, but all the same, glitches. Some are mad, some agree they were honest glitches.
    Some people just need to give NI a break. Its not like they’re Apple or some big company who has been through this thousands of times before. They’re brand new! Not to be demeaning, but NI is like a toddler, taking their first step, they’ve tripped, but now they’re back up! 😉 You can’t expect everything to run perfectly! 😉 The way we get better is by the roadblocks we overcome! But it’s back up! YAY! ROHAN! =D

    The Adam is going to be GREAT! I Can’t wait for it! But I do want to see the video before I order, just to make sure it’s really worth it! 😉

    Also @ Rohan: Did you get the email I sent about the possible marketing idea?

    —
    Cooper! =D

  299. i kind of agree, you have to be in heavy fire fighting mode now. try and do everything you can to make sure things don’t go further south… & don’t be angry, “with great power comes great responsibility :D”

  300. That’s what I’m interested in as well… although I got a preodering-link I had no chance at all to order a Pixel Qi tablet (I don’t want a “simple” version)…

    ==> When will new Tables with Pixel Qi be available?

    And two more questions:

    1:
    How are the customs handled? What is written on the packet with regard to the custom offices? I do not want to get my packet delayed by severals weeks as it is stucked in a custom facillity! :-/

    2:
    Can you access the google marked?

  302. @Rohan – You said that “but seems it is too difficult to keep everyone happy”. I guess that should be your first learning lesson.

    You should have identified at least some countries (US, Europeans, India, etc.) where the customer can enjoy normal warranty and return policies. I am not used to buying imported stuff because of ambiguous warranty and return policies. And I never thought that the Adam is going to be an imported item.
    Suggested action item 1: Either put up some retail centers or tie-up with a retail chain.

    The price of Adam is what I am most disappointed about. I think you somewhere mentioned that the best version of Adam would be cheaper than the most basic version of Ipad. Well I don’t mind paying $50 extra, but I never knew about shipping charges. Since you never mentioned about those extra shipping and handling charges in any of your blog posts, I can not trust your words now. NI is not that transparent as it is projecting it to be. Plus, why should each customer figure out the final price (including taxes, duties, shipping, etc.), if you have time to research on Tesla, you should have time to prepare a final price chart for each country.
    Suggested Action item 2: Put up a final price chart for each country.

    You blamed MasterCard and CCavenue. I agree that it’s their fault. But that makes me think – exactly what is Notion Ink? If you do not consider them as a part of your team, then do you consider the Taiwanese firm which fabricated Adam as part of your team? You might later come up with an excuse for manufacturing defect as “The Taiwanese firm XXX had some issues and hence we can not do anything about this manufacturing fault”.
    Suggested Action item 3: Start treating every firm related to Adam as a part of Notion Ink and own up for their faults.

  303. I feel the company has not analyzed its costing based on local storage…

    for example: let us assume you ask a ‘rabid’ fan to store the product (pre-packaged) and ship it between west coast USA to east coast USA (assuming the product comes from china, via the Long Beach harbor). Both UPS charges 4-8$ for ground shipment across….

    so the 36$ is something that is a theoritical price… and not the ground reality…

    Of course, I am assuming a “rabid” fan concept, till the point, you setup the right facilities… before you take over… USA & Europe are going to be major markets…and you are going to be hounded by designers to programmers to customers for creating a better product down the line… so presence and perceptions are very important…

    Likewise… we generally have a no questions asked 1 year warranty… on many of the electronic hardware that we purchase… and more importantly for you… to enter these markets… you will have to be extra consumer friendly… and with no-questions-asked return policy… particularly within the first 20-30 days… of course, assuming that you got everything but the packaging back….

    These is just an examples of the ground reality, we have in USA…

    Again if there is USA based delivery and returns policy… it makes it easier on both sides @ 4-8$, which the customer does not mind paying… but 100$ for a return (both receiving and sending back) is for sure, not acceptable…

  304. I am very much upset .My transaction failed I have no idea why.My credit card is in good standing , never defaulted and all my international purchases I never had any issues.

    I have an order number but the transaction failed and now Pixelqi is out of stock.

    This is not fair .Iexpect NI to resolve this issue and I should get my order.

  305. Nope, shipping is on a per-unit basis; doesn’t get cheaper if you order together.

    (Singapore resident 🙂 )

  306. That’s what I’m interested in as well… although I got a preodering-link I had no chance at all to order a Pixel Qi tablet (I don’t want a “simple” version)…

    ==> When will new Tables with Pixel Qi be available?

    And two more questions:

    1:
    How are the customs handled? What is written on the packet with regard to the custom offices? I do not want to get my packet delayed by severals weeks as it is stucked in a custom facillity! :-/

    2:
    Can you access the google marked?

    Greetings from germany,
    Sebastian

  308. I’m angry, dissapointed and sad
    Pixelqi and 3g already sokd out and i didnt get a preorder mail. Thank you as a long time follower for killing my faith in you guys 😦

  309. your REALLY want to do that.. I wouldn’t take the chance of a cheaper courier..

    Just to find that centuries later my ADAM will be discovered as a part of some sea excavation

  310. This is not only for Sowmya but for everyone of us who didnt get the invite email.

    Guys, First of all be patient

    Its his (Rohan) way of doing to give priority to the followers and commenter a priority than others .. the way he looked at it was good and in right attitude .. but what happened is something different ..
    Its not just for us things got screwed up, its lot more in the ordering .. Warranty , return policy etc .. he needs to take care of such things carefully and on time to avoid bad reputation about Notion Ink … Give him a break .. let him solve bigger problems than this …

    As a family we support you and will wait .. solve other problems and come here ..
    I love the return you gave for Engadget earlier .. and the same way you will be able to handle other things as well ..

  311. Since ~300K or so adams are being shipped, does the standard shipping rates still apply? :-O

  312. It does not take a week to put together a video. Stop teasing, its getting annoying!!! If you can’t put up a video, then take a picture. Enough of these renders and photoshopped crap. Show something that is legitimate … it is that simple.

  315. Dear Rohan

    Posting again. As you may have missed (or ignored) it.

    I have only posted once, but have been a lurker for a year. Cheering from you at a distance, and proud (as an alum from your institute) of what you were trying to accomplish.

    You certainly displayed your brilliance and vision, but increasingly so a certain degree of megalomania and a God complex. “Too smart by half” is all I can say to your clues over the past few weeks, and it was embarrassing to see a cult of your believers putting their lives on hold for each of these clues.

    What happened over the past 48 hours has been a major disaster. If you built your brand loyalty around trust in your own utterances and your blog, you simply can’t go MIA when there is a massive screw up.

    I can understand logistical challenges that might confront a start up like yours ahead of a launch.What is hard to condone is creative language, that I admit is dishonest.

    1) Prices normally are “end user” prices. What is this thing about VAT being on top of your base price ? Ipad – or any other gadget – have prices that include all taxes (which could be in the 100Euro i.e. 135 dollar range in Europe).

    What you have listed is simply misleading and wrong. If you can spend hours drooling over what Tesla did or did not do a century ago, couldn’t you have computed the taxes and transparently added them to your list price, instead of misleading teaser prices ?

    I must admit this is rather sleazy, and tarnishes the brand you were building up around your own integrity over the past year.

    2) Ditto for shipping costs. S&H is normally location specific. Many of us have ordered from products shipped from Chinese locations, but most brands build the price into the product – or at least clarify that S&H costs are supplementary where the price is stated.

    In your case, the S&H costs show up miraculously only when one is about to order.

    3) How do you expect us to be dumb enough to order a tablet where we do not even know the internal storage in the specs ?

    It is time you stopped this cute strip tease. It is adolescent at best. From one IITian to another – GROW UP.

    A lot of people are trusting you with their hard earned money, and you are not being forthcoming even on the basics.

    Having succumbed – a bit – to the frenzy over the last 48 hours, having not received the promised email, I am waking up today wiser. Even though I find what you report on Adam to be terrific and I want such a tablet – you have simply lost a lot of trust in my book.

    I do not trust that the delivery would be within 6 to 8 weeks. I am almost positive NI will pull put a stunt like the IST/PST stunt yesterday when they couldn’t cope with user traffic. I am sure, you will say that the 6 to 8 weeks are actually not Earth weeks but Jupiter weeks and therefore x times longer on earth.

    I was ready with my credit card last night, but having seen the fiasco I will not pre-order for now. I still want the Adam, but I need the trust that it is from a company that doesn’t treat its clients as suckers.

    Advice to you — build back the trust with some straight talk to your clients. Don’t go MIA and then resurface with some stupid detail that is not central to our core concerns, or try to hide behind clues.

    Otherwise the same flames of internet passion that created the buzz around Adam can also fan out and burn what is- so far on paper – a revolutionary product.

  316. Social media is a double edged sword 🙂 I guess there is a lot to learn from the last two days – it was a social experiment, but I think there were elements of cultural difference, consumerism standards, and analyst expectations which had a curious interplay throughout the cycle…

    All in all though… more information can do no harm 🙂

  317. Rohan,

    Just 1 very simple question:
    Why was the pre-order opened for everybody when the 20k of the 30k family didn’t get their email?
    Do you think they feel like family with a remark that they have priority for the next batch?
    Please give me an answer.

    Regards,

    Edju13

  321. However, I think this blog post of yours is especially well written and easy to understand. 🙂

  322. I’m sorry all, but this is ridiculous. There are some many questions flying around (OS version, internal memory, warranty issues, untransparent prices exc. VAT, no videos, no real pictures etc … ) and yet the two posts that have been made to address it are so watery and lacking in any kind of detail it is ridiculous.

    NI should have all this information at their finger tips, and yet what we actually get is a vague post looking at other companies policies and stating that they are example of what it could be? Stunning. I’m astounded.

    The next post Rohan needs to be an in depth, 100% detailed account of EVERYTHING that people need to be aware of in order to purchase such a product. Not throw away statements, or vague intimations of possibilities … but COLD, HARD FACTS.

    When are these machines coming to localised stores? I don’t particularly want to pay a surprise tax charge when the goods eventually wash up on my shores. In a previous post did you not state that NI were in Europe? Where abouts? On holiday? Working? Selling from one territory and asking the consumer to foot the hidden costs is very Ebay seller-like and not what one would expect from a “new light”.

  324. Hi Rohan,

    SUGGESTION IF YOU ARE READY TO TAKE ONE / TWO.

    – Thanks for the pre-order page. Missed my mail, though i expected to be get one. But fine.
    – Multiple variants good options & prices great.
    – Shipping from China, accept it is not such an easy process for a new company.

    But despite these there are some things which would be worth clarifying. We’ve put in our monies already merely with “FAITH”. If this is hit, it won’t be just for “Notion Ink” but for product startup scene in India. Remember “Cheapest Laptop” and other stuff ????

    So do a few things
    – Clarify on the storage capacity ? ! ? Even though i’ve ordered i’ve no clue.
    – The confusing prevailing around 3G in Adam. Which one has what ?
    – Some “REAL” pictures of Adam. I know u’ll want to showcase it @ CES et al but some “REAL” pictures to convince the naysayers & skeptics & to please those who’ve already ordered.
    – This whole exercise of the blog is now coming to the light like a “PR Exercise” – “No Tech” / “Delivery” which is not true . ( I Hope )

    So a few details on the technical side & a few ( just a few pics ) will help long way.

    Amith !

  325. ah ok, so what’s the advantage having somebody fired?
    pro:
    – some people may feel as they got their “revenge”
    cons:
    – search for somebody new
    – who does his job in the meantime?
    – adam release gets even more delayed

    I’m a software developer and I know that things take time. I also know that customers don’t know that and when they want something, it has to be done yesterday. What more than excuses can somebody do in just a few hours?
    And all of you want to hear even more from Rohan. Every word he types needs time – time that he could also take to solve the problems. So let him solve the problems and wait until then.

  326. Good points Sowmya; hard to leave emotion behind when tearfully unable to accomplish something so much effort and belief went into. But, business is business, and it will never be family. I learned that a long time ago, and suspended that belief here … ah, well, the Pixel Q 3 G is sold out, I got shut out and there is no way to fix that for a long time. Demo here in U.S. on shelves … doubtful anytime soon unfortunately.

  327. Your explanation about warranty is not correct.
    You have to give a warranty according to each country legislation. I’m going to say again that for Europe the warranty covers 2 years, not only 1.
    The Apple’s document says, if i’m not wrong, that his one year warranty is in addiction to the protection law of each country. So If I’m in Europe, Apple gives to me a 2-year warranty. So I hope you apply the same policy.

    Have a look Toshiba warranty condition for Europe!!! 2 years!!!
    Don’t have a look to Apple conditions. Apple is known to be reported several times due to its contractual conditions and always the consumer has won the claim.

    Furthermore, some extra-charges you apply are unfair for e-commerce.

  328. It is sad that Pixel Qi is sold out, because that is what adam is all about for me.

    I will continue to follow Adam, and I hope that 2011 will bring Adam to my table with Pixel Qi.

    When will sales from an office in Europe be available?

  329. Why is the PixelQI display variant sold out, if at most 10k people were able to preorder?

  330. Fogot to mention one more thing … it happens with everyone and every company ..

    When Apple released iPhone 3G, Steve said it will be avalilable across Global for 199$, but that never happened in India (because of whatever reason it may be … still it didnt happend) similarly recent announcment on white iPhone which is not out yet …

    All these didn’t raise big concerns , but its happening for NI, its becasue Ni is start up and no trust on the market… let Rohan work on building that …

  332. Great post. Just for your information, and I know trying to understand so many countries different laws and expectations must be a nightmare but in Europe we have much stronger laws regarding warranty and returns than the conditions you have in place. Even if the sellers Ts and Cs say differently they are bound to follow them. After all I’m not sure I could actually get something shipped back to China/India within 10 days if needed so I’ll wait until there is some sort of retail/distribution presence here.

    I’m looking forward to your post on the 18th, I still think you need to answer quite a few questions for more people to order though maybe that’s not a problem given production is still ramping up and demand is > supply. Things like confirming Android market access (even if that’s still in negotiation), back side trackpad, flash size (8GB I assume but 8+ is listed on the site).

    That said I’m excited still about the Adam, the software looks streets ahead of anything else out there just don’t let these silly teething problems derail you.

  333. Adam is a dream, and I think it will stay on for me.
    I’m watching Notion Ink now since almost a year and I was very impressed by what I’ve seen at the CES and on your Website.
    After talking to you in March I hoped that Adam would be released in April and that I was eligible to order one. But nothing happend, so I read you blog and waited to get an answer from you. Now finally there is the possibility to preorder Adam. I was online for 24hours waiting for information on how to preorder, but it seemed like you only played with us for hours. Then you write that the family will get a preorder email and my hope increased…but the sad fact is that I didn’t receive any emails from you, and that after being here for so long time and also being told that I was added to your list.
    And now after the 6 hours “family” preorder I can’t even order my Adam because you don’t take mastercard and your policies did the rest to me.

    I just think that it shouldn’t be. I tried it for so long time, but the only thing which I get back is frustration. I hope that in the far future you’ll get a german distributor so I can buy an Adam(or perhaps the successor) there without any problems, but for now I give up. I wish you and everyone who was able to preorder good luck!

  335. Dear Rohan,

    I have been posting onw without getting any reply its like throwing a stone in pond where there is now water,

    Anyways here goes one more what about us who tried ordering 5 times and where not getting through and when we got through the variant which i wanted was already sold out so when will we get a chance to do so…..

    Thanks
    anand desai

    A answer for this will be a nice thing if you could do……..

  336. At least one yogi got it.. don’t worry i bet there would be hardly a weeks difference between us receiving it.

    Don’t want to be mean ///just humor

  339. Dear Rohan, Dear notionink,
    I saw your firm for the first time at CES 2010 and after that i found your blog and continue to follow you and comment from time to time at your blog present your product every where and i even applied for Early access program and been accepted and passed the 1st barrier but not the second one! i hoped that as we voted before developers will get the priority to get Adam but what i see was something totally else! I wait for my email as a part of EAP2 waiting list or as a commentator on this blog but no mail from notionink! and right now that i found out about the preoder what interest me is not available any more!! I am disappointed! At first i think its just me but i read more i found more about that notionink didn’t keep they promise i hope you can find a way to keep your (volunteers) developers ! since there! Have a good day rohan and all!

    Waiting for your respond
    And Goodbye

    —

    Pj

  340. +1 – This is valid for several key roles if the company wants to grow from a Lab to an electronics company (let alone a “singularity enabler”):
    – Customer Service (someone who does not JUSTIFY or EXPLAIN, but RESOLVES ISSUES)
    – Channels/logistics management (why pay $50 shipping from China when you should have an operation in the US, and ship at local cost, i.e. ~$10?)
    – PR (Yes you are good at one part of the buzz, the climax, but we just witnessed a major anti-climax, and that’s part of PR too)

  341. @at Rohan Shravan

    Have you thought about taxes in Europe? I think you have not taken into account that all products sold in Europe have to pay a tax equivalent to 20% of product price.
    If you send the product from China and you have not paid taxes, then the shipment will be probably retained at the customs until the customer to pay the fees.

    Please, many people have asked this already, but I have not seen any response from you about it. If you care about the European market, please respond. We need a clear answer, because these fees can be quite expensive (100 €).

  342. i got the email but still cudn’t pay online…. it did accepted… even in the open to all duration…

    please find a mid way so that loyal fans get chance in 1st shipmment

  343. Hi Rohan,

    I think u can post the no. of adams preordered already.(out of stock)
    Well we can make it like a big hit… the full batch of first adams preordered within 12hrs… isnt it a good record??? (its good publicity… unless the first batch is very less)

    looking to get my adam soon. i too missed the preorder. but no problem… maybe i will wait for it to hit the Indian market.(it will be worth it i suppose… even though i prefer to get it as soon as possible)

    Do spend on marketing…. Good luck! try to delegate the work…

    regards,
    thonapa,Hyderabad

  344. To speak for Rohan, I think his intention for starting the pre-ordering process was to make the “family members” happy. He didn’t want to share all the information at this point, and he expected only those who follow NI to take a “leap of faith” and invest their money. It was never intended to be a final launch, as it will happen at CES.

    But because so much hype has been created, everyone wanted to pre-order now. Obviously everyone’s expectations weren’t met and resulted in this chaos. Now I wonder, who should we blame for it?

  346. absolutely agree, for me the system rejected my payment (FYI i bought another device few minutes later and more expensive from china without any problem).

    i would try another but i would have the pixel QI display like i’ve tried at first.

    @rohan: any informations ?

  347. Families have problems too.

    Communication is key. And I think towards the end NI messed that up a bit.

    Many of us perhaps are not skeptics but cynics. So being able to see a prototype, a video will allay fears.

  348. At least you got a response!!! ive had jaff all off them. i was clicking refresh on my token email last night for 2 hrs, then gave up. all sold out now. i should have had my order in at 12 pst last night, NI refused me and gave my order to someone else in the general public.

  350. Thanks for the quick response, wasn’t sure how long it would take to see some updates to the blog regarding the whole preorder fiasco.

    I ultimately chose not to preorder because I wasn’t satisfied with the lack of information (on warranty, shipping, etc) or real in-depth presentation/explanation. I wasn’t angry, just not comfortable enough to preorder, especially with the sudden and never-before mentioned price jump on the Pixel-Qi versions. That being said, I’ll be content to see the official unveiling in January, even if it means I have to wait longer to get a hold of a PQ Adam. I hope long-term shortages won’t be an issue for the real release.

    Still love from the US.

  351. Hi Rohan,

    it would be cool if it was possible to pre-order the out of stock variants too (or at least be able to sign up for a waiting list) … and it would help you to plan your production as well I guess 😉

    Greetings,
    neLLi

  353. the spec page say there’s 1GB SLC, 8+ GB Flash & an micro SD card slot!
    so the adam should definitely have 8GB flash at the least.

  354. To which we should add:

    – Manufacturing/logistics head (to help you NOT DEVIATE from the rather industry standard question “If I want this product, how many can I have? for how much? by when?”

    You may want to check Alibaba: MOQ, Max capacity, clear all inclusive price, Availability date, Deliv Date are rather standard in the industry…

  355. @Rohan and NI

    Gr8. Thanks for clarying your position and what is really happening behind the scenes. Coming to CES 2011, please take with you a complete product (with all apps out of beta). Or else everyone out there will ridicule the intelligence of the NI family and its supporters. I tried to order the Pixel QI+LCD+3G from UK. The transaction was declined. I tried to re-order and it says SOLD OUT. I very much want this version. Is there a way the production line could be extended to come up with more of this particular version, especially because it is popular. Coming to 6-8 weeks shipping. That is too far down the line. People will be put off by such long lead times. You need to improve on the shipping dates.

  356. Good on u for the damage control. Side note what movie formats does the Adam support, will the TV out be smiler to the Archos Tablets (Button press, screen becomes touch pad) ?

  357. This was the comment posted by Rohan::

    “On it as well. There are around 30k emails to be send. System just sent 10k and then restricted us from sending any more. Some technical glitch. We have saved the list of all those who werent sent emails, and they will have their rights on the next shipment.”

    SO i suppose right here is priority(?)

  358. I think that this whole thing is a scathing indictment of the attitude of the world. (Particularly the United States, and I am ashamed because i am from California.) This attitude that the world Owes you. and that if something goes wrong, it MUST be sinister string-pulling. It shouldn’t, but it always does, shock me that if i go to the drive-through at any fast food chain, if the time it takes to make ones food exceeds 5 min people become frustrated, over 10 and they are ready to shoot, or at least yell at the employees.
    My Generation in particular has no ability to be patient, nor extend the benefit of the doubt.
    Regrettably, so few people who are commenting have their pictures up, but (judging from the good grammar most of you have) I would say that most are older than my paltry 24 years. That being said, I am disappointed that more of you don’t act like Grown-ups, and show some consideration to a company and CEO that have been trying their darnedest from day 1 to please you, and me and everyone in between.
    I understand your frustration; some of you feel cheated, or even stolen from. However, as Rohan has TRIED to explain, Things happen. Just try not to fly off the handle!
    Rohan, keep up the good work, and don’t let these technical problems, negative press, and reactionaries get you down. I am excited to see my Adam, and i am sure that you will too.
    Oh, and PLEASE(!) before you make any demands to know details on the Adam, look at the website, and previous posts to see if it has been answered already.

  359. I think we have to add 19% taxes + 38€ shipping costs. Duty should be free if it gets into the “Computer” category.

  360. Perhaps they were limiting themselves to only selling units they actually have, instead of selling an IOU to be redeemed within the next 6 months.

  361. Ouch. I was out for 4 days (no internet at all) and It’s already done :(((((
    Please someone tell me when I can order my Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi Adam !!
    Please !

  362. +300 – Are we going to learn at CES that actually you don’t have the product? But the idea is there?

  365. One more question 🙂
    Will the rest of the 30k pre-order people get an e-mail on the next patch. If so, when would they expect it? (Asking cause I’m reading for my exam, and are way to exited on Adam)

  366. @Rohan

    Once again, I would recommend that you include the PayPal option which takes care of most cards and they are less pricey than CCAvenue.

    A country-wise customs/taxes list will also be very helpful.

    Another suggestion I made previously was to have a pre-order with some token amount in the range of 100 USD / 5000 INR.

    Cheers!

  367. @Cathy did you recive a mail for pre-order or did not receive at all like many of us.
    Because if you did not, chances are that after the real videos will be out, you will have the right to order it earlier before the general public.

  368. Is the first batch of PixelQi version shipping in 8-12 weeks? When is the next batch delivered?

    I got the “family pre order mail” and waited to almost 0300 IST. No chance to order during that time. Since i live in Sweden and work during the days I couldn’t wait any longer so I went to bed. When i got up and accessed the pre order page the pixel qi version was aloready sold out. Am I out of luck or is it possible for us to get a pixel qi version anyway?

    I am only interessted in pixel qi and 3g.

    Please also update the specification page on your web. Is gps included in all models?

    Can you share the number of units in the first shipping?

    Keep up the spirit!!! 😉

  378. I don’t trust APL either, I’m not sure why you should too. I’m fairly sure that each one of their major news / press releases have contained a rather large lie or mistruth. I wasn’t aware of the India situation, but I just added that to my list.

    Quickly: No acknowledgement of antenna shorting issue (“all phones suffer this”, no they don’t. They’re inside, no shorting possible). Flash is closed (openscreenproject.org / even if it’s controlled by one company, they’re pushing H 264 as standard despite it being patented and involve royalties for video chat). etc.

  379. In one of his earlier comments above, Rohan mentioned that prices will be lower if the product is purchased from local retail partners. This implies that NI are in talk with some local retailers. If this is the case, you can buy the product from the retailer, instead of visiting Customs. At product launch (maybe on Jan 6th – 9th) they may announce their retail partners across the globe.

  380. Rohan,
    I understand that you want to unveil the ADAM in its full golory at CES so you havent disclosed the important information. Then you would have simply mentioned long time back about CES plans and taken the pre-orders accordingly. It would have caused less agony to everyone including you.
    I am not giving up on the NI, only want them to more careful about creating more hype. There are so many examples in recent history shows that hype is dangerous.
    Today when I went to pre-order page I couldnt decide between LCD or Pixel QI. WHY? because there is no info available. So I have decided to wait and buy when I can go to a store and have demo myself.

  381. And it was *not* “will also have” it was *will have” So i firmly belive it’s priority.
    @Rohan can you please provide more clarity over it. I think my interpretation is correct.

  382. Proper preparation prevents piss poor perfomance. This whole event looked improvised to me. I was prepared to make a leap of faith, but the terms and organizing of the pre-order process prevented me from doing so. I really wanted this product and firm to succeed, and I feel they still might do so, but they better start hiring the right people to prevent more shit from hitting the fan.

  385. And please answer some more questions…
    At least these 2 –

    1) What is the exact internal memory of Adam?
    2) Will we be able to download android apps from the Android marketplace?

    Thanks

    All d best!

  386. no information abt the color in the order page …

    no images..or videos…abt the variants…

    wat Dec 18th…?
    you could have started the pre order then …
    its like putitng images or videos of the most awaited product never crossed their minds…

    with 4 variants and two colours…
    dont know what colour are they supposed to ship in 6 to 8 weeks time….

    .. and no excuse for having such a lousy ordering system…

  387. I wanted to order too but could not, but that does not mean I start complaining NI. I know NI people out there are smart enough and will correct all possible issues before next roll out.

    People are dying to have Adam and they did not get that chance this time , which is actually shows how SOLID the product “seems”.

    NI is still a tech start up and there are many giants out there already with their product, they will be certainly feeling a potential (and perhaps solid competition) coming their way.

  388. What a disaster of a roll-out! I didn’t follow all the links, but I don’t need to in order to know that there is NO WAY that if Apple ships me a DOA product, I do not have to pay a restocking penalty to have them give me one that works. Ridiculous.

    The lack of videos/reviews by trusted sources is truly absurd. Rohan — we are not asking you to deviate from industry standards. We are asking you to come within a mile of industry standards! In what industry is it standard for people to plunk down hundreds of dollars for a product sight unseen??!!

    Finally, and the most egregious of all in my opinion, there is STILL no answer on basic, basic questions, such as how much storage does the darn thing have (8+???), will the Market work, etc.?

    Kudos to anyone who actually pre-ordered this thing in light of all of this. You are the true believers I guess. As for me, the only leap of faith I’ll be taking is in church; when it comes to buying a gadget, I need a little more empirical evidence!

  389. So very sad! While you guys at NotionInk are happy that the PixelQiproduct sold out in no time, you have failed to meet up to the expectation of those of us who have waiting for months. All for nothing 😦

  391. Rohan- thanks for listening and agreeing to put up a video. Maybe we can see an actual photo of the finished Adam before the video goes up? I will be waiting for reviews before I order ( as I always do) – I am interested in things like viewing angles, sharpness, brightness, responsiveness of screen etc before I part with my cash. Very impressed though with the way you read, take note and act on suggestions from the blog- never known that from a company before and you deserve much credit for that imo.

  394. Ola, please calm down. It was declined by your bank or credit card provider, not by Notion Ink. They probably have a general rule that put ALL first-time transactions to India on a “high risk – must verify manually!” list. You should direct your anger at your bank, not Notion Ink.

  396. Yeah I do. I have had numerous items shipped from china for cheap and the shipping has always been fine.

  397. I think this kind of introspection is a good thing. My doubt about pre-ordering without any reviews, videos etc. was taken away by the fact I couldn’t pre-order because mastercard wasn’t supported. I guess there’s a lot to learn by a startup like Notion Ink, trying to please everyone and still doing things their way. It looks like the early supporters will stick anyway, I hope the rest of the world will look at it the same way and the Adam and it’s children become a success.

    Still eagerly awaiting my Adam, although it’s in the more distant future now …

  398. no information abt the color in the order page …

    no images..or videos…abt the variants…

    wat Dec 18th…?
    you could have started the pre order then …
    its like putitng images or videos of the most awaited product never crossed their minds…

    with 4 variants and two colours…
    dont know what colour are they supposed to ship in 6 to 8 weeks time….

    .. and no excuse for having such a lousy ordering system…

  399. I understand all this. My complaint is that we were expecting *some* shred of localized distribution, especially in the US. What is the point of Rohan’s recent post “NI is in Europe this week” and such. This is my last post for now, but I didn’t expect to have to use some oddball CC processor, who by the way has it’s own rules against taking such preorders more than 10 days beyond shipment date (read my posts on last blog).

    The information sharing has been poor… I have a Visa but I would be just as pissed if I had MC only. Even not being able to get MC in time is understandable. Opening it to the public while the first group was having issues is the mistake. I am far from the only person who got declined. This all needs redone, or they can just say screw the dedicated followers who got shafted by their errors.

  400. Perhaps along the lines of being open and transparent to us for so long, you could utilise the many strengths of us to resolve any technical difficulties.

    I’m sure there are many engineers, administrators and even social media gurus lurking around.

  402. first disappointed not to get preorder email. still went ahead and ordered for qi + 3g ( i need 900 series though in US).i placed order with all faith in rohan and adam. i have seen many demos. i expect / pray that adam will live to the expectation.

  403. Rohan,

    Thanks for making me proud and happy in the beginning (almost a year ago) but now realy thank you for making me sad, disapointed, lot of headache and no sleep for almost 24 hours.

    It realy broke my heart that i haven’t received any mail till now, and gues what, now the pixel qi is sold out! Realy Thank you very much mister Rohan 😦

    You say you feel sorry about that for everybody who didn’t get mail, for everybody who couldn’t order. But what you are going to do about that?

    I think NI Adam is just going to be a dream for me, to disapointed for the moment, have no words for it.

    Thiago

  404. i can’t believe the pixel Qi models have sold out! well i should of guessed as much, goin to have to spend my xmas money on something else now.
    was really looking forward to getting one too (will probably still get 1 when stock come available next year?)

  405. Thanks for your efforts Rohan, just woke up this morning and found my link in the spam folder. Shame pixelQI versions are sold out, but well sooner or later ill get one.
    Im looking forward to see the in depth video i think that would vanish most of our doubts.

    Apart from the coloured side strip, are they going to be more accesories? Someting wich ill find very usefull would be a foot stand as the archos 101 has to hold in place like a picture frame when not in use, or maybe a charger stand wich would serve for both purposes.

    Best wishes.

    note: Androids eat apples these days 😉 .

  406. Honestly folks, the last week was a crash course in go-to-marketing for a startup with awesome promise. It’s all good.

  407. My credit card transaction failed fro mysterious reasons only known to their CC company.

    I am still waiting for preorder support to reply back to me

  409. I ordered in morning. But some of the post about CUSTOMS makes me worried. How do you handle customs in India? I dont have good experiences of receiving goods via courier on that front?

  410. @Rohan
    At the risk of repeating a question that has been asked again, I’m sure there are loads of people out here who would like to know when the NI Adam would hit the retail stores in India (Bangalore) and for that matter, the rest of the world – as you said, cost of purchase would drop considerably when it hits the retail market. So when exactly can we expect retails sales?
    On a lighter note, Rohan, I’m sure I’m speaking for a billion people when I say, we are extremely proud of you. Congratulations!!! 😀

  412. At this point a customer care call-center should have been up Rohan.Your most loyal fans had nowhere to go when they kept getting issues with pre-order.The very least you can do is put up contact number where all your customers can get help and know whats going on.

    Secondly, if you want to “DEMO” Adam only at CES then so be it, but nothing stops you from starting a teaser advertisement campaign through print media and/or TV commercials.Atleast you wont have to worry about the negative publicity floating around the web about Adam being a scam?

    Regards,
    Sandeep

  413. Thanks Rohan,
    Glad. You answered-what, why, when. We want adam a history making.
    Best regards.

  414. Why ignore the negative comments? It doesn’t seem like they are malicious. More importantly, they are genuine concerns of fan that was borne out of frustration over the last couple of days. I think it is constructive for NI to read them and take heed, so that this doesn’t happen again for Eve and other future products.

  415. Rohan I have followed this blog for almost a year too and although at times it has been frustrating with a bit too much teasing it has most of the time been very interesting and i am sure most of us are very grateful for it!
    The pas 48 hours have been tough for everyone- I am sure not least for all of you at notion ink but the situation is definitely redeemable!
    Now is when you need complete transparency and it seems you are doing this:)
    My individual complaint is that i never received my email so preordered anyway but now must wait a long time. I am sure there are many like me who feel very disappointed in this. I also received no confirmation of my order from NI either:(
    We all have a lot of worries and issues which will have to be resolved case by case. I hope you have a strong support team in place!
    Anyway good luck moving forward- pick up the pieces and move on. Do a great presentation on the 18th and a lot will be forgiven!
    Don’t get disheartened – these are just the first steps… they are expected to be a little clumsy!
    Regards:)

  416. @Rohan,

    I was willing to get a WiFi+3G model. But am not able to decide on the pixelQi vs LCD. I wont be using it much outdoors. Still i need something to rely on to take the decision.

    What are the storage (hard disk capacity) options?

    What about the extra amount that’s being charged for Indians? Some say it is showing $599.99 first and after confirmation, it jumps to some $611 or so. What is that extra for? taxes? need more clarity.

    Good luck..

  417. I want to express my dissatifaction with the pre-order process.
    Why the heck do you start an EAP for developers and than give priority for pre-ordering to “family”, which seems to be defined by people who have nothing better to do than comment on your blog all the time?
    It’s disappointing to see that indicating interest and support for your product from the very beginning doesn’t seem to matter very much but filling the comments of a blog with trivialities does.

    If people who were able to pre-order are told they might have to wait 3 months, when are the rest of us supposed to be able to get our hands on one? As a developer I *need* time to be able to produce something. So far there’s no SDK even and we’re definitely not going to be happy developing products on an emulator knowing we can’t test on the real thing even knowing the product is already out there (and you can hardly publish something you’ve never tested on a real machine).

    Like I said, pretty disappointing.

  418. I for one am still glad I preordered :).
    Anybody who preordered will get their Adam shipped around January 6th, or is there a possibility that, even though I preordered, that I won’t be part of the first batch?

  419. I am disappointed… Rohan excluded me from the family. I did not receive any email from NI, missed the chance to preorder the 3G-Qi (the only variant I would consider) and now will be drooling over videos and reviews until I’m able to get one. Rohan really disappointed me! I have not been only a follower since CES this year but actively participated in blogs when we used to have ~50 comments per post, took every challenge/survey that Rohan brought and now he’s giving priority to people that came out of nowhere 2 days ago? I can’t believe that it’s 1am and i’m still taking time to write this…

    I guess one less family member makes no difference to Rohan especially now that the company is probably exceeding even his dreams… Well, maybe this will make me wake up to reality. It was a nice dream … why does it hurt? 😥

  420. Well, if you see someone carrying an adam in the MRT looking smirk about it early next year…

    Yea, that would be me.

  421. @Rohan Shravan,

    Truly I do celebrate your successful launch.

    Unfortunately there will be no Pixel Q 3 G delivery to those of us who got shut out of the “family” email and the public offering. I expected “testing” issues to occur, maybe even payment issues, and I was prepared to act on faith based on what I saw here, and wait for the grand unveiling I was sure you had planned for CES. I figured even if mine wasn’t delivered in time for me to bring along, I might get to see one while I patiently waited for my red one to get here … Had the AmEx, Visa and PayPal funded and sitting by the computer for 24 hours, but not to be … ah, well.

    Please do celebrate the sell out, and best of luck with the dream; you will do well.

  422. You know, lets see all you grumpy people handle a startup who’s product demands have exploded on your face over night, and then we’ll see how many of you have the guts to post “heart wrenching” messages like this.

  423. @Rohan Shravan

    Please, there are still lot of question without an answer. Why are you avoiding to response them??? mainly i want to know about two of them

    – European Taxes
    – Adam Storage

    Could you , please, give us any answer?

  424. And please oh please.. for people who do not follow this blog but still like adam… release you FCC filings to some tech blogs… it speaks a lot about your credibility to the general consumer… think about it…

  425. Me neither, and there are about 20k other people who are just as peeved as you (I’m glad I could preorder a PQ+3G from the “public batch”). That makes two peeved ones in contrast to one glad one, though some or even most of the glad ones didn’t use their pre-order link accordingly. By filtering them beforehand, some server stress could have been prevented.

    However, a few more things could have been better in hindsight, but as they happened this way, we have to live with it. There will be other batches of adam, as well as new pre-order waves. Let’s just hope Rohan tells us when the next batches will be available for pre-order.

    So long

  426. I have one failed transaction with my cc before i was able o place order. have to check if im charged. lol

  427. well for the ones put up now, it said 6 to 8 weeks for shipment
    so now u can deduce when the next shipment will be !
    it is better not to raise another expectation.. better to be open to all possibilities and just wait

  428. I’ve just resent my help email – the CCAvenue error screen provided a different email address for getting assitance from you guys. I haven’t had a response from the email I sent to that one so maybe it is wrong.

  429. Because of my participation on the blog over the last 11 months, I was one that got the pre-order/pre-booking link that would give me access to order 6 hours before being opened up to the rest of the public. Way before the 6-hour window of time was even close to being over, I went to the order page at 3:45 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) to find that the Pixel Qi models are sold out.

    It is hard to believe that you (NotionInk) didn’t even have enough stock or allow enough orders to get thru a couple of hours of your initial 6-hour window set up for the faithful fans. You should have at least had enough stock or allowed enough orders to get thru the first few hours.

  430. Hi Rohan,

    In the official site, when i click submit or proceed in the preorder pages, it simply goes to the ccavenue website. Please add a validation function to check !

  431. Have you guys thought about the customs duty? Even though you have mentioned it somewhere that the customs duty will be 0-100% and the customer has to pay it on receiving the shipment, I expect many people would get surprised and pissed off by these charges. For instance, the customs duty for electronic goods in USA is about 35%, you should probably reply them and tell them this in advance so there wont be negative reviews (about the price etc), when they receive the ADAM.. Remember, from the last night’s incidence everyone is pretty sure that NI is a startup company and have lot of things to learn. I can also predict that the monetary resources must be limited for you guys. The last thing you guys would want is to being labeled as cheats.. that will hurt a lot of dedicated followers like us. Thanks
    looking forward to see the demo videos on 18th..

  432. Hello Rohan,

    Just a quick suggestion. Wouldn’t it be fair since a lot of people did not pre-order due to the lack of videos or mastercard support to have another round of pre-orders (short one) so that people that were here in the process still have a chance to get their hands on the most awaited gadget?

    Anyone +1?

  433. Rohan stated in a previous post “Default Adam comes in Matte Black Color with white strip, but this strip is replaceable. Starting Mid-Jan our partners will start shipping different colored strips and you can customize according to your own preference!”

  434. I have to say i agree with you, No one is asking for you to deviate from industry standards. There are basic questions that need answering that have not been addressed and seem to be ignored or forgotten.

    Its understandable being a startup, to make mistakes, You have been very precise and calculated in everything you presented or spoke about prior to today in your execution which is why i believe it came as such a big surprise to everyone how this was handled. Sure it was very dissapointing, but you live and you learn.

    I guess it will be what you take from this experience that will define the future of the company. I have said this before and ill say it again. Communication is key. Give as many updates and responses to peoples concerns as much as you can. You would be surprised what a world of a difference it makes. Understandable you probably dont have time to listen to everyones concerns, but at such a critical stage in the birth of this company sometimes you have to take a moment and listen.

  436. This post has gone a long way to elevating any concerns I did have. Still I placed my pre-order last night, so may be I am not one to comment on that. I would say that the more transparency you have in this area the better. Less risk of unfair allegations and rumours spreading that way.

    Being in the UK the terms and conditions do seem a little steep. The EU distance selling regs require a complete refund if a return request is made with in 10 days for any reason, to make for the fact the customer was unable to interact with it like they would in a store. That said the US and other countries it looks fairly normal.

    I think its a legal gray area as to where the transaction took place and under which jurisdiction, particularly in terms of the Credit Card companies involvement.

    Anyway I have every confidence it wont come to that.

    I like your approach in terms of one global price & one global market, although I can see its obviously risks a few teething troubles in its early days. If it were me I would have probably just registered everyone’s interest, then asked them to pay up in a week or two. To save the pressure on the EComerce systems.

    One question what happening with local issues, like the correct plug / voltage on the power adapter and the right 3G variant? Is that being automatically resolved via the shipping or billing address?

    Keep up the good work and don’t take some of the extreme comments to heart theres always going to be a few.

  437. Rohan!

    I am staying in Japan.
    I want to know whether there is anything like FCC or CE certification for use in Japan, so that there is no legal problems.

    Please reply!

  439. One of the biggest problems I´ve got with the preordering and stuff is – the most wanted version of the adam (with PixelQi) is sold out by day one … and there is no information about when or where there is going to be more of them.
    So please answear this quastion in one of the next postings: How long will it take until anyone can order these variants again?
    Because I want one – and there are none … so I would like to know how much longer we have to wait

    Thx

  440. @ sam said, on December 10, 2010 at 14:41

    >i expect / pray that adam will live to the expectation

    Depends on whether you have been naughty or nice this year. 🙂

  443. Hi Rohan,

    I wanted to pass on my support most of what you have done.

    People seem to be confusing the pre-order with pre-order from another company, e.g. Apple. Apple do not tell you anything about a product until it is demonstrated by Steve. Fine, not a problem with that, but it is one method. Then after it is complete and demonstrated you get a chance to pre-order.

    On the other hand, you here have told us lots of information. Not maybe as much as we would all like, but an infinite amount more than Apple does, as they hide everything until the first demo. You have not yet done your big release demo.

    So we are given more information, we are given an earlier opportunity to pre-order the product, and what you got in return is complaints… What is the basis of comparison. There isn’t one. If people want to pre-order after release, they can wait… and by then I am sure that videos, pictures, specs, demos, reviews will all be up. This is nothing like that type of pre-release, and disappointed to see some of the comments.

    Good luck.

    Scott

  444. Now I am feeling real happy about the order I placed for ‘Pixel Qi + Wifi’ this morning. I have always wanted an Adam from the day Rohan showed the prototype. It’s nearly an year that I waited and through this process I have started liking not only Adam but also Rohan’s approach to communicate and listen.

    Yesterday when the hell broke loose, I never for one sec thought about the integrity of Rohan or NI. Never for one sec I thought that this pre-order is to raise fund, rather it’s a nice way to give opportunity to people like me who don’t want to wait much longer.

    Yes, many skeptics will ask that based on what info I am putting my faith? My answer is -if anyone have followed this blog long enough, they surely have come to realize that NI will deliver; there can be hiccups at beginning, but the genuine intent is there and that will eventually serve us in the long run. That’s what I have based my faith on. And, I am happy that I ordered in the first chance that I got.

    Thanks Rohan for communicating back to us quickly. I know it’s been a tough day. Just wanted to say that I am with you and I am sure there are many others.

  445. +2. More importantly for your Indian consumers, you know how notorious Indian Custom Dept. is. Do you intend to ship from India for Indian consumers? I would request you to do so.

  446. Pixel Qi has already sold out and the 3G variants are the next?
    Damned …
    I want the Pixel Qi Diseplay with 3G :/

  447. I had commented only once.
    I did get the invitation on time. I am not desperate to buy now. will wait…

    I am sure NI will prepare, aniticipate, and respond well for all events in future properly.

    Rohan, dont give any Knee jerk reaction. Adam is and will be a successful product….
    count on our support….

    Ram

  448. NI should apparently just ignore the non-Pixel Qi version for now and build PQ. Those are going like crazy because it’s the world’s first. =P

  449. Rohan, Dont feel disappointed (even though I say I know how it feels when something has hurt you). You have tried to satisfy everyone and that itself is an achievement.
    Things will go well soon. All people is want is a demo/review on their face.

    Give it and then see the praises coming in.
    Good Luck

    Thanks..Your follower
    Shiva

  451. After a long wasted night, I am totally frustrated.
    Initially I applied for EAP (really wanted to develop an interesting application for this). but I did not qualified. I got a promise that I will get the preorder option, before the public preorder. This did not happend. Than, I also posted on this blog, but no email, with preorder option. Last night I staid whole night to try to order, but always page was not available, and finnally when worked, all Pixel Qi sold out!!! 😦
    I am wonder when the next stocks will be available? Which is the production capacity?
    The production already started? Or will start soon…..? Too many questions, too few answers.

  452. Me too, gonna take a long break.. i guess deserve one… lot of things put on hold in real life (my music and my books, shopping and writing etc..)

    so see u all when the video is up..! Kudos to NI, hope they sail smooth…

    @himanshu i am not in twitter
    ya others @cathy, @tarwinia @greg @Gecko @vector @jai.. etc etc (sorry if i had dropped some names) as mentioned hope to stay in contact some way…

    and to all those who listened to my cribbing patiently – thank u!

  453. So bad

    I dont have mastercard. I’m visiting my mother to see if she has a visa.
    YES she has it 😀
    I’m going home to order it and the drama 😥
    sold out

  454. @ rohan
    i received no mail although i did postings….so i missed the chance to pre order the pixel Q 3g modell…..when do i have a chance to order / preorder one ????

    jürgen

  456. @ Klang said, on December 10, 2010 at 14:45

    > It was a nice dream … why does it hurt? 😥

    It hurts perhaps because you slept on it? You did say it was a nice dream. 😉

  457. I can understand the desirability of the Pixel Qi wifi +3G variant, but why is this ‘Sold Out’ on pre-order. Surely a high demand would only mean that pre-orders would take longer to fulfil. I am disappointed that i could not pre-order 2 hours after IST. I will still probably wait to buy the Adam, but will this be another 12 months. Although this will allow time for ‘teething troubles’ to be resolved it also means that I will be competing with the wider demand on general release. It seems that Notion Ink have scored a major home goal.

  459. Wow sold out already thats amazing, how many were there in the first batch? When will the next batch be available?

    Keep up the good work!!!

  461. Yes, which brings the total up to $750 = 566€ = 4500 Kroner. The Pixel Qi screen seals the deal for me as long as Rohan manages to ramp up the production while Adam is still unique. But I hope the competition will be catching up a lot faster than he predicted a while ago. I seriously believe he will NOT get a 12 month head start. At least not now, when he is unable to provide another batch for 3-4 months. I’m starting to feel like this ship has sailed.

  462. Hi Rohan,

    I am glad to see a reply from you on most of the questions/problems but I agree with others that there are more questions that need answers.

    I have few questions.

    1. I have paid Rs. 29999 for the high end version which is ~ $650 (at $1 = Rs. 46). It is supposed to be $600 with shipping but not. Why additional $50 from Indian buyers?

    2. Once this product is available in retail, as you said, it could cost significantly less. Are you planning to give some extra benefits to us, “the family” or the early adopters? I know, it is industry norm to punish early adopters but I am hoping that you will lessen the additional cost with some freebies, may be free color panels or extra software??

    3. I have successfully completed my order today morning and everything went well with out a glitch (must be lucky!). My question is whether many people who are part of the “family” (me included but didn’t get any email) but couldn’t make the order because of some or other issue (no email or no visa/amex card etc.) will still get precedence over my order when ever they get a second chance.

    4. My thought on the mystery feature is consumer IR, I hope so! If I am right, that is a great feature to have.

    With all that said, I am really happy to be the early adopter, I never was until now. There is a lot of bad press around which is unfortunate and I am sure you will come out just fine.

    All the best!

    Best regards,
    Anil

  463. If the units are there as I assume they are from the comment “fresh batch” can we have pictures of the finished item?

  465. only a third of the emails actually went out. i was in the third that went out but the link didnt work. looks like yours was one of the ones that didnt go out which he said he is working on finding out why this happened

  466. I have been one of the lucky “family” members who managed to pre-order even though I haven’t received the email. I can imagine how the other “relatives” who couldn’t order might feel now. Like Greg, I hope Notion Ink will be able to take care of them and allow them somehow to get an Adam as well.

  467. @ agak said, on December 10, 2010 at 14:46

    > Could you , please, give us any answer?

    Any answer? Then technically even silence is an answer.

  468. Interestingly its the other way round if we look at the stats right now (may be the price point)! PQ is a start up as well, and little low on volumes, waiting for them to confirm their volumes ASAP.

    Regards

  470. i was in the same boat but i even got a email with a token/link and it still didnt work! eagerly awaiting more stock updates

  471. Panel doesnt “exists”?! Hope these grammatical errors are fully sorted out before the Adam starts shipping. Did anybody notice this in the previous blog post by Rohan?

    notionink.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/panel-system-when-application-has-no-panel1.png

    Rohan, i’m reposting this once again as I thought maybe you have missed this post. Please reply and confirm that you will see to it. Wishing Adam all success…

  472. So much hate here. It’s almost comical.

    Rohan, I’m 100% sure you and the rest of the Notion Ink team are doing the best you can. Sure, I’m a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to get a Pixel Qi Adam this time around but it’s not the end of the world. Soon enough I’m sure you will get up to speed and make it available to the rest of us also.

    So people, give them a break! Remember the launch of the Nindendo Wii, Playstation 3, etc. It happens to many popular products, even from large companies. Notion Ink is a new, small, hard working company. Don’t expect them to have the full experience of the 100 year old multinational giants just yet.

    Keep up the good work!

  473. Dang a shame i was 1 of the older bloggers who wasn’t given an pre-order link.
    Maybe it has to do with my hotmail?
    But nice to see things go very well for NIA.
    On the other hand there will be soon reviews of the ADAM so i can decide then to go for it.
    We just have to wait a little bit longer.
    best regards,

    MR T

  475. Great reply rohan..
    Indeed its very difficult to keep everyone happy.
    But I think two things are required to make a product sucess
    1. Good product
    2. Good intentations

    You have both … Rest of the things.. Are Machinical Process.. which get smoothen out with time and little greasing..

    Gud Luck

  477. So the PixelQi models are all sold out? That is extremely disappointing. Have the pre-orders only claimed the current stock of Adams, or does that include the projected production up to January 06? When can we expect another stock of PixelQi Adams? Will the pre-order for PixelQi Adams be opened back up with a caveat of “will ship when available”? So many questions…..

  478. Hmmm … i guess the entire pre-release thing got bigger than what company thought or was prepared for … maybe bec. company is doing this for the first time !

    i guess mail system failure is rather smaller of the problems. but, anything to do with money (CCAvenue getting detected as a fraud, collecting the money now, while the first shipment is a month away) are bigger problems. maybe you charge the credit cards only on the day of shipment ?

    you got to have people to handle these in parallel … ever considered calling this pre-order as phase I and then go for phase II and III a few days later ? that may manage expectations better !

  479. @Sowmya The message was for the “family”, so the ëveryone “in this case was refering to the members in this blog. Cheer up, things will work out fine soon.

  480. And where do the lesser mortals ‘pre-order’? I don’t see any link on the website for everyone who is ‘not part of the family’. Can someone guide me?

  481. @ Arhant said, on December 10, 2010 at 14:46

    > release you FCC filings to some tech blogs

    I speculate the reason he does not want us to find the FCC filing is due to the mystery feature. If the feature depends on some hardware component then we may easily find out about this mystery feature. This is also the reason, I think, he mentioned that they made it a little difficult for us to find the FCC filing.

  482. Never got the expected family pre-order email. However, went ahead and ordered when ordering opened up to public. Really glad to see you working on trying to clear up the confusion. Best wishes.

    I have a couple of questions though.
    1. Received only the confirmation email from ccavenue with the order number. Did not receive a confirmation email from NotionInk like others. Do we have to receive both for the order to have been successful. Should we forward the same to NotionInk? Could you please check and inform us?

    2. What is the size of memory being shipped with the unit?

    Thanks
    Ash

  483. When will be available the pixel qi model again? I could not order because I have mastercard….

  484. Here’s where I really do have abig problem with what has happened over the past 24 hours. Rohan says that they meant to have sent out 30k pre-pre-order invites, yet ALL PixelQi variants were sold out well before the end of the 6-hour invite-only opportunity (of which I was an invitee, and an attempted pre-pre-orderer).

    Knowing, KNOWING that Pixel Qi on an OEM product was a HUGE part of the draw to Adam in the first place, from when it was announced so long ago, why were there not at *least* 30k PG units available in the pre-pre-order stage? At least have one for every expected pre-pre-order, and limit the pre-pre order to on PQ unit per invite? Any units not claimed by the pre-pre order could then be openly available to the general pre-order on a first-come, first served basis.

    I’m obviously really REALLY pissed about this. I’ve passed up eInk readers, netbooks and netbooks with DIY PQ screens, just to hit this launch. I’ve scrimped and saved for months. I WANT MY PQ 3G Adam!

  485. Dearest Rohan,

    Things may, will and should go wrong. It is probably also an avenue to learn things (the harder way!). Get up but get up strong!

    One small bit of advice that you may want to use on your website – go through the online shopping experience at dell.com, apple.com (i still hate them! its always the Adam for me), amazon.com and try and understand what makes the shopping experience an absolute delight on these sites. And nothing wrong in that.

    Also, we would like to know your retail tie-up and launch dates for India launch. Don’t keep this info hidden anymore

    Still your fan
    raj!

  486. Where was anything promised man? Did Rohan expressely promise to ensure that everyone gets the first shipment? No?
    If you guys have issues with waiting a few weeks longer, go buy an Ipad. And then, puke allover it.

  487. Rohan and All,

    I agree with everyone about the issues faced and I was also awake all day holding the refresh button. but I’am not complaining because the blame is on us too.

    It was we who forced you to open the pre order gates prior to the actual demo at the CES.

    Because of our impatience you might have decided to give it a chance to the loyal followers first. which bombed big time.

    But this is a small hiccup and what ever you guys had developed so far is huge and superior than anything else in the market.

    I wish that everything is sorted out and we will be able to forget the gloomy day and continue our journey with NI in smooth.

  488. Well, that email response was on the 6th … and I was relatively optimistic that I’d be considered “family” and took a wait and see approach … and still don’t know, but in limbo since supposedly not all the “family emails” were actually sent. I had started doing business case for this product within my company and parent company, but after seeing some of the T&C’s in their current state, a lot more cost / benefit analysis.

  491. I guess 90% of the preorder config includes PixelQi .I will be getting PQ+3G but let me turn atleast 18 .Hope Pq variants will be available at that time .
    I repeat -hope to see weekend special in 2012 .
    (what the sales package include;it is apple type-adam body only or Nokia type-body+charger+case+some accessories or docking solution )

  493. So Rohan,you will now know the real family Who are with you during rain and shine..who have ordered even with all these issues 🙂 and I have ordered even though I didn’t get the pre-order mail,spent the whole night for the link to be up

    So you should give preference to those who ordered today for next product release

    Are there any plans for EAP1/EAP2?

  494. Too little too late, after reading the returns policy I decided that its not a risk I’m willing to take. On top of what can only be described as a disastrous attempt at marketing & distribution only highlighted to me that purchasing this without any kind of review would be a huge huge mistake. Sorry notion ink, after following you for well over a year it saddens me that it has come to this. Thankfully there are other products available that have a much more proven returns policy and transparent purchasing system.

  495. Well, some spoilt children and greedy customers here, reminding me of people flying low-cost airlines but expecting all the fuss of long-established (and loss making) companies… I got my email, found a Visa card, my order didn’t get through because of some glitch, and now Pixel Qi is sold out, but never mind: my patience will still be nothing compared to the determination it took Rohan and the whole team at NI to start this revolution.

    I love that this start-up is selling a truly new and fabulous device worldwide, with one price, one shipping fee: never happened before, even Google didn’t do it for the Nexus One. Maybe pre-ordering is an act of faith, maybe it would be cheaper to wait a few months and find the Adam in shops locally: but I’m happy to pay now, and hopefully more money will go to NI, to become part of the adventure, show my support and make the launch a success. So cheer up, people, keep hope. And don’t worry, Rohan, we know you care and do your (awesome) best.

  497. @ Rohan,

    Dear Sir, I don’t know if this was asked before because,to be honest, I am kinda tired of going through all the posts (which can be seen as a good thing I suppose).
    Anyways, what was the criterium for being eligible to receive a pre-order email?

    I thought (I think many more peepz) commenting on the wordpress prior the so called “last post”, would have been enough.
    I did that, I used the same email address over and over again. I used the name “Daryl” over and over again. Still no email, NO not even in spamfolder.

    I did feel left out, I did feel betrayed (no kidding).

    Just let me say this : I have a lot of respect for you, being a CEO having a lot more things to do besides making your blogs.
    Good luck and hopefully I will be able to order my PQ-wifi-3G (900) adam in the near future (must be before Christmas 2011) *hint hint*.

    Greetz, much respect and of course World Peace.

    Daryl.

  498. Specs: Notionink.com

    Picture of Complete Units: Week end Special 8
    Video: Week end Special 6, as well as many other places.

    Os: Its a modified form of Android 2.2

  499. It seems a bit unfair that you started pre-orders before were able to accept MC cards. I’ve got the feeling that, when you will finally resolve things with MC, all Adam versions will be sold out :/

  501. What about those who DID get the email, but were denied access to order by 503 errors and CCave issues?

  503. Concerned that we should have to take responsibility for lost in transit devices.
    Need to know memory size etc.
    Would prefer to buy from EU shipper – or send via normal registered post (that way I take the risk and do not have to pay the $50 extra charges levied by DHL for processing the inevitable customs charge).

  504. Dear Vinay,

    Nope Rohand didn’t promise everyone to get the first Shipment. But he promised everyone to get the e-mail so they could pre order it, or get a chance to pre order it! And that’s what most disapointed me!

  505. came back too late to get a Qip, sob sob sob.

    Rohan, is there a way to be informed when Qip screens again available ?

    thank you

  506. Waited almost a year to find out
    – Pre order does start on time + the server can’t handle the traffic and by the time I’m awake again, the product is sold out
    – you need VISA or AMEX
    – Prices are without tax/shipping
    – Warrenty is absured
    – I still haven’t seen a demonstration of the real product

    I’m very disappointed, especially because I had high expectation

  507. +1. I agree with Vivek. Indian Customs department have bad reputation of misplacing parcels, damaging them, charging exhorbitant duties etc. I would suggest you to make separate arrangement for your fellow countrymen!

  509. @ James said, on December 10, 2010 at 14:58

    > how can that be if they are all sold out?

    They may have only “x” PixelQi variants and “y” non PixelQi variants such that y > x.

  510. +1.61803399 for Rohan and the rest of Notion Ink in how they are handling everything thus far. I wish you all the succes that you deserve, much love!

  511. Thanks Rohan for this fine post. My only concern is the FCC release date, but if the FCC makes it slip, then it slips and I can live with that. My feeling is that mostly the community was disappointed with the lack of communication from you guys more then the actual policies. Though of course some pundits will attack you on the policies to generate page views. Haters gonna hate. In terms of communication, you might have said that preorders will most likely only be with Visa and American Express before preorders opened so that eager fans could make arrangements, for instance by purchasing a prepaid Visa card or at least not get their hopes up.

    Note that the originally posted, if incomplete, 3 policies on the site, return fees were kind of high at 25% but have now been brought more in line with the industry standard. The bad part of the policy is the charge to customers if you ship a defective unit. It is of course appropriate that you don’t loose money for buyers remorse, but it is also appropriate that we don’t loose money if your suppliers screw up our device. Note also that 10 days is on the short end for the industry. While it is true that Toshiba is that short Dell offers 25 days. You will please a lot of people if you increase the time some and make it clear that it is 10 days from receipt of the goods.

    None the less, I applaud you for trying to change to these global times. Clearly Notion Ink is trying to be a leader in this space and I support your actions in this regard fully. Having global policies is an awesome step forward and the time has clearly come for these kind of policies and I applaud Notion Ink for being a leader in this area.

    The Europeans certainly are glad at the one global price. Long have they endured the same numeric price for Apple products while that completely ignores the currency disparity. The UK has it even worse for the strong Pound. It is amazing that you are willing to eat a portion of the shipping cost for places that are expensive to ship to in order to maintain your one global price. That is truly innovative thinking and I look forward to more of it from you.

  512. rohan i asked this question more then 100 times how do u ship the product within india to be precise in mumbai and in mumbai also the delivery charges will be 50$ and do i have to pay in us$ why can i pay in indian ruppes and is there anyother option then paying by credit card ? can we deposit money in some bank or say send u a DD. or is there any store from where we can book it. there is no info for indians pls hope u can give us indians exact info and your email and explaination was nice highly appreicate it and this is what atleast i was expecting, very eager to see hands -on video on 18 dec. till then all the best hope u answer this questions for indians .

  513. i love/hate you NI, despite staying up 35 so that i would be ensured the adam of my choosing and putting my order 20+ times calling credit card and pre-approving you. trying on multiple computers including the ipad i just sold on ebay to buy your adam . iam left empty handed i even have to give up my ipad.

  514. Let me tell you this is the most lousy ordering system I have ever seen, I mean I can’t believe the people with such a great ideas and innovation can make such a mess.
    Come on, one first order step you dont enter anything and you can still move to the second step, I am a developer and I cant think of making such a mistake on a prototype.

  515. If you still have another 6-8 weeks before you are expecting to ship units, you should allow more pre-orders and just ramp up production. I wasnt one of the lucky few that got an email even though I posted numerous times, and I still want one of the top of the line models. Am I just SOL and forced to wait for another many months before I can even have the opportunity to purchase one?

  516. i m extremely happy after reading the post n comments.we should support rohan like this.cant wait till 18th!!rohan intends to release it at CES,as rivals goin on a comet pace to launch and get a share in the tablet pc market.ADAM WILL GET TO KICK SOME MAJOR ASS THERE!!we ‘ve the sick features,killer hardware,awesome eve!CES will give the perfect stage to show that how superior it adam compared to others.maan gaye TAMBI!
    Regards
    SANU

  517. Very Dissapointing Launch,

    after months of following every word on this website, my card doesn’t get authorised and this morning the model i want is sold out. How can a pre-order sell out? its not even made yet.

    Very sad launch, I think after all the Stirling work done in developing the actual product, Notion Ink really needed more professional help in launching the product. I’m not talking about corporate policies and restrictions, i’m talking about people who have done this before, understand order volumes, logistics and distribution challenges, as well as notion ink understands developing a ground breaking new product.

    I also don’t understand why the special pre-order offer was only available 6 hours! i feel ripped off after waiting so long:(

    Please can you let us know when more units will be available with pixel Qi, and provide another payment option (paypal) so i can actually order it next time.

    Still looking forward to having a new Adam in my hand in the not too distant future.

  518. i put my order through multiple times despite fear of fraud because i am a adam fan. my order never went through. i have decided to not to buy adam until there is a safer looking payment method. i think most people will think you website fraudulent. especially if they don’t know you like do. in fact after my adrenalin died i realized how shady the payment method seemed and i put a fraud alert on my credit report. i truly hope notion can succeed, i’m already looking forward to eve. please don’t burn out this way. i literary love you guys

    ps i stayed up 40 hours waiting for adam last night. it almost breaks my hart all these months of looking forward to the adam and i have to resin my self to give up on it.

  520. What Toshiba’s warranty says:

    “This warranty does not affect your statutory rights, namely applicable consumer law.”

    More things about warranty:

    “In some countries, a Pick-up and Return warranty service may be provided. If your laptop is eligible for Pick-up and Return, Toshiba will arrange your laptop to be picked-up, repaired and returned to you. Toshiba will incur all repair, logistics and insurance costs in this process.”

    You have to adapt your conditions to different countries or legislations writing some clauses that says that consumer’s law will be applicable if it offers more protection than the standard warranty you offer..

    Rohan, if you realize, all information can be shown in different websites without the necessity of entering our personal data.

  521. Despite the fact of Rohan’s presence, little info is really being given. Just picking and choosing of specific company policies to justify additional costs.

    I was able to order in the “family” period, way before everyone else but the return policies, sales policies, etc have been removed, moved and changed. Specifically the original sales agreement said all tariffs and duties were listed on the order page, in which I did not see any for the US.

    I think this is a bit of bait and switch, and changing of language to justify 5% here and there. Theres also few more than rohan saying ok Im reading this and that. None of the important and basic questions are being answered.

    Im going to call my CC company to make a note of this transaction in case it goes sour in the future, I suggest you all do the same. having to pay a restocking and processing fee to replaced a DOA or damaged product is ridiculous and is not in any company’s policies.

  523. Why? He didn’t support the majority of our hardcore followers either by not sending us a preorder mail and now the nice ones are sold out.

  524. Rohan in Memory+Storage what does Flash 8 + GB? It should be noted that the flash memory of up to 8 GB?
    Adam Pixel Qi when it is available for preorder? Hours, days, weeks?
    Thanks

  525. posted at: h**t://yogi.rampuria.org/2010/12/why-i-chose-to-pre-order-adam.html
    Why I chose to pre-order ADAM

    As I begin to write this I see a new post from Rohan. (Ouch!). But I will beat him to the next post.

    Being in flight does explain a little bit but leaves out a whole lot unanswered. However a lot would depend on his next post. This will put Rohan’s damage control skill will put to test. I am still with you Rohan.

    Now to the real meat. Firstly let’s talk about software

    I have always believed in open software. Many of which have redefined our industry. Apache is a living example of this. Linux is another one and I can come up with many more. So, I like Android too. Personally I have not done a single commit but I do follow a lot of discussion and I get to learn a lot.

    Secondly hardware. What NI is using is a very open hardware. And can be used for running variety of stuff. Probably now I will start learning about the Linux kernel hacks more and more so that I can contribute in developing a ChromeOS or Ubuntu for ADAM.

    Thirdly I feel that ADAMs specs are just about right. HDMI, Camera, USB Host, Wifi (n), CPU, Memory, etc. are all in the top bracket and at this price I don’t thing anyone would deliver it to you. Read carefully. Its would not could. Unless you are trying to rob people every 1 or 2 year(s) by keeping features/function back, you have no reason not to use a mainstream feature. I have a Motorola Milestone and I like it a lot, but they have forgotten to send us an update even when a newer version is available. We have to live on hacker/rooters (with all due respect to cronos/xda/cynogen/got) for update.

    Last but not least. Most important one, its an Indian startup that has dared to challenge norms. Last time an Indian did that, as I remember it, he created the biggest democracy in the world^.

    So this is my gesture to encourage them.

    Now onto the money. I have lost money on internet before and I am sure I will lose again. Thats part of the game. I lost USD 350 when my monthly income was about USD 2800. All for a PS3 on signing up “GOLD” membership. I have known about these scams all along but I just felt that it wasn’t one. That was via PayPal. Dispute settled in my favor but I never got the money. You know how and why.

    This isn’t PayPal so I felt safer. Even I got charged (hold payment by AMEX) for a failed transaction. I tried second time and failed as my card wasn’t 3D secure. Luckily I have a bunch of cards and I tried the usual one an 3D secure worked and voila! So Now just waiting for ADAM to come home.

    So heres what I felt about pre-order campaign:

    Good

    My Faith in Notion Ink
    Its not tablet. Its ADAM
    Its tough to fake so much (not impossible, accepted)
    Credit Card company’s dispute resolution assurance

    Bad

    Server Capacity Planning
    Order form (Pixel Qi + 3G.. which one 850-900?)
    Payment gateway (I have always face problems with CCAvenue in past)
    Scheduling a flight on such an important day (Chalo likho 10,000 baar fir nahin karunga … Come on! write down 10,000 times “I wouldn’t do it again.”).

    Ugly

    Lack of communication
    No video
    Tech bloggers taking their share of potshots (They are no different than a typical Indian TV journo asking “Aapko kaisa lag raha hai gadhdhe meh?” .. “How are you feeling in the hole?”)

    ^ – For all those fellow Indians questioning our freedom, read what our freedom fighters wrote and try to comprehend those times. We can’t! Our generation has very few who can appreciate freedom. Not even I can do that. Just try an read only jallianwala bagh

  526. nicely said………u should post this again an again for this to get into most of their brains who doesnt know what pre-order is………………………………….stop this non-sense complaining……..evertin will be fine…….please support rohan…..

  527. Very annoyed that the top spec variant is sold out, waited for ages yesterday at the supposed public pre-order time, nothing happened, then it was postponed until 5:30am my time, and keeping in mind the chaos that went on decided not to bother waking up for it, now sold out already?! After all this hype it sells out in a few hours?! Come on, ramp up the number of units before we get bored of waiting.

  528. Hi Rohan,
    I am not an active commenter but I read your posts and check the comments very regularly. I did get the pre order link but it wasn’t operational at the time the mail said it would.
    Well, I am not really surprised and these do look like teething troubles. On the other hand, some of these organisational issues are bound to arise with a start up like NI.

    My suggestion is not to have a knee-jerk reaction to the comments that some of the fans have written. Its obvious many are disappointed with sky high expectations built up over the last few months and like many have mentioned, dangerous when not met.

    Ni has to take this steadily and not rush up, without solid grounding. Come what may, reliability and communication has to happen at all levels. And if these are well managed, a good product will find its customers. Lay a solid foundation first and learn from these incidents.

    I am surely going to buy an Adam if its still goign to be available after a few months..but I hope that these troubles are ironed out and better organised and the process becomes smoother.

    Again – all the best to your team and keep up the tempo. looking forward to the videos soon!

  529. European Taxes vary from country to country. Its usually called Value Added Tax (VAT) in Sweden its 25% on top of the buying price including freight and insurance.

    I’m not up to speed on the customs charges. The TARIC code for the device should be 847130xxxx the same as IPAD. Get in touch with your national Customs authority and they will help you.

  531. Before such advice is considered as stereotyping, some English expert should read and pass all the English text both on the web and the device.

    That would earn some points for NI for paying attention to the details/correctness.

  532. I just ordered an Entourage eDGe off Amazon and expedited shipping is like $12 USA to Australia. $50 is a rip-off bigtime.

  533. I almost could order one.

    Merchant URL is Incorrect.

    Sorry, Your order cannot be processed as the website is not authorised for Transactions through CCAvenue.

    Please contact the Webstore Administrator to report this error.

  534. deviates = listen directly to what the costumers are saying (blog). and he is correct!!! that is deviating. and listening is what this has done the most.

  536. @ Hari R said, on December 10, 2010 at 15:01

    > I was also awake all day holding the refresh button

    A-ha. So it was you who was creating the deluge of incessant requests to the server. Have you considered a career as a DoS machine ? 🙂

  538. I’d like to know the answer to this. if “family” is so important, why could you not step in and stop the process as soon as you saw things started to go wrong?

  539. mh, I think it’s pre(!)-order. For me it’s the same as a software in beta status. Nobody needs to spend money on Adam. I also haven’t preordered yet and I wait until the problems are fixed.
    And…come on…if my sister got raped, she wouldn’t have a choice. We all have the choice to preorder or not. So calm down, nobody stole your money, nobody got raped. Just nothing happened. And why should I blame someone for something, that did not happen? No contracts, just a product, that’s not out there yet. Is anybody really insured here?
    Another point is that Notion Ink is a startup. If you don’t trust them, it’s ok, but don’t blame them. Just try to put yourself in eg. Rohan’s position. He has an idea and trys to produce a product, that will be better than other ones. Of course he wants to make money with that – no bad intentions. So there are a lot of important decisions to make, a lot of newbie errors. I did never believe that everything will work perfect.

  540. You took the words right out of my mouth there (although I probably wouldn’t have been able to resist adding an expletive)

  542. I am the same. I was a regular poster on the inception blog and on this one and still no e-mail. Very not reasonable. Looks like the Samsung Galaxy is going to get a customer they didnt expect.

  543. Unfortunately, we were not be able to obtain credit card / bank account authorization for your order displayed below, due to the following reason : unauthorized usage

    I am getting really irritated I havent received any reponse from pre order support .What going on. This is really a good way to make family feel special.

  545. I am glad that Rohan is trying to explain things. However I am at a total loss as to why he has led people on without a warning on Mastercard. Think of the sleep and time people could have saved when they had no chance of ordering!

    This really feels like the Pre-Order is to say Rohan met a milestone. To me NI was not ready to handle orders.

    This has taken me from a rabid fanboy to a cautious one.

  546. It’s a preorder, it can’t be sold out. My guess is NI put the preorders for the pixeQI version on hold until they can confirm PixelQi can keep up with the production of the screens.

  547. Hi Rohan
    I was one of the lucky ones yesterday and got my email finally but the waiting period reading the comments with some very vaild points was difficult. I was torn, I have never spent that much on a gizmo without a proper examination but in the end I took a deep breath and ordered the model I wanted-you will now have to prove my faith in you.
    What would assuage a lot of your loyal fans would be a quick reply to this email or one of the many others just clarifying the major points your fans are looking for-it wont take you long just a minute or two:
    1. Internal Memory Clarification
    2. What colours per Model
    3. The trackpad on back-it cannot be that hard to tell us if it is there-you have been avoiding this question.
    4. Clarify the situation with the 3G models, how do we tell you which model we want?
    5. Just get some pictures of our wonderful Adam’s up on the site-8 days to wait for a video is not acceptable.

    Rohan I have put my faith and money in you by pre-ordering with my hard earned cash, spend 30 seconds answering the above, that is all I am asking.
    On a final note will I be able to change my shipping address to my mother-in-law’s address in China so I can avoid customs here in Ireland.

  548. It is impossible to have a single warranty as the UK’s distance selling regulations, mean that you maybe breaking the law with your warranty,

    ONE thing YOU need to REMEMBER, is that people don’t just go to APPLE because of their product, OS,or design. They go to APPLE because they have some of the best after customer relations, so if you don’t like the product, you SEND it BACK and they check it and sell it back on their refurb store, i should know because i sent BACK a macbook pro, without even opening it (£1800, straight back into my account), even though i got student discount.

    Also the majority of the students at my UNIVERSiITY get APPLE , because not only do they give you STUDENT DICOUNT, but Students get FREE APPLE CARE for 3 YEARS. If you are true to your words and want to change from the norm, you have to Learn from the company that does this (change) for a living.

    YOU HAVE THE POTENTIAL to be BETTER than KNO and APPLE, for students, but you must treat US your LOYAL EARLY SUPPORTERS, with the RESPECT we deserve, Please don’t just copy terms off other companies, get them check by CONSUMER LAW, when you mention ACTUAL LAW to these companies, they FORGET thier Terms And Conditons, and have to agree (therefore receeding and accepting the LAW). You should know this as you definately have some sort of patent lawyers that you deal with, they should be able to point you in the right direction (consumer lawyers)

    YOU attract a lot of attention, but you must be PREPARED, and SO MUST your SUPPLY CHAIN, you should, To BE the BEST, YOU have to BEAT the BEST, and nowadays the BEST in TABLETS is APPLE, BE BETTER than THEM, you have SOMETHING UNIQUE, with your CUSTOMISATIONS and TEAM, TAKE Advantage now, dont Become the BETAMAX of TABLETS. YOU have something unique in the way YOU LISTEN and also the way you INNOVATE, but as in Apple’s case, it’s not long BEFORE others Copy your ideas (Android an example), even though you have the patents. Ride the HYPE and become BIGGER than you are, also with due respect, please get an expert technical english writer for the main site, as some of the grammar does not match the image your trying to portray.

    P.S i hope you give us Education discount and have the deals in place to beat KNO (which has hit FCC testing aswell) in the education department, Apple’s sleeping in th eeducation department, so take advantage now, before they steal your ideas in Ipad 2 (rumoured to have retina screen.

    I hope you reply as i beleive I represent, many others with my views

  549. God I’m beyond frustrated at these two questions. How many times have they been asked (for months, yes, but even in the last 48 hours).

    That isn’t hard to answer. It takes one minute.

    One can only assume it is not being answered b/c either (1) they don’t know, or (2) they know that we won’t like the answer and thus they are trying to keep it quiet as long as possible.

    Come on already!

  550. +1 for your sentiments even though I will not be pre-ordering one myself but will consider it when it comes to the local store.

  551. @Rohan
    “Global Warranty” -> companies have different warranty because countries have different laws surrounding warranties. you cant do “one size fits all”
    “FCC” regarding FCC, i hope you have factored in, the vacations in US starting from next week. So if you don’t get certified next week, the certification might get push to Jan 4th and later.
    “Travel” -> If you are in travel, why isn’t there another NI Guy, who fields/answers questions on the blog and other places. Pull in others , so we can get to know the others too. This would help when we need support with the initial phase of the product.
    “Specs/Specs/Specs” -> Everyone deserves to know what they are ordering. a Detailed spec wont harm. Or do you expect to change the spec between now and delivery?
    “Legal” -> vet your policies with a legal person.
    “Communicate” -> your policies/product info should not be answers to queries. They should be up there for people to see.
    “Changes” -> When you change a lot of $ stuff in 1 night. This reflects badly on the company and its planning.
    “SpellCheck” -> there is still time to spell/grammar check the policies and legal terms.

    Put a detailed country/region specific info for people coming to the order page.

    My preorder failed due to different billing/shipping addresses ( both in India). Waiting for Qi to be in stock and would order again.

  552. Wow…Great reply Rohan..to the Android police (who are probably jealous of not able to pre order!!)

    I think you should shut every one by answering:

    1) Detailed warranty policy
    2) Detailed product specifications (except bonus feature !!)
    3) detailed Videos & pictures of ADAM

    (Do not forget to mention….

    1)Internal memory
    2) ADAM applications support and Android Market availability..

    thts it…

    I just cant wait for my ADAM Pixel Qi with wifi and 3g …..
    hope you keep with date as 6th january…

  554. So when can the people who have been following you get a chance to preorder,if you have no stock

  555. Check your spam mailbox. That’s where mine ended up and I missed the chance to get the PixelQi version. Really depressing actually.

  556. Hi Rohan,
    I am also one of the long time blog followers that unfortunately never got an e-mail. Yea I will admit it does suck to not even have a chance at getting the PQI wifi Adam I wanted. But I do understand that stuff happens when you don’t want it to. So I still offer up my support that everything works out. Beside it will work out for me that I just bought a house and it would be nice to have it sent to the new address when I move mid January. I also won’t have any issues with my order or delivery since the bugs will be worked out of the system.
    I am just hoping that we all can find out how much on board storage was coming with each version (8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and ECT)? When the next batch of the units will be available for the other people who never got their e-mail? What kind of time frame for receiving the Adam would be in? And more importantly how many of each version did you even have available for preorder of each type?
    I know you are going crazy and will probably have an ulcer by now. But if you can answer these questions then you have my promise to have my order for the PQI wifi model. And don’t worry if you don’t have time to respond that is okay I am very patient and know you got 100,000 people that might be mad or feel hurt. But I am not one of those people. Good luck Rohan and hope to hear from you soon.
    Josh Curry
    USA

  558. Rohan,
    +1,
    I visited the order page minutes after it was up; as expected I could not finish my application and mailed to the pre-order support address to indicate that I would not have a problem wiring the money (no respons yet, however).
    I understand that the problem lies with Mastercard, but you could have offered the option of simply wiring the money?
    I think I expressed my confidence in the Adam well before it was sold out, but I am rather worried how long I have to wait. Can you give an estimate?
    Best regards, Aad

  559. Hari R said, on December 10, 2010 at 15:01

    > I was also awake all day holding the refresh button

    Your hands and fingers must be tired. Please, you can let go of the button now. Please.

  561. PLease could you let us know when you think more stock will be available? How can you not be able to make 10k units at launch? And yet expect to sell globally? Massive fail.

  562. Ok I’m back but where is my Pixel Qi 😦 , may be I ‘ll try later. My interview didn’t go well. I was awake till 5:00 am for Adam.
    @Rohan
    My few cents
    Kudos for –
    >> First ever World over launch – but condition applied
    >> Finally pre-order opens up – but no actual product video or Pics, its just a pre-order but you know we people love money too.
    >> You can pay with your CC – but CC avenue for world over launch thats not wise and since NI s a startup you have an excuse for that (so guys don’t hop and jump if CCavenue fails to redirect after payment, I have been using my CC and debit card in India for buying books and DVDs , it sometimes fails to redirect to the original site after payment, NI should confirm your order if it fails).
    >> Android Police have nicely sliced up all the product policy and it looks like you guys submitted to emotional fans, to launch the pre-order. Business and emotions never go hand in hand, my mom always wanted my dad to come back from his business before the sunset but he has never done that(except emergencies) in his entire 25 years of successful business career.

    Last but not the least its a good lesson for all of us and not just Rohan and NI. NI have an inexperienced logistic team (hope not so) with an ambition to make Adam available to the world and not just some Elite group of people (Countries), and from a startup perspective it was a successful pre-order launch.
    Now its our turn to think whether to throw in our bucks or not (without final pic and videos which comes by 18th). Now we all can at least understand why Apple, Dell or Samsung start with few countries and are always prepared for legal stuff.
    I consider this mess was like a Big fat Indian wedding.
    I got the link but I didn’t make my payment . I have more emotion for my hard earned money than Adam(my dad didn’t chip in and I’m still a student) I can’t buy another adam, so ‘ll not go by emotion. And since lot of guys have actually got the pre-order done we can assure its NOT A SCAM as few people shouted out on different blogs.
    It would have been nice if NI could have asked Slashgear to review their final product. Slashgear has shown respect to adam and NI, so I guess they might help.
    And thanks Rohan for a nice clarification. So its just a pre-order, Adam is not running away, its there to stay. It doesn’t matter if I we get it before Xmas or After new year, I want it the way we have imagined it to be.
    Best of luck to you guys. I need some sleep now and you too Rohan. Till then waiting for PQ

  564. +2 once mastercard come through for NI could they possibly do another pre-order for the followers who did’nt get a chance this time ??

  565. Hi Rohan

    I think you have done a great job, can things be improved? Things can always improve doesn’t matter what you are releasing and how, reading and knowing that you are tying to improve that’s all it matters, as I am 100% sure Steve Job won’t give a rats ass about what people complains when apple release their stuff, they just do what they think its best.

    Ordering online for me was smooth, and I will wait for the up coming videos and photos.

    I am surprise so many so called supporters, knowing this is a start up company and they are trying so hard to deliver a fantastic product and taking on the big guys, yet all they care about is complaining without showing any kind of understanding. Like many things in life, if you are in doubt just don’t proceed with the purchase and cut the crap, leave a message but don’t get all bitchy, no one put a gun to your head to buy something.

    And talk about fairness, life is unfair in general, as far as I can see your first round offer, pricing and shipping policies is already much so fairer in contrast to many of your competitors. (e.g. Apple)

    And hopefully it’s not just me, “sa” go and fxxx urself, every single post of yours is just pure negativity. maybe indeed you are a “spy from apple”.

    Keep up the good work, I can’t wait for my ADAM to arrive.

  566. idiot. He promised pictures and even highlighted that NI wouldn’t sell it without us being able to see it like some cheap Chinese model…

    Well guess what happened today? Visions of a cheap Indian model come to my mind….

  567. mh…I think you probably put too much weight in ‘sold out’. they have a high production capacity and did not even start mass production yet. ‘sold out’ probably only means a delay of no more than a month or so.

    And BTW, I also got no preorder link(i.e., not part of family ;-() but was able to order a PQ 3G model shortly after the store opened. With multiple reloads throughout the ordering process.

    I’ve been waiting for a decent tablet with PQ display since I got my OLPC a few years ago. Following PixelQi blog closely for another year, then Rohan’s blog.
    Remember that this is only the very first PQ device. Although it is likely to be the best one available for the next several months, more PQ devices will appear. One was already announced several months ago and many more are possible through the DIY option from pixelqi.

  568. Good Luck to everybody that made his/her purchase !!!

    Saying that let me stated I AM NOT BUYING IT
    I have some issues with the hype for this product and that is why I am delaying it.
    1.\ I was looking for Christmas present for my wife, so guys you are too late , shipping in January…
    2.\ THE PRICE – I have no problem to pay those money but give me a break $600US+shipping+import tax….. for something that comes from a small company which still has to prove itself, no way. In Jan-Feb there will be new iPad2 for a much better price so be careful , not to mention the coming competition from other Android Tablets
    3.\ I am a gick/engeenier/MAB/MsC/etc (also professionally in IT as well) – this product start to look like a niche product – no support from google Android Market. Nothing about video calls, etc, etc … you have the hardware but that is not enough. You need the support of Android developers community and you dedicated SDK for that device will not go to the mass market, sorry join the android dev crowd don’t try to create your own
    4.\Share with everybody your product roadmap -when there will be upgrade to the new Android 3.0, what is next… build some confidence with YOUR CUSTOMERS that you know what are you doing. Be pro-active at the moment all that you do is reactive
    5.\Selling only via Internet probably is easy however you need local retailers – even for me is a bit difficult to buy something for which I have only picture and that no one have any real life experience

    take all this as a free advice, good luck and all the best to everybody.

    PS: as I don’t have much free time to reply to any replies, so Don’t expect one

  569. i still don’t want to preorder device until independent reviews of owners would be published (devices like phones/tablets can have many software imperfections, that one cannot think of during explicit reviewing for publishing, but that hurt and do get noticed during everyday real use). And $500 is quite a money for me to not gambling

    So i think in January there would be info on that. Until then, thanks for pre-order link, i’d hold on.
    I wonder if in between Jan/Feb there be 3Qi models available again and price won’t rise 🙂

    I wish best for Pixel Qi and i wish best for Notion Ink

  570. @ Greg et al. (The Geeks)
    1. Do any of you still care to remember the mystery code/number -D5720A80? Willing to discuss further?
    2. Do any of you try to know about soundness of financers of NI? What could be reason that it is yet a mystery?
    3. Do you all know the so many of ordinary mortals used to read your comments and trusted your wisdom?
    4. Do you try to understand that what it means by Pixel Qi thing sold out? Is this not indicating the availability of Pixel Qi, on which NI rode the wave of popularity, is very small in number (hardly few hundred to few thousand) with NI?
    5. I suspect that some of you who expanded this cult religiously (almost round the clock) were and are insiders.
    6. As you still trust NI, can you please tell me the logic behind taking Pre-Orders though NI was not in position to show the device to you. Definitely they do not have anything more than prototypes to show.

    I felt the need to write this because the comments of you select few influnces almost everyone, though it is their own choice to be there and read.

  572. @ Daryl said, on December 10, 2010 at 15:04

    > ..and of course World Peace

    Rohan, Daryl said ‘World Peace’. This alone should put him at the head of the waiting line. 🙂

  576. Rohan,

    1) You have not answered why you are charging shipping , fees etc for DOA/Defective product. This is illegal in the US. The other examples that you have listed have a physical presence in the respective countries. I can ship a laptop by UPS ground with insurance for less than $15.

    2) Your shipping charges must scale according to the qty ordered even if it is a flat rate to all destinations.

    3) The prices you listed originally were assumed to be the purchase price. Now you disclose the import duty etc. It would have been nice if this was told upfront.

    4) I think your sales team and investors were in charge of this part of the business decision and have let you down. Someone needs to be fired at Notionink.

    Anyways, I still placed an order in good faith that all the points raised on this blog would be addressed and the terms and conditions would be corrected in favor of us consumers…errr ‘family’

    regards

  578. I think there it is two reason why people choose LCD instead of PQ.

    1. The additional charge of $124 for a PQ is the biggest reason. PQ is probably more expansive to to less volume as well as they are a start up.

    2. Uncertainty of the color saturation on the PQ. Is LCD just slightly better then its an easy choice.

    I choose the PQ for its readablity not to have the best color satuaration.

    : )akobL

    Keep the light burning, and the dream alive.

  579. Is there a specific reason why DHL was chosen as the only shipping company? I mean, $36 to ship 2lbs from East coast USA to West coast USA? Um, the US postal service will do it for $10.

    And why is it that other companies can ship from China, for freaking pennies? Hell, DealXtreme has free shipping on US$1 items. I just bought a Dell Alienware M11X for $550 and shipping was free. It came from China via Fedex.

    Why the overnight $50 price increase for the top-o-the-line model? You surely knew costs well before then. Why couldn’t you tell us before hand?

    And how can you sell out of something that doesn’t ship for 2 months? It hasn’t even been manufactured yet. Your purchase order with the Chinese contract manufacturer was for X units? So, what was X?

    Everything was supposedly well planned. Yet the servers couldn’t handle the load. The policy documents were half-assed and contradictory.

    And where do you get off with some of those fees? When you say “return for any reason” and “no questions asked” you can’t also say, returns are only allowed for unopened merchandise, and that I must explain why I am returning. Its contradictory.

    Rohan, I don’t blame you specifically for this mess. It had to take a group effort at NI to fuck this pre-order thing up royally.

    I know you guys and gals are busting your asses over there, I too am in computer manufacturing. But there is more that just making a tablet. You have to productize it.

    You need to do some damage control, ASAP. If you haven’t noticed, people are turning on you and apologies are not good enough.

    Here are some suggestions:

    1. Refund all orders.
    2. Issue a $xx credit to those who had orders processed for future order use.
    3. Establish payments systems that centralized to and accepted by your major markets.
    4. Move inventory to centralized warehouses in those major markets so as to lower shipping costs.
    5. Surely the FCC units are nearly production models. Clean them up and use them in promotional videos.
    6. Use the disclaimer with said videos that these are pre-production units and actual retail units will vary.
    7. Give real specifications and features. We aren’t stupid, we will understand what you say.
    8. Show us Genesis in action. Show us what we can expect.
    9. Lower the prices or adjust them to what they were before.
    10. Understand that business is done differently in your major markets. Follow those rules. Understand how your policies and warrantees are affected.
    11. Explain all that you are going to do, and how you are going to do it, in your blog.
    12. Either shut up about the mystery sensor, or tell us what it is. Its no longer cute, its patronizing.
    13.Tell us exactly what we are buying. What is in the damn box? What is pre-installed?
    14. These are your major markets: Europe, North America, Southeast Asia.
    15. Don’t make your customer have to jump through hoops to buy or use your product.
    16. If you still want a pre-order system, make it for a reasonable cost. Say $50. This will let you know how many people are truly still interested.
    17. Get the product to the distribution sites before you take the remaining money. Shipping time will be much faster. If the product is as good as we are led to believe, then shortly thereafter, more orders will be coming in.
    18. Your charisma can work against you. Have you noticed the label, “Con man” appearing in posts?

    Good Luck, I hope you can pull this off. I really wanted an adam, I still do. But these past 24 hours have taught me not to put so much faith into NI and I will need to proceed with caution.

  580. @ Rohan . You have a Canon Powershot SX1/10/20IS right ? Then Click a photo and upload . I don’t need the picture with some SLR effects . A simple Photo please …….. . And you haven’t told about storage and Installing apps from Android Market . When can I get adam in retailers ? only after 6th Jan ? . I will come to your office to get a Adam . Can u give me ?

  581. I have a question regarding the shipping time. I am based in Hong kong, so quite close to China 😉 hence my question is : is the 6-8 weeks delivery time a very secure figure or it can be shorter with closer distance?

  582. Well you should note keeping secrets is very nice before money changes hands.
    At the moment its just seems unfair.
    I myself am very disappointed at not getting the pre order mail and later finding out that you don’t accept master card and last that all the QI are sold out.
    To sum it all as high as the expectations are so is the downfall.

  583. No i think they where preorders for the batch of products they had. in which case yes they could sell out

  586. i guess it would easier to manufacture the normal lcd ones anyway in which case more volume, but it might have been a good idea to do a poll to which one you would order, Rohan might not took notice of the actual numbers but the ratio would have been interesting

  587. Even though I had posted in the blog earlier and I didn’t receive the pre order mail (I was waiting till 2:30 AM IST ) , I managed to get up from bed at 7 AM and booked the LCD + WiFI version for myself. Am glad that I didnot have to face any tech glitches and the transaction was smooth.

    Rohan – No matter how much trials and trebulations you face, I have the highest faith in you and your earlier blogsposts ( since last year ) speaks volumes about your conviction to make this product a success.

    Everybody, plz do not panic and give these guys some time to fix the issues.

    If Microsoft can push their buggy OSes in the market and force users to do endless upgrades after upgrades making windows slower and slower, we should give some credit to this start up firm which is trying to do everyting right to release the product in the finest possible shape at the first go. This has become a global phenomena so there are bound to be glitches ..so hang on…Rohan will deliver.

    Best Regards
    Shyam

  588. +1.

    And PixelQi will be very happy to hear their new display is running so well. As another highly motivated startup with a mission to save the world, I’m sure PQ will do what they can to make the rest of us happy. DIY program probably didnt went so well, since its rather expensive for international ordering and most existing netbooks/convertables/tablets are all crap.

    Thats why the Adam is so hot. 🙂

  589. SOLD OUT! How can that be? How many QI were built? I’m sure I’m not the only one disappointed.

  590. Three Hundred thousand? I don’t think so buddy…
    Thirty thousand (the number of pre-order emails they attempted to release) is still a lot though.

    30, 000 times $450 is still north of THIRTEEN MILLION DOLLARS (ZOMG!)

    I think Rohan can afford a PR team now. All reports indicate they took the money from people’s accounts immediately too, not waiting til it was shipped…

  591. Every publicity is good publicity Rohan, if you know how to use it. (Been there)

    whats done is done, but I really appreciate you being here on the blog on replying to comments, builds back some credibility.

    Only way to answer the questions is by Actions and not words.

    The best course of action would be :
    1. Get the specs page correct. The customers have the right to know what they are paying for. (This means for each of the 4 options offered for preorder)
    2. Videos, demos, tours etc on daily basis.. Kinda campaign to unravel a feature/app every day. (this also makes a video help for later use by customers 😉 )
    3. Takie a stock of all the orders you have confirmed, resending emails to all those who have successfully placed the order.
    4.Checking CCAvenue for failed transactions details and understanding if someone has been missed in the above list or wrongly charged and an acknowledgment email to those individuals.
    5.Now coming to us the “Family” who missed the bus and the “EAP”. Draft a list and in next batch give a 24 hour window for the family with priority shipping.
    6.Ignore the non believers and FOCUS ONLY ON YOUR PRODUCT QUALITY AND DELIVERY.

    Rest I believe you are already working on and so far you have done a fabulous job.

    Ending with a quote I read in the comments yesterday :
    “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

  592. Im in the US as well and theres no way Im paying any import fees. I saved the original sales page and it states

    “We suggest you to review the product prices and any applicable sales tax, duty, levies, shipping and handling charges as presented on our website, before submission of your order”

    When I preordered, it was a flat $600 shipped. Im going to call Visa and submit that number along with their email and the php i saved through firefox. Binding contract with those terms and conditions. I will refuse payment and get Visa to dispute the charges if I have to.

    I suggest you save all the applicable pages as well just in case something changes later on. I wasnt able to save the privacy and refund pages but wish I did.

    I also want to know why i would have to pay a restocking fee, shipping both ways for DOA/defects. That seems like downright extortion.

  593. Guys. I meant Read and ignore. I can see few of the people are using this blog to tease or create mockery out of Rohan. I too agree that the comments wiill be a source for future blogs.

  594. I think that NI have already deviated from the industry standards by offering the possibility of a pre-order (I am not sure that Apple/Dell/Samsung do the same).

    The hint is in the name “pre-” order.

    This is being done before the official launch so you accept some amount of risk, with your reward being that you will get an adam before those who accept less risk and wait.

    Nobody is forcing you to pre-order, you can wait – see the reviews and videos that will come out with the official launch, then make your reasoned decision … just like you would with all those other vendors that would not open to a pre-order.

    Maybe the only real issue was that the pre-order ended up being a bit too public, with many people treating this as the official launch (which will probably be at CES) … so now it has turned into a PR disaster. I guess in the scheme of things, most people who will eventually buy an adam are still peacefully unaware of its existence, as they do not follow techie blogs, so I doubt if any long term harm has been done.

    I am one of the “lucky”/ “foolhardy” / ”honoured” (you take your pick) that battled through the process (4 credit cards before one that worked) and have made an order…. and I am happy to have done so.

  595. Thanks for communicating Rohan. I ordered about midnight yesterday (UK)already. Gave you a shoutout on Twitter… (@okesola) and continuing to buzzzzzzz””’ about Adam. Glad i got PixelQi too!

    It hasnt ever been a walk in the park – breaking new ground, keep up the efforts! you will get your reward. Some of us still back NI to the hilt and have zilch issues with it being a young startup… but the nature of your followers however means we expect a certain standard… we expect you to continue to try to improve.

    Please continue to listen, you’re doing a good job so far. And, i will be there when ‘all about the funding’ becomes ‘more about the margin!’

    ”It’s not your talent, but the gift of birth,
    it’s not your bank book, that determines worth
    And it isn’t in the color of your skin, it’s your attitude that lets you win..”

    My only thing is.. i was not able to select a colour (Red Please!!!)

  598. Rohan wrote that he will be reading the blog comments the whole day.

    So, you should take this opportunity and comment on what you think should be the correct server cluster configuration to handle the load, how to expedite the process to get MasterCard on board, and a detailed warranty that would make you happy. I’m sure that Rohan will appreciate your input and maybe even reward you with a Pixel Qi variant of ADAM !! Get going on this, bro !

  601. I was also sad, when I saw that pixelqi was sold out allready. But I am also happy that you will not ignore Europe and EMEA region, as it has been done in the past years with all manufacurers.

    Keep up the good work and I hope that pricing will stay the same 🙂

    Hopefully there will be more of PixelQi adams available next.

  602. lol. Don’t be sad…I’m also appearantly not part of family, although I managed to order once the store was open to the public.

    The Galaxy tab doesnt even remotely compare to the Adam. Calm down and think about whether you need it so urgently that you have to buy some 2nd class sloppy design.

  603. Did not receive the email and then couldn’t get into the website for the public offering and then Pixel Q 3 G sold out. We’ll see what happens.

  607. more likely it was delegated to a second page. I don’t understand wordpress comment ordering..it seems inconsistent. Go to track comments under ‘my account’ to see if the comment really was removed.

  608. @sandip said, on December 10, 2010 at 15:10

    > Let me tell you this is the most lousy ordering system I have ever seen…..I am a developer and I cant think of making such a mistake on a prototype

    Awesome dude. You should join NI. They need folks like you. Seriously.

  609. China?!?
    If the extra 3000 INR for India was not our sales tax, then what was that for?
    Are you aware that Indian customs will make this thing cost us 1000+ USD?

  610. First of all, congratulations to everyone at NI despite the technical problems you encounter at this time; “speech technician.
    Then a few weeks, I have to give some 160 doctors in tablets with AZERTY KEYBOARD, my question is: when will you provide tablets with this keyboard format?

  611. Why refund all pre-orders – surely those of us who did pre-order are happy to have done so?

  616. don’t have the nerve to pre order before coz many of things (pixel qi will be shipped 8-12 weeks???that is so long)….just waiting for your post rohan, i thought if i pre order i will get the adam by january at least, then when i read this post i feel i should just pre order but its already too late no more pixel qi variant…feels so confuse, sad, desperate and hopeless, well the truth is i’m beginning to feel disrespect for you NI (no offence rohan, just saying what i feel now towards NI)…i still hope for miracles that it will still have the pre order and shipped for january, if its not happen i just keep waiting till all the big company join the tablet wars and choose wisely

    thank you

  618. @Rohan, hurray for a ‘detailed’ video to be released on the 18th. You need to release *SOME* sort of video NOW, though, to help start regaining your credibility. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a vid shot with your phone and uploaded to YouTube…you just HAVE to get proof out there, and now.

    Break out the unit you have right now right next to you, or hell, sitting on your lap right now as you read these comments, and put up a 90 second shot of YOUR Adam, with quick changes from the current mail, calendar, etc apps. Make sure you ALSO open a webbrowser and navigate to the top of THIS blog article or any within the past day or two two prove that it’s a current portrayal.

    If you wait until the 18th, I have a very strong feeling that you’ll be in a PR hole that you’ll never get out of. You need to take major, very public, and very visual steps to regain public confidence in your company right now, and every minute, quite literally, that goes by without such a response is 100 more people who have ONLY negative PR available and who will walk away and never look back. A startup company like NI will never survive it.

  619. Rohan,

    If you are really reading all the comments then I wish to try my luck. Firstly, I have nothing but respect for your mission and your boldness in challenging the established status quos of the big guns and creating a product that embodies your vision for the future.

    I have been a long standing fan of Adam getting all my family and friends to read this blog and sending them blog links every time you update the blog.

    Also I appreciate that you have been open with the fans (“family”) and I certainly enjoyed this journey but I believe it could be managed better.

    Your fascination with things like the Golden Ratio and your way with words that sometimes venture into the mystical are fantastic in describing your vision, to add some eloquence to a piece of hardware. But there has to be a balance.

    It is fine to build hype with hyperbole and flowery language but when you are asking people to part with cold hard cash, the communication should be succinct and relevant because those decisions will be rooted in logic.

    I am sure you realize the challenge ahead of you. You are jumping into the arena to slay several Goliaths and being at such a huge disadvantage, you can ill afford any sort of screw ups. Has there been enough scenario analysis to explore outcomes and ramifications of different events? Because the big guys like Apple, Google and Microsoft through their past performance or at least monetary clout have earned themselves a broad buffer of tolerance.

    Selling is about thinking from the customer’s perspective. You have a vision and expectations of a product, the reason that you have so many fans is because they believe in your vision, because your perspective matches theirs, not vice versa.

    We (most of us here) don’t think Apple makes the best products, but their marketing process and PR are pretty good and that’s the realism of the world out there, these are the things that ultimately close a deal for NI.

    So how can NI rebound from this setback? Personally I think that a clear, no-nonsense expose of the technical specifications that address the questions. I have been on this blog for months; there are questions that are asked and repeated countless times but received no clarifications.

    While we appreciate the enigmatic way you present the Adam, but after a certain point the mystery has to be consigned to history. Too many allusion make the adam seem like an illusion. There always has to be a match in the expectations perspective and actions.

    You expect certain things from the fans like feedback and suggestions, the fans expect clarity and honesty. You wax lyrical we sing the same tune. Then you make vague references but we stump up real cash? Something doesn’t gel, right? Why don’t you send me a product and trust that I will pay you when i get my hands on it?

    I don’t want to sound preachy and I really do understand that NI is eager and NI is young. Cock-ups are inevitable. But come on, as CEO I am sure you know if you are really ready or not? I mean if you aren’t just come right out and tell the fans, we have waited months and still hanging on, we won’t go away. A PR faux pas like this will make more of us go away.

    There is still time to patch things up. Win over all your family here again and we’ll be army that defends you when the big guns or critical blogs start gunning you down.

  621. Want to preorder:
    1 Pixel Qi wifi +3G Adam

    Rohan, put me on the preorder list please.. what difference could it make to roll 1 more of the belt.

  622. Re 3: that made a lot of sense half-year ago, when they aimed at being 1st tablet and having heavily revamped Android much better than rest. They really had chances to make a crowd. There just was not crowd of Android/Tablet developers, and they could lure them all.
    But with all those delays now…
    And sever restrictions in SDK (no VoIP means no Skype, u may hate them but they are super popular. Another example – no extensible application, that means no alternative WWW browsers, which are extensible by UserJS, widgets, addons, plugins) also do not look seductive.

    I wonder if NI can make a twist and provide parts of Adam firmware to other tablet vendors.
    One one hand, Adam firmware might be one of key features of Adam, but parting from other Android developers may be dangerous. Perhaps if part of Adam SDK API been ported to generic Android and then provided as intermediate paid library (either paid-sponsored by Google or by tablets vendors) they can close the gap.

    I feel that NI now after delays needs to shorten the gap between vanilla Android of concurrents and their SDK.
    If a developer stands a choice to develop for Adam or for all-the-rest-Android-tablets, what would he choose ? How many developers should be in smal company, that they’d dispatch one of them strictly to Adam ?
    I feel like developers should be able to treat vanilla Android as demo platform. V.A. is to be like sublevel-Atom, amost-Adam, so that developers can use one same source base (with conditional compilation or such) for both V.A. and Adam. Then for users, V.A. apllication is to be not separate, but almost like-Adam, with some restrictions, unimplemented bonus features, etc. Adam-app are to be like expanded V.A.-apps, without developer need to make a choice and switch. If this fragile balance can be achieved or not i cannot say.

    Re 5: i think that is what 1st customers can help with. Receive device and, if it will turn good thing, demo it to local stores and review sites. If i’d decided to make pre-order, i’d did it.
    Yet NI already missed New Year, and that is bad for any offline local store.

  624. The way NI are doing its distribution is disruptive and they is is a win. In the coming year we will see a well greased distribution network and good customer relation.

    : )akobL

    Keep the light burning, and the dream alive.

  625. not much of a preorder if you’ve already been charge the full amount. thats just an order. My original ship date said Jan 9. Any chance that will be honored at all?

  627. UPS is much faster and reliable (though much more expensive at same time) than, for example Russian Post.

    Though DHL is expensive i can see the reason, that Rohan would not want to mess with “ground mails” Globe-wise.

  628. True, you can always do a better job, and I won’t make excuses, but when people don’t come through for you when they say they will, and you’re on a tight schedule, there isn’t much planning that can help you, and it becomes all to easy to make small mistakes (which then compound further).

    The main trick is to extend the schedule – easy in hindsight, but not so easy when you are excited to be releasing something new, and under equal amounts of pressure to do so.

  629. PixelQI already sold out :-(, don’t want the normal lcd version.. *sighs*

    I hope more PixelQIs become available for preorder 🙂

  630. I cant order!! When i come to the 3:d step it sais “0” on my shipping adress. Im getting really frustrated 😦

  631. Hello all,

    Well, Pixel Qi display is a main reason why i wanted and still want ADAM.
    I didn`t make pre-order and that`s my story why:
    1. I didn`t get limited pre-order invitation by e-mail, but i`m grown up enough person to not to be angre about it. I`m patient and have hope.
    2. I didn`t make preorder available to public, cause i didn`t get enough confirmed info about ADAM (i`m interested in Ubuntu on ADAM, Pixel Qi viewing angles are also important for me), and decided to wait CES2011.
    3. It`s funny – in Russia there is no difference for me what kind card to have Mastercard or Visa, but all my cards are Mastercard 🙂

    I hope my experience might help NI to understand how to proceed.

    I`m not angry, i don`t judge, i respect action and reaction, i hope for the best, i believe in beauty of the world and it make me stronger and your should feel the same – it`s a test, go pass it.

  633. This is so much bullshit. They had ample time and indications to prepare for this. Nothing has “exploded over night”.

  634. Sure, i knew that, but what i want to know is if NI pay the taxes before shipping or customers have to pay them…

  635. Rohan,

    No one is asking to ‘Deviate from industry standard’. Here is an apple to apple comparison (no pun intended) on a clearly written policy for DOA items
    ============================================
    Dead On Arrival (DOA) Product: System Failure Out of the Box

    An Apple-branded hardware product is considered DOA if it shows symptoms of a hardware failure, preventing basic operability, when you first use it after opening the box. If you believe that your product is DOA, please call AppleCare Technical Support at 1-800-APL-CARE (1-800-275-2273) within 30 calendar days of the invoice date. AppleCare Technical Support will determine whether the product is DOA and offer you the following options:

    Replacement: Apple, at its expense, will ship another of the same product. AppleCare Technical Support will put you in touch with an Apple Store Customer Service Representative who will arrange for replacement and the DOA product’s return.

    Service: You may have the product repaired. However, once you choose that option, you may not request replacement of the product.

    If AppleCare Technical Support determines that a returned product is not DOA, Apple will apply Apple’s standard product warranty to the product. Further, if AppleCare determines that you have misrepresented a returned product’s condition and that the product is not DOA, Apple may impose a $400 handling fee.
    ==========================================

    You must partner with a local distributor to handle these issues. It was just annoying to see the toll free number call out 18001234567. Really?

  638. Rohan, let me just say …

    mistakes, errors, oversights, etc. do not determine “character” (but they definitely influence PERCEPTION),

    but character is definitely reflected in how you now handle the consequences / fallout

  639. Yes 550+50 USD translates to 27000 INR, Indians were charged 29999 INR instead.
    And now we got the news that ít´ll come from china.
    This may end up 1000+ USD with customs, if it reaches here at all… ;-(

  640. Dude, the terms said that you should be prepared for 0% to 100% additional tax.

    IANAL, but unless NI manages to become official in US and Europe, we all just ordered from some Indian company and have no choice but to pay tax. But I’m sure NI is working on that already.

    And dude..
    > shipping , fees etc for DOA/Defective product. This is illegal in the US.

    The same way that Germany has a 14 day full refund policy for online/phone orders. But this only applies if you don’t happen to order at a company that only exists somewhere in India right now. As above, they’re probably working on that. Its a huge mess to be conformat with local laws of so many countries. (yes, there’s more than U.S..)

  642. @ Samson said, on December 10, 2010 at 15:16

    This complaint is getting really old really fast.

    It has been mentioned many times in the earlier comments in this blog as well as in the previous blog.

    NI is not responsible for the error. Your credit card company is. Call them up, identify yourself and tell them that you will be making an overseas purchase. They will make the changes accordingly to allow the authorization to go through.

  643. Agreed, and optimally for all languages Adam will be released in. This is far from stereotyping, at least I can’t imagine how ensuring optimal user experience is stereotyping.

    I honestly don’t mind minor errors in the blog posts, but I sincerely hope I wasn’t the only one to notice the spelling error in the “Panel doesn’t *exists* for the App” image in the Fiat Lux post. I’m sure things will be handled properly, at least I certainly hope so.

    As a side note, there have been quite a few disappointments over the past 24 hours, but I for one am still quite faithful and very optimistic. With their best efforts Rohan and Notion Ink can learn from this nasty experience, recover, and make us all proud and happy Adam owners.

  646. For those that ordered up to now Rohan should make the 32G standard, as a little soryy for the last 48 hours and thanks for waiting till we got our act together.

    but I think the 8G will be the standard, which would be a shame as the site says 8+

    but hopefully he will address that later today…….

  647. @NI and Rohan

    I tried to order the $549.99 version of the adam (LCD, Pixel QI and 3G) and the transaction was declined. I tried to order again and I find that product is sold out. It is quite difficult to understand what is happening.

    I understand you guys are a start-up and the average age of your team is 22 or 23 years. What you lack is experience. You have the heart but not sufficient experience. You need help and very fast. Don’t let the hardwork you have done for the past few years come to nothing.

    Rohan man. You are incredibly bold. Sometimes you come across naive. If you want to take NI to the heights you dreamed off, do not let people take a step based on “Leap of Faith”. It was complete “Leap of Faith” for me to pre-order something that doesn’t exist in its full form yet. Let us admit that first. What you have is a cracking hardware. Nothing can go wrong with that. I too assembled a mini PC or HTPC. The materials are all there. There are a few iterations that need to be done, when it comes to something like a tablet. I think it is difficult to put together a tablet. But still I give you the benefit of doubt. The hardware in its current form should be great. What is really dragging you down is the UI and the apps. They are in Beta stage right now and they cannot be put forward for a Demo. They like any Beta product will not perform as per expectations. There could be numerous bugs that need to rectified.

    Your UI may be ahead of its time right now and your hardware will only work to its fullest potential on Android Honeycomb or later. I suggest you to do all the hard work and release the product focussing more on the UI and less on the apps. The apps can always come later. Once it is released people like me would like to port Ubuntu or some other OS over there which can do full justice to your hardware. Once your UI is stable and once Honeycomb is released, you guys will be rocking.

    All the best.

  648. Dont worry about wat other bloggers(android police) have written negative things about ADAM, ur the best at wat u do, just wanted to say one thing, “There will always be storms when the Harvest is ready, do not fear, for your time has come to reap the harvest.”

  649. I agree with Charlie. Notion Ink need to check their legal obligations under European law, particularly the requirement for a seven day cooling off period after ordering (when the customer can cancel an order without penalty, provided they return (at their own expense) any goods received in the as-received condition). Warranty requirements are also longer than Notion Ink is offering – British Trading Standards websites has good information on this, but the norm is 90 days warranty as an absolute minimum, with one year being typical for electronics. The law states that the goods must be in good condition as received by the customer, as described and fit for purpose. The law also requires that it should last a reasonable amount of time under typical use conditions – so a year would seem reasonable, unless you think the Adam is going to break after a week of normal use (excluding being dropped, kicked or drop-kicked). Under European law, claims for faulty/incorrect goods can be made up to *two years* after order date if the consumer can show that it was faulty when delivered (even if the fault was not apparent at the time – for example, faulty component within sealed casing).

    Rohan – get yourself a better lawyer. As I’ve said on NotionAddicts, I will be buying my Adam with my company’s money and must therefore show due diligence. Notion Ink screwed up by not putting full terms on the website from the start. European and British law also requires that a complete description of the goods must be provided (sorry, mate, no “secret” features!). With these issues, I can not safely say that I have satisfied due diligence when I place the order, so no order has been placed.

    Rohan – I’m actually hugely disappointed and quite angry. I’ve been waiting ten months for this since I first discovered Adam and ignored competing products so that I could get what I believe is a superior product. As it is, I couldn’t get in on the first pre-orders because my email never came (even though I commented twice on this site in October). As it turns out, I’m a little relieved, as I’d be very uncomfortable about ordering given the current terms, lack of full product info and clear technical problems with the ordering process.

    Notion Ink – have you got any trained marketers on the team? Somebody should have seen this coming! Have you got a good international consumer law specialist? Doesn’t look like it. Did you really test the systems (website and credit card payment facility) to check that it could cope with the inevitable heavy load at launch? I suggest that you did not, or at least did not test adequately. And it is clear that you have either totally under-estimated demand or have production volume problems with the Qi screen.

    I hope you can fix these issues. I still really want one of these things. But I won’t order until I feel the conditions are right and, at the moment, they are wrong. totally wrong.

    Yours in sadness

    Graybo

  650. @ Prema . It is for shipping . I bet once this device hits shops , it will be cheaper than now . So I have decided to wait till adam comes to stores . India is not yet ready for pre ordering . If Rohan gives Adam in their office , I am ready to travel 300Km .

  651. Talk to your bank or card vendor. Tell them that you are making a transaction with a company in India via CCAvenue. It should then go through once they have made the note on your account.

  652. I expect that there is only so much preparation that one can do on a timetable, and i assume that we would agree that there is a balance between preparation & Deadlines.

    I am not surprised though that there were lots of problems with the pre-orders.

    1 I once tried to buy a pair of shoes online from a little place called Cabella’s. Much to my dismay when the Bank froze my account due to “Suspicious abroad purchases”. It is very reasonable that Banks would not let the purchase go through if it seemed out of character for the buyer. (and shoes were definitely out of character for my online purchases 🙂 )

    2 If, we grant that so many people were excited at the prospect of getting an Adam (and i think they rightly were) it is all too reasonable that people had difficulty getting to the pre-order page, too much traffic and all. And IF this blog is second to Oprah’s, i would say that is a reasonable event.

    Is it in fact a reasonable expectation that these things would be foreseen by Notion Ink? I don’t know, but i will concede that some of the information could have been more clearly stated on the pre-order page.

    But something Just occurred to me: Rohan mentioned (in his responses in this thread) that CES was going to be the big Public event showing the world just how wonderful the Adam is…. Maybe there was a lack of conglomerated information because it was taken as an assumption by Rohan that those who were going to be pre-ordering had been following the Adam, and already had all the information (via this Blog and the official website.) What do you think? Reasonable Assumption?

  655. Dear SA,

    You don’t seem to get it, do you?

    We are getting the opportunity to PRE-order. Because we are committed and have shown our deep interest in the Adam; Notion Ink gives us the opportunity to already reserve a system BEFORE the launch.

    Virtually all of your questions are legit. Rohan even acknowledges so much in the post to which you now react. But most of this information will be presented at the launch.

    There are basically three reasons for that:

    1) they don’t want the information to reach the press too early because then, as Rohan said, then there is not much news anymore at the launch. It takes the punch away.

    2) They might still be awaiting the final news on patents etc. so the legal department forbids them to PRE-release certain info (including pictures).

    3) They are simply not ready yet. They are working their butt off to get a terrific launch at the CES and the total marketing planning is focused on that launch.

    PRE-ordering is exactly what it says. It is PRE the launch and therefor it is PRE all the info that will be available at the launch.

    Notion Ink is not forcing you to order now. You can wait. But please realize that Notion Ink is doing us a favor by guaranteeing that we can have one to become first users, and that we do not have to run the risk that the products are sold out in the shop to people who weren’t as committed as we were.

    As far as the video is concerned; I can fully understand that they will not have it produced by their janitor. First of all there might be legal issues that prevent publishing before the 18th and secondly they will (hopefully) carefully plan what they are going to show in the video and in what way. For most people this will be the first time that they see the real Adam and their is only one time that you can make a first impression.

    Rohan has shown in this blog that he takes our comments seriously, now let them do their job with the same commitment as that they have shown in creating the Adam.

    And do realize that PRE-ordering is exactly that: It an order BEFORE the launch and so BEFORE all info is released and given to press and public. You prefer to wait? Then do that. Rohan has already extended the PRE-order process till after the video is published.

  658. Have you ever tried to ship a packet international via airmail? Its fucking expensive. Other small companies mix the costs into their overall budget/product price and a larger company like Dell/Apple have a totally different infrastructure and capacity. This is much more difficult if you’re a startup.

    DHL might be one of the reasons why Rohan was in Europe, to cut a world flatrate and sell his baby for the price that it actually costs.

    Any other company would charge you another 20% and more simply because you’re US or EU citizen. Take a look at the iPad prices!

  661. 3:30 AM where I am and I am up in the middle of my sleep posting on this blog again…why ?

    I guess there are some products which seem so revolutionary and whose experience is expected to be so over the top that we would go above and beyond to get them. Like standing in a line to get a Iphone for hours, I did it twice. Adam got the same appeal, because of the so many unique things starting with pixel Qi, is this expectation justified ? maybe, but it surely has not been handled well by the company.

    While interacting with people directly is good for a CEO, it always has its drawbacks
    like today with the whole order thing. A CEO better not get caught up in this emotional response from people, blogs and instead concentrate on getting the process right. If all the processes were setup right, then yesterdays fiasco would never have happened.
    You can hire a PR guy to do the posts and make occasional visits to this site, as long as credible information is being given out doesn’t have to be a CEO. While we engineers are smart the damned MBA’s are sometimes needed to run the company unless you are one Mr.Jobs.

    You should hire someone from the US experienced in retail, as the expectations here are much much much higher than in India. Companies like apple have set the bar so freaking damn high, you should be in the vicinity atleast.

    While comparisons to apple are good technically, but please don’t compare their policies to yours it comes across as you are unduly justifying yourself. The main difference is you are in India and people have a whole different set of issues when having to deal with anything international. A big company like Lenovo still has issues with the overseas thing.

    My experience yesterday was far from satisfactory, got the pre order email…initially link never worked, started working and browser crashed in the middle of the order and when I tried to get back got the message that order has already been placed and there is some restriction on the number of items. When I was able to get back in finally the timing had moved from 6th to 6-8 weeks, at which point it seemed prudent to wait a bit and now its sold out.

    From a personal standpoint, I was very fascinated that a Indian company was generating this unique buzz and wanted to see you guys succeed big time and avoid the pitfalls we generally have. But you hit the same roadblocks and some comments on the blogs while sometimes accurate rile me up to no end. I hope you etched all the things you learned today somewhere in stone.

    Hopefully you can let us know in advance when you might have some stock 🙂 and please post those videos and a 360 degree view of Adam.

    “Just a tablet, no big deal…if not today then tomorrow…well maybe some day ” is what I will say to myself and go back to sleep.

    Good Luck NI and Rohan 🙂

  662. Rohan,

    Customers can be a demanding lot, especially we Americans. We are too spoiled! Don’t let us discourage you. The quality of your product is what will matter in the long haul. Keep your chin up, and keep plugging along. Yes, there is room for improvement, but none of us rode a bike perfectly the first time, either. The negative emotions that people have had will give way to the positive product reviews.

    I sent you my money today. I have confidence that you are a man of your word and will work through the minor kinks. I’m not worried about it. I’ve even been thinking that I should leave the Adam in the box unopened and sell it at auction for a lot of money in seventy years: a seventy-year-old virgin Adam, feeling like a million bucks–the very first product of Notion Ink, sold on the very first day, never opened, never used. Notion Ink, the company that rose to dominate the digital consumption space, replacing a company called–what what it, Apple?

  664. i’d agree about mystery sensor. There’s already bit too much mystery around Adam 😦
    same for Genesis.

    i can also see the reason in DHL. Maybe USA default post service is great and reliable, it is not always so in other countries.

    Probably, NI can better survive 1000 silent could-be-customers, who would just flee for the high shipping costs, than 100 vocal ones, who would be dissatisfied with cheaper shipping services and will cry out “we send the money and got nothing” and make NI name shattered.

  668. Yeah, I agree, I do not understand what a ‘sold out’ means in pre-order…
    I will wait for a second wave.

    Also, I like all the mysteries around the Adam, but definitely, a lot of people seem to get angry because of that.

  669. sorry but no. the contract is that any additional fees will be displayed at time of purchase, BEFORE I PLACE MY ORDER. I didnt put down a deposit, I paid in full. I’ve completed the deal 100% on my end. It is extremely illegal to run back and charge more after you’ve taken the customer’s money in full.

    NI might be an indian company but VISA is an american company and as such they’re obligated by american laws. NI won’t be in business long if they want to get in a drawn out war with VISA.

  670. But they will not deliver within 6-8 weeks from today.
    So basicly it’s nice we can buy but we are just buyers and not “family”.

  671. @Rohan
    I have receiced my mail, but i have only a MasterCard, the PQ is already sold out, but i think that NI is doing a revolution, also Google is not able to sell device worldwide at launch, with a unic price, continue like this and take your time, i’ll still trust you, don’t care so mutch of people that blame you. 

  672. Thank you for taking me on this emotional rollercoaster of this Internet soap.
    I have enjoyed myself quite well..All these techies getting attached to a thing they have never seen (and with vague specs)

    You could see the happy people lying in the park on a nice summerday…collectively dreaming about their Adam…Fantasizing about the things they could do with it. Nobody ever saw Adam alive, but they knew he was the ONE for them. They, the happy few, knew it would come very soon and they would have it in their hands for REAL.

    If you watched beyond the nice sunny green park..
    You could see clouds comming from the North and the sky getting darker and darker ready… to deliver an ice cold Thunder Storm ….Too bad you could not deliver what was “planted” in so many mens heads.

    I do believe in a happy ending, So i’m looking forward to pay with
    Paypal/Mastercard and use my “family preorder coupon” to get a fresh (restocked) Pixel Qi* Wifi Adam.
    (delivered before 1st of Feb) And read, beforehand, some nice review by some of the top tech websites this planet has.

    *To be honest Pixel Qi is the only reason I want to buy this device and not that
    thing that Eve gave to Adam or any other LCD lookalike.

  673. And so waiting for the second batch of 3G + pixel qi adams beginns. Looking forward to the video, hope that will clarify the remaining questions.

  674. No it´s not.

    It states 550 USD + 50 USD for shipping. 600 USD translates to 27000 INR.
    BUT in the last order step it suddenly becomes 29999 INR which again translates to 666USD

    Plus on top of that we will have the Indian customs… jay ;-(
    During order it informed us about the costs of sending it back to India, why is now coming from China…

  676. Sad, sad… sad, sad and sad.

    I would have happily spent the cash for the deluxe edition (Pixel Qi & 3G) – although I am not too thick on money.

    Now it’s already gone – for how long? Time to give Pixel Qi a call and order a bunch more.

    What bugs me most is that the false start tipped me off – when I last looked last night I still had a chance to order what I wanted. But I was too tired and sceptical. Now I’m at loss although I still believe in you.

    This would have been more than great to have the adam in the first weeks of the new year. Could have been my birthday present. But I would not want to go back to the backlit version.

    I hope, there will be some more on order soon.

  677. A sour comment.

    Still no answers on what we are buying. If there’s only 8gb memory, that will be a problem for me. Certainly, the machines are considerably more expensive then we were promised; and I’m suspecting that Rohan isn’t answering the question about memory because the answer isn’t a good one.

    And Rohan’s priorities are seriously skewed. He’s gone crazy about a weather app, which is just a cutesy cartoon, but according to his own posting, the e-book reader is 2nd rate. This does not give me confidence. If the hardware is good (whatever the hardware is), I can always load Ubuntu, but NI’s lack of experience is showing. I worry that at least the first production machines will show the same haste and possibly even shoddiness that the website and the UI do.

    I’d like to pretend that I’m kind of sour on this just because I didn’t get one of the coveted e-mails (another sign of NI shoddiness), but I’ve expressed similar thoughts long before this.

    Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on many on things that Rohan has promised (battery-life calculator, an official forum). I admire Rohan’s enthusiam, but he’s bitten off more than he can chew, and this will take some time to shake out.

  678. “Ouch” is right. I tried about 10 times last night to order the PixelQi version (I’m in the US) and kept on getting an error from the payment site — never even got the chance to enter payment info. Now this morning I wake up and discover you’re sold out. I understand there can be glitches in any system, but this is awfully disappointing.

  679. @ James said, on December 10, 2010 at 15:28

    James, NI relies on PixelQi, which itself is a startup, to provide the 3Qi screens. Similar to how NI relies on NVIDIA to supply the Tegra 250 SoC.

    So, depending on manufacturing capability of PixelQi and the already available pieces in the pipeline, NI will be able to ship the corresponding variants.

  680. @rohan,

    someone said in comment:

    “I Understand The Need To Be Communicated With But I Do not Think You Deserve All That Mess”

    You are a fan, nobody wants to harm NI, nobody because they are brave and it must not be easy. We may not agree with the side “improvised” but their intent is noble until now.

    I received the mail as EAP, there was good link for pre order … but nothing worked and now the Pixel Qi Wifi IS sold out ….( i m french)

    please be realistic or at least objective

    this is a wrong to ask for a video or pictures of an object that costs 500 or 600 €?

    this is a wrong to want to know the date of delivery of a product?
    the date of supply of new products?
    the need of consumers is common in our sales system? it is wrong to want a complete list of applications included? you do not?

    I’m sure most of us do not need a video or pictures from a great director with a great HD camera and 3 months to do? am I right?

    please do ,…. Rohan you drink a good cup of tea, choose a good perfume …

    first tries to answer questions about the delivery date based on your production rate, the market place Y/N, the applications included (you can give us a short list, even written by hand if you want 😉

    Then you catch the most complete version of your beautiful Adam.

    you do run your applications to your “family” in 5 minutes.

    you show us that it exists!

    why not?

  681. Guys… please stop complaining. (if you’re not Dutch that is. For them basic needs are food, shelter, water, an Adam, and complaining 😉 )

  682. Rohan,

    Thank you for the information. I am sure you are quite busy. One question regarding payment. Why couldnt you set up a Paypal option as well? This would take some of the burden off of your only CC supplier as well as offer you and us protection. It would also allow us to use cards from other sources.

    Andy

  683. The bravest thing about the Adam is the transparency from the word go. Even the glitches.
    Keep your heads held high, notionink, your mission will succeed.

  685. NI would not charge. Your local customs would.

    In Russia, AFAIK, i Adam would go beyond the price limit, 2 is somethign about it, and 3 wuold definitely cross the borderine.
    So if person takes 1 Adam per month that should qualify as personal usage and go through customs free from taxes. If person ordered 3 Adams, that that should qualify for taxes and Russia local customs would hold the parcel until taxes paid. But paid not to NI, but tp government/customs

  686. Whats up with the “Sold out” stuff?

    How can a pre-order possibly be sold out?

    A pre-order should be unlimited and then you just work of the pre-order list one by one when you get more in stock, those who orders after the pre-order should just be put at the end of the list and given a date when they would be receive the device

  688. At last some supporters of an incredible open-minded start-up!!! Excellent job, so far, and now, at the beginning of sales, a failure?!?

    Just think about this:
    – Image how difficult it is to plan the size of the first batch of an innovative product
    – NI planned first batch months (!) ago
    – NI intended to send e-mails to around 30.000 potential customers – by far much more than the size of the first batch
    – Pixel Qi is depending on capacities of manufacturers because they don’t have own machinery (at least to my knowledge)
    – Rohan mentions that demand for LCD screen is much higher than the one for PQ. My impression is that it is a price sensitive matter ‘though it is one of the key elements of the adam.
    – Production has a learning curve, also. So, in a second/third … batch there will be less errors, …

    I’m convinced that the next batches have already been planned. My Hope is that NI is shifting their sales plan in a way that the around 20.000 potential customers who did not get an e-mail (like me) are able to order their adam before CES begins.

    My conclusion: No failure at all, just demand is much higher than supply. That’s good news for us adamaniacs!!!!

    Thanks Rohan!

    Best regards, Thomas

  689. >>If anything can go wrong, it will. – Finagle’s Law.
    (often incorrectly attributed to Murphy, whose law is rather different – which only goes to show that Finagle was right) << From chap 11 Java Lang Spec 2nd ed.

  690. No doubt the entire Pre-Order process could have been tackled better.

    But here are a few points, views and suggestions.

    1. Payment Options
    It would be very nice if you provide Paypal as an additional payment option, especially for International buyers. The use of CCAvenue is especially commendable as it provides an option to use net-banking and use ATM/Debit cards issued by Indian banks to transfer funds. This step is justified as the product was aimed at students and students in India (and probably other developing countries) don’t have access to Credit Cards. For the sake of the argument, credit cards are not even possessed by 20% of the working population in India, the Adam’s home market (speculative: based on self-interaction with people). I don’t suppose this is an issue for students in the USA or Europe as banks have at least the option of providing auxiliary credit cards to family members of the primary card holder. But CCAvenue as the only payment option should not be imposed on users across the whole world. Provision of Paypal also negates Notion Ink from handling independent credit cards issuers. It also builds on the trust that existing Internet-purchase community have in Paypal to handle their money.

    2. Shipping Charges
    It is really commendable that Notion Ink wants to promote the idea of One Global Price Policy. I even feel its fair to charge excess to offset the exorbitant shipping cost faced by some regions by regions where it is cheaper. But I would like Notion Ink to do is support / thank / reimburse /congratulate the people who have paid extra shipping (paid 50$ instead of the 25$ incurred) by giving them a life-long discount (or for a limited time) at the Genesis App Store. This would justify the variance in price. I am sure the people who have paid the lesser shipping (paid 50$ instead of the 180$) will welcome this gesture too.

    3. Shipping Provisions.
    While I have absolutely have no idea about DHL is managing the logistics specifically for the Adam, It makes sense in consolidating all orders from a specific region. Let me elaborate this. Say there are 10000 units (speculative) ordered in the USA and France and Germany each. Rather than sending these 30000 units as individual packages, it should send 1 shipment of 10000 to USA where it is distributed via DHL localized centers. Meanwhile, it should send a 20000 shipment to either France or Germany, from where it sent by road tho the other country. This ensures two things :-
    ===> a. lesser resources used (packaging, fuel consumption, etc) in the present scenario of dwindling resources.
    ===> b. lowers shipping costs, which then can be reflected in the One Global Price Policy.
    Of course this also means that shipments will have to be consolidated at the factory itself. Maybe the factory could also “push out” shipments to continents on a once-a-week basis. Now this suggestion is not only for pre-order rush, but also regular purchases.

    4. Pre-Order Charging
    Numerous online communities have condoned Notion Ink from charging the entire amount the minute the “BUY” button is clicked. From what I’ve gathered, the Adam still lacks the FCC certification. For any reason it does not receive it (I pray that this never happens) people will have “paid” for vapor-ware and will incur 5% cancellation charges on the pre-order. This is not acceptable. The pre-order charge should have been charged only when the Adams are ready for shipping

    5. Product Launch Media – Photos, Videos, Reviews, etc
    While it is nice that Adam wants to make the BIG BANG at CES 2011, releasing the product for pre-launch at the moment is not fair. Rohan has apologized for this but I would like to re-iterate that Notion Ink should have launched the devices at CES 2011 (6-9 Jan 2011). It should then have dispatched immediately to various review sites like Engadget, Gizmodo, etc (and maybe even iFixit for a product tear-down 😉 ) They should have then opened for Pre-order on the 14th of Jan 2011, which would be in time when the reviews hit the webs. Even though at this time end-user feedback wouldn’t be available, this is acceptable as it’s only pre-orders. It should then make the Adam available for the out-right purchase as soon as the last batch of pre-orders are shipped out from China.

    6. Currency Conversion Dilemma
    This issue has not been brought up by the online community, but is certainly one that I faced. When purchasing the PixelQi 3G variant, the cost was totaled as 550$+50$ = 600USD. For some reason this was being converted to 29999 Indian Rupees which equates to USD 665.6. This extra 65.6 USD charge is not justified and is not acceptable. I halted my purchase right away. In fact this mysterious charge is present for all models and varies for all models from 46USD to 66USD. This issue is still prevalent at the time posting this comment.

    I do hope Notion Ink takes note of the issue that have been highlighted and like any company that is banking on community involvement should address them appropriately .

    On a leaving note, I will be purchasing the Adam when it’s finally launched no matter if these issues are addressed or not (well, as long the stated hardware is present).

    Cheers Rohan!!!

  692. @ sa said, on December 10, 2010 at 14:59

    > I can fly from the other-side of Earth, record and publish on the NET in 48hours.

    Please, go ahead and do that.

  694. Someone who understands (business) politics! Woohoo!

    Take your time Rohan, everyone knows you gotta time your publicity (Like Apple or Blizzard does

  697. Staying awake till early morning & reading that same ugly line “comeback at 12.00 PST” (to get fooled again).

    Can you guess my stupidity to check out the web for the meaning PST conversion to IST.. then I concluded Adam was meant for US not India I went to sleep..

    Rohan that was cruel.. you should not have said family.. cause it increases the feeling of dejection..

  698. Rohan!

    I am posting it again. I am staying in Japan and want to order adam.

    But there is a separate certification procedure in Japan, like FCC and CE. i tried to check in the net, and the device has to certified by ministry for internal affairs and communications (MIC) if it contains wifi, bluetooth or 3G modules.

    I hope some answer sooner or later. i will wait.

  699. Glad to see someone as adamant as myself when it comes to the spelling and grammar errors. Thanks for the concern and attention to detail, abhirupbasak!

    Please Rohan, get someone on this. The beautiful UI Notion Ink has designed is the icing on the amazing hardware cake.

  700. It´s a tragic event I second that. However I want to come to the rescue of notionink for parts of this procedure:

    – To setup the whole infrastructure with major online retailers just for this pre-odering -thing made no sense and I don´t think the online retailers would have supported it.

    – So their resort was to ship it themselves whle waiting for the infrastructure to be in place at the real product launch

    – If you have to sell yourself and are a small company you could well go broke on returns and warranty policies which you can´t get backing for by an insurance company as the numbers are too low to be interesting for them.

    – the same for S/H. they have either taken a financial risk with UPS or made a deal to get a bulk deal for a limited number of devices to be shipped at fixed costs no matter where you are in the world.

    – Local taxes are a complete nuisance and impossible to handle properly on a gobal scale. The import tariffs for some countries are way higher than for others, it depends on customs classificatiions which are different per country of destination, of shipping country and other arbitrary rules per country. So unless you have an importer for every country you are stuck.

    NotionInk has been under great pressure from Indians, Europeans etc to not only ship to the US. Read the blogs from the beginning and you will see.

    So if they fulfilled that clear communiity wish and take a stance against the America first policy which is so often used they had to come up with this complex scheme of S/H at fixed prices on a global level. 50$ f.i. would have been a great deal for me living in Spain as I happen to know what the real shipping cost by UPS are.

    Local taxes, in the US often called sales tax depend on the state within the US. Outside of the US it depends on the country where you ship to. Even within Europe there is no universal tariff.

    However there are legal differences as well. In the US you are allowed to advertise without sales tax to consumers with a small note pointing out that in some states sales tax may be applicable.
    In Europe this is strictly forbidden. Only business to business users can advertise this way so the VAT/IVA/Mwst/ or whatever it´s called in each European country has to included in the specified price.

    As a result of all of the above the official prices in Europe f.i. are usually much hgh higher

    So now place yourself in their position:
    There is huge pressure to open up for pre-launch ordering from all over the world

    – The alternative would have been to open it up for f.i. the US only and leave out the rest of the world which I find a disgusting policy which is unfortunately often used.

    – Usually the Europeans end up wiith being able to order half a year later and at an exchange rate of 1:1 instead of the current 0,75:1 so a full swing adam whould cost you end user at the lowest mail order companies about 549E minimum which is 730E.

    Now it would have ended up at in f.i. Spain for that same amount including shipping so cheaper than the official way and half a year before we normally can order stuff.

    By all of this I don´t want to talk around all the other issues with transactions going wrong, lack of credit card choice etc, but I have ample professional experience in buying and selling on a large scale between three continents and I can´t come up with a better scheme to realize this vision to have it available for pre-order for all countries and pressed by customers who wanted it now and websites who kept repeating it was vapour ware.

    BTW: I didn´t end up buying one as I didn´t have a visa card, but that´s not an issue for me. I got the email and went through all the steps. I noticed the redirect to a verisign https site so that part was okay. I have other dealings with notionink and so far they have been very forthcoming and trustworthy.

    I agee that it turned out a mess but ask you to consider the above alternatives and major obstacles.

    Max

  701. I agree. I want the Adams for our sales teams and they need the PixelQi version. With them being sold out and not knowing how long it will take to replenish stock (5 months) i do not know whether it is worthwhile to order.

    I already know that the screen of the non-PixelQi will not need our requirements. So can Notion Ink give an indication how long it will take before they can ship additional PixelQi versions?

  702. @Rohan Shravan

    You’ve said “Europe is an extremely crucial market for us” so I think you should have an EU reseller/partnership that guarantee duty-free goods because buying computer equipment in EU from China is the equivalent to have a hundred percent customs control whit a 20% VAT on the total price (shipping + actual cost of the tablet) in addition to some other possible taxes: it sucks! Think about it.

  704. Rohan,
    Plz! Atleast just let us know (those who are left out). Whether there will be any 2nd round for the Pixel Qi variant? If not then let me not waste my time out here & hit your pre-order website straight in the Jan after CES then.

  706. TLDR BUT definitely nEEds MORE caps. YOU’re bang ON with the STUDENT discount THOUGH. ThE freE loaders really DO need more CHEAP stuff.

  709. I had the same problem.

    Refresh your Notion Ink home page in the browser and you will see a HUGE “Preorder Now” button.

  710. Just want comment on those who are making an issues of VAT & import duties:

    I dont know if these ppl are stupid or for the first time buying stuff online!

    Every country has different duties and taxation rules. Whatever you buy online, when you ship it into your contry, you may be subjected to duties. How can one expect these to be included in price? Thats plain stupid when you buy online a product thats shipping globally!

    If you want a landed price, then you wait till stores sell them in your country. Why is the Ipad difrferently prices where you are? Simply because the different prices are based on import duties.

    Even when you buy an Ipad within the US, when you do the online purchase, based on where you are shipping in US, you will have to pay the respective states taxes.

    So when they say Ipad is 499, its not really 499, its 499+ tax of the state you ship too!

    In order to have a landed price, Notion ink will have to study each country they sell this too and have differential pricing, which doesnt make sence for a company which does not have local presence worldwide!

    Those who actuall make this an issue seems to have very little experiance on this aspect! give NI a break and focus criticism on other valid aspects … which are constructive!

    Roshan,
    Keep up the good work, learn from mistakes and improve along the process!

  712. what i am interested in knowing is how did notion ink come up with the forex exchange figures. I am purchasing the product in India and according to the Exchange the dollar to rupees is 1USD = 45 INR. What is interesting to note here is that, the website is charging me according to 50INR. Now that is straight a 10% increase in the price of the product. So something which should cost me Rs. 21374 including shipping is now costing me Rs. 23766. Hmmm.. I am an Indian and i would really want these guys to succeed. And come on guys. Be fair to your own people..

  713. Thanks you so much rohan for your update and many well wishes go out to you. People are so passionate about your product I think thay essentially flipped out at the thought of not getting it or being scammed. I myself even felt worried. Looking forward to the video of the device, you don’t need to show off too much, I would suggest a similair piece to the galaxy tab but a bit meatier. One positive is that you a generating the type of fan I would say apple have. Its a very similar situation I remember the blogs going nuts about the ipad. I was going to preorder and had an early access link but sadly they were sold out before I got the chance. My Little boy was very sick so there was no way for me to do so. He’s feeling a bit better now thankfully. Its early days once people get this tablet in their hands all will be forgiven and this moment will be a distant memory. Good luck rohan. If you come across a spare full spec adam for uk let me know id love to put an order foro one in 😉 best of luck again, I’m going to be looking forward to febuary/march when I will hopefully be able to purchase that’s if its not sold out again !!! 🙂

  715. Steve cares about money just as much as the next businessman. He pleases the biggest chunk of customers in the tablet market and very much cares that their support of Apple products continues.

    Its nice to see Rohan answering messages but there is currently no comparison between the standards being set by both companies. Hopefully Notion Ink will improve and I would love to see them succeed but a ceo has a job to do and that is a job Steve Jobs does well. Apples PR team is also one of the best and they do that job very well.
    Its awesome that Rohan takes the time out to post on here(if it isnt a hired lackey) but he should be a ceo and not pr/complaints department. This should be nothing more than a side thing so he can get feedback not the main pr source of NI.
    If they had a complaints/pr department running properly the last 24hours may have worked out very different despite the problems.

    As for negative comments. We don’t have to earn a chance to buy a product. NI has to earn our money. Without us they are nothing. Without them the next best thing comes along to take their place. Its business.

    Bitchy customers are the best customers. For every one that complains there are heaps that haven’t. If I ever have a complaint I make sure to thank the person and make sure to take what they say into consideration.
    If I have a problem I make sure to tell someone. Its the kind/right thing to do if you want them to succeed.

  716. Ordered the LCD/3G this AM. If I dont like what I see at the official “unveiling” I’ll cancel my order. Easy and no stress.

  717. sa.

    Don’t buy it… don’t pre-order, don’t buy it, don’t come here and don’t post. Apparently you want to be upset about the pre-ordering circumstances.

    Are you yelling to line of people who wait for the latest Harry Potter book? they don’t know what the story is, but they spend huge amounts of efforts to be at the launch at midnight. pre-odering is like standing in line for a Harry potter book, without reviews, without knowledge whether the book will be around when you reach the inside of the store. So, you want to wait for better circumstances… well just do that, but don’t be like a 16 year old screaming and ranting. You don’t have to prte-order.

  718. Thanks for the update Rohan. I was very excited to pre-order. The one thing that held me back was the customs issue. I think it’s reasonable to expect to know the full cost of a product (including any customs tariffs, duties or taxes) before purchasing a product.

    Here’s what I read in the Notion Ink terms & conditions: “Any Customs duty, clearance charges, handling charges or taxes levied by the customs or the Government of destination Country will be borne by the buyer & Notion Ink suggests that these charges can vary from 0% to 100% of invoice value as per Country norms.”

    I’m in the U.S. Not knowing U.S. customs law, I tried to figure out what these charges might be for the U.S. I’m taking the time to share this experience because you seem open to the feedback . . . and because I’m sure that others had a similar experience . . . and that you would want to learn about the process that the excited fans went through and understand why some people are frustrated. Here was my process:

    * I did a google search but did not find a quick and straightforward answer to the question (also this was harder to do not knowing where the product was coming from. . . knowing that it’s coming from China is helpful . . . I was assuming that anyway, but it’s good to have the confirmation)

    * Then, I called DHL and they said they wouldn’t know until the item gets to customs.

    * I even tried calling U.S. customs . . . but by the time the order page was up and I got through and saw the terms & conditions and did a little research, U.S. customs was closed for the day.

    * I decided not to order yet . . . figuring that I’d wait to see how this all played out and/or if you would provide additional information soon.

    Since it seems that almost every consumer electronics product these days is manufactured in China, I would guess that the customs fees to the US are indeed low or even non existent. But without knowing that, I wasn’t comfortable clicking a terms & conditions page saying that I might be responsible for an additional 100% of the cost.

    I’m sure this information can be found with some online research . . . and had I known in advance about the terms & conditions, I would have been happy to do this research. But I had some other commitments yesterday and by the time I was able to get to the ordering page, I did not have the time to do that level of research.

    While I really think that the Adam is an awesome product . . . and I’ve been following for a year and waiting for the time when pre-orders would be available, I’m not sure that I could afford to pay double the price due to a customs issue. Perhaps I’m being too cautious . . . maybe I should be more trusting. Maybe there’s a slim possibility of the fees being high . . . but having no experience with customs, I had no way of knowing this when I was in the moment making the ordering decision. I wasn’t ready to accept those terms & conditions without knowing more. And as I mentioned above, I didn’t have the time or the patience to figure out the customs laws on the spot. And while my credit card company would protect me on some issues, I don’t think they would protect me on an issue that is stated in the terms & conditions.

    Because I’m excited about the product, I’m willing to do a little extra research . . . however most people will not have the patience required to do in-depth research to figure this issue out. Anything you can do to remove this barrier in people’s minds would be a helpful thing for you to do. If the issue is that duties vary by country . . . perhaps you should have a separate terms & conditions page for each country. Or at least for a few of the major areas you’re shipping to.

    I understand that you are a startup company . . . and that trying to launch a new product must present a lot of challenges . . . and that you’ve probably been focusing your energy on the development of the product. I imagine that customs must be a particularly difficult area to addresses as I’m sure it varies widely by country. But there must be a way to figure out how to include this in the price of the product (or at least show an estimate by country so that customers know what to expect). In my opinion, a range of 0-100% is too wide of a range to be useful. I have ordered other products from China that did not come with any unexpected additional customs fees or issues . . . so there must be a way to figure out how to do this. I’ve never ordered electronics from overseas so I don’t know what (if any) additional challenges might be involved with electronics.

    I was planning to get the Pixel Qi / 3G model and am excited for Notion Ink that it’s sold out (congrats on the success) but am now disappointed for myself that it’s no longer available.

    When will the next round of shipments be? Will you at some point let people continue to order for later shipping dates? When you launch at CES, will you have items available for purchase in the US at that time so that customs and shipping are no longer an issue?

    Thanks also for understanding that people want to see a video and/or reviews from 3rd parties to learn more. Again, I believe in the product and had it not been for the customs issue would have trusted you on the quality of the product and pre-ordered without ever seeing a video. But seeing an in-depth video would certainly make me (and I’m sure some others) feel more confident and want the Adam even more!

    Some other nagging questions for me are:
    * Will I be able to download / order apps from the Android Market
    * I’m not clear on which version of Android the product will be shipping with? Is it Android 2.2 or some type of modified version of Android? If you’re including a modified version of Android, does that change compatibility with any apps in the Android Market?

    I look forward to the continued updates. Thanks for your responsiveness to all of the questions, your openness and your dedication to putting the best quality product out there.

  719. Rohan, et al:

    I am certain that you are swamped with requests for support, and am trying to be patient with my email that is currently out to preorder support regarding woes in the ordering process, but was hoping that i I post here there might be a chance that you will see it and be able to help.

    I received my early preorder link and went to book my Adam, but there was a problem in the handoff to the payment processor, and my order was lost. I was blocked out from reordering because I got so far in the process.

    I emailed preorder support immediately hoping for a response and a way either to continue my order, or start a new one. This never happened. When the preorders opened to the rest of the world the shipping date pushed back further than what I was to get, so I waited for an email from your preorder support hoping that they would be able to resume my order for my first round shipping device. I received no response, and now the preorder server is down again. I imagine this means it is fully sold out.

    I am quite depressed. Now it seems that I will not get my Adam. Not only that, but it seems that you have scrapped the EAP? So the commitments you made to participants in your emails about the rounds are gone without so much as a word!

    Please help me get my Adam! The order system went wrong, and I feel I did the right thing by trying to contact you, and not entering a frivolous second order in your system especially considering the 5% cancellation penalty that I did not want to risk having to pay for my first order should it be recoverable!!!!!

    R/ Josh

  721. Just to let everyone know, Rohan is busy erasing comments that do not convey enough praise for the failure of yesterday

    My comments were removed. The ones of a few other users as well.

  722. “lol. Don’t be sad” because you managed to order one, but we didnt. thanks for that

  723. Biggest risk now for NI is that there will be a whole load of new tablets out next year, and those of us that didn’t manage to pre-order will have a whole load more devices to choose from…

  725. I’ve placed my order this morging (from Flanders) and still had the opportunity to get a Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G 🙂

    Really glad I did and now the wait can begin.

    Thanx in advance.

  726. Oh, and I am saving printouts of the pages, to copy in Android Police, in case the funny thing would happen again….

    tsst tsst tsst Rohan, we don’t do this in the “family”.

  727. @rohan
    Don’t be mad at me for saying this, but while we’re on the topic of what to do better….

    EAP phase 2.

    (Please?)

  728. Can I just drive down to your office in Bangalore and pick up an Adam and save myself the hefty shipping fee ?! 😉

  729. I think it is important to remember that no one is forcing you to order this product prior to additional information being released. Most start up companies would NEVER be as open as Notion Ink has because of the potential for negative response to anything that does not seem right or legit to individuals. Everyone needs to remember that most new products are kept very secret, at times tested for months before release, and then still demonstrate numerous issues (MS anything anyone?). If you want to wait for technical information (like myself), than do so but do it without the hating on a product, company, and individual that have so obviously attempted to change business as usual.

  731. On review, the 6th point is relevant to Import and Custom duties/taxes levied. I had totally forgotten about them. If the extra charge is justified by taxes involved-at-destination, then it negates the issue of Point 6 (and of point 6 only). If not. Notion Ink will have to do some serious explaining.

  732. Very good argument!

    Seems we’ve blown it all out of proportion, but the majority of us have been without much sleep for the last couple of days.

    I consider myself a reasonable person and that’s a reasonable argument.

    The only comment I’ve got now is that maybe NI should have defined the intention of the pre-order before accepting payment.

  734. rohan i asked this question more then 100 times how do u ship the product within india to be precise in mumbai and in mumbai also the delivery charges will be 50$ and do i have to pay in us$ why can i pay in indian ruppes and is there anyother option then paying by credit card ? can we deposit money in some bank or say send u a DD. or is there any store from where we can book it. there is no info for indians pls hope u can give us indians exact info and your email and explaination was nice highly appreicate it and this is what atleast i was expecting, very eager to see hands -on video on 18 dec. till then all the best hope u answer this questions for indians .

  735. they had some adam for the first batch say 10000 all of this have been pre-ordered……as simple as that…..y askin stupid questins………and they r nt sure abt how much unit will be there in next batch so mit be waitin fro reply from production so guys….patience……it is just a pre-order…no even full release chill out…..give a break

  736. what the hell are you kidding , i mean this is an pre order ,PRE order.
    how could it be sold out ?
    Please write a comment rohan or a new post on the blog. when it will be available or let us take our Pre order and we get an email that we get the adam in the second wave.

  737. Rohan, et al:
    .
    I am certain that you are swamped with requests for support, and am trying to be patient with my email that is currently out to preorder support regarding woes in the ordering process, but was hoping that i I post here there might be a chance that you will see it and be able to help.

    I received my early preorder link and went to book my Adam, but there was a problem in the handoff to the payment processor, and my order was lost. I was blocked out from reordering because I got so far in the process.

    I emailed preorder support immediately hoping for a response and a way either to continue my order, or start a new one. This never happened. When the preorders opened to the rest of the world the shipping date pushed back further than what I was to get, so I waited for an email from your preorder support hoping that they would be able to resume my order for my first round shipping device. I received no response, and now the preorder server is down again. I imagine this means it is fully sold out.

    I am quite depressed. Now it seems that I will not get my Adam. Not only that, but it seems that you have scrapped the EAP? So the commitments you made to participants in your emails about the rounds are gone without so much as a word!

    Please help me get my Adam! The order system went wrong, and I feel I did the right thing by trying to contact you, and not entering a frivolous second order in your system especially considering the 5% cancellation penalty that I did not want to risk having to pay for my first order should it be recoverable!!!!!

    R/ Josh

  738. Serious? You are still on about that. Check back around week end specials 8-6. Right in there, there are several pictures of honest to goodness Adams. Go look it up, we can wait…

  739. Mr. Murphy always drops by no matter how well you have prepared for it. Don’t be disheartened. You guys have done well so far.

  741. Hi Pratik

    You got the free one?? Which version was it. Did you order any extra. I was left out I feel ;-(

  742. I know yesterday was very frustrating for all of us I made some negative comments out of that frustration.
    If you look at the things that I said it was because I have come to love this product and felt like I was a part of the process. I have never felt that way for any products before in my life. The comments I made were kind of like a parent that sees their child going down the wrong path in life after awhile you can’t contain yourself and have to speak out. This was out of love and fear. Even after all that I said I still ordered last night as soon as I was able and I’m happy to be part of the family. So on that – great job notion ink!

  743. Correction: that one was on me. I was wrong. I made a mistake. It was my fault. I was looking for the comments from another user, and they were in the previous page. So, no, there doesn’t seem to be a dishonesty there.

    My apologies.

  744. Hi all,

    I would like to have some words about all the angryness I felt in the comments this last week.

    First, I would like to mention that, of course, Notion Ink would have made their jobs in secret, and reserve their beautiful Adam for the only Indian market. They decided to release the product world widely, and we have to acknowledge this decision.

    Second, we have to acknowledge their brotherhood spirit. Notion Ink made a big work all along this year, and it was deeply pleasant to be aware of all the step a new product has to challenge until its ultimate delivery. Thanks a lot Rohan to share your ideas and worries with us.

    Then, for sure, this blog is not a business blog, it’s a “family” blog, wherein anybody can have news about the new member of the family. And I must say I’m still waiting for its first words, still enthusiastically even after the deception of last night !

    I would like to say some words for the North American guys. You, guys, have all you need, you have the most advanced market for tablet or any other gadget, even if you don’t care about them. Me, as a European, have only poor choice (essentially iPad for a good tablet). And even if I make a decision to buy something in the poor list I have, it is still totally awesome that we are considered as pure wallets (just to mention, you pay 500$ for an iPad, we pay 500€, it makes a big difference after all, isn’t it ? (20-25 % difference)). The Adam tablet is made by Indian guys for everybody. Then, the Adam is full of Indian prospect for life. If you match that, well done, if you don’t, who care ? That’s your problem !

    Of course there are reasons to doubt because there are twilight around the Adam. But I’m pretty sure that, if you really look after these few shadows, Adam will appear in bright full light soon, and you will be stomached ! Simply because Rohan promised that, and I trust him, as a brother. I trust him also because he’s part of the oldest culture humanity is part of, and I respect that. After following this blog for almost a year, I’m pretty sure there is no place for lie in this blog, as well as in his mind.

    I like to think world is not standing up for business, angryness or complaints, world is made for people who believe in a common future.

    Try to think about that next time you want to publish your angryness or shunt your selfishness.

  745. +1 concerning memory and e-reader!! If you recall what Rohan ever mentionned in the past about the e-reader: Nothing! (At least to my knowledge). So this is no surprise for me that it’s only second best. And second best you don’t sell; so you don’t mention it in your blog.

    Real good apps you sell like the weather app.

    For me the e-reader was the only argument (in combination with Pixel Qi screen) for the adam, at least when I started to get interested in this tablet pc. For all other applications I can use my notebook. (Now there are much more arguments for purchasing it, and I still intend to do so!)

    Best regards, Thomas

  746. Max, you sound like an Economist. Good for you 🙂 Way to express concisely that everything has a cost, and an alternative.

  747. To whom-so-ever this may concern,
    First of all, ” friend in need is a friend indeed”. No body has the right to call themselves family if they can’t understand what NI is going through now , and cant stand behind them during these tough times.

    The reaction from some of the so-called family members look like they were inside the family purely for their personal benefit. How else can you explain all the whining about not getting a chance to pre-order when Rohan has clearly said that there were technical glitches which undermined his special plans for the family? Probably you all forget the fact that Rohan giving special treatment for the family was just a nice gesture from his part and not any obligation.

    I can understand very well whats going with NI right now — They had a great product idea, they created an awesome product, they roped in investors(i’m not very sure about their competence though), they created enough buzz about their product. But they were so involved in the technical aspects of the product that they overlooked the business part of it. I partly blame the investors for this, coz they should have made sure that the great product created by their engineers becomes a great business. Rohan, as a CEO, may be a visionary and technically very capable, but lacks experience/lacks business competence. This is not to say that Rohan has failed or will fail, just a probable explanation why all the confusion happened. I am sure that this is just the expected ‘start-up hick-up’ and that NI and Adam will become a revolution.

    I got the preorder link(thanks NI) through mail, but hasnt ordered due to financial problems. Its just sad to see the family turn against Rohan so easily and so fast. Ask questions, hear him out, give him time and if he fails then crucify him. Its hugely unjust to bash him up just because the preorder sold out before you could make it. If the comapny was totally Rohan’s I’m sure he would have taken a tougher stand FOR the family, but unfortunately there is other peoples’ money involved and he cant deal with that using only emotions.

    Rohan, there may be many in your family who may have turned against you. But there are also few who are still with you. And we will see this difficult time through, together. Do what you need to do, the rest will take care of itself.

    And to the ‘family’. If you called(ed) yourself family, start acting like one.

  748. Way to go Rohan, I’ve been supporting notionink since they reviled adam .
    Though i missed on the booking of adam (PixelQi sold out)
    i will definitely buy it later.

  749. I had it! Probably one of the last pixelqi3g…
    Transaction went as a charm…
    Good for me i live in eu and i pay in euros…
    The only bad news is i have to’ wait 12 weeks (3 months!?!?!) to’ ger. My baby

  751. I, too, am very sad. I think Rohan listened to a lot of comments on this blog but missed some very important ones that were mentioned over and over. These include:

    1. Get a proper marketing team in place.

    2. Have someone vet the posts and the website for use of English.

    3. Post a video of Adam in action (none has been shown since the Technoholic video in January 2010).

    4. The fact that the backside trackpad is not mentioned in the latest update on the website.

    5. Clear up the issue with the size of memory installed in Adam.

    6. etc.

    Like a lot of people, I was ready to order my Adam yesterday but got turned off due to these and other issues. I truly admire the NI team’s efforts at producing a fine product and hope to order as soon as these issues have been cleared up.

    Oh, my birthday is in the second week of January and was also hoping to celebrate the day going over all the features of my Adam 😦

  753. It’s so sad that on these remarks/questions Rohan does not reply.
    Somehow I cannot see how he says that Europe is that important and on the other hand there so many loose ends.

  754. As many, I’m very sad : couldn’t order this morning because I only have a Mastercard. I was about to go to my bank to buy a visa gift card… But, 4 hours later, there’s no PQI+3G anymore…

    After the “family” problem (who really minds to comment posts where his position will be drowned with thousands of others’ ?) NI is really disappointing me.

  755. You are retarded. The order page doesn’t even say if you buy a wifi version it will have gps or not. At least having the specs of what you want to ordermakes sense. You fail at making analogies.a book and a 600 dollar tablet are not the same and harry potter cost 12 dollars.your retarded. I hope that the adam comes out, but after last night I feel this is just fraud in real time. Ill let you get screwed first, considering that’s what your willing to do.

  757. You are not me but your story is 100% like mine.
    We both are very disappointed “family”.

  759. For those who tried to order only to be turned away by either the lack of a Visa/AmExp ,or whose bank denied the transaction due to the unencrypted transaction, will these folks be given preferential “family” treatment the next wave of orders? I tried twice to order from different cards and was denied due to my bank detecting fraud. Also on the site yesterday it mentioned that standard shipping was going to be free. Is this going to be the case in the future after the official launch? Also while ordering I noticed the limited options. Long ago you spoke of 8gb and up of available storage. Was this merely referring to the expandable slots or are their variants of the internal storage?
    “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29. I was willing to dive in head first without the video and join the experience that is to be the Adam. Perhaps the denied transaction and not accepting my other credit cards (M/C) was actually a blessing in disguise, but as of this morning I feel as I have missed out. Rohan, give those of us who believed and tried a second chance once you finally do open up the payment options. I’m not talking about just the leftovers of the lcd or whatever options remains if any, but the full assortment with options.

  760. That’s that then. Looks like over a month before I even get a chance to preorder. Hope they are available and not costing a fortune here in UK. We tend to be under the cosh in pricing, totally unfair pratices for europeans, vat customes e.g.

  761. I see a lot of bad press here and I think people are being a bit harsh, Notion Ink i s a start up and so they are obviously going to encounter their fair share of problems… They have never launched a product before.

    Rohan has stated that everybody at Notion Ink is dis-heartened and sad due to the fact that things that have gone wrong and it appears they are doing there best to solve as many issues as they can.

    Personally I have pre-ordered many items over the years from many well known companies and I can’t recall a time where everything went exactly to my liking. Things go wrong, that’s life.

    I imagine the pre-orders are being marked as ‘Sold Out’ as NI does not want to sell more than they can deliver. You can on sell in advance what stock you will have available on the postage date.

    Personally I think Notion Ink are doing a good job and against the odds. Despite things going wrong I have placed a pre-order (after a few battles with CCavenue) as I believe that Notion Ink as a company will do everything to value me as a customer.

  762. @Shawn This is exactly what i was about to write. Thanks man.

    @olivier
    @notioninkindian
    @sa and many more Intellectuals….

    Just think before you write anything /anymore about adam HERE IN TIHS BLOG. Just give adam its due respect , if you believe in self -respect.

  763. Ok Thanks Rohan When you put it like that I for one can accept it, still doesn’t give me 100% clear to pre-order but I can still give you and NI more leeway.

    good luck

  764. Really bad timing 😦
    I’d liked to get a PixelQi Version, but since you didn’t allowed Master or at least PayPal (they even allow donations for WikiLeaks now !), they are now all out of the stock. Hopefully you can re-do your offer with the mail/the developers (you just mentioned the SDK in the specific mail) in January. I didn’t received a link for the pre -pre -order…
    Would like to get one as soon as possible -especially after the probably sucessful CES presentation and the following massmarket which will be interested in Adam 🙂

  766. When you by online from the EU local taxes are charged a POS, it mean people know exactly what they are paying at the time of ordering. Apple for example display the price in the US before tax then add it based on your shipping address

    On thier UK site it includes Tax and shipping, so the 439 for the basic 3G model is all you pay, no additional charges. Not everyone will be able to work out the tax to be paid as each country has different agreements.

    This is a customer service point that the company informs use of the taxes due when selling the a customer. If buying wholesale then the importer should know about the tax and at what point it is due.

  768. 550 Dollar = 415,31 Euro (24,5%) + 19% Tax

    = 494,22 Euro + 50 Dollar Shipping (37,76 Euro)

    = 531,98 Euro

  769. Agreed… but i want him to think whether its worth the speculation anymore?

    If the mystery feature is good…he can reveal it..it will increase the pre sales and
    then he can show the fcc fillings to the world and increase his credibility which is tremendously under fire from a larger audience…

    is holding on to that mystery feature for another week that important?

    Personally i dont care about the mystery feature, i am getting the adam anyways like most people here who are already sold on the current feature list… but i am disappointed with the lack of information…and am sure many others outside this blog are too…so i want him to weigh all this (m sure he has been told this before) and then see what is the best at this point for Adam?

  770. I think the level of transparency that NI has brought into the entire develpment lifecycle of ADAM is revolutionary and there is no question of doubting NI’s credibility! A pity that Pixel Qi has sold out…will have to wait for the next batch 😦

  771. i never got a pre order mail and when i went to order through the website i got rejected 5 times , due to my visa blocking the purchase and now the pixelqi is sold out. i want to know what is the difference between the lcd and the pixel qi in terms of thikness and screen resolution. and if anyone can answer me i still can order the lcd screen if it will be a good fit for me.

  772. Rohan, just get a bloody marketing team in place. I admire your conceptual ability but without someone to sell it for you it might remain just that, a great concept. Again, get a marketing team, even two people. All the best.

  773. Although I do not agree with sa completely, your rebuttal is extremely lame. So far all evidence of actual production is 0. We have only seen one model ‘in the flesh’ and it has been the same one they showed last year at CES. The best I have seen is 3 Adam TEST models stacked.

    The moment you submit to FCC and open (pre)sales you must have at least one finished working product in your hands. You think he would give the go ahead to a chinese production company without even seeing one himself?
    The only thing we ask is to make a video of it now.

  775. We have asked time & time again & will keep asking you questions unanswered until u address them.
    What about delivery in India? Why do we pay $50 to for shipment within India. What’s the point if we pay $50. you said u wanted to keep the costs down. How can they stay down if we have to pay Rs.2250 only for the shipping within the same country? Is your warehousing not in India?

  776. I’ll wait for the opportunity to order Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G
    Going to be a long wait until the next round I feel.

  777. please rohan add PAYPAL many german don´t have a creditcard , because we are to costive in my opinion 😛

    greet´s from germany

  779. Thats most likley the bank charging you their rate. You will never get the exact exchange rate on the day. they always give you less than they should. Its one of the ways banks make money and it allows them to give the illusion of no fee transactions. i.e. no transaction fee but a slightly worse exchange rate so they keep the difference.

  780. I think NI should take heart: they may have pissed off a lot of their earliest adopters, but if their product is good, the rest of us who were planning on waiting around for a few reviews will buy. The events of yesterday highlighted a bunch of problems in the ordering process, giving NI time to fix these problems in time for the official release.

  781. I tried hard, but without MasterCard or Paypal I wasn’t able to pre-order. Been reading alot of comments and understand all the frustrations, but the NI team are doing their very best.

    I’m going to wait till the PixelQI adam is available again and hopefully more payment methods are included. Oh and yes I trust Rohan and his team to deliver a great device. (stupid messages about scam’s and such.. the device is in pre order!! if you have no clue what this means you shouldn’t be commenting about it)

    Also CCAvenue returns an error if you preorder from the notionink.in domain.. just go to notionink.com domain and preorder there. You will have no problems going to the checkout page. Probably CCAvenue is not aware you are hosting the Checkout on 2 different domains Rohan.

    Good luck to the NI Team and Rohan
    A little more patience to NI family

  782. i did not get my pre-order email now pixel qi has run out….been waiting for months to pre-oder. it was the middle of night here and i kept looking for your mail. it did not arrive even though i’ve been commenting for months..you have to fix this..

  783. I have few comments in earlier posts. I didn’t get even family email.

    It is getting difficult to believe in the reasons you are giving.

  785. Well if you say thousand times, then too no one is gong to listen. Rohan already mentioned that he cant show since he is keeping for mega event. I too felt how can I order without seeing the product picture. So decided to keep quite, not like people who are either paid/apple fan to deviate attention of others. Just to remind you that iPod iPad and iPhone all r made in china. So if these products can be good one then why not adam?

  786. Well, at least it’s nice that you admit your mistake and apologize for the slandering! 🙂 Now just be patient and we will all end up having our Adam in due course.l

  787. BTW I still want to know the size of the “harddrive”.
    This has been asked before many times, still no answer.

    Daryl.

  788. Been following for an age and the whole pre-order thing flew by before i could have a shot… anyway good luck with the launch!

  790. its shipment from china thats y there is a cost you are getting it direct from the factory not head office

  792. @sa, as Paul had mentioned, if you are not interested, then go buy an IPAD or whatever. It is very difficult to keep everyone happy. Stop whining

  793. Whilst I’ve been one of the people asking for a video and proper terms, there is nothing that stops a company from selling you a product without giving you all the information.

    The biggest problem seems to be the expectations we had that all would be revealed when pre-ordering would start. But as NI seems to want to launch this at CES, they don’t want to give out the information before.

    This then simply means that those of us who wants/demands/requires more information needs to hold off on our purchase, and those who are convinced/duped/satisfied by the little information given can pre-order.

  795. they are shipping from china..he apparently wanted to ve a uniform shipping charges for everyone n hence de 50 dollar fee..

  797. Rohan clearly mentioned product for pre orders r shipping from china buddy !

    what if you are in India? Its free to collect from China though 🙂

  799. INDIA………………….INDIA……………INDIA….??
    SHIPPING…………..SHIPPING………SHIPPING……??
    WHY………………….WHY…………….WHY……..??
    $50 WITHIN THE COUNTRY..??
    WHERE ARE THE RETAILS……???

    WHEN IS THE NEXT BATCH FOR PQ-i…??
    SOLD OUT……SOLD OUT………SOLD OUT……??
    WHY………………..WHY……………WHY……..??

  801. After all , i will wait till first review’s. Hope the pixel pi Version is laso than in stock.

  802. Collection Freeee Freeee Freeee from CHINA CHINA CHINA !!!!!!

    Rest of world shipping costs to be pickd up by consumer for the time being 🙂

  804. Hi Rohan,

    I’m sitting in front of my Monitor and reading/commenting the blog for aroud 48 hours with only short breaks.
    I’m wondering abut 2 things:
    1. You told us, that 30k emails should be send, but only 10k send really. I can’t belive in this qauntity. I’m follwoing this blog since the beginning and I doN’t think that 30K differnt people have posted something on the blog.
    2. The pre order launch was a disaster. You know that and a lot of poeple are sad. You have made some comments, but I find no “Sorry guys” or something like that. I think here are a lot of people like me, which are supporting you and NI and where here for hours and days and I think we earn a “Sorry” from you.

    Kind regards
    Harvey

  805. I looks lik they ship to us from china too…customs ahoy 😦

    Plus we got an 3000 INR extra fee on top of that.

    Still no word on the situation in india Rohan?

  806. on DHL site when i calculated shipping based on adam’s weight from beijing to blore its 376 CHY which is 2548 INR which is 55$. Final price 549$ + 55$ but in final order page it said 29900 which is 660$ approx.

  807. @Rohan – you did not comment on the point of some ‘family members’ not receiving the mail! 🙂

  809. Read properly you numb.. The first batch is shipped from CHINA. Got that? Then you also got your 50 dollar question..

  811. I’m sorry, I was bit upset by this process as well, but some of these 18 “points” show a complete lack of understanding about how shipping works for large company orders vs smaller orders from OEM suppliers or from small companies shipping their products to multiple, overseas destinations. Did you really think a tiny startup could move MASSIVE numbers of units to satisfy thousands of people who want to pre-order such a highly anticipated product–especially when much more established companies that have been around for much longer like the French company Archos (maker of the 101 Android tablet) can’t even keep their product in stock on their online store for more than a few hours at a time each month? That product doesn’t even match the specs and software of the Adam and they cannot meet the demand. Did you expect Notion Ink to be shipping tens of thousands of units in order to bring shipping costs down for you for this pre-order or that they would even have so many units to ship out? Other than having multiple international shipping centers (which should not in ANY WAY have been expected in this particular instance), that is the only other way to bring those shipping costs down.

    Do not expect this small startup company to jump through all of the hoops and spend all of their money (due to losses attempting to satisfy conditions that you want met for shipping) to get out a few units to their particularly rabid followers. They attempted to get a pre-order setup in order to both satisfy a portion of the growing fan base and gauge the demand for this product. (They obviously underestimated the number and zealously passionate desires of said fan base… 😉 ) That fan base is global and not all of them reside in your definition of “major markets.” Do you think that people in Russia, Australia, Central and South America and Africa do not have enough people who can afford it that desire a product like the Adam in great numbers? Really? Who is being patronizing now…?

    A small company like Notion Ink that only has a presence in one country so far should not be expected to bend over backward to try and comply to your warranty and return policy needs either–especially for their very first product that isn’t even really available to the general public. Even many larger manufacturers, distributors and OEMs in Europe and Asia do not do this. If you buy a car stereo or computer that you really, really want directly from a European manufacturer that has no presence outside that continent, do you think that they will bend over backward to comply with your warranty and shipping needs on a first run product to suit the needs of everyone outside their country? Do you expect shipping to be free or to somehow be absorbed into the price of that product to satisfy your pricing needs alone? Many of the comments and concerns are valid, but many of them are also bred from ignorance of international commerce and the standard business practices of the majority of small companies that lack a true international business presence–not to mention a tiny startup. All of these things I’ve mentioned should have been anticipated by simple common sense.

    I do plenty of business with small companies in Europe and some with distributors and OEMs in southeast Asia as well and one does not expect that sort of thing from those guys. I’m in the US and when I sell or distribute these items that I’ve purchased from such companies to my customers the warranty is entirely on ME and I am the one who has to comply with US laws and anticipated/standard warranty practices as a US distiributor of goods and services; providing a warranty above and beyond what is often given to me by the originator of those goods. Expecting Notion Ink to do that on a pre-launch product is actually almost laughable and would have been highly unexpected.

    Now, with all that being said, this was quite obviously a pre-launch special order setup that went horribly wrong in many ways. One doesn’t need to flog Notion Ink on things that are not (and really should not have been) reasonable to expect. There are plenty of other reasons that they failed in this process. I will not excuse Notion Ink’s lack of communication or planning for the inevitable demand for their product, which should have led to a better system for taking payments. They should also have been much more detailed and descriptive (both in specifications and numbers) of the products that they do have available for this first pre-order batch of Adams and stated the shipping terms in a single, simple sentence when the first announcement about the pre-order was made. I will say that those flat shipping costs are neither unusual nor unheard of for a piece of pre-mass production electronic equipment of this value that one wishes to receive well packed and unharmed–especially considering that Notion Ink knew that they would most definitely take financial losses in order to make the Adam available to members of their family of bloggers in the far corners of the world. They took the most fair route possible if one considers the actual costs of such a thing.

    The payment system should have been better considered and more flexible. If only certain payment options were available only for the pre-order, it should have been explained why ahead of time especially to this small community of followers–perhaps even in the email that went out to those of us that received it. Notion Ink has been fairly open about many things with us so far and that should have continued when asking us to do something as personal as actually putting money on the table to purchase a product directly from them. Planning and logistics on this side were lacking–especially considering that this was supposed to be a consumer level payment and checkout portal–even for a pre-order.

    On the final note, I will say that it is very interesting and somewhat amusing that people were willing to pay the money for the unseen final version of the Adam before the botched payment process of this pre-order occurred, but many who attempted to participate and could not or had major problems during this process now are demanding to see the product in action. This is understandable and should serve as a reminder to all–especially Notion Ink–that perception of competence is everything and first impressions really do count…

    Rant closed… 😉

  813. r u sure? They might hav been sent to the previous page?

    This is something happens when i reply to a comment, both the comnt and my reply are gone! And r in oldr comnts

  814. There is always room for reasonable people to disagree when presented with information, and its implications. But, if we accept that Rohan HAS submitted to the FCC, then he does have “at least one finished working product” (6 to be precise, because of the variants)

    I too would LOVE to see more video, and more pictures. But for sa, me, or anyone to claim that there are “no picture(s)” of finished products is in blatant disregard of the evidence. [also, the argument that because you have not seen it, it does not exists is an oldie, but quite a fallacious argument] 🙂

    Though, i would like to know what a good rebuttal would look like.
    Nonthin but love

  815. I completely agree with Andrew. I haven’t received the confirmation email as well from NI. Can we get those emails going as well!

  816. btw I forgot to add that CC Avenue has never failedfor tickets that booked so far (more than 50 tickets) w/o errors and still counting. The payment glitches might be temporary (courtesy: adam crazy fans), now I guess you can do a smooth transactionif you are willing to purchase adam before CES.

  818. he did on earlier pages : 10.000 of the 30.000 e-mails were sent 😉 check the first few pages

  819. Wow what a reaction. 9000 comments on the post mentioning early access. 6000 comments on the pre-order soon and then so many when pre-orders opened. I didn’t get a pre-order email but checked back later in the day and pre-ordered my pixel qi 3G with absolutely no problems. Clicked buy now, entered the card details, processed the payment and done. An hour later the pixel qi sold out. Now we sit back and enjoy the wait until they ship on the 6th. Honestly, what’s all the fuss. People are now waxing lyrical about possible vapourware, fraud, etc. If you’re worried then just wait until we get our machines, test them and review them, then order. Seriously, people waited in sleeping bags for days for an iphone they’d never used. I rank it the same. Enjoy the ride and look forward to the arrival of your adam.

  820. Maybe you can understand how it feels if you spend months on the blog, then hear you can preorder earlier than the mass that just arrived, then not get a mail, then find out that your money wasn’t good anyway because you live in Europe.

    It is a big disappointment. Although I still have hope NotionInk might overcome the issues, I will not be able to enjoy my early adopter role and show my friends who were all waiting for me to get one.

    As to the family part: If you was not going to use it anyway, why didn’t you give your preorder to another family member whose posts you might have enjoyed like Sowmya or gecko who didn’t get one either.

  821. yours ship on the 6th? My pixel qi+ 3g says the 9th and I was like the 3rd person to get an order through. No confirmation on shipping date in the email though, did you get one?

    Also wondering if this thing has a sim slot for the 3g

  824. difference is that they saw recent demo’s of it. Not one that several months old, with almost certainty of it not being the final product (in terms of UI and features). I praise you for your boldness in buying it, but i think i’ll wait just a while for the vid

  827. I managed a successful order for a PixelQi 3G version, but i only got one email from CCavenue. I thought i’d be getting some other confirmation from the company itself. I’ve been vocal on this blog about how i was convinced that this device is vapor.

    Rohans renewed effort to update us on what was happening over the last few months managed to assuage my fears to the point where I just dumped $600 into a product i’ve never seen or felt. Haven’t even seen a webvideo about it and the normal tech blogs that I use to research my electronics purchases seem to have ignored it. I’m worried about this purchase. And i’m hoping i won’t have to call Visa and withdraw my order. Get it together NI, these next few weeks will make or break your company.

  829. yepp, but are you really mean that 30.000 people have written a comment in this blog ?? I don’t think so.

  831. Your pre orders are being very poorly done.

    When I clicked on my email pre-order link, I got to an ordering screen with no active links. Yesterday, your blog said pre-order would begin at 12:00 pm Pacific Time, which is 3 pm in my time zone if you were referring to 12:00 as 12pm or 3:00 am if you were referring to 00;00. As of this time, each time I checked my pre-order link, there were no active button. I also noted on your blog some comments by people that indicated they were able to pre-order before either time and before my pre-order email arrived.

    Last night I tried the pre-order link on the web page and found the page had no active links. When I checked this morning, the pre-order link still did not have active buttons. I went to the web site and clicked on pre-order and found there were only active buttons on the two LCD variants.

    I opened the blog and saw a note that all pixel qi were sold out. I found this surprising since I have been able to use the pre-order linlk emailed to me. Apparently, some peoples must have had working links. I also read the warranty provisions and found them riddled with misspelled words and poorly written.

    From my perspective, Day 1 has been a very poor day. The promise of regular blog readers getting to order Adam’s first was not true. In addition, it appears your production capabilities must be very poor if the pixel qi screens are sold out. Also, since you do not indicate there are very limited quantities available, it seems you do not have much control or understanding of what you can deliver.

    While your pre-order page states delivery is 6-8 weeks, I noted a blog entry that said the buyer was disappointed there would be a 12 week wait for shipping. Your pre-order estimates need to be consistent with your reality.

    Overall, I consider this a very poorly done product launch. While I have been very interested in obtaining an Adam for over a year, your launch issues have me deeply concerned. As it now appears, I cannot order for an uncertain time and cannot get delivery of Pixel Qi for at least 12 weeks after I order\. As such, my buying decision will still be up in the air as of CES.

    I have also been concerned that none of your material confirms that your device will be able to access the android market. I believe I submitted a question months ago asking about that point and did not receive a response. Nonetheless, I was willing to take a risk on this point given your apparently strong relationship with Google. Now I have much deeper concerns, particularly since your web site has not been updated to include any software or application information.

    As virtually all of the trade sites indicate there will be a flood of Android devices at CES, including an HTC/Google device, there is a good chance you may have missed the best opportunity you had to get buyers to buy a product from a new, untested company with minimal advance information. As a long term HTC user, I am not inclined to wait and see what they have.

    You have great specs and a unique product with the Pix Qi screen. Unfortunately, innovation is not enough, you must also be able to deliver and convince people you have a solid handle on sales and service of your product.

    While I have admired the openness of your development process the last few months, I know have very serious concerns about your ability to deliver.

    Overall, day 1 of Adam sales, has not been a good day for Adam. You seem to be on track for duplicating Plastic Logic’s Que launch. They had limited early pre-orders, followed by cancellation of all pre-orders, followed by returning to the drawing board.

    Good luck. I hope you can overcome this very poor start.

  834. Maybe because no one has even seen the final model. All we’ve seen are very early samples.
    Secondly deviating from industry standards not a little bit but a lot. on the Euopean mainlain tax IS included in the price this is decided by LAW thus every price towards europeans should be included with tax, because all of a sudden this thing “what for me is still on paper until proven otherwise” costs more than an iPad now. Also no good no 100% moneyback is also a violation of European law. We have full right to buy anything from the net and try it for 7 days and be able to send it back with full refund.

    Rohan promised to send a mail about the pre-order yet tons of people haven’t seen one while they should have gotten one.
    Rohan promised pictures of the finalized product before ordering yet all we see are renders at best.

    It’s nice all that talk towards the us market but he fails to be even close to atleast european standards considering ordering, refund and guarantee regulations. He want to sell it globally himself FINE but he should atleast read the rules then on what he can and cannot do. With european law customers have more power since the law protects them. That’s less of the case in the US. It’s not a bash to the US it’s a simple fact and it’s how the regions operate.

    Yes so far it’s a burst bubble for me most of all due to a lot of promises with little delivery and now with poor business decisions regarding european customers which i’m one of.

  835. I’m too still interested in getting an ADAM with Pixel Qi+3G; when will they be available again to (pre-)order (with Mastercard or PayPal)?

  836. just repeating Rohan. don’t shoot the messenger 😉 In terms of believing everything Rohan’s been preaching: I dont believe him on all accounts without proof. He did say that there was a lot of traffic and all.
    But you are right: no sorry and 30.000 is a lot (maby that is the amount of comments in total)

  837. I would only be interested in the PixelQi screen, so I’m waiting. I got the pre-order email, but after going through the steps, I could not pull the trigger. There are things that aren’t spelled out clearly enough.

    For the WiFi preorder, there was no way to choose 850 or 900 – it’s possible that they would have just shipped whatever was correct for your country, but that’s not necessarily the way I would want to go. In the US, I would likely use the WiFi only, I’d want the 3G for European travel, so I’d want that correct. (Though, it seems to me that there should be a way to put a dual-band radio in there to make it work).

    How much memory? Are there different configurations of memory? I have a hard time shelling out $650 for a device with 8G of memory, but the tech specs just say ‘8G plus’.

    Colors? Is it just black, for now?

    And the biggest thing stopping me was the fact that you’re going to charge 100% of the cost to my credit card immediately, and not ship for up to 2 months. Now, I understand that some folks got in right at the beginning and had shipping stated on 1/9. However, those folks were few & far between. The rest of us got the ‘6-8 weeks’ note, without even an idea of what that means.

    And on top of that, if I canceled my pre-order, before it ships, you’re going to charge me 5%. I’m not going to pay a premium to wait for a product and then if something happens or I decide I want a different configuration, I’m going to be paying ~~$30 for the privilege of giving you $650 of my money to use for a while. That just kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.

    So as much as I’ve been waiting for this product since last CES, I’m going to have to wait for more details before I can make my purchase. Maybe a retail outlet in the states where I can actually take it back if there’s a problem, not ship it back at my own expense, pay all fees and duties, and then a restocking fee on top of it.

    I also don’t understand why you wouldn’t insure the product shipping it to me, but if I had a warranty problem or a defect, I have to pay insurance to ship it back to you – so I’m responsible for insurance both ways. If DHL damages the product en route, it’s up to me to fight with DHL, when you’re the shipper? Anything sent out to a customer should be FOB-Delivery. Until I receive that product in perfect condition, our contract is not concluded. Not at the time of purchase or shipment – but upon receipt.

    And there wasn’t even a link at checkout to the shipping contract so I would have an idea of what I was looking at, or option to purchase additional insurance. I do contracts for a living – I want to see what I’m responsible for and, more importantly, what the vendor I’m purchasing for is trying to limit their liability to.

    You posted Apple warranties above, and mention ‘global warranties’. I understand your position, but I don’t think it’s realistice. The EU has consumer protections that are pretty stringent, and your warranty may well be tested there, resulting in you spending funds you didn’t anticipate spending. A warranty is a contract of adhesion. Anything that could possibly be a gray area is going to be construed legally in favor of the customer. Anything in the warranty that violates the protocols of the country where you’re approved to sell is going to be prima facie void, or at the very least voidable. I am going to assume you had a great legal department look this over, but as a consumer I’m leery of the terms and conditions, and that is unfortunately giving me pause to order what I think is a fantastic product.

    Can you advise if there will be retail outlets in the US or Europe where we will be able to purchase, eventually? Or is this going to be strictly via mail-order for the forseeable future?

  839. Apparently I was one of the lucky 10,000 family-members who received the invitation email last night (Europe time). But without support for a Mastercard I was quickly discouraged to make a pre-order for the adam that I want: a PixelQi without 3G.

    Oh well, since I don’t urgently NEED an adam a.s.a.p. I will now resort to awaiting the hands-on videos on the 18th and the CES presentation early January. I have full faith in Notion Ink and will get my adam next year. 🙂

  840. More importantly there will be a difference between the Pixel QI and LCD in terms of power consumption.
    The LCD will be a power hog just like the rest of the tablets, but the pixel qi will just sip power, and the battery will last longer on the qi.

  841. Hi Rohan for when will the next round to buy Pixel Qi LCD because they are exhausted and I could not access before.
    Thanks

  844. ok I am aware that I have asked this many times but now I must soon get an answer, dos it have palm rejection and android market??

  847. I am following NI and Adam from the ‘Inception’. So I know what people were expecting. But I was under the impression that the bond between Rohan and the people through this blog was more than just usual CEO-customer relation. We were creating a product together. And I thought people showed so much enthusiasm because they trusted Rohan and his vision, not just because he had a nice product on offer for them. But may be i was wrong..

    As for the link, it had my email id in it, and I am not sure such a customized link would work even if just shared the link without my email password. Moreover, I dont think the mail had any special significance after the server crashes and stuff.

  848. +1
    Thank you for putting into words what has been in my head all along.
    I guess a lot of commenters do not understand why Europeans get so worked up over this, but they are simply breaking a few laws in selling to us.

    For a pre-order I can understand that things are not optimal, but these things need to be resolved if Notion Ink as a company wants to stand a chance to keep in business.
    Look up what happened with Plastic Logic and you’ll see what I mean. They had a killer product and failed shortly after doing a VERY similar pre-order / launch.

  849. Hi Rohan,

    Feeling extremely awful right now. I got the pre-order link but instead of the Inbox it was in the SPAM Folder! By the time I checked it up, The Pixel Qi was already sold out 😦 What about us unfortunate lot whose mail landed up in Spam?? I mean, had i known about the mail earlier I could’ve ordered! Please kindly address this issue and give me another chance of ordering the same mate! Hoping *fingers crossed*

  850. Pixel Qi are shouting about they started process, for almost a year now.
    If they still cannot fullfill 30K batch (much less realy, not all of 30K invited did preorders, not all of them ordered 3Qi) – i have doubt that Pixel Qi can deliver on promise.

  851. @earthzero

    Thanks for taking the time for this. I would not be surprised when for many of the Adam followers it is the first time that they order a product from another country or continent.

    If you want to PRE-order in an international environment, you do it based on the info that is there at that moment. If you want all the bells and whistles and special guarantees of your own country as well as no shipping costs, then you have to wait until the product is available in your country.

  852. I would say for a start-up company all is forgiven. Rohan you may take this disappointment from our side as our love for Adam. Eagerly waiting to see it in action…. And to pep you up… Cheers….cheers….cheers……

  853. @Rohan

    To satisfy people, pls give out a tentative dates when next round of Pixel Qi will be available. Also be aware that the iPad 2 is expected to launch in Feb 2011 and you would like to collect as many orders as possible before that.

  854. – when will pixel qi back in stock ?
    – is android market accessible from the device ?
    – can we have root ?
    – did you reply sometimes to our questions ?

  855. @Rohan…. I hope you read this (and/or posts from other with simular content),

    Please don´t forget EAP-2

  856. Got here after one hour. The Pixel Qi variant was sold out. Now, a couple of questions:
    1) How can a preorder (pre-order) imply the product being sold out?
    2) How can a product be sold out after 1 hour of LIMITED preordering?
    3) How come you have been planning this tablet for years and not be ready with the MASTERCARD application on the launch day? I mean, MASTERCARD!
    4) How can you open preorders without even showing a working video, actual pictures, nothing at all?

    Conclusion: I believe you are a great conceptual team, I respect you as a group of “visionaries” (in a good sense), BUT your marketing department and your PRACTICAL organization REALLY needs to be fixed.
    The thing is, how can I trust you and give you my money – even if your product is great per se – if you are able to totally screw up on the launch day?

    One of your 10-months-long follower,
    Gabriele Cappelletti

    PS: The info on the digitizer is great. I really want this tablet. We are officially in a “it’s complicated” relationship, Notion Ink 🙂

  857. hey oh.. i guess i need to discontinue receiving feeds in my mobile..! it has started to clog now…
    anyways just saw ur msg !
    well ppl new to this blog wont know .. and apparently the algorithm gave us ‘new members’ status while ppl after us were given ‘old member’ status…. and many who commented in the last 2 days did get their emails.
    anyways it all boils down to numbers and as cathy said it is all purely business, and now that it is launched, new family will form quickly..

    and now that we are not part of the first family it does become difficult to accept .. but move on Klerk.. and i am actually surprised that Gecko didnt get.. anyways tot would drop in a msg as u r kinda alone here… let go of feeling connected … ( i know it might take time).. once the new shipment is ready u will get a mail.. but i must say the old Adam’s family was fun! have fun..

    i need to remove the feeds now..

  858. Mine was in my spam folder. Ugh. Still managed to pre-order the Pixel Qi 3G version. Phew!
    6-8 weeks though… sigh.

  860. dont know about the ones who got in but, i received a mail and tried to go on at 12 pst, and it just kept on saying come back at 12 pst, tried for 2 hrs gave up went to bed. woke up the next morning and because the general public where given access so early i missed out on it all. i fell sick with it

  862. if that would turn vapourware, that would be very cruel hit upon Pixel Qi company as well.
    I hope not.

  863. Rohan,
    I know your intentions are good and you are doing your best on all this. I really want to see notioninc prosper. Let me give you a piece of advice.

    In America, I read business books, and this is what some authors ask people that want to get started in business:

    Can you make a better hamburger than McDonalds?
    Their answer is 99% of the time, YES, they can make a better product than McDonalds can.

    So then they are asked: can you make a better system than McDonalds? They see the difference right away.

    So I ask you. Can you make a better product than Apple? And I believe your answer will be “Yes I can!” Now, the system is what makes you or breaks you.

    I know that a lot of things that happened yesterday were not intentional, and you have good excuses for them. But think about this. I never got my invite email, even when I followed your rules.

    You can’t please everyone, so don’t make promises you can’t keep. People will remember when you cant keep your promises. And these people are people who have been following you loyally.

    Creating a global business is not something you say lightly. There are a lot of things to consider and follow ups, etc. I salute you for that, as that is a big accomplishment.

    I just ask you again. Don’t try to please everyone. You will not be able to.
    Make your promises achievable, then keep them. People will remember when you didn’t keep them more than they remember when you did.

    I hope this makes sense. And I hope to see Notion Ink rise to be one of the big ones.

    Thanks,
    Echo.

  865. Pixel qi, has a few good things going for it. Its resolution is not any different from the LCD version, but the Pixel qi can have the Backlight turned off, thereby reducing the amount of power consumption greatly! Also, Each pixel on the screen has a coating on it that has a small reflector treatment to its surface, so it can bounce sunlight off, allowing you to see it clearly outdoors.

    I hope that helps.

  867. You are missing one point. Long before the Apple preorders start they will have shown the device, tech specs and a shitload of information on what you are actually buying.

    Also they adhere to international law, even on their preorders.

    I understand the companies are different, but not doing this is very bad for your name. As a startup this is the single most important thing to get right. NotionInk got it very very wrong, and it has hurt the companies credibility to survive.

  868. For Holland you only have to pay VAT (btw) 19% no importduties.
    Fill dutycalculator correctly in and you will see.

  869. wondering why notion ink is not listed on CES 2011 exhibitor list…
    maybe its because I dont know how to search !!!?

  870. Indeed, I did the same calculation. Still, the total value in Euro will be € 528,75, meaning just a bit more of the current BASIC ipad version. Not bad, right?

  871. @Rohan hope you and your team and the partner companies got some rest..

    just wanted to say keep up the great work and dont necessarily take everything to heart – you got to do what you got to do – is a good mantra to follow in these times and am sure you will come thru this with flying colours as always. Like you said aiming to pleasing all is a good thing but not always practical… just start with the 80-20 rule and we can work thru the remaining 20% in good time with the confidence of the initial success

    PS: I was one of those who didnt get the email but ran out of the pixel variants by the time I could get around to order via website; may still order one for my soon to be 6yr old – trouble is there is a 3yr old boy monster who may simply steal the baby and do some serious damage too….

    on that note, just curious if anyone is even contemplating gifting Adam to any under
    10year olds?

  872. well done , u made preorder launch a true global event. Though there were mamy glitches but that r excusable as u ppl r young and inexperienced. But well done. All the best for official launch. When you r planning to launch in India. Thanks.

  873. exactly the kind of reaction i was talking about 🙂
    in one day, the person for whose one smiley you used to wait for became some kind of business minded monster … so much for being in the family.

    i hope u understand that Rohan dont sit and make a list of new and old members. they have scripts(programs) to do it.. and very likely that those were put up in a hurry and was flawed. But thats not reason enough to dump your hero into the thrash. Not in my books at least. But I am sure you are informed enough to make your decisions. Good luck.

  875. I am slowly falling out of love with Adam. I could not wait to get one until this whole mess started. What were you guys thinking and who is running this circus. I just don’t understand how you could start pre-orders without providing such simple information as the internal storage or showing a photo. It just looks really fishy. I still have high expectations for Notion Ink, but unlike other commentators here I just cannot claim or defend that something I have never seen is going to be better than sliced bread. Maybe if I had money to burn I would risk it just so I could be one of the first to play with the PixelQi screen, but at $500 for the basic PQ model($50 more then we were previously told) + $50 shipping + import/vat taxes = a very expensive (apple equivalent) product we don’t know much about. Do not forget that you have a lot of competitors and that our money does not grow on trees. On a more positive note it does look like NI has sold its first batch of tablets to those who have blind faith in them, and if the reviews come out positive they should have no problem selling the rest. As of now I would like to thank the team at Notion Ink for the lesson on how not to launch a product. I will wait for CES, look at the competition, read some reviews and make an informed decision (hope its Adam). Wish you all the best Rohan

  876. Sorry, Your order cannot be processed as the website is not authorised for Transactions through CCAvenue.

    Please contact the Webstore Administrator to report this error.

  878. to all you people whining about shipping cost then don’t, as for me im wiling to pay that shipping cost since the device is already $500 whats another $50?

  879. I believe, Rohan, you have done a great job with everything. Its your first company, and this was supposed to be for people who have been following it here. After all these days if these guys can get swayed by someone saying its a scam, then do hell with it. I believe what you have achieved is perfect till now and just keep doing the good work.

  880. Goddamn. I waited last night ’til 4.00AM(GMT+1) to order the item but my bank denied the transaction. I have sorted it this morning but there is a problem, all the Pixel Qi tablets are sold out!! I have the order number but cant do the payment because the link is not there anymore. What can I do next?? Do you know guys??

  881. I think its time to stop the mystery show.
    We’re all excited about an open architecture android tablet with a transflective display, BUT when asking people to pay for a product, the least they can expect is FULL specs, and in depth reviews.
    I don’t care whether this spoils the CES hype, but if you feel like waiting for CES, don’t sell (actually take money, its unclear when devices will be shipped) the product now.
    Additionally, I think we deserve to see a full management portfilio as well as major investors.
    Remember we are buying a computer, we are not members of cult.

    Sorry to be so negative, but I was really looking forward to buying an android tablet, and the ADAM’s best selling point was the Pixel-Qi screen.
    As you all know, we’re expected to see a motorola android tablet running honeycomb in a couple of months. I guess it want have a transflective screen, but I’m sure it will be a great product, and that is probably one of the causes for Notion-Ink to hurry up.
    It unfortunate that in their “hurrying up” they’re forgetting to take care of the important things.

  882. Rohan – My thoughts on what NI must do to succeed.

    NI MUST make its product available in retail stores and online stores like amazon.com if you are going to be successful. After you go through your avid fan base – most people will not buy it unless they can touch it or read independent reviews on a site like Amazon.

    You need to spend money to make money. By this I mean NI has to invest in having enough stock in house or in stores so that people cna buy your product and receive it within a week. We live in a very please me now society. Like it or not thats who you are going to be trying to sell to. 6-8 weeks will not cut it.

    From all I am reading the Adam comes with only 8gig of ram. Please tell me thats wrong because if it is the Adam will die even if you solve the above two items. 8gig is lame and a sorry excuse for a tablet. No one will care that they can expand. All that means is your pricing is a fraud and the cost of owning an adam is your price plus the cost to make it functional with a minimum of 32 gig. Any company putting out a tablet with less than 32 gig minimum should be ashamed of themselves.

    If your product does not work when we get it – NI *MUST* own up to it and pay for return shipping, free replacement, and free shipping back to the customer. NI will be considered a joke if people read that if the product they buy does not work, we have to pay to get it fixed/replaced. Most people including myself will not buy your product no matter how great it looks with that kind of policy.

    Stop playing small ball and get in the game. Invest in a professional web site and professional writers. Your amateur web page and purchasing process, along with poorly worded text everywhere – does not instill any confidence. Grow up fast or you won’t grow up at all.

    NI’s reputation is now tarnished. You have much work to do or NI will not be around by the end of this year to even consider the Adam2.

    I’m sorry if this sounds harsh. But this is my view of what you need to do or NI will die. I’ve been in business 30 years and grown with the times. I’ve seen better organized companies fail for fewer problems than NI has right now.

  884. Will be fascinated how the fanboys handle DOA and support problems.Another leap of faith?Oh plus pay $9usd for the privilege.

    What a clusterfuck,did notion ink outsource the pre-order logistics too Apple?You Indians sure have perchance for absolute chaos.Then to charge the client for shipping and manufacturing mistakes……pure gold.

    Is this a bollywood film??

  885. Rohan,

    Come on we all know you’re reading the posts so a bit more reaction would be nice.
    I don’t believe you’re calling yourself with Mastercard or that you are busy solving the email problem.
    If you don’t have the time to react because you’re kicking some ass of people that didn’t do their jobs well enough I can live with that but otherwise…………………………..
    Tell us something more how to solve the pre-orders for the 20k that didn’t receive their email.

  888. Pre-order is ‘before everybody else can order’. It has nothing to do with the moment that the payment is done.

    For some cars people pay even months before the car is shipped because they want to be sure that the get the model of the new year and by pre-ordering (and a payment to guarantee the order) they reserve a car of the 2011 batch.

  889. @Rohan, NI team,

    Don’t get to upset by all those negative comments. They are mostly comming from frustrated late followers. You did exactly as you promised. You gave early acces to believers and never promised us anything more than what you gave us. You never told us you would reveal every single detail about adam on the 9th. And like you mentioned, Mr Murphy can be a serious pain in the ass, wich I feel sorry about, because yesterday should have been a celebration for you rather than one of the most stressfull days in your life. Those who really followed you all the way and read all the earlier post should know that how you handled things yesteray was completely in line with your way of working. Teasing us a little bit and make us hungry for more.

    @ all who have doubts,

    Either wait until the final product is revealed and up for regular order or shut up and don’t be so sellfish. I hear grown up people whining here like little children who don’t get their candy instantly.
    STOP asking the same questions over and over again and start reading the older blogs. As you will find 90% of your questions answered.
    STOP insulting and blaming NI and Rohan

    Rather be greatfull for accomplishing something great and revolutionary. Instead look in the mirror and think what you were (or will be)doing at the age of 25. Did you or will you be following your dream and take all those risks he’s doing to accomplish your goals. And believe me when I tell you that doing this out of India is even more spectacular, I’ve worked there for over a year and I can tell you it isn’t as easy as it would be (still very tough) out of the western world. NI is a start up competing with the big ones with no primary resources. RESPECT

    So Rohan and the teammates, thanks for everything, keep up the great work. You are an inspiration. BTW I ordered the 3G pixel-QI without knowing all the specs, but I have faith I will be stunned once I hold it in my hands.

    greets Andries

  891. hey, rohan.
    I don’t really think you have anything to apologize for. sure, I’ve been waiting for the pre-release date just like everyone else, and, of course, had the privilege of ordering an ADAM cause i commented on this blog before, but all pixel-qi variants are gone. 😦
    anyway, I think that people, that have waited this long, and are truly interested in the product itself (and not in the prestige of just owning it (like apple-fans)), could hold on for just a bit longer.
    and so shall I.
    you have really done a great job till now, and I’m certain you’ll continue at it.
    regards from Israel.

  892. 80.11 EUR VAT Tax for PixelQi + 3G model to Spain!!!! It is a lot of money.

    I know that some companies that sell products by internet make I don’t know what to avoid the tax payment.

    Several models are coming and will be available in local market during January – February.
    Maybe it is time to await.

  893. Rohan already answered all of your questions in previous posts. However, as a recap, so you can have it now (ill let you go searching for the exact source 😉 )

    1 The Initial batch will only be made with so many.
    2 Clearly a lot of people wanted that one. However, the Preorder was open first to the “Family” (30k, but only 10k got the link)
    3 They tried to get Mastercard on board, but the standard wait time was a couple of weeks. the others came on in 3 days, and Mastercard still has not responded.
    4 Pictures and video of working models: Week end specials 8-6ish. They have both video and Pictures, not to mention the numerous interviews he has done with one in his hands. Any Youtube of Notion ink Adam will turn up his interviews at CES last year. however you are right that there is very little video of the new UI. but that is the life of an Early Adopter.

    Hope this is helpful.

  895. Dear Rohan,

    I’d like to order an Adam but shipping from China with DHL means for me that I may end up paying double the price because of import taxes and clearance fees. Greek customs can be funny.

    I can accept having to pay a premium for Adam but I want to know the total cost beforehand.
    I know NI can’t calcutate these costs, nor I expect you to pay my taxes.

    So, the question is:
    Do you have any plans in the future to sell Adam through European retailers and if yes, is there a time-frame?

    Thanks and good luck with your great product!

  896. +1 , I also think Rohan and his team are doing just GREAT work ! Keep it up 🙂 These few problems are nothing. Its just christmass hysteria 😉

  897. Yeah they did not ignore it but just never saw it so can’t write anything meaningful. By the time it is available they will test and compare it to whatever else is comparable and available at the time, which could very well be the iPad2, and a shitload of other tablets that have not been announced yet.

    CES2011 is around the corner as well.

  898. +10000000000000000 this is what i have been asking since september belive me . infact why we all indians cant buy adam in INR why dont we have options like cash, cheque, dd and do u have any tie up with some stores from where we can buy directly. and again 30,000rs for how much storage capacity is it 8, 16, 32 this are simple answers why cant ROHAN MAKE A SIMPLE POST FOR INDIANS WILLING TO BUY ADAM . WHY DO WE HAVE TO BUY ADAM FROM CHINA WHEN THE COMPANY IS IN INDIA DONT U HAVE A STOCK IN YOUR OFFICE OR FOR THAT MATTER AS VISHESH SAID NO WAREHOUSE ? ITS STRANGE THAT YOU CARE FOR THE FAMILY AND NOT YOUR COUNTRYMEN .

  900. Introspect this! What a horrible experience! PS you are right a major launch is the WORST time a CEO/President should be flying somewhere, even then have someone that can communicate with your CUSTOMERS if you want them. HOrrible!

    Ouch? Ouch? That is how you feel as you sell out of your two top models? OUCH? What about those of us who got bogus pre-orders that only created uncertainty with a poor effort of putting together sales and refund policies that looked to be written by an intern.

    OUCH? OUCH? I have been waiting for this device for over a year, stayed up for 24 hours watching your “unveiling” that was a fail from ever angle. OUCH? OUCH? Imagine how WE feel Rohan.

    Epic FAIL~! You also made it clear pre-orders would go on for some time, no mention of two of the models running out fast, you know the models we all wanted the most!

    FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL

    And then you have the nerve to finally come out and say something after they are sold out about your policies?

    FAIL FAIL FAIL

    One of the worst consumer transactions I have ever witnessed or ever want to be a part of again.

    BOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

  906. Rohan,

    One more important question that needs to be answered is the import tax & duties. Since it is shipping from China, do we need to pay the import tax & duties in US?

  908. oh dear; thats harsh my friend… we just cant sit on a high chair and start professing… I hear you and understand where you are coming from – but – please give the chap a break;

    during the in/famous MS Windows conference where they introduced one of their ‘newer’ versions – cant remember exactly if it was 95 or 98 — Mr Bill simply smiled at the ‘blue core dump’ screen and mumbled something like well yeah thats why its a prelaunch not launch and went about rebooting etc while the whole world watched

    if the world’s richest man couldnt mitigate Murphy’s law poor Rohan stands about a trillionth of chance to do it

  909. Agreed. PRE-orders should indicate the sequence of shipping. So during the PRE-order option there is no sold-out issue.

    The only thing that might be different is the shipping time for early pre-orders and late pre-orders (which should be communicated if it is more then, say 2 weeks in between)

  910. dutycalculator.com

    Again a rough guide,

    Does anyone read the older comments before posting…… ?

  911. You may not even incur one… I often order parts and devices from Europe and Asia and, if they are not huge and/or extremely expensive shipments, I never pay anything extra for customs charges. Been doing this for nearly 20 years.

  912. They is great job until the emails where sent out. There is started to go wrong. That’s mainly why a lot of people are reacting.
    And I still think the Mastercard or Paypall option for payment should have been there.
    In the end most of the complainers will still buy the Adam because they didn’t follow all of this for nothing. They still know it’s a product for tomorrow and not like most company’s a product for today.

  915. Well nik i never thrashed any one, if u care to read my lines ( and not read between my lines) !!!
    i have been around here more than u have been and as said , it is not a good response from NI u get but having said that ofcourse best wishes to rohan and his team and we did celebrate it yest.. now we are just back with our lives
    good luck with ur decisions as well..

  917. I understand exactly what it was. It still does not excuse the problems demonstrated or the fact that those are things they will need to fix to survive.

    You clearly have never run a business.

  918. I have nothing to be greatfull for so go take your suggestions for others and place them somewhere they sun does not shine, ok?

    This was a horrible experience to say the least. I was far from a Late adopter and can show you many posts on here and facebook supporting this product. I also was among many who helped spread the word about this product.

    We have been lied to about the logo contest, about pre-orders, etc. I spent time and effort designing logos, commenting, and selling this device all for a pre-order email THAT NEVER WORKED. Nice six hour window I got of reading…. NOT YET COME BACK AT 12PST, while Rohan comments on how things will run smoother as the US/EU servers are up and nothing else.

    To say I am disgusted does the word no justice!

    So much higher hopes than this, Rohan you should be ashamed! Thanks for a ruined Christmas and over a year of following every half move you made, including this “unveiling.”

    Thanks for nothing, another student.

  920. Ok guys, by now we all know that:
    a. pre-ordering got screwed up
    b. Pixel Qi stock was way too low
    c. price information (VAT, shipping etc) was very unclear
    d. specs information was… well, absent

    We all know that by now, so there is no need to keep on complaining about that!
    I think mr. Shravan can hardly keep up with all the posts in this blog (besides doing his job, which is to fix everything everybody is complaining about) so don’t expect him to react to them.

    I must admin, me too got a little scared. And yes, I will also wait for real hands-on experiences and detailed information before I order anything. (although if the Pixel Qi with G3 was still available, I think I would have pre-ordered it 🙂 )

    I think one of the most urgent issues at the moment, is the fact that a lot of poeple are loosing their trust in NI. I am convinced of the good intentions (the rumours of this being a scam are redicoulous, why would someone put the most favourite model to sold out, if he’s only after the money!?), but how stable is the NI organization if something like this pre-order goes so wrong? I want to be sure my new Adam will be supported for some reasonable extend of time. So mr. Shravan, please regain our trust.

    If the rumours are correct, and you do have close relations with Google, let them make some statements about that. Now that would give my convidence a huge boost!

    Anyway, I’ll wait untill mid-january and see what’s going on then. If production is going fine and there are some hands-on experiences, I’ll order two of them. (My wife wants one too 😉 )

    Good luck, Joost

  922. you are missing the point !
    Am sure gonna get flamed for ths but steve jobs is an a**h013 .
    One of the best things about ni is that they listen to their customers.
    You take that away and you dont have anything special! In terms of corporate ethics i mean. Rohan try to emulate google. They are better than most companies around.
    If you are reading this here are my 2 cents.paisa actually 🙂

    1. You promised all details on the pre order page . That didnt happen.
    2. You promised 12 pm PST. That didnt happen. It opened at 5am IST from what i gather. I slept at 3am 😦

    Because of the above i didnt pre order even though i got a mail.
    But we as family forgive these errors :p as should you for us not placing blind faith.

    What i want now is the second batch of PQi’s being released on the 18th after the promised video. With mastercard support. And if its ok with you a similar exclusive pre order for family. I might be suggesting the impossible. If you cant do it, Thats fine.
    But please please keep your promises so that people dont get hurt!

  923. A bit lame excuse on Mastercard. The pre-order date was set long before 3 weeks, so should have applied long before then.

    It is a shame that Pixel Qi got sold out, guess will have to wait longer, hopefully before end of Q1 next year. This will definitely turn a lot of followers off and by Q1 2011 they would have more options from other makers.

    Notionl Ink should have been prepared better for their online side of things considering that is the only source for all their marketing.

  924. Hi web admins or technicans, I have a question: is there a way to find out how much differnt people have posted a comment in this blog from the beginning til “weekend special X” ??
    It would be interesting to know, because I think the quantity is < 10.000.

  925. “They are mostly comming from frustrated late followers. ”

    Following for almost a Year!

    “You did exactly as you promised. You gave early acces to believers and never promised us anything more than what you gave us”

    Didn’t get any mail!

    Know what you are writing down please!

    Thiago

  926. Not to mention the price of the Galaxy Tab, still at € 639 (lowest price available) in NL, with a ton less features/potential than the Adam (apart from the 16gb storage memory).

  927. Thanks for that info Andreu, I really appreciate that info about Spain taxes

    You have the point , I’m not as excited as I were last night about Adam. I have seen that my problem is not unique, and many people payments have also been rejected.

    I know NI is starting but what happened last night was total mess. I wouldn’t like to say this but I have seen a total lack of foresight.
    By the way, Pixel Qi adam is the star product and is no longer available? well… something is not working fine

    Im not sure about what should I do, maybe wait for the reviews or the several upcoming tablets early next year or give NI a last chance..

    Im a bit angry

  929. Im not a trusted late follower, i got my email then tried for 2 hrs to use that link to buy my adam, couldnt get on at all kept on saying come back at 12 pst. by that time i had to go to bed to get up for work the next day and by then they had all sold out. the link didnt work and i couldnt wait 6 hrs like my american friends could. ive been following NI since december last yr and when it came to the crunch i was left out, even being part of the EAP process!

  930. This is a strong accusation.

    People who are familiar with WordPress have already indicated that WordPress’s sequencing of entries is sometimes difficult to follow.

    Given the (unrealistically) harsh comments that I see on this blog I seriously doubt that anybody at Notion Ink is deleting negative comments.

    Try the suggestion of Harun (check ‘oldr comnts’).

  931. why can’t notion ink take preorders and based on that they manufacture no of adam units? Sold out?? how many of them are manufatured?? Need PixelQI+3g version.

  932. as I understand,
    adam is not officially launched.
    this is a preorder.
    preorder is supposed to be for people who know about the product.

  933. After seeing all the commotions that happened, I’m sure your investors will plead you to release the videos 😀

  934. Please address why there is a charge for DOA device replacement. It shows a lack of trust in your own product; how can we then trust your product?

  935. Many good points there Paul and well articulated. 🙂 There has naturally been a some griping in the blog, but I feel most posts were trying to raise legitimate concerns because of the unknowns of dealing with what is effectively a new company without any kind of track record and their frustrations during the ordering process. The majority of people here have a lot of love and respect for what Rohan and the team are trying to do and there is genuine excitement with the Adam so any disappointments are going to be magnified. We want them to succeed! There are still some unknowns in terms of the exact specification, it’s now clear that those questions probably won’t be answered until CES. Now I know the product is coming directly from China, the issue of extra costs is also clearer.

    Every country has it’s own customs rules and some of them can be extremely complicated. So usually it’s just customary to put the onus on the purchaser to check. Generally speaking you have to pay your country’s tax (VAT in the UK) and then on top of that there can be a percentage duty cost (depending on the type of product and sometimes where it comes from in the case of deliveries through customs to Canada). On top of that, there is also usually a processing fee which varies depending on delivery company and method used (- either a flat rate or as a percentage). So these costs do tend to add up. For many people here, they may not be used to purchasing from outside the country so these charges can be a bit of a surprise. 🙂 Effectively when you buy something which is just moving from within a country (like say buying from your country’s specific Amazon store) these costs are already included. Somewhere along the line you do still have to pay them :). Usually in those cases, a company will say that you may be liable for additional charges and the onus is then on the customer to check what applies in their specific country.

    Rohan held up his hands and apologised for the mistakes that were made and this last blog post did answer the majority of my questions.

    Whether to wait or pre-order now then becomes very much a personal choice. But I’ve been waiting for well over a year so a few extra weeks or months isn’t going to make a lot of difference to me. Yes, I’m disappointed it’s not in my hands NOW but just like the previous delay in June, it means they have time to work out some bugs, add additional functionality and ultimately make the product even better!

    Robert

  937. I waited hours yesterday for an email, since I have posted (with my email address) several times on the blog (before the early pre-order announcement). After 7:30 pm EST, I looked for the promised general pre-order, with no success. Several hours later, I found it on the notionink.in site (still not on the notionink.com site)… and got halfway through pre-ordering before getting to the terms. I was stopped in my tracks by the provision that before exchanging a DOA device I would pay another 5%… certainly NOT a standard provision.

    It’s one thing to invite trust with eager blogging and some genuinely good ideas. But when a company that’s never shipped anything before tells me they can send me a defective device and then demand more money before replacing it, I start to question whether my trust is just gullibility.

    Badly handled all around.

    And the only reason I ever looked at adam was the Pixel Qi screen. The other (maybe) innovations may (or may not be) better than the other things out there, we’ll see. I hope that real information and real devices become available soon, that the delays will stop, and the supply of Pixel Qi devices will not be a trickle.

    – a devoted follower (but maybe too much of a sap for bleeding edge technology)

  938. Hey Rohan,

    posting this message before reading all the comments so excuse if some of the points are already covered.

    Very good to hear from you about all the details. I am very happy that you actually stood by what your policies are explained us the reasons for taking that route. i want to point out some of my experiences with my electronics regarding warranty and return policy.

    1) you compared you policies with apple which i believe have the best customer service. i can return that product with in that time frame with out any damage to the product and i will get all my money back. i dont need to ship it because they have retail stores. which means if i happen to not like their product, it costs me nothing to return it. i used some custom build laptops too, even in that case they will allow me to return them with out any fees. here you said it will 5% even if we cancel the order before it was shipped.

    2)1 year warranty is fine ( though i thought it will be more because you mentioned 2 to 3 years in your blog about the process) but if there is something wrong with my adam in that one year it should not cost me anything to get it replaced or repaired, that is what is meant by warranty. when my HP laptop has some issues they send me the box to ship my laptop to them and they repaired it and sent me back. in this case we have to ship it with the return shipping label, and some fees for repair? this is not warranty. please check this.

    3)in the warranty for the apple link you posted it clearly says that those warranties are after any warranty that should be legally supported in that country. some of the friends here posted that 2 years is minimum warranty in EU? not sure about that, please look at it.

    So i am almost coming to, if i dont like the product as soon as it arrives or within a specified time frame, i should not be charged anything. also same with warranty, during the warranty period it should cost me for repairs. by this i mean no cost for anything.

    One more thing is about the customs duty, i know it differs from country to country, but i have never paid customs duty on the laptops i bought from HP, they ship from china too. this is one more thing i think you forgot to address.

    Lastly, i know that almost all the companies will have strict policies in return, warranty and stuff, but when it actually comes to customer care, i think they will not follow all the rules, they want to make the customer happy ( i am talking about reputed firms). i wish and believe you will follow the same process too.

    I ordered the pixelQi with 3g model and waiting for it to come.

    over and out
    Vamsi

  940. Go and see pixelqi.com for more information about their screen. But two main points are:
    1) sunlight readable
    2) works [also] whitout backlight
    I first read about pixelqi screen, and only then discovered, that ADAM was going to use it. I considered geting Lenovo Ideapad s10-2 and drop-in replacement pixelqi screen for it.
    As for ADAM, i don’t think that dimensions are any different for LSD vs PQI screen models.
    For e-book reading i would recommend PQI version. Although, i would like to see comparison of two before i make up my mind. (in some countries 125USD is still a lot of money)

  942. best way for you is go and buy from China. No more 50$.
    Kidding. Adam will come direct from China.

  943. very disappointed. Never got my “family email link” though I have been posting for a long, long time, then when I was finally able to try and preorder, had massive issues there, then sold out of variant I wanted. This experience has helped me to take a step back and reconsider my intention of pre-ordering an item we have not really seen in action very well. I am still very excited about the adam and will likely get one someday, but will definitely be waiting for all the bugs to get worked out of the site, ordering and shipping processes (and maybe even adam itself). Thanks for the wonderful ride Rohan (I mean that sincerely) it has been really fun. I haven’t been this excited about a product in a long time and wish you and the NI team the best.

  945. independenttraveler.com/resources/article.cfm?AID=63&category=6

    This might help, it mentions your allowed upto $800 duty free and China is duty free/low rate due to trade agreements.

    dont know how up to date it is though

  947. Many ebay sellers, esp. from China, try to avoid import taxes by declaring a low value on the customs forms plus marking it as a gift. However no real company will do this as it´s illegal.

  948. Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

    I am so disgusted!

    Rohan, I hope you “try” and put yourself in other peoples shoes when you look back on this. What a horrible feeling, what a shoddy unveiling, what a shoddy pre-order, what a shoddy response as it was happening.

    Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

    Sat the entire six hours I was supposedly able to have time to pre-pre-order watching a stupid page say Not, yet wait until 12 PST. Then I stay up Waiting additional hours for some information from the “company” only to fall asleep and awake seeing the two models ANY of us REALLY wanted were sold out (why did you even spend money on LCD versions.)

    No it feels like the “family” was left out for the most part while we created a buzz for a bunch of rich folks that could just afford throwing away their money on an item whose site puts up and takes down refund/sales policies.

    Family or not, I certainly feel like the stepchild who never wants to see his “family” again.

  949. @Rohan

    The first thing you need to do is delegate. You can’t possibly be able to do everything on your own, how much ever you want to. You need help. Hello! Is there anyone listening.

  951. mine starts with ‘b’… so its definetly not alphabetical…as I didnt get the email either…

    @all
    lets just wait for NI to regroup and come back to us… even though all valid questions, forcing Rohan to answer every question now will be tricky…. I think its more in the investors court now… if they pump more money the best of the logistics and other support staff for sales/marketing will be on the ground in matter of days….

    I still remember Rohan mentioning how his team delivered a custom gesture update within minutes of the request over phone! unfortunately physical world is relatively far more difficult than virtual world like software…..

    remember Mr Gates quote …if only auto industry worked like us we would have cars giving 100miles/gallon etc… and loved the answer from one of the auto heads… yeah thanks if we worked like you your car would have burned you to death by now or something in those lines….

  953. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.
    Confucius

    By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
    Confucius

    Rohan, welcome to the Business world of learning by experience

  954. Blessing in disguise that QI wifi is sold out, xmas present can wait, will just save money till it hits shops in UK bound to be cheaper after me having to pay delivery and import taxes. do we know if or when the retail launch will happen, and get a chance to see pics and reviews bfore i buy.

  956. THE TRAGEDY!

    !2:00PM PST 12/10/10 pre-orders were set to begin according to the email I received….that time has not yet come yet all pixelqi 3g wifi units are gone!

    Just to be clear 12:00pm is THIS AFTERNOON!!!! 12:00am PST (9:00pm EST) has come and gone, and I am only left to conclude that that was in fact the real time pre-orders began.

    I think there must have been a miscommunication or missinterpreattion here.

    Any word on supply and availability going forward?

    Thanks.
    Chris

  957. How can we even know when or if pixel qi order was taken???

    I did not get an email and I’m a family member.

    So I went to link. Very smooth order because I use the most POP. Credit card issued by the ‘champagne’ of credit cards.

    I just emailed the NI link on the cc credit bureau email to ask how I know if I successfullu ordered pq screen. And is it 3 months from now or shipping Jan 6 or 9.

    Rohan all you need to do is tell is when approximately we’ll be contacted with real info.

    Also guys Rohan is keeping things close to the chest because the same Chinese manufacturers that are assembling Adam can just as easily flip on him and rip off cheap replicas. We’re talking the old Shenzhen sucker punch. Unscrupulous double dealers some of them.

    Rohan please respond to me on this.

    Also be careful not to use Indian or Hindi colloquialisms that do not make sense on English.’brown ground….’ You NEED a native english spkr to help my good friends.

    Warm regards
    Joshua

  958. PS: For Spain, IVA = 67 € and there are no custom duties, DHL may ask brokerage fees which should be around 10 € so the extra costs would be around 77 €

  960. Sigh..Pixel QI version sold out :< I have no interest in the normal LCD version, so any ETA on when round two of ordering will be available for the Pixel Qi version?

  961. Is there anything you can share about whether the PixelQI/3g version will be available around/after CES? I will order one after I’ve seen that. Will it be available for European resellers?

    And yes, I do believe as well that Electronics have a 2-year minimum warranty in Europe. I am not sure about the specifics, though.

  964. I think a big problem is that the pre-release is exactly that…. its a PRE RELEASE! its not meant for general public, its not meant for general consumers, its meant for those that can warrant buying a ‘development and review device’ in order to get ahead of the mainstream market.

    Everyone quit your damn whinging and either WAIT! until its released to everyone and be a normal sheep or run with the wolves and expect to get into rumbles and nipped on the hind quarters a few times……

    Nerds are the worst people to sell too, they expect everything, have the patience for nothing and expect it all for free……….

    You, all of you, myself included have no right to expect anything from Notion Ink if you haven’t stumped up any cash, and if you have then you have done so because you can afford to. Whether it turns to vaporware or not you could afford to indulge in a treat, you’ll survive anyway and learn not to buy without doing better homework.

    If you want a device now, and feel ‘you deserve’ some respect go buy an iPad, or a galaxy….. ohhhhh thats right you don’t want it. Well guess what you WANT TOO MUCH AND NO COMPANY HAS CREATED SOMETHING TO MEET YOUR DEMANDS RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT.

    Rohan, honestly I hope you come through and the product is the Whizz bang I’ve been waiting for, you’ve gone out on a few limbs and that’s a very hard thing to do as a startup.

    What you have done is opened some eyes and broken apart a few paradigms, history will be our only measure and something tells me, no matter what happens, your go to market will be a new lesson for many businesses to come.

  965. Since I posted earlier today, I read a post that said 10,000 pre-orders emails went out.

    Even if they all ordered Pixel Qi Models, it would appear that NI was only able to produce 10,000 of those units over the next 3 months. This indicate a very low production rate, which to me indicates the Adam is not ready for mass production.

    NI needs to be very frank with its fan base. If the early adopters lose interest, it is unlikely there will be many other buyers. Overall, seems like NI has great engineers but very poor business people. You need to both to make it work.

  966. @Rohan,

    My browser was on the ‘authorization in progress’ page for 6 hours and still nothing. I have a good, stable internet connection so I know that is not the issue. Have there been any improvements to the purchase process?

  967. Excuse my typing errors on my Droid Eris teeeny tiny screen keyboard.
    Sometimes she makes my English not so well. Ho Ho Ho.

  968. Rohan

    You should also allow customers to either cancel their orders without charge as their is lack of clarity on some issues like customs etc. I think as an INDIAN and knowing the customs in India, I will like to avoid any HASSLES or anything to do with any GOVT department.

    Best

    Vivek Gupta

  969. Thanks for the pre-order email. Didn’t manage to order the pixelQi but that’s fine. We’ve waited for so long, we can wait a little longer. Good luck with production and the official launch. I will still come back here to check the news on this fantastic device!

  970. I must admit there was clearly a mail issue, wich I feel sorry about for those who were exposed to it

  971. hey cc avenue is great option for India..it supports net banking no credit card required 🙂

  972. I meant to say Charlie (one of those occasions where you type something while you think another), but the comments still stand 🙂

    Robert

  973. Rohan,

    Youve done an outstanding job, especially for a start up company.

    “The crowd is fickle.” Even though I only posted once, I Googled the hell out of Notion Ink, daily for about the past year. I knew that once the time to order came, lots of people would flake out…as is their right. Without getting a pre-order email, I bought one without any system failures.

    Considering there are real pictures of prototypes and videos of early versions of adam all over the internet, I didnt consider not having any recent videos or pictures a reason to not buy. For a $600 product, thats a non-issue. These same people will buy a $150,000 house having only seen a blueprint, and in some cases similar homes. Having seen a similar home will not guarantee you any more success or failure than had you not seen a similar product.

    Even a company as notable(?) as Apple with some serious time and money behind the wheel, could not steer the pre-orders for the iPhone 4 across the finish line without incident. Remember people seeing other people’s private information? Remember their sites failing? I do. And, I actually ended up with -2- orders of the iPhone, because of the system failures.

    Secrecy is optimum during these times of industrial espionage. I commend the efforts of your company. Anyone remember the guy from the site that bought the iPhone from him, who had his house raided? Yes? You do? Why do you think that is? Perhaps Apple had an investment to protect? Perhaps it was an intended ploy to garner publicity?

    People make a big deal about you flying during the product “pre order” launch. Hello, people, its a pre-ordering process. Can any of them confirm every other CEO was sitting at home or at the office when their product(s) launched? They do not even know if you were furthering the goals of your company or not, and in my humble opinion, its none of their business.

    In conclusion, you cant make everyone happy, and you shouldnt try to. Failure is imminent once that becomes the road you travel.

    As of now, We live in a blossoming flower, celebrating the first fruits of happiness.

    Go Team adam.

  974. Rohan, re-collect your energy, ignore what other blogs are saying at this time, believe in this blog. Try to have retail availability of Adam by January end. Shut every mouth on planet.

    Now you have got that, you do it they hail it… You screw it, they don’t. In any case they will win.

  975. Pixel Qi has triple the resolution as RGB sub pixels all function as 1 black pixel each…
    Its very readable in sunlight (more light, the better the colour)
    Also it consume a tenth the battery so could last 10x longer (with no other factor like Wifi, potentailly 160hrs of reading)
    It is very asthetic and causes NO eye strain.
    Its monochrome is not b/w and ive seen the pixel qi firsthand. In bright light (normal outdoor sunlight) you can see many colours. Even deep red.
    If it is the wide-view variant (of pixel qi, the new pixel qi display) then itll have excellent contrast (darkest black: Brightest white ratio) and brilliant viewing angles. If it isn’t the wide-view, these will be the same as LCD

  976. Whats going on? I really wanted the Pixel Qi version but it sells out before I even wake up and the email winds up in spam WTF. If I wind up having to wait till February or March you are sadly going to lose my purchase to one of the new AMD bobcat based tablets. I was hoping that by launch date you’d have sufficient supply especially with a 50 price increase for the pixelqi wifi model but the $50 shipping on top of it really puts this product out of my price range that is $100 more than I was prepared to pay announced only DAYS before pre-order. I thought the point of this product was to be cheaper and BETTER than the ifad.

  978. dutycalculator.com does not display USA in Importing To drop down. does that mean no import tax?

  979. Toooooooo difficult to make people happy? NO IT IS NOT! You don’t even have the nerve to apologize to us! when you noticed there were people having issues with the pre order emails you should have stopped the sales so that it could be fixed.

    You give us no information that backs us up in case this was a scam and you are upset at US?

    I am sorry I will not stop expressing my displeasure as that is exactly what you have caused after months of following and selling this product for YOU only to get screwed.

    FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL

    At this point I could care less about this product. As I have what appears to be ANOTHER six month wait for you to get this company order I will be able to save up for two ADAMS with the ability to purchase another product at a higher price, at least I know my money is going towards customer satisfaction.

    Have I mentioned how disgusted I am to have stayed up for the past 48 hours refreshing my pre-order link for HOURS and HOURS!

    You should have stopped the pre-order and fixed the issues before proceeding, but hey, what do you care right? You sold out didn’t you, in more ways than one.

  980. Rohan – Following on to what a lot of posters above have hinted at, when will the PixelQi versions (which I believe is what most of us are interested in) be available AGAIN for ordering/preordering?

    I would also like to mirror what some/several people have said above – global is great, but ordering one or two units at a time will result in horrendous “flat fee” customs handling surcharges – which will definitely hurt your product’s competitiveness (On occasion when ordering samples from China I have had to pay more in customs and customs handling than the goods+shipping were actually worth – something similar may happen with individual orders from CN to Europe)

    On another note, you mention FCC certification, but what about CE and LVD (Low Voltage Directive) compliance? Customs in Europe have started to be very picky about this, and having to have every individual send in a copy of the certificates, which most customs now ask for, will be taxing on clients and on NotionInk, who will have to send these out (note that since customs may/will not open the actual product packing in most cases, they will ASK for the documentation be sent to them even if it’s inside the box, especially for individual orders….).

    Finally, EU consumer law has a *2* year warranty as minimum for consumer goods. While this may not apply directly with your current distribution model as we would be purchasing from *outside* the EU, this will again hurt your competitiveness.

    Having said (all) that – kudos to you for bringing this baby in. But please do look at the complaints/gripes/etc… above. Most are at least partially legitimate. Especially, if this is still *preorder* the why certain products are sold out if they aren’t still in production….The preorders should help you gauge demand and plan production accordingly, not have production planning limit demand.

    If I can be of assistance in any way, please let me know.

  982. Rohan,
    I’m inviting you to my house tonight for dinner and some champagne.
    I think you need some diverting conversation and laughter on any topic aside from you know what.

    Shall we say 7 o’clock, sir?

    Is this your first blog dinner e-vite?

    RSVP.

    Warm regards,

    Joshua

  985. @Jarrod

    Very WELL SAID…

    Even if a branded robber robs its all good! If Wikipedia asks for donation they suggest them to run Ads..

    @NI : Do your work! Beat them at CES 2011.

  986. I think they skipped the EAP for developers in favour of the “family comment followers”. However, they now have collected a lot of ideas and project descriptions from the EAP application

  987. It seems I was lucky, cause my pre-order came through, but it was already 2:30 a.m. in Europe.

    Does anybody from a German speaking country succeed in preordering?
    Or does anybody know if the first version will have the possibility to adjust German as operating Language? Or will all be in English?
    My English is maybe adequate for smalltalk, but to handle a complex tool like the adam it might not be enough?!

    Would be very pleased, if anybody could post an answer.
    Thanx.

  988. Finally after 4-5 failure, i got success in pre-ordering LCD+wifi+3g. 🙂

    I just missed the Pixel qi model. (coz of lack of credit card)

    Rohan Sir,
    If there is any option to migrate to Pixel qi, please tell me…
    anywaz thx.. after abt 15 hrs… i got success.

    Please —
    — try to dispatch ASAP (previously it was in Jan, now saying 8 weeks.)
    — Do mail the buyers before dispatch
    — handle with care 😛

  989. if support from drivers and OS

    otherwise in black-white sunlight mode screen would render cooured icons and other UI like a noise mess

  990. +1.(I decided not to comment before 18th but have to interfere here as now questions are raised for wrong reasons)
    @Nik Being in a family does not mean that even constructive criticism is not given. ANd I think family one should be the one to come forward and tell the mistakes first(that’s why the family is for, it’s not for to see the whole thing from sidesteps)And well If for you being in a family means blindly following and to letting your loved ones when they are wrong then best of luck to you.

    If you care a to read all the comments, many of the guys who were following Rohan have *not* thrashed Rohan in any way. We all believe in the long term success of NI and adam and none of us have said that adam is not a product worth to buy .

    What we have pointed out is the lack of clarity and a bit immature way in which the whole thing was handled which resulted into a bit loss of faith which will regained by actions and not words(And i believe for a long term success faith is more important than sheer economics).

    The things that were promised (and mind you it’s not just pre-order mails) were not fulfilled which will surely make any one skeptical and most of us I think are no rich enough to spend $650 dollars with out proper info(at least i am not that rich).The things are that are told to us today would have done wonders if they were known to all a day earlier. Even now there are lots of doubts that are lingering which are yet to be answered(like why for India it’s $650 and not $600).

    Having Said that I think NI team is responsible enough to take a lesson from this and move forward, rectify the problems that have occurred and come up strongly in the days to come with a wonderful product to showcase globally.

    P.S. This is my personal opinion and you have every right to agree/disagree with it .

  991. Dude, you need to take a deep breath. If you ordered and feel slighted, sorry for your loss. If not, then just relax and see how this plays out. You have very good Grammar, and are clearly adept at using a keyboard. So why not use that in a more positive fashion.

    And just as a warning, you are starting to sound a lot like that Old lady from The Princess Bride, you know: “Rubbish, Filth, Slime, Boooooo, Booooo.” ect.
    And NO ONE wants to sound like that crazy lady!

    Seriously Man, you are better than that, don’t spend all of your time being negative.

  992. Seeing as things went as they did (no “family” email, sold out of PixelQi, etc.) I am left with only one choice. Be depressed I didn’t get the chance to order the adam that I had been following and waiting on so patiently.

    You guys built me up into a excited stupor, then left me out in the cold.

    I suppose that’s okay, as I was pretty nervous about ordering something I hadn’t actually seen in action. But it leaves me wondering, when will I have another chance to order one? I guess at 100,000 units per month, I should get the chance in about a month? Please let us know. Thanks.

  993. @Rohan Hey I tried to pre-order for two solid hours yesterday with my Amex card (I don’t have visa) but it kept getting declined. Now that I know that Amex kept rejecting the request it makes MUCH more sense.Unfortunately the Pixel Qi variant is sold out; my question is wil you guys restock more of these for the preorder, or do I just have to sit tight till ~Jan to order?
    Yesterday was pretty crazy and tempers ran high. In my opinion I think a lot of people were out of line, since (a) servers crashing etc. is not your fault or problem, since even iPhone orders crashed the Apple and AT&T servers, and (b) we’ve waited so long, what’s a few hours/days more? I admire your level-headed and pointwise rebuttal, it only increases my regard for you.

    My own opinion is this: yesterday a lot of posts and articles were bashing NI and spreading rumours based on half-gotten knowledge that its an elaborate scam. This was shocking to me, and only time can tell who is right. I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is; and when I get my adam I will be too busy geeking out over my latest and greatest toy to bother with I-told-you-so’s. For those of you who have been frustrated and upset like I occasionally have, I would say: please have patience, and believe in Rohan and NI a bit more. It won’t hurt, and IMHO will be more than amply rewarded in the long run.

    Cheers!

  994. “and place them somewhere they sun does not shine, ok?” – lol
    “This was a horrible experience to say the least.” – lovl
    “We have been lied to” – rofl

    “Thanks for a ruined Christmas” – ROFLMGDMFAO 😀

  995. its not 50$. its more than that.
    For PixelQi and 3G the price is $549.99+$50=$599.99=Rs.27102,
    But they charge Rs.29999.
    Shipping charge to India by DHL is approx $90.

  996. Good observation! Sure customers always demand..but this early ones were not for usual customers…

    Rohan does his best!

  997. Rohan, I know you have a lot of reading to catch up on. I can’t even begin to keep up with all of this, and I stayed up half the night due to not being able to sleep. I was able to place my order for the top end unit, and I am hopeful that in 6-8 weeks I will be greatly rewarded.

    I DO, however, want to voice my concerns and add to what so many have already stated. I know that you will read these concerns and work on them. But this is a BIG deal. You now have a huge number of investors compared to what you had before, and you know how ruthless their words can be, as you have read above.

    My biggest concern about this product now is multi-fold. From the lack of planning on the customer service and order processing end, as well as the lack of the formal paperwork, as well as the lack of technical information that I was expecting at the time of order, or at least prior to order, I am also deeply concerned that the actual product isn’t going to live up to my expectations. (I’m not worried about whether it contains a time machine.) I just can’t help but wonder at the issues people have voiced above, some of them many times over, and the lack of an OVERWHELMING response from customer service on these issues. It shouldn’t be just you, but a TEAM of people responding to these issues with BRUTE FORCE to show their concern for the customer. Attention to detail in every aspect should be paid so that these people are COMPLETELY satisfied–AND THEN SOME!

    I was entertained by the games that you played with everyone, but I also had the impression that a man this brilliant would have completely fool-proofed the entire system prior to allowing for orders, and the potential to completely alienate so many people at one time. A happy customer will tell 2 or 3 friends about it. An unhappy customer will tell 20-50 people about it. You HAVE to get on DAMAGE CONTROL immediately, if not sooner.

    I look forward to being a happy customer, and I want you to be successful. All of your colleagues. This will NOT happen if you do not make the customers PRIORITY ONE. I know you are trying, and we all need to give you a little time to sort that out. But I am fearful for you as well. I do not want your name to be soiled after you have worked so hard. Whatever help you need to get this thing going, just ask. There are about 10,000 people in this with you, I think. They all want you to be successful. Let’s show the world, and take care of the details.

    Regards,

    Marcus

  998. It is still cheaper, I also imagine if you wanna see the this company get some where (continue pushing into the new limits of technology and expanding as it goes) as we all do you want them to make some money if it only cost $100 more for them to keep the same margin between screen types then good on them they have done well.

    I for one think any start up company that can handle its first sale the well is worth keeping and eye on and showing a little grace. Google attempted the same thing at the beginning of the year and even with all those staff and recourses they still managed to mess it up.

    As I said well done notion ink.

  1001. no way.. that would be atrocious. I’d rather wait and have decent apps than have a great device but for the first month, nothing to do on it.

  1002. Rohan,

    Thanks for the clarification, I think most the people unhappy with your explanations either didn’t read your post very carefully or were unable to preorder…

    Your policies seem like a fine way to accommodate the fact that you are doing a global launch with uniform policies and pricing worldwide. It may make some things harder, but I like the idea.

    This preorder was a mess, but learn from it, get better/more servers for the launch, and move forward.

    Can’t wait to see the video and get more info about my adam!

    Best of luck!

    -ptf237

  1003. this is what i have been asking since september belive me . infact why we all indians cant buy adam in INR why dont we have options like cash, cheque, dd and do u have any tie up with some stores from where we can buy directly. and again 30,000rs for how much storage capacity is it 8, 16, 32 this are simple answers why cant ROHAN MAKE A SIMPLE POST FOR INDIANS WILLING TO BUY ADAM . WHY DO WE HAVE TO BUY ADAM FROM CHINA WHEN THE COMPANY IS IN INDIA DONT U HAVE A STOCK IN YOUR OFFICE OR FOR THAT MATTER AS VISHESH SAID NO WAREHOUSE ? ITS STRANGE THAT YOU CARE FOR THE FAMILY AND NOT YOUR COUNTRYMEN .

    I BELIVE IN NOTIONINK AND I DONT FEEL THER ARE SCAM OR HOAX I TRUST THEM. BUT AS SIMPLE AS THAT THERE ARE SOME BASIC QUESTIONS WHICH U ASK AND EXPECT A ANSWER AND THAT IS WHAT IAM DOING .

    by the wau iam following and commneting since june i dint get a email atall and its ok and i seriously think the family thing and all that was crap .we all were following the blog because we were intrested in the product if the product was not good no 1 would have been here so where does family and all this thing comes ? if u ever wanted family to be given priority u should have send them secret emails and allowed them to order first that was ok . but creating such a mess makes many people think u wanted to win over oprahs blog more then doing a solid proper launch. and by the family which u belive in are getting any extra benefit ? or even sending a free case for them ? or some discount ? iam not a student anymore but u promised many students they will get discount , was that just a way to show that u are concerned or there was really a plan to execute for the students ? u should simply informed that once adam comes in stores students can get a discount showing a id . like some 1 said planning is easy for execution is very diificuilt.
    again people who have ordered and saying others that shutup and buy a silly ipad is really sad.
    i dont own any apple product and dont intend to buy 1 , but i must say apple is way way way ahead atleast right now then notionink in terms of everything and its ebcause its a old company. comparing 2 products is just silly and crazy.
    again if people are called apple fanboys so i think there is no differnce in them and adam fanboys , because try to defend the product made by apple or NI as if they have invested million $ in the project.

    a video and pics are must what your rational oldtime followers of this blog are asking . if uu dont want to address those questions before pre-order its fine just make a announcment that pre-orders starts only for blind followers who trust NI with closed eyes. and preorder for rational family members start from so and so date with a video launch things will be better and u can also control the situation better.
    i want the company to be really the best in the world but to be best in the world needs some extraordinary planning and excecution. hope u are reading all this iam a indian and i want u to be the best ceo in the world i respect u and hope u will sort this out for every1 who are long, new mid-term followers of this blog.

  1006. Moin Bonni,

    ja, ich habe es nach vielen Stunden geschafft eine Bestellung zu plazieren. Ich gehe davon aus, das man beim ADAM, genau wie bei allen anderen Geräten, die Sprache auf Deutsch umstellen kann.

    Grüße,
    Harvey

  1007. dude stop bringing the desi aspect into this.
    Rohan has explained about shipping costs.
    The adam is made in china.
    It needs to be shipped to you if you live anywhere other than the factory.
    If you want cheaper prices just wait till it comes to a store and the shipping charges are cheaper since it is in bulk.

  1010. Sooo…it appears that Rohan has said everything EXCEPT admitting that they screwed up and made a bad decision in not having videos/photos of the working model. Who in their right mind WOULDN’T have such material ready by now??? Are you serious???

    And have we STILL not gotten a simple confirmation on the presence or absence of Android Market on the device??

  1011. i’ll give you any time you need. for a good product it’s always worth waiting. and i can imagine, how difficult it is to get and keep all the strings of dependencies together.

  1012. +1
    I was not able to pre-order, i was one of those who lost their e-mail in the vortex. I really really want to pre-order the top model.
    But i feel that there are a communication problem here, to little information to late.
    I know Roahn is working as hard as he possibly can, but I don’t think there are enough people on the matter at hand.
    We are all behind you Rohan, we all want you to be successful.
    Let’s show the world 🙂

  1013. As a Dutchy I’m happy with the global price. Was expecting a 1 to 1 translation from US dollars to Euros.
    And if I understand right, I’m happy with the shipping costs as well. Rohan is really leveling out the costs, some pay more, some pay less than real costs. The 549 dollar for the Qi+3G model adds 50 dollars for shipping to the Netherlands. That’s fine.
    Global thinking!

    Less perfect is that NI knew they would be shipping after the hollidays and people would order less maybe if they would have known that.
    And the VAT indeed, 19% of total costs for Europe. Since Rohan stated earlier that Adam is in Europe since last week, I expected distribution from within Europe and immediate.

    My stress is cooling down, but still… Had hoped for holding Adam (Qi+3G) this X-mas.
    Ah well, first things first. As long as business with Mastercard are not fixed and stock is not refilled, I won’t be able to order at all ;0)
    So, let’s focus on that, please Rohan?
    I know you can! It will be worth all the stress!
    And all of us, in the end, will be your ambassadors carrying out the NI message!

  1014. I´m a bit disappointed, this is not what I had thought when the first prices went out, it of which there is no conversion of currency for the Europeans, gives me that it does not go with me, because 549 dollars, they are not 549 Euros, and I am not going to pay it, and it raises now also we him add the ship cost, that well, not?.
    I´m sorry, if it comes to Spain, I will buy in physical shop, but if Adam never comes I´ll go for another tablet.
    In addition, he will not buy without see either videos or photos, or technical characteristics and software too, so not that type of programs Adam ride, the truth is that was very deceived, but I am very sad because at the moment of the truth, they have not could take it like can it take a company

  1016. @karen,

    no, it will be a dream to hold ADAM on your hands this Christmas. I was knowing, hat no shipping will be done before January since weeks.

  1017. Andries, I am an old friend of NI. I received the link for early adopter pre-order via email. However, I did not get the experience that I was promised. I never got to pre-order. The link I received never worked. Well, not until general pre-order was established. It almost seems like fate that this thing happened. I was ready and willing to purchase the adam flat out but became aware of all the additional fees (like VAT, duties, and high shipping) and just could not justify the purchase. I am not like the angry guys (or gals) here. I don’t hate Notion Ink. I want to see them succeed. However, I also don’t want to make too many allowances for a product that is suppose to please me at my level as the consumer. I have faith that Notion Ink will get these products into US stores or at least Amazon. At that point, I will buy…I hope. I want you to succeed Rohan. I truly do, but the points brought up are not without cause (although they are whining a bit). I bet you are diligently working on all of this, and I seriously look forward to the completion of that work. I am a fan at full speed which recently had to slow down but not stop so keep pushing, and I am sure you will find many other fans with the same belief willing to buy as soon as possible. Thanks for the good effort and don’t lose hope or become discouraged. Just keep working at it. 🙂

  1018. its 35% for all electronic goods.. but you can always find the correct charges from the DHL/FedEx people..

  1019. Hi rohan and notionink team

    don’t worry. You are definitely capable of solving these issues.
    Just relax , take important things to be sorted first
    and solve …..
    All the best
    we are with you
    shiva

  1020. Once this video appears on Dec. 18th you will get my order (hopefully it will be in stock).

  1021. I have a Samsung netbook and I installed my own Pixel Qi screen and it’s magnificent. Color is great as is the refressh. My only issue with it is that it has a low viewing angle and I’ve become used to 180 degrees viewing because my Dell m6500 has that.
    But it’s not really an issue and I believe the second generation Pixel Qi Screens will deal with that.
    But the greatest thing about my Pixel Qi Screen is that I can go outside, sit under a tree and read or browse the internet! This is where it shines and for something like a tablet, being able to do this is paramount. I happen to also have an iPad and it’s incredibly annoying that you can’t use it outdoors. Especially since we have a beautiful roof deck on my building and also because I like to sit by the window to read. I can’t do that with my iPad. The battery life on my samsung with the pixel qi screen is tremendous. I’ve gotten as much as 30 hours and I am no longer worried that my battery will run out on long trips.
    As soon as I learned that the Adam would have a pixel qi screen I was sold. It blows my mind that other companies aren’t even considering this. I’m so used to the pixel qi screen and it is of so much benefit that I sometimes get annoyed that my Evo 4G doesn’t have a pixel qi screen because when I’m outside, I sometimes can’t even tell who’s calling because of the glare.
    Aside from the pixel qi screen the fact that the adam will show up as a drive on your computer is another great plus for me and something that I have greater appreciation for now that I’ve been using an iPad for a couple of months. It is such a pain in the neck to get files on and off the ipad and to have files available between programs.
    For me, without the pixel qi screen, the Adam is a lot less.

  1022. @ Rohan. A lot of people following your posts and NI have put tremendous faith on you and NI and have pre-ordered the Adam (including me). Please ensure that everything else going forward is a good experience for all of us here. Also please provide the critical information that everyone else is request to give us the satisfaction and confidence.

  1023. You said it pal. Rohan, you wont be able to please all of them. Even if you would have got most things right there still will be those who crib. Such is life. Having said that, a video demo would have made a lot of difference to many. But i do not doubt notion inks integrity or intentions for a moment. Lack of experience;easily surmountable.

    I am sure you are learning your lessons quick. You will need better planning and implementation in the months to come. And i can only imagine the amount of hard work that is going into this, from your end. I am signing off with a belief that things will only get better from your side in the days to come.

    I would like to know why some of the regulars here did not receive the email and why discounted pricing was not offered to some as mentioned in your post some time back. Hope you will clarify this. Good luck and the very best wishes.

  1026. hi rohan,
    First Congratulations to you and Team NI.
    you people have done a great job. Not adam, but chasing your dream. I should say a collective dream.

    I just wanted to know about these two things.
    1. The pricing policy is little uncertain with customs from 0 to 100%. Is it not possible to give us the exact cost of owning one adam ? I think it should be fixed for a country.

    2. Now since the PQ version is already soldout, when will we get to order it next?

  1027. Your biggest problem, of course, is not the feelings or opinions of the microscopic number of people on this blog, but that the tech blogs are going to destroy you. Even if the Adam comes out and is the greatest thing since sliced bread, it is going to be very difficult now to convince the general public and retailers that you are a solid company. This is now the problem. There WILL be some problems with the products; there ALWAYS are. The problem is that this rollout has been such a debacle that you now have no margin for error. But of course there will be errors, and I suspect that the tech blogs are going to gleefully report on every last one, until the impression people take away is that this is a high risk product. (In this, of course, you started off with a strike against you in that you are a young, Indian company.) So even folks like me – predisposed to want to see the product succeed – will be cautious about buying out of fear that if the company cannot surmount these considerable obstacles to market penetration, it is going to fold and I’ll be stuck with a $500 gadget for which I cannot get support/new battery, etc.

    Now we see why people “sell out” right? Not just for the money, but because it is just really, really hard to get something of this scope off the ground without more resources.

  1029. hi! not a avid commenter, but did want to buy the 3G PQi model. The pricing made me stop and think. Went out of stock by the time I got back. would appreciate clarity on a few things,

    (a) the pricing is wrong. the currency converter translates $ 600 as 27145 against 29999 asked by ccavenues

    (b) Is theire support for jockey- plan to us WiFi PQi model with a 3G or BWA dongle

    (c) when will it be available for order again?

  1030. He’s been promising a lot of things and then not following up. (where’s the power usage calculator?)
    The product launch is going to be one huge mess.

  1031. right on!

    not long ago management gurus all over the world were queuing to study the Mumbai dabbawallahs (lunch box carriers) success… it wont be long they knock on NI’s doors too…

  1032. 🙂 congrats mate!

    I hope Rohan will listen to you and dispatch you a PQ version(ofcourse you’ll pay extra for that)

    I don’t know why but I couldn’t stop smiling on your comment. it was for some reason funny 🙂

    nice suggestions btw 🙂
    “Please —
    — try to dispatch ASAP (previously it was in Jan, now saying 8 weeks.)
    — Do mail the buyers before dispatch
    — handle with care “

  1035. Its too bad that the Pixelqi option is no longer in stock.

    This is not absolutely fair. If being a family member , if I have a PO number NI should have kept the option for me and others to retry if the payment failed for no fault of ours.

    I mean NI should have atleast kept the stock of Pixelqi blocked for those family members who tried and for unknown reason credit company refused.
    Only after giving members like us sufficent time ( like a 1 day) the stock should have been made available to others.

    I dont want a LCD version now .

    The whole process has left me in bitter taste .Saying the word “family”in the blog 100 times is one thing but knowing how to really care for “family” is something else.

  1036. “Have I mentioned how disgusted I am to have stayed up for the past 48 hours refreshing my pre-order link for HOURS and HOURS!” – I’m disgusted at you too 🙂

    I have to admit though, in Gecko’s absence your posts have brought me a smile 😀

    If you’d just say that you still order’d a PQi 3G, that would really make my day 😀 😀

  1038. Icky Picky…
    Complainers, kindly refer any English Dictionary and lookup the prefix “PRE”,
    And please see its meaning when applied to several words, like “preconceived”, “prepubescent”, “presumptuous”, “preempt”, “presage”….
    What you’re complaining about is referring to “order”. You have full rights to protest if all these things are absent when you “order”.
    When you want to “Pre-order”, all of those things will OF COURSE not have come about yet. I mean, look at the demands : user reviews, demo videos, this that blah blah… how the hell is that supposed to come about unless someone PRE-ORDERS and posts all of that, so the rest of the sheep can then ORDER?

    PRE-ORDER means you have to take that plunge and be the pioneers. Did the people who set out on the first intercontinental voyages wait for user reviews, complete specifications, maps, guidances, full details et al? No, they bloody set out, and they charted it all. If you don’t want to put your money where your mouth has been all this time, step aside and let someone else do it. Simple.

    Rohan and team, don’t listen to all the whiners, man. Pre-Order means pre-order. You let the fans get a head start – that was big of you. There is no compulsion on anybody to go ahead with it. Complainers, If you want to NOT be the pioneers, if you want to wait till everything is well-charted out for you, wait for CES and later, and then place your Order. But for Earh’s sake, stop with the whining.

    My own side : nah, don’t have the money. I’ve already put out that I want one Adam not for me, but donated to Teach For India. I can pay in Rs.5000/-, if we *REAL* fans can get together and subsidize it, then an Adam in the field, assisting a non-profit org instead of another gizmo-laden-geek will show the world its true power. Please contact me on nikhil.js [at] gmail.com if any of you has the balls to join in and be a co-Pioneer for a cause instead of sitting and whining.

  1039. Rohan,

    I was very sad not to receive the initial pre-order email, but I get it – sometimes things don’t work out like they are suppose to. When the regular pre-order started, I attempted 3 times to purchase, but it always froze on the ‘authorization in progress’ page, the first time I spotted it after 30 minutes, the second an hour and the third 6 hours! Now I see that there are no more PixelQi+3G available.

    I have no issues with the prices or shipping costs, I think those are more than fair.

    Please post some kind of announcement to when we can expect more Adam’s to be available either through the website or in stores in Canada.

    Thank you
    Jason

  1041. Well.. he has admitted that it was a bad decision on their part. I do agree about the Android Market though..

  1042. @Rohan

    I think my my biggest problem with the pre-order was not that you had to purchase sight unseen, but that you had to fully pay upfront. Industry standard is to charge your card at time of shipping. At the very least, you should have allowed people to cancel at anytime before shipping without a cancellation fee. This way people could reserve their place in line and still back out if they saw a video or review and changed their mind.

    That being said, I decided to purchase one anyway, only to have my card denied since I’m in the US 😦 I hope you get more stock of the Pixel Qi soon!

  1043. I agree

    I even have an email from you guys that states that i can pre order 14 days before the rest of the world… did you live up to that promise? NO?

    the only think we can do is boykot your products… and we dont want to

  1045. Oh stop being so negative, he can’t please everyone! You should be ashamed of your logical thinking and responsible attitude. How dare you have such questions, it is only your hard earned money!

    Rohan I am disappointed you fail to empathize with the issues that are being brought up. Perhaps that is why you waited to post them, that is how it feels and appears!

    BTW all, don’t look for anymore posts because you got your two posts for the week. Ouch and this wonderful beat down on family members that had valid questions that should have been easily answered.

  1046. Good Post Ro..
    As I am sure you have found out..this probably should have been done in a detailed FAQ a week or two ago… along with implementing a forum (not a blog) which would allow users to Post QUESTIONS in an ORDERLY manner..so you could add them to a FAQ on the main site. The BLOG is great to get your news across but a terrible way to communicate back to you…

    You will always have complainers…and folks should just wait if there are concerns.. I am waiting till after CES.. What I am afraid of is all this DRAMA has tainted NI’s reptuation with the reviewers and the expectations will never be able to be met…

  1047. Thanks Rohan, let live the dream and go on. These are trying and testing times and it a matter of believing and moving on because we know the end goal. I know you are focused on that and I am with you all the way. Thank you.

  1049. Hi Rohan ,

    Appreciate your “Introspection”, this should atleast calm down most of people’s
    fears , but one thing i am still not sure about is does the restocking repacking and whatever fees apply for Defective products ? Almost any company here in the US won’t charge a single penny for returning defective products.

    The best way to handle this would be to announce about the logictic partners you had mentioned in one of your earlier posts. If its sold through somone like Amazon they would take care of your issues including shipping and return fee.

    Not only that , this would really boost your sales and i would have bought this in a heartbeat . Many of my friends always value my opinion and would buy the Adam in no time if these issues are taken care of.

    All the best to the Notion Ink team.

    Looking forward to purchase my Pixel-Qi Adam soon.

    Thanks

    Anil

  1050. ok i guess another ‘one more comment moment’ (i have to consciously work on this)
    +1
    building faith is important and that shouldn’t be blind faith but a well reasoned one which people carry for ages. If a friend of mine does something that i do not approve of i need to voice it out, if i don’t do that, then i need not call myself a friend (then it’s called being a cult). Same thing happens in a so called family. with success more people come to cling along celebrating victory praising even our shortcomings but i guess someone who really cares will surely stop by to tell us and it is for us to take it or not….. anyways.. its a great product and its time to do some retrospective analysis.. and i guess this analysis for all of us as well..
    It is famously said when Americans use street names to identify houses in a block, Japanese use block names to identify the houses in a street. We should be open to both the sides.

  1051. @Nikhil

    +1

    :ha you get that, but anything involving money will go wrong eventually.

  1052. more questions

    (d) what is the native media player? can i run VLC/ XBMC on an ADAM?

  1053. Holey Cow! How many times does Rohan have to explain this?
    It’s coming from China! and this is for pre-orders. When it comes to a store in India you won’t have to pay for the shipping.

  1054. in theory if it runs on android you can run it in a panel

    though i do not recall there being a VLC app for android

  1055. I used hotmail id to comment. But, never received email for early pre-order. And now it is out of stock.
    Was that a problem at hotmail or any other issue with NI ?

  1056. This is not an introspection but a justification…

    @Rohan : do you regret something? I mean, do you think you should have wait to be ready?
    Letting the “fanatics” pre-order was very kind and a nice intent, but was it responsible? As the “father” of Adam Family (yeah this way it looks like you’re God… anyway), shouldn’t you tampered the desires of your child ? Hundreds of people just ordered an object they have never seen… It freaks me out !!
    You may call it “Faith”, I call it “stupidity” and, as a Father, you should have pointed it out !

    I do hope this will lead to a happy ending when every one gets this awesome device in Eden Garden 🙂

  1057. I never pointed my finger at any individual nor did i say ALL in the family are thrashing.. I’m sorry if u felt some guilt reading my post and decided to respond.

    I totally agree that constructive criticism is necessary. And as far as pointing out mistakes are concerned, havent there been enough pointing already? And isnt there a way in which mistakes can be pointed out? Many comments from respected family members have been as if they have lost complete faith on Rohan/NI, which I believe is not at all constructive and thats why i decided to post my views. I don’t even remember whether you posted such views. So dont take things personally. My post was meant to make the family members to think about what they are doing and see if they are helping NI or not. If you feel that what you do will help NI, please go ahead. If not, either stop doing it or stop calling urself to be part of the family. Thats all I wanted to say.

  1058. @ Rohan

    Just saw your posts – ouch! & introspection! am glad that you have cleared many of my doubts except one that is of PAN/SSN Number requirement, would you be able to shed light on this point in any of your future post! if you do it would be of great help to me and all fellow fans outta! here who happen to have accidentally read those erroneous postings at your site by some unguided fellow out there!

    Furthermore the Storage has not been clearly defined either, & this “internal storage” “”coz wasn’t be able to understand what amount of internal storage – 8/16/32/64/128 GB would be provided on the model I was going to pre- order”” was one of the primary reasons for me being unable to pre- order even after being provided the privilege to pre- order earlier!

    Looking forward to getting answers in your future posts!
    Till then I guess I’ll be waiting……………………………..:)

    Regards.

  1059. I read in the spec’s that the (harddrive) is an 8GB MMC flash drive. It’s about the same size as a MicroSD flash drive.

    The rest of the storage must be supplied by the user with USB flash storage up to a total of 128GB

    LeoP

  1060. Well, I already ordered the pixelQi 3g variant. But I don’t know what I bought in terms of internal storage or frequency bands. I also remember being told there was a 16 and 32 GB on-board storage option, did those go away? Going from 32 to 8 is a huge problem.

    We also need to know for certain what android kernel Adam runs on. I want to post another article about Adam, but I need to wait until I know what to say. Inquiring minds want to know!

    Oh, and those of us in the U.S. would like to know whether the small grammatical errors will be corrected in the actual UI.

    BTW, having a video, even if we have to wait, will be VERY helpful. We don’t usually buy things we don’t see or understand, and our loyalty should be rewarded.

  1061. US folks are used to good return policies. Despite link to Dell site, they have very decent policy. They definitely do not charge for returning defective products. They infact will even send prepaid UPS slip for send back the package. Of course stores like Costco, Walmart and Target are renowned for good return policies( as much as 90 days).

    High shipping fees and restocking fees wont help. Plus Notion ink will need a US Address. I doubt folks would want to ship it back to china or india.

    I hope Notion Ink treats US market very seriously. Perception of a product depends on its US Success. Look at Nokia. N8 is doing well outside US but considered a bust bcos its irrelevant in US(no provider has picked it up).

  1062. hi rohan,

    i have a few questions… will the screen crack if i drop it from a height of 1.2m and lands on the edge. have you done any ‘crash test’ ? wat happn to the logo? ppl… u should forgive rohan… this is their 1st attempt…. they will learn from their mistakes… (some of u are really harsh i must say)

  1063. he may not have used the exact word sorry in the main post, but I think he has more than compensated for that with the details he shared and how the team is feeling now;
    at the same time, once he got a chance to reviewing the posts, he apologised personally to many folks in the earlier comments pages of this post…. infact I was surprised he’s even spending the time to do it….

    I missed out on the ordering too but tried my best to read all the earlier messages and posts and the AP stuff etc… once it all sank in I got an even more better picture than the perception I had earlier… I cant reduce your pain but see if this method helps

  1064. and your point is? I dont like the Ipad but by the time we we get the Adam the Ipad2 will be around the corner and for about the “equivalent” price. Just trying to say that once you add everything up this is not that cheap.

  1065. Thank you for expressing exactly how I feel without all the emotion. I am still very upset with what all happened after all the effort I have put in to support and follow this company.

    I wish they had taken my idea for a logo more to heart. It was the outline of the “Thinker” his hand going to his chin made a nice N shape, anyways for as much thought that went into the product… very little was given to the pre-order and that is sad when the customer is not a major concern of a company.

    Not even a sorry, sounds like a real corporation already. Sad.

  1066. When will the Adam be going to brick and mortar stores? I’m not knocking Rohan or his team at all but I just like the piece of mind of knowing that if something is wrong with a prouct I can drive up to the store and return that product. $400 to $600 is a good chunk of change to have tied up in credit.

  1068. No offence man 😉

    I know that keep on whining wouldn’t help anything. But i also understand all those who are frustrated that didn’t get any mail.

  1069. I have been reading all the comments and have to say, I appreciate everyone who has been following NI and adam for more than year like me. But there is a fine line between being a fan and a fanatic !

    I understand there have been a lot of problems in terms of payments, lack of clarity of information and the shipping and return policies. But one has to realise that this is a startup and a company from a developing country like India which hasn’t yet evolved structures for a lot of things which are given in a developed countries in Europe/US etc. It is so easy to make an online payment in the UK/USA etc but the basic infrastructure is a pain in the A*** in India..!

    I hope you guys who have waited so long, appreciate the attempt by a small company of people who were recently students (Tech students not even MBA) to raise to global standards! Mind it, it is a big leap…

    If you are unhappy about things, don’t order until you get all your questions answered! it is not like the product is a limited edition copy or something is it! The worse that can happen is you might have to wait a little longer! When has that been a death roll for any product! stop treating this so negatively and spell doom for this company which is trying to get on it feet! Of course they have done a few mistakes, and they have the b***s to keep things transparent unlike large corporations which twist the truth!
    Its funny that techno dissidents like a lot of you with your anti -Apple or anti-big corporation tags still forgot to appreciate the one right thing that this company does with its transparency unlike those corporations!!

    NI, you have got to pull up your socks, clarify all the errors, clarify your stance on the policies, put up videos etc! I would have hoped that you had an experienced PR team to back you up and some outside managerial expertise to help you cos if you didn’t expect such a huge response, I am sad that you under estimated your potential! and if you thought you could handle everything on you own, you are learning your first lesson of running your own business that is “YOU CANNOT DO EVERYTHING ON YOUR OWN”..!
    I am a big fan of ADAM, I hope it works and come on guys! you are much better than the show you have put on! Stop obsessing about CES.. not even 1% of your customers follow that…! It seems just like a geeky thing to be so particular about releasing there! Grow up! you are not in college anymore and you have a market to take care of and not your own personal ego/goals of a non existent tag of glory that you assist to releasing at CES!! You have a long way to go to get to that stage of presenting and the global level when you are still taking your baby steps!!

    Take care!

  1070. ROHAN!

    What are you doing? Telling us that Pixel Qi are sold out and not providing any indication of when more will be available? Are you nuts?

  1071. now dont tell me we have one Atul Tiwari talking to another Atul Tiwari here?
    small small world?

  1072. I preordered an Adam, but I must say I’m really disappointed with how NI handled the all preorder thing.

    As lots of people pointed out, it would have been nice to see some real picture and, above all, videos of working devices before purchasing.
    I’ve been following these for the all year so it wasn’t a dealbreaker for me, I already know a lot on this.
    What really sucked, and I’m very sorry because I think is the very first wrong step from NI, is the lack of other information and the delays in opening preorder.
    For example, I purchased the cheapest version of it without even knowing the capacity of the SSD.. I really hope it’s not just 8GB because this would be really bad (you guys have been talking the all year about 32 and 64, all of a sudden 8Gb appears on the site and you never come clear on this)!

    What really pissed me off is that I’ve been waiting the all year for the most expensive version (PIXELQI + 3G) and by the time I was on the preorder page (less than an hour after preorders start) PixelQi was already sold out. This is really bad because of your postponing again and again… I was ready with my credit card lock and loaded yesterday all day long, I waited for an email which never came before 00.00 IST (more on that later) and again at 6.00 IST and you kept postponing.
    I couldn’t stay all night long awake to wait for another disappointing postponing, people’s working from time to time.
    How can it possibly be all the good versions over in an hour? Did you have unit limits for “VIP blog commenters” to purchase? How many unit do you have, you knew about the popularity of PixelQi models, come on!!!!
    And about the missing mail, I wasn’t really qualified as I commented in the blog before december 4th post just once, but in some other comment I pointed out one thing: back in time on facebook you asked some people for their mails (posting it on the facebook wall, very bad actually) and PROMISE they would have been the firsts to have ADAM. Lots of fans supported you when all the world was screaming Vaporware and gave you the mail. You should have included them in the first preorders wave.
    You also promised the same for students along with discounts, ecc..
    Rohan I’m still with NI and I think Adam will be great, but you need to remember what you promise or don’t make promise at all.
    I would have liked to have a PixelQi 3G Version, but the all preordering was really disapponinting.. I ordered, after a lot of thinking, the cheapest one that I mean to gift to my parents just because I promised to myself I would have been an early adopter for this device..
    I will order the PixelQi as soon as is available again but I’m really sad.. I didn’t want just an Adam..I want NI to have all the success it deserves but the first impression you made, even on me – a huge fan, is actually pretty bad.

    I hope you’ll sorted out all this problems soon and I hope to be able pre-ordering a pixelQi version soon, with or without 3G.

    And please, come clean on all the specs (SSD above all) in the preorders page.

    All the best

    Andrea

  1074. Rohan,
    Please clarify the 3G and frequency band issue. There were several questions as to how the system will be configured.
    1. Adam does not support worldwide 3G, correct?
    2. Which 3G band capability will come with the system, I assume with one used in the country to which the system will be delievered?
    3. How to oder a system that will work in Europe but will be shipped to US?
    4. Is there any plan to make a quad band system in the next release? A lot of people travel and this suppose to be a world product!!

  1076. actually the fee will be on the shipping as well 😦

    they tax everything and some countries have extra handling fee in custom customs tax on some products then the country VAT on that so check all the facts before you order

  1077. There seems to be a hefty number around the globe who are extremely disgruntled. I agree that NI didn’t have all their ducks in a row but I commend Rohan for staying on the ball and explaining (defending) the current process. In any business, especially start-ups like NI, there will be glitches. In time, and I suspect a very short time, this companies business process and practices will smooth out and the product they so adamantly believe in will indeed be the new wave in this ever changing computing world we live in. Even if Adam becomes history in a few years (not that it will), it will have bravely initiated a new direction in computing and we will have all benefited from its birth.

    On a personal note, my ordering adventure only had one glitch. Visa didn’t recognize me because I used an abbreviated first name on the order sheet. Other than that, I had to wait like the hoards of others for the USA servers to breath normal. I firmly believe in this product and in Rohan Shravan. For those who have unfortunately had problems in ordering, hang in there. Have a little faith that all will iron out and your passions for Adam will become real and true.

  1078. Actually it’s a shame that you make customers pay for dead on arrival products.. nobody in the world does this. Same for warranty and replacement.
    Comeon, you great team, don’t fuck everything with unfriendly consumers terms…

  1079. You reap what you sow. Notion ink are getting the expected feedback of this stuff up and its on them. Yes crap happens and it can happen to anyone but that doesnt ease the minds of those affected.

    A pre-order as set by the industry standard is what people expected.
    A pre order is for a product when you know what it is after final hardware is complete or at least shown to public. Blind faith sales having never seen a product are a first for me. I have never come across it before.

    If I printed all rohans weekly blog posts on nice glossy paper and made a presentation. Walked down the street and showed a stranger. Then said you can have one for $600 and I will get it to you in a month they would laugh at me.

  1080. If the Pixel Qi versions are already sold out, when can we expect to have new units available to order? The other question is, how many units with this display were ready for pre order? It seems to me that NI is playing too conservative. Will you do the same in the near future?

  1081. now come on, if he shows the video in the next 1 hour – there will be another 100k folks complaining why didnt you take time to make a decent video etc.

    we have a date to look to despite all the other immediate challenges NI are working thru… am happy for that

  1082. Ask me – i did all this too, but never even got a mail…

    But shit happens – and you can’t really expect a startup like notionInk to get their first release perfect done without any glitches. So i won’t have my PQ+3G in January, maybe have to wait till Februray for it (would be nice to know when they’re expected to be available again). Off course i was a bit dissapointed, when i realized that i was not listed for pre-ordering, but still the adam is a great device and rohan and nI are still a very likeable bunch of people, so i will forget my irritation about the pre-order problems and will continue looking forward to get my adam, maybe in february.

  1083. +1

    and above that the family was given only six hours to pre order, wasn’t the time frame of 6 hours inadequate!

    🙂

  1085. I don’t think the shipping price was the biggest issue ok? Plenty of us would have paid that had the pre-order email link allowed us to purchase. By the time I was able it was open to everyone with even more questions being asked after half-completed and misspelled sales and refund policies were displayed FOR THE FIRST TIME!~ Was there really anything in those policies that was TOP SECRET NO RELEASE BEFORE PRE-ORDER?

    You have to also realize when you are not upfront with your customers and mimic fraudulent tactics often seen on the internet you can expect disgruntled and perhaps lost forever customers.

    And you are supposedly in the air when all of this is happening, I call BS and would love to see a plane ticket!

  1087. glad to see answers finally coming in. i’m still going to wait until i see the video of Adam working before i make a decision to purchase…

  1088. Rohan-

    I’m still looking at getting the LCD+3G but wonder if the Qi will be available again soon? And indication as to when more orders will be available?

    I would really like some clarification on the duty/customs fees…if anyone has experience with this and can shed some light on how much we can expect to pay on the US-East Coast I would appreciate it.

  1089. I was able to pre-order my Pixel Qi without issue and I’m excited about it.

    I’ve been following this product since the 2010 CES and I can certainly understand some of the rough spots with ordering and marketing.

    It’ll get better.

  1092. I could not agree more. The more misspellings, a website I could have put together in less than 24 hours, etc. Also even the pre-order page was one of the worst designs. After the whole red cloth trick, you give four boxes with no information except display type and a price.

    Never felt so let down by a company before.

  1093. Legally that part is flawed, they have to deliver a fully functioning product to your doorstep minus the fact it may be damaged in transport, but either way it is on their foot to prove it was damaged in shipment, and they are not allowed to charge you for a replacement item. They are not even legally able to charge you for shipping if it is DOA.

  1096. This is a global product. Lets not do the regional rant guys !!! “Vasudeva Kutumba” here (for those on the regional rant.)

  1097. The pre-order for us early birds was a small window, due to the server issues. We were only allowed one. When it opened to the public they went fast even though this company’s legal policies are shadier then Enron’s.

  1098. NI has broken that promise to developpers whithout a even a notification or an excuse. What other promise will they break?
    Very disapointed. Should have seen this coming.

  1102. I’m somewhat relieved and somewhat vexed with the update this morning. I was so geeked when I got home last night and saw that general preorder phase was up. Selected the PixelQi Wifi + 3G. Got all the way through putting in my information, and boom, nothing… Denied… I figured maybe it was something on my Credit Card Company’s end and planned on calling them this morning to find out what the issue was. So I’m kinda upset about the fact that I’ve now missed the preorder when I should have had no problem getting it. And it sounds like the majority of us in the US that tried to preorder are also out of luck. I’m still planning on buying one when I get the chance. I figure that I’ve waited this long already, a couple more months isn’t going to kill me. Just, I also feel like I’ve had this really awesome cookie placed in front of me for the last year and now it’s been taken away from me, and I don’t understand why. Is there a possibility that we’ll get another chance to sign up for the preorder once they find out what the problem is, or am I just getting my hopes up again.

  1105. Rohan:

    You did the right thing by explaining yourself. Especially on shipping. I think many felt that your shipping costs were excessive and bordered on the sort of tactics found on eBay (i.e. have a low cost item but jack up the shipping to make up for the difference).

    As far as the website, as an Information Technology Professional, I can assure you that sh*t happens. There was no way to anticipate the load on your server(s) which was amplified by the number of people hitting refresh every 2 seconds. Your site is not the first to cave under heavy load and it won’t be the last.

    Though there was some justified anger in the forums, remember a few things. Americans (yes I’m American) we can be pretty damn demanding. We have a certain level of expectation and when that expectation is not met, we will fuss about it. Also remember you will NEVER make everyone happy. No matter how much you do there will always be those who are not satisfied.

    Part of your problem was OVER communication. You set a level of expectation by telling the “family” they would get first dibs. Your plan was clearly not thought out or at the very least it didn’t play out as you had expected. You’re a start-up company, as intelligent as you are obviously you have a lot to learn on the business side, technology wise I think you get it. Part of your other problem was UNDER communication and failure to “let go”. It seems to me like you might be micro-managing. Why not let one of your assistance communicate with the public while you were traveling. I know it’s your baby but you can’t do everything.

    1. Take this pre-order as a learning experience work out some process improvements.

    2. Consider having your sales & payments managed through a large retailer like Amazon.com, you could even get an Amazon.com marketplace account and sell your products that way. People fell MUCH better having their sale backed by a well known retailer. You could still have the product drop-shipped from China using this method. Not to mention credit card processing would be handled by Amazon as well.

    3. Some people have mentioned a request for Social Security or PAN. That’s a HUGE no-no at least in the states. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime, no one wants their information handed off to an international organization.

    4. Don’t be like Apple and keep EVERYTHING a secret (though if you think about it, it works for Apple, they never have to answer to anyone). But also don’t give TOO much information. Instead of telling the blog family they would get pre-order status, you should have simply emailed those who you felt should get pre-order status, and even then you could have asked them to sign an NDA beforehand. Or you could have told them when they could expect their computer, and if they mentioned it to the public, you could have used the old Apple line “we do not discuss unreleased products”. If someone knew they were getting an Adam before others they wouldn’t want to leak that.

    5. You’re going to have to give the people what they want. A video demo. Imagine how much publicity your product is going to get when we see a final (or very close to final) demo!! Can you imagine? The blogs will pick it up, and then it’s really going to be on. It can be a short video and you don’t have to show off any “secrets” or “goodies” until you get to CES. Just show something basic like web browsing, and email. And show us the product itself. That will quiet all the naysayers, and ratchet up sales.

    6. Keep your promises! Today alone I noticed your blog comments dropped. When people feel jaded regardless of who’s fault it is, they will abandon you. If you say you’re going to do something at a specific date and time DO IT. And make sure you’re CRYSTAL clear on what actual date and what time zone. If you can’t keep your deadline or schedule SAY IT. People will be pissed but the truth is the truth. One day your product will reach the hands of consumers. If you can’t keep a deadline though, don’t rush it and don’t throw it out there without knowing you can keep the deadline.

    7. Hire a copywriter. Your product should be free from typos (one of your reveals showed a mispelling in the gui). Your website has also had typos. Why not get an American volunteer (i.e. someone in the “family”) to edit your site? You need someone to not only check your website for typos and proper english but also your device. No one wants to order from a company that doesn’t look like they took the time to get it right. You should take as much pride and precision handling your business website and communications as you do with your product. If you don’t have time, you must get someone else to do it. You can’t do it all!

    And lastly, keep your head up. Hopefully you can look back and say “wow what a disaster but we’ve come a long way”. Good luck.

  1106. Sorry, it is difficult for me to understand you (and also sorry for my own mistakes)…549$ are +- 430€… Maybe we could read, learn, and then think if our word deserves to be said…I don’t say it for you, but I think there are too many oppinions repeated here..is it necessary to convey all the frustration in every one of us to receive an appropriate service from a global company? If Rohan is taking notes as he says we could give him some specific and sensible time to answer and then react as costumers or interested ones. Information is what is to be provided, not just simpathy.

  1107. Wholeheartedly agree – especially about charging my credit card before shipping. When I buy from Amazon etc. if an item is not in stock my card doesn’t get charged until it ships.
    I would expect this to be the case here too.

    And as you mention if the wait drags on and I change my mind about buying I get charged 5% – this is absolutely outrageous.

    This needs to be changed so that cards are not charged and cancellations do not incur any fees.

  1108. Can’t order my VISA is refused (Thank you for pre-ordering. Unfortunately, the transaction was declined. Please try again later.), my bank say “no no, there is no problem” and I dont know what to do

    bad week 😥

  1109. Customs in the US usually only apply to packages that contain multiples of the same item and appear to be marked for resale.

  1110. Hey Rohan,

    Glad to hear that you take our comments serious.

    1. As I´m from Germany I´m really happy with the pricing. Meaning no direct conversion from USD to Euros. Apple converses directly for example and the prices of their products here is ridiculous.
    2. Can you already foresee if adam will be sold directly in Germany/Europe by amazon.de, alternate.de or some other shop? That would be really great. (Because, you know, here in Germany we actually do have 2 years warranty and I´ll be 100% sure I´ll hold it in my hands.)
    3. Are there other payment methods in planning? I would prefer paypal myself. Only credit cards is a real drawback I think.
    4. I´m really looking forward to the video you announced and see adam eventually in action. 🙂
    6. Now you should really start showing the world pics and videos of adam in action. And show it to bloggers and magazines and so on to get good publicity. That´s important at the moment.
    7. Well, I think it can´t be avoided that there are mistakes made and that there are problems, especially for a start-up. It could have come much worse. Just look at the WeTab-desaster in Germany. Not only a poor device. They didn´t even manage to communicate properly to their customers. You´re doing here a much better job. And the adam will hopefully be much better, too. You and the team, don´t let you bring down, you´ll do fine.
    8. I didn´t get the mail either, but I´m not feeling bad about it. It´s gone wrong but I´m sure you didn´t want that. For me there´s no need to take it personally. First I, too, Was a bit disappointed, but that´s allright by now. So I´ll just wait for more infos from you. And when I´ve got the feeling I know all that I need to know, I´ll order adam (for sure). Either way I´ll have to wait as Qi is sold out…but that´s just a matter of time.

    Regards

  1111. I missed the pre-order…! Its sold out .. 😦

    When will the Pixel Qi model become available again?

  1112. Dear Rohan

    First off, I wanted to congratulate you. You have accomplished what few people have managed. Thank you for making us believe in a product, I’m sure that when people start recieving their Adam you’ll get great reviews. The screen shots look amazing! I think that in spite of all the issues that you are having today, you should celebrate such a milestone. I personally don’t know of any product that has sold out so quickly on pre-order alone. Anyway, thank you again for your dedication, your vision and your openess!

    I just want to echo a bit of the frustration, because this morning again I’m feeling it. After my comment I never received an email for preorder. This morning I wake up to the sadness of seeing that the Pixel Qi +3g version has been sold out. The first thing I was gonna do today was call DHL and find out if I’d get charged taxes. Unfortunately, in Ecuador I could have been paying upwards of 50% on tariffs, which would mean Adam could cost me around $900. Though I wouldn’t be paying Notion Ink that amount, it would still mean that’s what Adam would really cost me. So now WHO knows when they’ll be available again and how I’ll be able to get it. I know it’s crazy but I do feel that emptiness in my stomach. I don’t feel cheated, though it would have been nice to get the email. To those of you reading this post, I think the email mix up was because the “rules” were you had to be signed onto a wordpress account when commenting, not just entering your email. I know it’s too little too late, most of us I believe wanted the Pixel Qi and now we’ll have to wait even more. When I saw the pre-order page last night I was already thinking: “SIX TO EIGHT WEEKS! WHAT?!” Now it’ll be months before we can dream to get one.

    Guys, I understand your anger! Try to keep your comments cool headed and as positive criticism. I think most of us want Notion Ink to grow and they are now paying the consequences (not in a vindictive sense) of misunderstandings, technological problems, bad advice from providers, miss calculation in manufacturing and unforeseen reactions to something that (as far as I know) hasn’t been done. One thing is to pre-order games, you can burn dvd’s in no time, but another on something being manufactured. Even giants such as Apple sell out on actual launch day sales.

    Now is the time to help Rohan. We must help him with ideas on how to retrieve the trust from disenfranchized fans. How to help customers deal with import taxes. And anything else you guys may think we can help in. Not much we can do about manufacturing.

    I say this not as a guy who has a pre-order in and is only waiting for it to ship. I didn’t get the email either nor was I able to order my Pixel Qi version. But I think, now more than ever it is crucial to:

    KEEP IT POSITIVE FOLKS! LET’s LEND OUR HANDS AND BRAINS!

    ROHAN GOOD LUCK!

  1113. Dear Rohan Shravan,
    when will be the next round to pre-order the pixel qi 3g.
    is it possible to get a email if as in stock.
    i`m looking forward to the video and the furter specs.
    regards Evert

  1114. OK, So I was not one that posted before Dec 4, I could live with that, But now about 12 Hours after I first saw the possibility to Per-Order you have sold out (I am still Looking for the Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G model) When will more be available? Am I going to have to wait till Jan 2011 to order? Any info would be usefull.

  1116. good question…. thats a nice way to ‘move on’… and I bet Rohan will indeed give us the weekend special…

  1117. In spite of the many protestations against the comments that NI and Rohan are doing their best at all things, I do feel that many voices of frustrations regarding how the Adam could already be out of stock in certain models and why there is no information forthcoming on the specifications apart from what is available on the site.

  1118. I wish I would have gotten an email like we were told if we had posted before. I sent multiple entries in for the logo design and had posted multiple times before and after that which was way before any cut off date before anthing about pre-ordering was announced. Now the model with the Pixel-Qi screen is not available, very sad. When will the next batch of Pixel-Qi models be out for consumers to buy? I am surprised you didn’t figure the Pixel-Qi models would go more quickly and adjust the amount of them to a 2:1 over the LCD versions. That was your big selling point plus a few others, but that was the major one.

  1119. I cannot even get an order through and I have been trying since yesterday. When I go to the CCAvenue it tells me invalid merchant URL. Now the one that I wanted the Pixel Q is sold out, so I can’t even purchase what I wanted if I tried. I think they should extend to those that cannot get through the chance to have there selected choice offered. I am very disappointed as I was looking forward to using this in my class and doing a presentation for my company because if this Adam lives up to what has been advertised, it would be a wonderful tool in education.

  1120. Thanks for the post Rohan. Glad to hear that the video shall be available on 18th. I hope you realize that by now you have a serious credibility problem the way things were handled yesterday. So please make sure you stick to the date and not delay the video due to *any* reason.
    Also, please make sure it is not a half baked 30second video, rather a comprehensive one showing the lcd and pixel qi screens, inside and outside in the sun, different apps, etc etc.

    Please also address the other couple of unanswered questions people have:
    1) How much is the onboard flash? It says 8+GB on the website which is vague.
    2) Will we be able to download and run apps from the android marketplace? Or will we be restricted to NI’s store. In the video please show downloading an app or two from the android stores and running them.

    Again, the video needs to be top-notch. Days of blogging, renders and images are gone. Any more slip-ups and most people shall just take you off their radar.

  1121. Didn’t anyone think to call their credit card company if their order got declined? That is what I did and they unblocked it and I redid my order and then it went through.

  1122. Amazon Spain will open next January. A good platform to sell / distribute the Adam in Europe and USA.
    The problem could be how to improve or not to increase the final price in spite of using an intermediary that wants to earn money as well.
    Maybe Amazon would like to install his app seizing the opportunity of a tablet with Pixel Qi screen.

  1123. same thing happened to me also,

    I mailed pre order support and got a reply that doesnt help

    Only option is to retry and pre order but then again there is no pixelqi left to preorder.

    Well you know when it come to family like in real life people screw you , NI is no different.

    I mean they could have alleast kept the order and stock for us open for atleast 1 day till so that we could have tried to complete the transaction again .

    Such a big disapointment.

  1127. The understandable but high shipping costs + taxes still make the total price end up somewhere around 1:1 dollar -> euro conversion. This is unavoidable so therefore NI is hardly to blame. Its just us Euro consumers are used to knowing the final price when ordering,

    we’re just not used to see a low product-price comming with high surcharges for shipping and taxes thus we fill ripped of.

    Ofcourse the same goes for all imported goods, same goes for ipads and galaxy tabs and what not, the only difference is we dont see those costs beeing charged to the consumer. They still are (in the form of higher product price), but we don’t see them.
    Not seeing them makes us happy apparently 🙂

    The one global market idea seems fair at first glare, but i’d say getting at least one distribution centre for each continent + adapting price to handle those costs is the way to go in the future.

    I’d reckon shipping prices could be vastly improved when you ship whole (shippingyard-)containers full of adam’s to distributioncentre. Effectively this is happening now, but each unit’s shipping is brought into account as if it came with a individual mailman on each unit, and DHL is making (profit on) distribution costs.

    The mastercard issue is what stopped me form ordering now, i’ll wait to CES at least (my birthday isn’t until end of march, so i have time :). Hopping to see better distribution methods comming in place by then.

    IMHO the rant at mastercard should also be directed at mastercard, although even there one could say its just circumstance’s.

    Anyhow, i’m stil in the market for an ADAM, unless u decide to bring us an EVE around q2 2011 🙂

  1128. looking forward to some/few clarifications is not negative comments, i didn’t preorder it even after having the link coz some of my doubts were not cleared and some of them are not clear even now e.g. internal storage 8/16/32/64/128 ?? & PAN/SSN number, so that makes me a negative commenter here!!! if yes then their sending a link to me for pre-ordering was a wrong idea!

    btw Rohan what do u mean by– understanding how exactly you want us to deviate from industry standards.

    🙂

    Regards

  1130. After watching how Notion Ink has been doing business since (more or less) from it’s immersion in the international world and seeing how open Rohan and his team has been with us this entire time, I had no hesitation when I made my pre-order for the Pixel-Qi/3G variant.

    It took me a while to get into the system, but I knew things are never as smooth as people want them to be. Even having to take an extra couple of steps with my bank to verify that this is a valid purchase online (and not fraud,) I am still very optimistic in thinking that this is one of the better purchases I’ve made all year.

    Thank you, Rohan, and all of your team.
    Looking forward to seeing how things go from here on out.

  1132. Sorry I misunderstood. I thought you compared the adam with a Pixel Qi screen to an iPad and saying it wasn’t cheap.

  1133. Thanks for the lesson, (at NI’s cost), I know how quickly fans become abusers. It is a finicky world indeed.

    Next time, NI (or anyone who is starting) should keep a very small number of trusted testers (may be that is what they thought, but you don’t need more than a couple of hundred in the first round) to do this first instead of the whole blog-world!

  1136. We are ‘family’! You love us! sure. stop keeping information for yourself. Now you need over a week to release some videos of the adam working. Is it finished or not. The secrecy works for Apple, but when they deliver, THEY DELIVER. I am an atheist and you are demanding faith. No faith, man. Just money to spend and I’m not spending in your miracle a dime without seeing it work.

    Stop playing and deliver what you promise.

    All the problems, the website crash, the problem with mastercard, etc, etc… You got a whole year to figure those out. But you wait and wait and didn’t anwser most of our questions. Now you are loosing costumers. And whose is guilty? YOU!

  1138. How does the colouring work or do you have to get it in a specific colour, I remember Rohan saying something about there being a few different colour versons

  1140. About my experience:

    I am located on US East Coast. I lurked for the last half a year and posted once in November. I did not get a family email. However, when the ordering was open to the public (night time East Coast US time), I was able to place my order on the website. I got a Pixelqi + 3g variant (before it sold out). The transaction was very smooth (I used my Amex). I received 2 confirmation emails. One from CCAvenue and another from Notion Ink (this went to spam). Although I wasted most of yesterday pottering about on the Notion Ink site watching a train wreck in slow motion, I am happy I managed to get in on the order. Given the blog posts over the last few months, I trust Notion Ink and believe they will not ship a shoddy product. However, my expectation is we will not get tablets before mid January at the earliest (and more likely in Feb).

  1141. @Rohan – re: return policy

    Rohan you have to recognize the differences between you, apple, and Dell. Yes, they have a restocking fee, and at times it is higher than yours. Yes, they have a small window for returns (still longer than yours!). But…

    1) I know the product I am buying, I can walk into a store, touch it, feel it, and play with it. (or in Dell’s case, I can see my friends using it, or see the actual full specs online)

    2) With Apple, I can walk INTO A STORE. That means I don’t need to pay shipping to me, customs taxes and duties, and then shipping back to you! If I want to return your product, I am out almost 1/3 of the product’s cost!

    Yes, you are in India Rohan, we appreciate that. You are one of the first consumer products fully designed in India to get the world’s attention. However, your company’s assurances and protections should match the kind of confidence that you display on this blog. Currently, they don’t.

  1143. Well, I guess I’ll have to wait on the Pixel Qi, like many others I missed out on the small window due to having Mastercard. I’ll just have to wait and see what the videos and such are like. Also, still no word on exactly how much storage space it comes with my default… 8GB? 32GB? What is it?

  1145. Actually it was written in the past tense. I think it is honest of him to say he got pursuaded into buying although he believed for a long time it was vaporware.

    Now his fears have returned with some more substantiality and he is voicing them.

  1146. exactly
    all this while I feel the so called ‘family’ is equally responsible for this fiasco .. in much earlier blog posts when I raised simple issues like information management and harsh public scrutiny , they were shot down saying

    ‘give this poor guy a break’

    ‘rohan , go to sleep.. don’t listen to naysayers’

    I feel the ‘family’ is responsible for this fiasco for being so blind for so long and for letting Rohan get away with mismanagement since the last 6 months.. .

    They were pleased as long as they felt to be an intimate part of a supposed revolution by just sitting in armchair and posting comments
    families come with responsibilities .. I am not sure this family has adhered to its own ..

    Even in the last post , one old time family member remarked ‘can u see rohan , how depraved human nature is .. see how they were dying for this product and now want video proof’
    I found that comment rather disturbing .. as it smacks of something seriously wrong with a group of seemingly rational people ..
    Is it irrational to see product demos before ordering ?!

  1147. AND for the sake of exposure, I will ask, yet again, for a DEFINITIVE RESPONSE from ROHAN:

    Will Android Market access be included on the Adam!!?!?

  1148. I got the same email from them after I applied for EAP.

    Hey Rohan what about an explaination for this one?

    I still believe you have potentially the best tablet on the market right now but this launch was amateurish at best. There is an expression where I’m from about buying a cat in a locked box just on the seller sweet talk, seems appropriate here.

  1149. Dear Janusz,

    We understand your frustration. We are on it. There is a serious mismatch of demand and supply and that is becoming the bottleneck now. We are on it!

    Regards

  1151. This was the most complete and direct answer I’ve seen from NI since I started following the blog a year ago. I believe Rohan has gotten a good glimpse of what it is to deal openly with the public. The comment very early in the posts about system is well taken.

    I believe this is pre launch and that the actual launch will be at CES. I’m not sure adam should post a video ( as much as I’d like to see it before that) The real launch is THE BIG DEAL. We didn’t see any videos of IPad before CES.

    NI has had there system stressed and that is a good thing. It will give them some time to fix it before launch. They’ll only get one more shot I believe.

    Rohan is trying to break a mold here with gobal pricing so we need to look at it a little diffierently. I’m still in his corner but my wallet will stay in my pocket until after the CES launch. Best of luck for a great CES and with getting your logisitcs up and running smoothly.

  1152. Rohan, I wish I could have a real speech with you. It’s a hard business and most of us know that, but the first step you have to take is to accept that for this preorder your company screwed up. We want your company to be different from the corporation, but we don’t want it to be worse as just happened. Of course I’m upset because I didn’t get any mail even though I have been following this blog since its first breath. But that is still ok, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to make everyone happy. But then, it could be easier if you don’t fool anybody saying:”family first” and so on. Saying that, you made many unnecessary unhappy.

  1153. Ohhhhhhhhhh
    I just retry and it works

    OMG I was so disapointed and now I’m so happy

    Don’t lose confidence

  1154. This is not introspection. This is just a bunch of excuses.

    The refund policy is still terrible. It’s drastically reduced from the 25% initially but I’m still responsible for a fee if it’s DOA? No thanks. Not taking that risk.

    Bruce can have mine.

  1156. Yes Rohan. We (well most of us) want Adam on Pixel Qi not on LCD. Make the Pixel Qi supply much more than LCD.. pleaseeeee

  1157. I find it not so humbling that the majority of people who are saying take it easy etc… are the ones who already placed an order, what about the ones who tried and were denied an order the ones who gave support all yr round! The ones who are willing to spent time developing apps for their platform!!!! i really do feel cheated that my preorder link didnt work and by the time it opened it to the public it was 2AM here, there was not a chance in hell i would be able to order one!! i havent had any comment from Rohan or NI as to people in my situation and its getting frustrated, he has addressed most other cases but mine is falling on deaf ears.

  1158. >>> I received 2 confirmation emails. One from CCAvenue and another from Notion Ink (this went to spam).

    I received only one from CCAvenue. None from notion ink!!!
    Is my order placed or just my money taken?

  1159. Although I am generally pretty careful, I was prepared to order this product immediately. Unfortunately, when I was able to access the link, Pixel Qi versions were sold out. I think I would have preferred to see something reading like “you can still pre-order the Piel Qi version (since you are family) but we will only be able to send it X weeks from now”.

    I would have been prepared to buy it, even in those circumstances. I feel let down that I will now have to wait until god knows when (and compete with non-family members) to get my adam.

    @ROhan: if there is still any way to implement the idea outlined above, please do so.

    Best,

  1160. Rohan,

    Thanks for clarifying this whole thing. There is a saying here in the states that you should consider adding to your team’s repertoire;

    “Bad news delivered EARLY is GOOD news”.

    As soon as you were aware that the on-line process had issues, you needed to let us all know ASAP.

    Regardless, I took the leap of faith last night with my AMEX and purchased the PixelQi/3g variant.

    Thanks for your efforts so far and keep your head up.

    TDW
    Charlotte, North Carolina USA

  1163. Rohan,

    Both Jai and David are correct..As part of the family, I did not even get any email !! 😦

  1164. @mrzeal … yup u r rite mate… Atul Tiwari talking to Atul Tiwari.

    @ atul … I am ready to pay the difference amt bro.. aisa koi offer to aaye 😛 (hindi)
    …. and btw what did i write in the post that u said “I don’t know why but I couldn’t stop smiling on your comment. it was for some reason funny ” …

    I am medical student (no way of having credit card yet) ..completing my MBBS in Apr.. till then no source of money (except for the stipend i get in my internship) …. parents wont buy it 4me.. coz it has not proven any usefullness in medical field yet.
    so saving my stipend frm last 6 months. i thought, being an indian company i wud get option to buy it from net banking… bt when the option came Pixel qi sold out… 😦

  1168. +1
    Mistakes are bound to happen when you explore things for the first time.

    I do appreciate the effort of NI to try and set new standards. One price globally is a real big deal actually. Thats forward thinking and goes well with an open attitude.

    Good luck NI.

  1169. Hi Rohan, appreciate your message. Honestly, it was a bit chaotic but i guess it was the expectation setting that went wrong, everyone was under the impression that things are going to be very very smooth. i guess we all forgot that this is your 1st launch. To me your Policies are fare. You dont have much overhead and your products are way better and cheaper, e.g. ipad 32/64bit is around $1K where as your P-IQ/w 3G is $600 almost half of it. I guess this is just toothing issues and once people see the product & read it, the comfort feel will return. You are rite, even Gandhi & Mother Teresa could make “Everyone” happy so keep trying.

    I hope we can shortly see some advt for ADAM.

  1170. Excuses, excuses, excuses … why not tell us these things before.
    Oh well guess I have to wait for Adam 2

    I’m real disappointed !!!!

  1172. So glad I got my pre-order in looking forward to release now, on another note I had zero troubles what so ever when ordering so nice going and keep up the good work.

  1173. Hey Guys at NI!

    Stop excuses! You are in consumer marketing. Evena blog is media and you knwo that. Be a high quality seller too, not just makers! You already burnt over $40 million and if you want to make it successful, you got to sell milions of these devices and if you need to do that, you got to get in the league of international players and not quote their policies but one up them. Your blogging got you followers, use them, make them happy or perish! And you know all this………………..so apply………..no excuses……….Good luck………I will keep looking for pre-order t open up again and try again. I am ready to loose $600 on you NI. Keep the faith…

  1174. it sucks that i missed the window on the pixelQi versions it doesn’t seem worth it for me without that, is there a limit to how many screens pixelQi can produce?

    else why can’t you just up the delivery date?

  1176. Yesterday was unbelievable. Did you have any idea how large your “family” was? Was the number of each model for pre-order determined weeks ago? Maybe you should have polled your family if they were given the chance to pre-order, which model we would purchase. I never saw an explanation of why not every one in the family received an email.
    I was very lucky to receive an email and able to order before the model I wanted sold out. I am not an Apple fanboy (I own pcs and macs) but when I ordered my Mac Mini on Apple’s website, it was custom built in China and shipped free to me by FedEx. When I pre-ordered my iPad (missed first pre-order), it was only a week later and that too was shipped from China for free and delivered to me by FedEx. Yes you are a new company but I think your family members should have received some sort of discount and given the right to reserve one. I feel sorry for the ones who did not receive an email and not even the chance to reserve one. You should have been more prepared.

  1177. Based on past experiences….here is an ordering tip for those of you worried about getting stopped by your card issuer….

    ***Include the issuing bank’s PHONE NUMBER in the field that says “issuing bank name”. It may just facilitate a conversation between NI and the bank that allows the purchase to go through.

  1178. Where are all the details of adam? – I want to know if it has market android, phone calls, and many more items. When will this be published?

  1179. Rohan!

    You did not answered my question about the use of adam in Japan- regarding the certification process like FCC?. Do we need Japan ministry of communication certifications or not.

    I took risk and ordered one- the LCD wifi version. I wanted to check upon the PQ version, as you guys have done some work to increase the contrast for that. But that is out of stock and i cannot afford that right now with my student budget. I hope that i will be in no trouble regarding the certification process. and also I hope that Japanese tax for this electronics goods are not big.

    Now perhaps the ordering system has smoothened, as my Visa card from Saison Bank, Japan worked without any hiccups.

    I do not understand why you totally neglected Japan in your discussions. They are rich guys and they spend money on tech like anything. only you have to support Japanese language.

    But any way i will show the device to my laboratory mates and my university Professors, and hope i can pull them up- i will try my best.

    waiting eagerly for the early arrival of adam.

    regards!

  1181. Sorry, but you really don’t know what you are talking about.
    – By law any company is supposed to tell a consumer what they are selling. This includes complete tech specs.
    – By law they any company is obliged to have return policies that match Europe’s minimum or better.
    – Pre-ordering or ordering does not make a difference. They can’t ask you to pay money for a product without several conditions are being met.

    Nice to know you are in India where the law works in a different way and companies have a LOT of power over consumers, but appareantly you have no idea how European and US consumer law work.

    I have EVERY right to complain when a company doesn’t uphold my rights as a consumer. US and European tech blogs are going to have a field day with Notion Ink if this isn’t resolved fast.

    I was (and still am) a great Notion Ink fan, and i love the idea of the Adam but let’s not pretend that this is not a huge screw-up. Rohan’s post explaining what went wrong is endearing but doesn’t fix the screw-up. I hope Notion Ink can fix all this before they are being blasted away by the competitor. If this situation drags on for 3 or 4 months it will be too late. The sooner it is resolved the better.

  1182. >Is it irrational to see product demos before ordering ?!

    Then just don’t order before you saw those demos – it’s a PRE-order…

    And for the “family-bash”: That’s just ridiculous…

  1183. I’m keeping faith in NI and Rohan.

    Hope there’ll be another round of preorder for the Pixel-Qi.

    Good luck !

  1185. Rohan,

    As an FYI for why some people in the US might find the terms a bit unsettling:

    – Pre-order cancellation fee is not something we typically see.
    – Shipping seems excessive, but really isn’t by much. The fact that it is a flat rate confuses some I think. Dell charges $39 flat to ship a laptop. Perhaps a US based distributor would be a wise idea to cut costs some.
    – Lack of Mastercard, Discover, PayPal, and Google Checkout (everyone wants to pay their favorite way, even if it can be infeasible or unwieldy to handle that many payment methods). If you had used a gateway like PayPal or Google you would have been able to accept all credit cards without the application lead time.
    – Warranty shipping and charges seem odd. In the US normally we pay one way for shipping, and the warranty provider pays the other. Also, warranty repairs usually do not require payment of a fee.
    – Technical specs do not seem finalized on the website and do not include the total flash size, or the GSM radio frequencies supported.

    I hope these comments help you understand the concern some have.

  1188. Now Rohan et al clearly have a excellent picture as to the way most people will order at this point. He now has his “Golden Ratio” of LCD to Pixel Qi, and WIFI to 3G. Now it’s just a matter of them placing the correct order. Simple!

    IMO – I don’t even understand the purpose of just getting the LCD version; beside saving money.

    I also feel that is a few weeks he will have plenty of all versions to go around…let’s sit back together! After all, we are all waiting 6-8 weeks.

  1190. I think that a lot of companies can take ques from Apple in introducing a product before sales. The keynotes that they give just before a products release are simple but very effective. From my perspective you “guys” have all the hype going for you, just not the detailed explanations. ie the detailed videos that went up on their site etc.
    We were all basically in line at the Notion Ink store waiting to buy your product just like waiting in line for the new iPhone/iPad. The only difference is Apple’s ability to recognize what people want to know and see ahead of time. Just enough but not too much. Apple does this better then any other company in the world. This way when while I wait for my 600 dollar stock option, I don’t have a bad taste in my mouth. But rather salivating all during my wait for my new baby to arrive.
    Another thing that you are doing well is listening to your consumers regarding product design. Now hopefully that will filter through to the expectations of the advertising, knowledge etc etc.

  1192. Rohan,

    How about a second pre-order, kind of like Microsoft did for Win7. Create a link for those posting today and maybe tomorrow. They run the same pre-order but instead of receiving 6-8 weeks from now they’ll get it and get charged when their order is shipped. This would be done in a first come first serve format. That way you don’t have another rat race a couple of weeks from now when you have more Pixel Qi units available. If someone feels they got screwed a second time, I would be really difficult to regain their loyalty and do damage control on their anger. I think no one expected such great success in less than 12 hours!

  1193. + Taxes…So we are looking at close to Rs.40,000 in India. Great …maybe we will get good quality Chinese duplicates of Adam soon at half price 🙂

  1194. seriously, we’re not looking for a rocket-science level explanation, its just yes or no 😀

  1196. You wont see me until Dec 18 then. Very disappointed. I really have tried to remain upbeat and positive, but for whatever reason this post just doesnt cut it for me. Maybe Ive become jaded. Maybe the damage done was too severe to be cleaned up in one post. Or maybe worse; Im just plain losing the patience and desire to own this device.

    This post wasnt much of a response and is more of an excuse. You need a serious overhaul in you marketing, P/R.
    But apple does this 😦 but Dell does this 😦 really? Excuse, not an answer.

    “But now reading your comments it feels extremely unfair on our part in not releasing videos, run through and other important thing you need to know.” Now? Just now? We have been clamouring for this for quite some time. How are you now just realizing this?

    If you miss the deadline, if you dont knock it out of the park on Dec18 I and Im sure many others are out the door. Sad sad day.

  1198. I have done my fair share of criticisms, but some of the ‘advice’ here is getting ridiculuous. Rohan, if I were to give you one advice, its to not take every single tom, dick and harry’s advice here as gospel, think smartly with your team first, and then as a second step consider all the comments. The crowd is not always right, especially when it becomes a mob.

    For example, people are criticising Rohan for releasing the video on 18th dec and not now. I would rather see a well polished advert for the Adam than some grainy and shaky instant mobile recording that some imbecile here was adamant on.

    Also consider the important option of disclosing how many units are in production and the production time line. Apple do it, Samsung also I think released the info etc. I believe that stabilises the market as potential buyers will know their wait will be worthwhile and not go buy an ipad/archos for christmas. It will end the speculation and uncertainty sourrounding the Adam.

    Also guys remember this is a PRE-ORDER, so all you nutheads expecting this to be a standard ordering process should review that. That being said, if it was handled well, Adam selling out in a few hours could have been very successfully played out as a marketing triumph. Unfortunately, the tech news outlets were not brought into the loop enough, plus the belated response from Rohan accentuated the mess.

    So we have to concentrate on how to get out of this mess. Lets set up a strategy:

    1. Increase Distribution channels by outsourcing them to organisations with local presence – Pre-order mess is past now. Look ahead Rohan. Your expertise is tablets, not distribution. For the coming 2011, start considering partnering with Amazon, or telecoms providers offering 3g data subscriptions (though I don’t like that avenue much, but it is used by other major tablet manufacturers). Remember, Global means being local in 200 countries. It means to be truly global, you have to utilise local resources with established brand presence and distribution capability. If you think it is a better strategy to only focus on internet sales rather than high street sales, then you must consider partnering with major online retailers with established customer loyalty. I am speaking in the long term, of course I know implementing these things is not possible for the imminent release.

    2. Staggered but continuous approach to product presence on the internet – Yes, you have an excellent point that you wanted to demo it in CES. But here you have angry people being turned off by no physical evidence of the actual object and demanding video reviews etc. We can achieve both by a staggered marketing approach. First, do not send Adams to review blogs. Do a video demo yourselves, showing some major features to feed the masses while saving some for CES. Everyday up to Christmas, release professional photos of different parts of the Adam, feeding buyers with good reasons to buy a ‘gift Adam voucher’ for Christmas and wait for the Jan release. Tech blogs can review the Adam in CES or a day or two before CES, for example, as exclusive covereage by Slashgear. Giving them exclusivity will also mean you are making friends in the fickle world of tech review sites.

    3. Review volume planned for manufacturing and announce it. If the pre-order Adams sold out in a few hours then this is great news but can also mean an enormous proportion of lost sales. Do you have the funding to scale production? Is the manufacturing process Just-in-time so you can use cash inflows from each batch sale to fund the next? prepare customers by telling them so that they can plan their purchases and hold off if necessary.

    4. Coherency – Simplify, simplify, simplify. people think they want choices, but they actually want simply the best option and then customise it. A lot of what Notion has been doing has given the perception of following this exact strategy and you should be applauded for it. however, in the last few days, it has been turned into a mess. Customers were not anticipating the sudden price change. There are too many models confusing the average customer and weakening the previously strong and coherent image of Notion Ink. Pricing options are even more confusing with separate delivery charges, country specific taxes etc. People are not sure how much it will cost them. This is a basic fundamental flaw.

    5. Which brings us to my last point for today – Details, details. Its understandable you wanted to demo for CES, but not telling people about critical things like storage capacity is hara kiri. 99% of the website looks awesome, but its the 1% of grammatical errors that overturn perceptions.

    What does all this mean for notion Ink’s future? It means you need to expand your team. Marketing Director. International Sales Representatives. Quality Assurance Manager. and a grammar nazi.

    Don’t be disheartened guys. You can reach the top, and I certainly hope you do. You just have to have thick skin, learn from your mistakes and rapidly get up. All the big businesses made huge mistakes when starting, but as this week’s Economist mentioned about startups, the key is for the startup to ‘twirl’ in its toes, change and improve when things go wrong – its not about how deeply you mess up but how quickly you stand up and blaze.

    Notion Ink! Its just starting!

  1201. So i actually got the pre-order link, card was refused a few times and now they’re sold out. Please fix that.

  1202. Hi Rohan

    Good that you stepped in to clarify. ccacvenue is probably not setup to handle transactions originating from India; hence they generated all those failure codes. This even for people with Visa. Hope they can address those issues else you need to jump ship to another payments processor.

    I realize there arent too many B2C companies from India that have a global audience. But there are some (I mentioned zoho dot com.. they have some good tools that can be used by startups for CRM and support and internal project management) and they figured out how to do this in a solid way.

    I dont know how many people you have responding to emails at the preorders at notionink dot com address. But a simple acknowledgment of email receipt (immediate) is standard, followed by email from a real person later.

    Screw ups are a valuable opportunity to engage the customer and build trust.

    So what is the worst part of this? Not the credit card problems, Not the server problems. I would say the failure to design a proper procedure to get the so-called “family” first shot at preorders, the failure to analyze what was happening and the failure to acknowledge that in the blog in a timely fashion and turn off the order link till things got resolved. Lots of people who never posted got emails. Most who did post on the blog never got an email (not even in spam). How did this happen? How difficult is it to do a test email run? Or even a link that lets one know if the email is part of the “family” ?

  1206. @Rohan
    There has been a lot of good questions from people can you please collect them up and put it in a FAQ section on the site so a person can know what he wants at a cursory glance. You can may be have a pre-order FAQ section if all answers you give now might not be ture for the final product.

  1207. I took a huge leap of faith in deciding to buy an unproven product from an unproven start-up. I was rewarded with 2 failed order attempts due to problems with your chosen credit card processor. Now, I read that the product I was attempting to order (Pixel Qi + 3g) is sold out. I have a bad feeling that this is just the start of the problems we’re going to see from Notion Ink.

    Regardless of what some people are saying in these comments, there are no defensible excuses for your failures during the preorder launch. You should have done your due diligence to ensure that all systems had been tested and were capable of handling any demand. There are many proven international ecommerce providers and web hosts that can increase the resources available as demand increases. This may have been forgivable on the Web 10 years ago, but not today.

    Your partners’ failures are your failures and, more importantly, you will ultimately pay the price for those failures in lost sales. I wish you the best, but I highly doubt I will be purchasing a product from Notion Ink any time in the near future, if ever. My belief is that yesterday’s mess is indicative of bad management within Notion Ink and it will take quite some time, and some major successes, for me to be convinced otherwise. I also plan to tell anyone I know considering an Adam purchase the same.

  1208. Congratulations, you have successfully alienated half of your loyal fans. I’ve been eagerly following your website ever since the Adam was announced. I’ve raved about it to all my friends claiming that it is the Ipad killer. I’ve been planning on preordering ALL YEAR. I’ve saved my money, and made sure my credit card was paid off so I wouldn’t have any problems. I got my preorder email, I was so excited! I open it up, only to realize that you do not take Mastercard?!?!?!? I don’t have any other credit card…. I was finally able to borrow my friends card this morning, only to find out that the pixel qi units are now out of stock.. I’m feeling pretty damn disgruntled, because you guys planned your release poorly. You have managed do this to about half of all credit card owners… I guess i’ll be buying an iPad now.

  1209. Rohan, I support you. Good for you for creating something that everybody wants. That is good news, so look for green shoots among the brown grass. In the final analysis, these things are difficult, the overwhelming desire for the adam demonstrates it is a worthwhile effort. Now, take all that money and use it to create a good product, build your company, and the rest of the world will come shut down your servers again for the next release!

  1210. cool; congrats doctor saab; u can always buy the pixel qi once u let ur patients see the baby and who knows one of them may fund the upgrade if u make them real happy either by curing them or infecting them with the Adam virus!

  1211. its ok Harvey we need to move on, we cannot do anything.. Just accept and let go of the sour feeling… !
    (one more comment moment 2 : withdrawal symptoms, just saying)

  1216. Dear Marcus,

    There was one thing which is demand and supply. Number of PQ screen which we aggregated in last 2 months with huge inventory got absorbed in no time. Being good, its a bad thing for Notion Ink. While we are waiting their shipment and confirmation, we are learning from what has happened.

    With Warm Regards

  1217. Well, no, we were given 6 hours of a page that said ‘come back at 12pm pst!’ and then it went to open for everyone. There was, as far as I know, no one who actually got a pre-order in using the ‘advance pre-order’ link. So “family” got nothing more than an empty promise that did not come to fruition, and instead of fixing that by giving those of us who couldn’t make use of our pre-order at all an additional 6 hours before it was opened up world-wide, it was simply ignored.

    I understand they are a start-up, and that there are going to be issues, but not having full contracts to review, full technical specs to review, and a complete description of policies and warranties available is disheartening.

    I’m a huge fan of the product /as it’s been postulated/. I now am in a position that I have to wait and see actualities before I can order, because the version I want is sold out, and even if I was ok with ordering an unknown specification, I can’t.

  1218. another form of payment should really be accepted or this should be sold through paypal. i am unable to buy an adam because my bank does like the transaction and is blocking it. i talked to them on the phone twice and they said there is nothing they can do short of sending in a written request somewhere to allow the transaction to go through. way too much trouble. ROHAN, YOU NEED TO FIGURE OUT THIS PAYMENT ISSUE PLEASE. i do not have an amex card or any other types of payment. oh well i really wanted an adam but…

  1222. wtf dude, you don’t understand how the business world works. Rohan and his team don’t owe you anything. They are making their dream a reality and if you want in then you have to deal with what they give you.

    I did not pre-order because I didn’t like the conditions of the sale. I’d rather wait for reviews and retail distribution.

    But I’m not going to blame NI at all for any lack of information.

  1223. I have yet to have a comment make it through moderation (I’ve tried once for each of the last three blog posts), though they have all been similar in tone to this one.

    Normally, I would never preorder an item like this from a company like this. For this product I have sat, credit card in hand, for the past two days only to be rejected by your CC processor. (And please forgive me if I refuse to use my second card, which is tied directly to my bank account. I suppose the “rational” commenters will point out that that was my choice.)

    That’s not even mentioning that the price somehow went from a projected $499 to $600 (total) with no explanation (and was even pitched as a discount).

    At any rate, the hype is over, you are apparently “sold out” of a preorder item, and your system has given me enough pause that I will likely never order this product, especially if the price goes up after this non-existant “opportunity.”

    I am annoyed that I am annoyed about a 2 lb. piece of plastic, and so the only response left to me is to get over it.

    Best of luck,

    – N

  1226. What incredibly bad timing to be on a flight…but I’m glad that there’s at least some explanation for a number of questions.

    One still lingers for me, though:
    Why were the various policies (sales, privacy….and there’s one more I’m forgetting) put up in such a raw form, and why were they subsequently taken down, with no notice or explanation? That has caused a bit of consternation for me…and others, no doubt.

    I was able to preorder successfully (PixelQi + WiFi; US; if anyone’s curious), and I did so without having my reservations completely allayed. So, I am taking a risk – such is always the case with preorders – to at least offset some of the risk you are taking, Rohan.

    Now, get some sleep…the flight was probably rough, and coming back to this…? Looking forward to videos on Dec. 18th, don’t miss that date. 🙂

  1227. it’s not that simple. AOSF doesn’t technically accept tablets yet. the galaxy tab was classified as a phone just to get in the AOSF. You need to be in AOSF to get the android market.

  1228. Thanks Rohan,

    We needed more details. Just sorry I missed out on Pixel Qi version. Have waited this long, I don’t mind waiting just a little while longer.

    Best wishes and do try not to do everything your-self.

    You’ve got a great product.

  1232. Dear NI,
    The problems you faced in the process will only make you stronger. This is baptism by fire for adam!!
    I am sure the order process for the mass market will be much smoother, now that a lot of lessons have been learned at the pre-order stage.

    And fantastic News about December 18th Videos !!

    Here are a few points that I think I learned..

    1) Use an online retailer store , so you do not have to lean on companies like CCAvenue. Granted that they deal with millions of transactions for the Indian railways, but IT DID NOT show yesterday.
    A Lion’s share of negative comments from yesterday were caused by the failure of the payment gateway. Do you realize that you would not generate as much negative reactions if the order process was smoother. I myself got through in 4 attempts. Some people took even longer and some others never got through. In the mean time the negative press issued warnings that you were untrustworthy. If this happens in America that payment gateway would have a law suite on their back side by now.

    2)I strongly believe that PR should now be taken up at a formal level. You should keep this blog alive for conceptual discussions. If one goes back to your first few blogs it is evident what this blog was meant for. Unfortunately, it has now morphed into a product blog. We have moved away from charming discussions about ‘Notions’ to a forum of unreasonable demands by crazy fans and a company who finds itself bending over backwards to keep them happy. So let this blog live its intended life. PR should get formal.

    3) As stated somewhere above – please don’t give out too much information that will raise too many questions, in turn. What you release should be easily comprehensible , crisp and clear as this is meant for the general public. This is easily achieved by hiring the PR personnel.

    4) Stick to your dates and communicate:. Please don’t leave us standing up ever again!! May be you can designate a team member to update the blog, while you are travelling or when you are in negotiations. I took the day off from work yesterday, sat in front of the PC from 6:30 AM through the time when FIAT LUX was updated with the 00:00 IST hours. Then I came back at the promised hour and spent nearly 8 hours in front of the PC to get my order through. I would not do this, if I didn’t have faith in you. But we deserve to be treated with the same respect that we show you. Please communicate.

    5) Rohan, Please don’t let these ‘go to market’ strategies stand in your way. Leave those to the experts. I know you are not the kind who does not “let go”. There may be financial strains which force you to do this. I hope your investors can chip in to ensure you get the GTM right.

    6) I have lived in the US and UK for the last 10 years, and if there is one thing I can tell you about folks in the US, it is that they are much more demanding than customers in other parts of the world. Business is cut throat , and people don’t wait around for you to make corrections. This is partly because they are presented with too many choices at any one time and are affluent enough to indulge in their wants, rather than spend on their needs. So if you can’t deliver something in the time that you promise, let them know in advance…way in advance!

    I wish you all the best! I want you to succeed and will stand by you in your journey. Lets learn from yesterday and make a better tomorrow!

  1235. Actually I was mimicking the lady from the Princess Bride as that is how I feel. Glad I was able to paint that picture for you and hopefully Rohan.

    I will not relax as I am not the only one who wishes to exress there extreme dissatisfaction with how this whole thing went down. I understand sites getting flooded, I understand glitches, etc., however I do not understand the culmination of all of them at the same time with the added bonus of sketchy policies and no reply to honest and serious concerns.

    I most likely would be on the “hey be positive,” vibe had the actual pre-order email worked or had Rohan made steps to ensure this was corrected. Instead all it has done is raise further doubts and concerns as it unfolded. I am wondering why they ran out of the Pixel Q screens so quick, perhaps there is a major shortage due to another company like Google buying them up. No, something is rotten in Denmark and it is not just the cheese.

    Two many variables and no real equation to make sense of it all, yet.

    I apologize if my comments are a bit rough around the edges, but I as a CEO would take these comments the most to heart. You obviously can not please everyone, but you also can not talk about how meticulously this product was put together only to completely drop the ball on the pre-order and customer satisfaction aspect of things.

    Like someone else said, we can all make a better burger than McDonald’s but it is the company that can create a better system than McDonald’s that will be truly successful.

    Rohan had plenty of offers to help volunteer and ensure a much better experience instead he was on a flight somewhere. Probably somewhere that does not extradite after all the law suits I see pending in regards to country standards.

    I am sorry if this upsets Rohan in the slightest, at least I can apologize for my actions he did not even have the courtesy of saying hey I made a mistake, I am sorry for what I caused.

  1237. please excuse me, I don´t know a lot of English, then I´ll understand in the blog, that dollar was equivalent to euro, 1$=1€, then I was very anger, but know with your answer I had read again the blog and I see that, not was equivalent dollar to euro, thank you very much

  1239. its cool i have waited all this time, i can surely wait a little while longer. til they are accepting master card. allot of people may be following this devices as just another fad, and those are the people who will ultimately be swayed by haters. Only time will tell if the Adam tablet reigns victor in this tablets race that is unfolding before our eyes, Yet i have faith in Rohan and his Notion Ink. ideas in general and do believe this device has what it takes to “change the Game” and set the trend standards for many similar devices in the future. Great Job to all Notion Ink developers, engineers, designers, etc etc

  1240. +11111
    Rohan, as a fellow Desi, my advice to you is at-least in NA let an American marketing company handle NI marketing.
    BTW I had commented on the blog before and have been following Adam since your CES presentation in 2009 but never got my pre-order email. May be this was for the better because I normally don’t buy/order things without seeing the product.

    All the best
    Ravi

  1241. @Rohan,

    I find the Warrenty Terms & Policies text arrangement unaligned. Simple ‘justify’ button on MSWord will rearrange the text in a nice and proper way. That gives a neat view and looks kind of very professional.
    Hope u get it done.! Look at any other text arrangement for ref. It is “centre justified”.

    Mohan.

  1242. “how exactly you want us to deviate from industry standards.”

    By just doing this. Posting this kind of messages. Really well done.

  1247. NI is a startup company, Apple is a competative long time player in the market, that is like comparing apples with oranges. That is done enough already in this “family”. If family has one thing for one another it is patience in the face of hardship. The joke is on us, Rohan and NI are doing a fantastic job! Just stating the obvious, I’ve got nothing but love for Roah and the rest of NI and the true family!

  1248. Rohan,
    Since I live in US, I want to comment and provide feedback on your handling of Pre-Orders.

    In US, you will always raise suspision with your bank if a transcaction isn’t approved following ‘standard’ methods. Unfortunately, no matter how popular any company is in any other part of the world, if we haven’t heard about it here in US, or our banks never did business with them, it will raise a red flag on the transaction. NotionInk has no Paypal OR Google Checkout option either, would have brought some credibility to the financial piece.

    I am travelling in a couple weeks, and was trying to buy my tickets last night, but my card wouldn’t go through. Turned out that it has been blocked, that left me without a card for the evening and cost me atleast an extra $50 each ticket since I missed the 14 day advance booking. My bank haven’t unblocked my card as yet.

    This obviously doesn’t make me happy at all as I was planning a family trip and ‘am now stuck with a blocked card that also happen to be my best card to buy tickets on !

    I am considerate as I avidly followed NotionInk and want to see you guys succeed. But, a shipment in 4-6 weeks ? For an established company like Dell/HP, that is probably possible, but wouldn’t you like your prodcut to be in the hands of the consumers ASAP ? It appears you have aligned the release date with CES, but then why should one really pre-order ? There will be plenty of other tablets, released by established names with latest Android version, during that event as well that will entice many to cancel their orders OR atleast rethink.

    I have a school trip coming up in January and I leave January 7th. Now I am inclined to possibly pickup a Samsung GalaxyTab to carry with me instead of NotionInk. That is sad.
    I just hope that the shipment comes before January 6th.

    Overall it is an exciting product but I feel more delivery research and atleast the financial aspect should have been explored more. I am sure the cancellations, fraud prevention calls and blocked credit cards since yesterday put people into unexpected situation.

    I Thank You for your openness and frank comments and this is why I was able to openly post my comments in the best interest of all of us, the consumers and Notion Ink.

    Regards.

  1249. actually .. I never understood that line.. its grammatically incorrect to begin with .. and who asked whom to deviate from which standards ?

  1250. Dear Adam,

    They were not taken down, but placed under the right header with section where it says “I have read all the terms and conditions”. Few commenters suggested “why not post a simpler TnC page which can explain all”, and that request was accepted. Website will soon have older documents in few hours from now.

    Regards

  1251. Sowmya:

    Just curious did you ever get your pre-order link? I had been following the blog forever but I was one of those silent followers. I followed a lot of your comments as well.

  1252. Hi:

    I have placed an order based on trust and I trust the guys in NI. Coming from India, I can smell most farudsters. However, I have my own reasons to believe these guys are genuine and it is hard to explain!! I would, however, appreciate a confirmation of my order from NI instead of ccAvenue.

  1253. any confirmations on this?

    That would be terrible. Where is the communication? I had suggested this possibility on the forums but hoped it wasn’t true. We haven’t heard from any developers who received this – nothing at all except “I’ve been chosen.”

  1254. didn’t get a pre order email like the rest of you who didn’t, have been following this all year, whilst the unit in terms of spec looks great, the backend seems poor. The company is obviously not versed or geared up for the demand even though the website rocketed before the preorder blogs. One thing I have to say is although the Ipad is inferior the marketing and back end is in a different dimension. If you can not back up what you say of allow pre order without payment this is doomed, as people will lose heart. You are missing a very crucial Xmas market and come CES your product maybe dated if it hasn’t got into the mainstream. Steve Jobs must be laughing his ass off.

    PS if there is some sort of organisation in the next couple of days with a bit of conciseness in regs to dates,specs and so on you might get my order, if not I will wait until CES.

    PS having to read a blog to find out how to order or register to order is pretty poor in my books. There should be a notice on your website.

    Your company sounds like an idealistic one but what i and many have said is pure cold economics.

  1255. Hi Harvey,
    ich hoffe es inständig, rechne aber eigentlich auch fest damit.
    Bin schon so dermaßen aufgeregt und kann nachträglich mein Glück kaum fassen, dass es bei mir geklappt hat …und bei so vielen anderen nicht.
    Hat eben auch Vorteile wenn man spät vonner Weihnachtsfeier kommt und noch nicht wirklich müde ist ;0)

    Danke für die Antwort und Grüße
    Bonnie

  1257. i want pixel-qi 3G version. its sold out, now when can i order?

    I think it is the question many people want to ask?

    Will it be sold at any stores also in near future, in india? May save on shipping charges . 🙂

    Please let me know? I think u have kept very less number of pieces for the pre-order, wonder if it reaches economic quantity?

  1258. Pre-Test Condition: Only a single blog comment posted prior to the start of the PreOrder

    Test Case 1: Successful receipt of PreOrder Mail from Notion Ink on 12/09/2010
    Test Condition 1 Execution Result: Pass

    Test Case 2: Notion Ink PreOrder Email based “Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G” Order Transaction Processing
    Test Condition 2 Execution 1 Result: Fail – Service unavailable Apache Message
    Test Condition 2 Execution 2 Result: Fail – (US based) Visa Debit Card (CCCAvenue mail body reason “unauthorized usage”)
    Test Condition 2 Execution 3 Result: Fail – (US based same) Visa Debit Card (CCCAvenue mail body reason “unauthorized usage”)
    Test Condition 2 Execution 4 Result: Fail – (US based same) Visa Debit Card (CCCAvenue mail body reason Invalid CardNumber / Expiry Date or Insufficient Funds)
    Test Condition 2 Execution 5 Result: Incomplete/Fail – (US based different) Visa Credit Card. Browser screen got stuck within world.cccavenue.com/* domain during order processing (status message displayed on browser was LOADING…, Please wait and do not press BACK or REFRESH button of your browser. Your are now being redirected). Email with subject “Order No.NIO* from CCAvenue” was received. Visa Card Charged ($599.99). Never displayed successful order confirmation browser screen by Notion Ink.

    Testing Recommendation: Notion Ink should carefully examine their prior order transaction test results (or possibly lack thereof) that were conducted prior to such preorder procedure quality issues that occurred in production that are related to performance, reliability, functionality, et al.

    Optimist’s View: Such teething troubles, birth pangs happen often. Keep your chin up, learn from experience, feedback and get better.

  1259. Well it was intended to mean – we have our plans and trust us and we know our race.. people bombarding us with more info and questions , not possible to change our plans !

    i am putting it nicely.

  1260. I entirely agree with you. As one very famous company has said in the past ‘our products are not necessarily the best in the world, but our service and after sales support is second to none’. Having a great product is good, but not having a world class system in place nullifies the greatness about a product. It is perhaps easy to build world class product, but it is difficult to provide a world class support for it. Anyway, good luck to Rohan

  1262. Thank you, Rohan. I had seen the terms through the order process, and am glad they will be available in general soon.

  1263. First off, I want to say that yesterday was a roller coaster of emotions for me. The night before I was eagerly awaiting the pre-order. M friends were over and they were semi-mocking me for my obsessive refreshing of my browser. Later in the night when they had gone, my wife was mocking me for staying up well past midnight waiting for the final posting and when I told her that the post said “Six more hours” she seemed a little bothered by the “cat and mouse game” but I was fine with it – I figured I’d order from work.

    When the morning came and I got the email (on my way to work) that there had been a new post I was excited. I got to work and read the email and eagerly awaited my pre-order email. I had posted during the correct time and I was ready to buy – sight unseen (which didn’t sit well with the wife). Had I known that when you said “family” you really meant “people with a GMail account” I would have used my GMail account instead of my Yahoo account and been a happy camper. Refreshing m inbox for the NEXT 6 HOURS at work not only killed my productivity (I couldn’t really concentrate on anything while waiting for my magical email) but seriously messed with my emotions. As the day passed I resolved myself to having to wait for the “Non-Family” link to purchase my Adam.

    When the time came and the pre-order was opened for everyone my mood was different – I had a bad feeling due to the lack of communication from Rohan as well as the steep shipping and return policies. I am fine with re-stocking fees and the like but based on the fact that up until now all I had really seen was a prototype from 2009 and really nice rendered images, I decided to hold off and not purchase. My wife asked me why as well as my friends and when I explained the reasons, I felt a little betrayed and bummed out at the same time.

    So now I will wait until the unveil at CES and hope that there will be stock soon. I have shouted at the rooftop about this product and even stopped a friend from buying an iPad the other day based on the release of Adam.

    As someone who owned his own business once – why did you have the launch date when you were on an airplane?? That is not a good idea. We would all have been happy to wait one more day than to sit blindly and wonder why you hadn’t responded to anything and begin to doubt your transparency that you had worked so hard to create. You lost major credibility with a lot of people who were willing to fork over $600 and it will take some time and some proof-of-existence to win those customers back. We here in America are tough customers and we expect a lot from a company and up until yesterday you had us all in your pocket. I’m still with you, but I’m hoping you’ll post something I can view to put my mind at ease. And consider using a large retailer to do your sales as well – Amazon would be a great idea – have a US distributor to cut down the shipping cost to the consumer. But raising the price of the PixelQI $50 and then tacking on $50 for shipping the $449 product I was prepared to purchase became $550 overnight and that is a little unsettling.

    That’s just my $10 – sorry for the huge post but I felt this needed to be said.

  1264. Where are all the details of adam? – I want to know if it has market android, phone calls, and many more items. When will this be published?

  1265. I’m really glad that you take time to explain all this and I know shit happens. I haven’t order yet and won’t order one until I see the demo … I have waited long for time and I think I can wait some more time.

  1266. I spose the commenters have only asked NI to adhere to ‘industry standards’ of shipping, information detailing and T&C

    If NI has done anything, its only deviated from some conventional wisdom that resulted in last night’s disaster.

  1267. Getting over the disappointment of missing out with pre-order of Wifi+3G Adam earlier today. Will the unlucky ones be given prior notice when this version re-stocks. The whole situation is just a confirmation of what a game changing product this is likely to be.

  1268. I have no concerns about any sort of scam or fraud as others have voiced. I fully believe Rohan intends to ship a great product to those that preorder sometime in January.

    The reason I’m hesitant however is because of the unintended consequences… as great as the Notion Ink team has shown they are in design, they’ve also shown to be equally inexperienced in product roll out. I’m not worried about being intentionally ripped off, but the victim of things going wrong (whether with the FCC, shipping, manufacturers, order processors, who knows…. there are questions every step of the way).

    Rohan, I know you have a great product here. But I also believe you should have hired professionals to run for the pre-order launch. I hope it all goes smoothly regardless, frankly, and the Adam is a runaway success.

  1269. Hi Rohan,

    Please make sure you address some of the more pressing concerns people have about the internal storage (what’s 8+ GB?) and access to Android market in your Weekend update tomorrow. This will go a long way in staving off angry mobs (loyal fans) till video is released on 18th. 😀

  1272. You have no right to abuse a company for not producing something you want, did you email apple or leave blog comments that their tablet misses out on fundamental things????

    quote “”I am sorry I will not stop expressing my displeasure as that is exactly what you have caused after months of following and selling this product for YOU only to get screwed. “”
    Boohoo he sold something to someone else and I wanted one…. and
    How did you sell anything? You sold nothing, a sale is the transfer of goods or services for monetary items, you didnt sell crap to anyone. I’m betting all you’ve done was to jump on someoneelses coattails and talk a big game to your friends and associates about a new potential technology. If you fear you’ve talked a bigger game than YOU can deliver then its YOUR fault entirely. You decided that it was in YOUR interest to market a product you are now calling bogus. You’re a fool.

    Go back to being a sheep and follow the crowd you are not ready to adopt new technology.

  1273. Hope NI will come up more strongly in times to come. Best of Luck.
    One more Thing Rohan as one commenter put this point earlier too. I am putting it here to have better visibility:

    Can there be an opinion poll on the blog to get an idea what the forthcoming users going to odder::PixelQi screens or Normal LCD Screens.

    It will also help you to better streamline your future requirements from PixelQi.

  1274. Rohan I think you have done pretty well and I think we all do appreciate the transparency you are trying to bring with the Adam the your companies policies sales, returns and privacy lets hope the Adam ships with minimal bugs. (I expect a couple small ones just hope there aren’t any show stoppers!) We all knew there would be a few hiccups on the first day. I still feel like I have taken a calculated risk pre ordering but I certainly wasn’t going to wait and then find I had to wait xxx weeks extra for the next production run to get a look in on a device that promises so much. I have a little faith because I know you are trying hard to keep us informed as best you can 🙂 Keep up the good work.

    Hopefully someone is hard at work building an Android app for Jeppview somewhere in the world so I can use it on my shiny new Adam!

  1275. @Rohan – Don’t take the negative comments to your heart and (Although I do agree you are probably receiving more than I anticipated).

    Always remember you can only disappoint those who “expected” better and based on comments in Cyber World, their are literally thousands of them 🙂

  1276. well mark my words, my B school starts this semester, i am gonna definitely have a case study and if they don’t i have enough knowledge now to make my own draft and ask them to include in the curriculum. !

  1278. Well, that was a wild ride for many people yesterday. Live and learn. I didn’t get a chance to pick up a Adam while they still had the Pixel Qi variants, so I’m just going to wait until they’re available. Good luck to Rohan and the rest of the team with smoothing out the issues that occurred yesterday (and the future unpredictable ones!).

  1279. Rohan, can you address the concern that if the NI arrives dead on arrival that we still have to pay exhorbinant costs to get a working one? Please tell me this is not the case. If your product arrives DOA, the customers shouldn’t have to pay ANYTHING extra. We would already be inconvenienced by 1) having us pay in full upfront and waiting for two months, and getting a faulty piece of equipment.

  1280. Rohan,

    I have one quick question. Let’s say that I would like to buy two (one for me and one for my wife). Do I have to pay separate shipping on each one or can they just be shipped in one package. You can see how $50 per device adds up very quickly. Thanks a bunch!

  1281. Why are people still defending Rohan? He has consistently dodged important questions with his smokescreen answers.

    users speaking out about the unsecure-feeling, looking, and acting pre-order form had their comments removed. Users speaking out against the return policy and warranty had their comments removed. In short, a lot of negative comments about the device were removed. (Taken from Phandroid.com)

    The device HAS NOT passed FCC approval. I need someone who ordered one to justify spending money on a device that hasn’t passed FCC approval. Matter of fact, justify spending money on a device you haven’t seen in action yet. People are spending money on an item that as of now, obviously does not exist.

  1282. Given the amount of harsh comments about what is happened yesterday, I feel once more the need to express words of encouragement to NI.
    I can only imagine how painful it must be to try hard and please the die-hard fans (me included) with this pre-ordering action and see it turning into a debacle (actually Rohan hailed it as an historical day)!
    Don’t give-up and keep going on! Don’t forget that you managed to create an incredibly innovative and bold product (first Pixel Qi tablet ever!), not to mention building such a hype beeing a small start-up of young grads fighting against seasoned, huge corporations! As already mentioned by someone else on this blog, screw-ups are a great opportunity to win (back) customers by making it right! I am sure you will learn from what has happened.

  1283. The sold out status is probably a limitation from Pixel Qi production. Screens seem to be the limiting factor on many products lately. I think that the screen is what brought many people into the family in the first place, and so they sold out quickly. How could “marketing” have helped sell out faster than less than 12 hours? I for one congratulate them on the fact that they set limitations and did not continue to accept orders that they could not fill on a timely basis. This shows that they are responsible and care about customer service and experience.
    A company that was perpetuating a fraud or scam would not have limited the “suckers” as we have been described in the Engadget comments section. They would have sucked all of the orders in while the getting was good. They also limited the pre-orders to one unit to try and be fair and limit the after market Fleabay trade. This is responsible corporate behavior. Something that is rare in the world today.

  1284. Why are people still defending Rohan? He has consistently dodged important questions with his smokescreen answers.

    users speaking out about the unsecure-feeling, looking, and acting pre-order form had their comments removed. Users speaking out against the return policy and warranty had their comments removed. In short, a lot of negative comments about the device were removed. (Taken from Phandroid.com)

    The device HAS NOT passed FCC approval. I need someone who ordered one to justify spending money on a device that hasn’t passed FCC approval. Matter of fact, justify spending money on a device you haven’t seen in action yet. People are spending money on an item that as of now, obviously does not exist.

  1285. I managed to preorder eventually but only got cc confirmation but nothing from notion ink. I have written to them but no reply- hopefully soon but i can imagine they a little busy! There are others in my position too.
    Can you confirm our orders have gone through?

  1286. I really like to order one of Pixel Qi model but they are all sold out(lessons learned). It’s something everyone has been waiting on for months. What a shame! I’m wondering if these models are in lot more demands, can NI adjust the production plan to lean towards Pixel model more? Maybe due to shortage of Pixel supply? Anyway I’m hoping at least to have another chance to be on the waiting lists or something? Lastly wish everyone has a very great holiday seasons!

  1287. Rohan,

    I respect what you are trying to do here. You and NI have my support. I hope everything smooths out and your dream becomes a reality.

    People will always find something to complain about.

  1288. You answered al of the technical and shipping questions for me, but I still have one question about the tablet itself.
    Will it be able to run Android Market apps?

  1289. Hi there, just wondering which emailprovider you used? Gmail or something else?

    Greetz.

    Daryl.

  1290. When I saw the link up last night I attempted several times to order, but CCAvenue at first did not recognize the URL (go to notionink.com, not notionink.in if you are ordering from the US). Once I got that figured out, Capital One rejected the purchase – this is nothing new and honestly might make me drop them. I buy tech, tech is expensive, they flag EVERYTHING over 200-300$ as fraud. I called them and someone stayed on the phone with me as I completed the purchase again.

    Not to rub salt in any wounds but 😀 I’ll be getting the Pixel Qi/wifi/3G. Was not worried about any of the agreements (just the 6-8 weeks part :(.)

    Best of luck guys!

  1291. Yesterday I tried twice to order “Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi only” only to be rejected twice, and this morning upon getting up had emails and a call from the Visa Credit Card Fraud Prevention. I think I will wait until they have a better payment system in place.

  1292. Why are people still defending Rohan? He has consistently dodged important questions with his smokescreen answers.

    users speaking out about the unsecure-feeling, looking, and acting pre-order form had their comments removed. Users speaking out against the return policy and warranty had their comments removed. In short, a lot of negative comments about the device were removed. (Taken from Phandroid.com)

    The device HAS NOT passed FCC approval. I need someone who ordered one to justify spending money on a device that hasn’t passed FCC approval. Matter of fact, justify spending money on a device you haven’t seen in action yet. People are spending money on an item that as of now, obviously does not exist. Wow

  1293. This pre-order time is just to get some money to start!
    No one will get Adam before any other ppl thet did not pre-order 🙂

  1294. Can someone explain to me how the 3g thing works in the US? If I get the 3g version, I then need to buy a SIM card and service from verizon, t-mobile, or ATT (any others?)? Will all of these companies be able to provide service? Anyone have any idea which has the best deal?

    Thanks in advance!

  1296. Good Post!

    One thing I would like to say is that because of this pre-order mess and the bad coverage by the online press it’s going to tarnish the Adam’s image. If you keep the Adam under wraps right up to CES it’s going to have built up such negative press that your “grand unveiling” will not achieve the fully desired effect…

    It might be better to “cut your losses” by revealing more of the Adam than you had hoped rather than let everyone continue to think this is all fake. Also, you know that CES will bring lots of new tablets, revealing more of the Adam to make your customers happy now then they will less likely to be seeking alternatives at CES…

  1297. I’ve researched for over a year for a quality tablet. I’ve been eying Notion Ink since the beginning of the year. The Will of Notion Ink looked strong. They are determined to put out a quality tablet.

    But already the Pixel Qi is sold out? No real video demonstration and within 1 day the Pixel Qi is sold out? This is disappointing. What does this mean? Some of us are going to have to wait until Summer 2011 to get our hands on a Pixel Qi display?

  1298. If you’re trying to be funny, you didn’t succeed. It it’s well this sucks ass bigtime.

    Daryl.

  1299. Repeated failures of the transaction.

    As mentioned above by couple of other guys this is what I got 5 out of 5 times
    transaction Fail – (UcS based same) Visa Debit Card (CCCAvenue mail body reason Invalid CardNumber / Expiry Date or Insufficient Funds)

    NIO5325250
    NIO4977664
    NIO4551832
    NIO4448578
    NIO4329303

    Few things
    1. ccavenue support is worst . Sent them an email no reply so far
    2.Called Singapore off and she has no clue
    3.Called India office and he simply told that I should check with the local bank
    4.Called local back/visa and they never received transaction details from anyboyd for 599.99

    Now I found that u guys ran out of Pixelq..is this expected or just to create hype? You should have gone with much better payment gateway where there is some sort of support. Can we knwo the availability of next pixelq model?

    So far it has been worst experience with internet purchase. Spent so much time following up with everybody and learnt that u r out of product already.As people suggested , you might have gone with Amazon to sell this one ..Reliable gateways , smooth transactions.

  1301. What are you talking about? I’ve posted against the return policy, and my comment was not removed. Please do not generalize.

    As for why I preordered, it’s very simple – for me, the benefits the device purports to provide surpass the risk in ordering, even when factoring in the lack of solid media (photos / video). Obviously, my reasons will differ from others.

    Hasn’t passed FCC yet…? Are you sure? I remember a previous post by Rohan mentioning that payment gateways (and generally selling in the US) could not be established without it. That seems like a reasonable and logical claim, so I’m not just taking his word for it.

  1303. Dear Alexus,

    Thanks for your comment. We have taken our notes from the events and comments like yours. But looking back we can say, things could have been better. We dont know we should be happy or sad for all the PQs being sold out. The requests came from 96 different countries and there was a serious mismatch on our understanding of how many devices were required.

    Extremely hard lesson learnt here. Thanks for yous support, your words at this moment, matters a lot for us.

    Warm Regards

    Rohan Shravan

  1305. @Bob Very Very Well said, we all were essentially just not expecting something like this from Notion Ink..

    +100

  1306. @Rohan… I did not order yesterday because of the multiple inconsistencies, not the least of which things mentioned in EAP (PII). See the email I sent. I have high respect for your idealistic approaches but professionalism should never be lost. One thing I think you may have put too much faith in is the element of “surprise”. A better approach following idealism would be to put all information out there and let a superior product speak for itself after getting whatever patents, etc. to protect your creation. The trend of bad press to promote a product is disturbing. What’s next, capital crimes to market a product…”News flash: Woman shoots and kills wife over who gets the first Adam 2 or Ipad 2 – DHL/FedEx guy injured as well…Judge rules he can bring it to jail” Seriously now, what kind of fucked up world do we live in were everyone seems to have lost any semlance of having a set of balls instead of trying to out-due marketing strategies.

    -John F.

  1307. I’m new to commenting so this may be a second post.
    With all of the shipping and technical questions out of the way I still have one make or break question that hasn’t been directly answered yet.

    Will it have access to the Android Market?

    Android Market apps will be blurry when enlarged so much, but running them in the panels would let you run them without enlarging them to a massive extent. When you described the panel multitasking is the only mention I have heard of the Android Market on this blog.

  1308. Copy of my post on Engadget:
    I got right in on pre-order at 7 PM EST. Took only about 5 min. with reading every word. Used AMEX so fairly well covered for fraud. The early adopters here are interested in helping grow the technology. Yes, this is one of those cases where you would not want to wager your lunch money on a new and untested product. I use a Pixel Qi screen every work day in the sunshine now and this product will enhance my work environment considerably when completely developed. R&D stands for research and development, not rube and dumb as some feel here. Some times you have to be on the “bleeding edge” before getting to the “leading edge”

  1309. same feelings from across the pond in the UK

    very bizarre to have an event like this booked when you’re on a plane, after all the waiting and no one really knowing when, the pre-order launch could easily have been pushed a day. If it was my thing, I know that I wouldn’t miss it for the world and would change the date so I can sit and watch such a major milestone unfold online.

    I’m disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to order a PQ unit, just because I never posted on the blog over the last months I’ve been following progress and it was sold out. At the same time I feel better not having given my money away with so little proof of the product, which I was happy to live with, coupled with the whole mess yesterday. The way it was handled doesn’t provide much confidence.

  1310. Well, I might as well wait. I never got a pre-order e-mail and now the Pixel Qi versions, which is what I wanted, are sold out.

    Truly disappointing.

    How long will it take to restock? Or how long would we have to wait to put an order in?

  1311. >users speaking out about the unsecure-feeling, looking, and acting pre-order form had their comments removed. Users speaking out against the return policy and warranty had their comments removed. In short, a lot of negative comments about the device were removed. (Taken from Phandroid.com)

    You mean all those guys who didn’t find the “Older comments” link?

    >The device HAS NOT passed FCC approval. I need someone who ordered one to justify spending money on a device that hasn’t passed FCC approval. Matter of fact, justify spending money on a device you haven’t seen in action yet. People are spending money on an item that as of now, obviously does not exist.

    Then don’t PRE-order. No one forced you to. Just sit back, relax, wait for the release, read all the hands-on and reviews about it, and decide then if you buy it or not.

  1313. Rohan. Have a question on the 3G. There was no way to say which variant we want. Ie. 850 or 900. What will happen if we need the 850. And the 900 gets shipped ?

  1314. Well said Alexus. If Rohan reads and heeds your advise, NI will have a great future, with a CEO who has a vision to change a few things in this world. Right now the vision must have been blurred, with the sort of reviews NI got not surprisingly from Slashgear as well. Furthermore, he needs to forget CES2011. With the sort of negative press this whole pre-order process has brought, it is best to put the house in order first. Any effort to go with an incomplete product to CES (and trying to defend NI’s position and negative press) will only make matters worse. CES 2010 brought NI and Rohan into the limelight. We don’t want that to end in CES 2011. We are here to be stay for thousands of years, don’t we?

  1315. I am starting to HATE engadget for bashing with no reason on NI and associates.
    They still say a “be wary”. What a jokers. It only shows that they are not ready to accept that a good product is coming out of India/ or else if not apple or an US based company they should be cheaters..

    What a waste. Hight time they open their eyes!

  1316. i missed all the stuff after i went to bed yesterday, anyone from america on here? i tried using my link from the email system till 14:00 PST but dont know what happened after that? any one care to inform me? did anyone with links that where saying come back at 12PST start to work? or did you all have to wait for the general release

  1317. Rohan,
    Can you post the specifications of each model, in particular the details of storage and memory and also what is shipped with each adam?
    Thanks

  1318. Guys lets just wait for a few days.. Pretty sure things will be settled and cleared by then… For people ordering from India, Expect to pay around 750 dollars for the Pixel Qi – Version…

  1319. I did comment on the site but have not seen the invite to preorder.

    Did I miss the boat?

    I wanted to order the Pixel Qi version with Wifi and 3G, US

    Not such a good christmas for me I guess.

    Regards
    Vivek

  1321. It would be good if NI even had an automated reply saying they were looking into our query. At the moment i have written a couple of times asking for my confirmation email but nothing so far.
    I dont think you should open up for more orders until you have solved the issues with the current orders!

  1322. @Rohan… I said it before… but it´s burried already some pages down.

    Don´t forget EAP-2

  1323. Oooor if dhl js nice and don’t report it to the douane/belastingdienst. And slide as nothing has happened.

    Daryl.

  1324. Why are you posting the same message every three minutes? We already read and commented it…

  1325. It is still a YES OR NO QUESTION. Either it DOES, or it DOESN’T. And perhaps if it doesn’t, do the plan to allow such access in short time?

  1326. How about giving us a warning that within one day all Pixel Qi devices would be sold out? Obviously this was expected internally. I hope this is a marketing ploy to stir the pot. A lot of times this happens with electronics gadgets. But seriously?

    A person above me mentions the limited supplies of Pixel Qi displays. Yeah, that may be accurate but I highly doubt that Notion Ink said “Lets produce a tablet, market it globally, and then after the first day of pre-ordering run out of Pixel-Qi displays.”

    This is crushing news for me personally. Not like one person or individual matters, but it hurts. I’ve been advocating this tablet in other online domains for months and months, almost a year now. XDA-Developers, other IRC discussion zones, etc. Now, I come back online a day after pre-ordering and the Pixel Qi is sold out.

    What? How about some up front announcements and honesty?

  1327. In Europe you pay taxes of 19% over amount of purchase, shipping and insurreance.
    So, for the Pixel Qi + 3G: 549 plus 50 dollars = 599.
    You ‘ll have to pay 113,81 euros extra to customs.

  1329. On a plane? You get an F for business, if that is true. I mean, your plane trip didn’t last TWO DAYS did it? You have had plenty of time to respond with small statements that addressed nothing. You had plenty of time to post activity updates to Youtube!

    And what is with Youtube? You have three thousand comments on this blog of people asking for a video and you coincidentally open a Youtube account the SAME DAY? Coincidence my ass. Leading is what it is called.

    And what is with charging 5% if we cancel a pre-order for a device we have never seen? That is bunk. If Adam is so good, you don’t need 5%, not with thousands of people waiting in line to buy it if I don’t.

    Oh yea, hire a Marketing firm… a professional one.

  1331. I should have had an email but together with 20k other people I didn’t.
    I couldn’t wait the whole night true and when I woke up the Qi screens were sold out.
    I was waiting so long for the tablet that I wanted to order something so I orderd the normal lcd.
    Now I regret that……should have waited for a new batch…..
    Now I spend a lot of money and still not having what a waited for al this time..

  1332. I can’t stand them either, but you have to admit, the whole fiasco yesterday is giving them great ammo to make people doubt this product.

    NI need to do more to convince the wider public. I don’t think it’s enough to post some words that the “family” will read.

    Some real pic, some proper vids, not in 10 days, in a couple of hours, just to calm people down. This is the holiday period when people are deciding what to buy, and the ipad is out there as an alternative for those who aren’t invested in android yet.

    Unless some real proof is put forward then this mess will just help people say there is no such product or it won’t get approval or it’s a scam etc etc

  1335. The fraud and theft prevention problems people have are related to your credit card and the bank that issued the card. They set up the fraud standards. NI has nothing to do with that. Many banks are too conservative in trying to prevent loses, since the card holder (you) are not responsible for fraud. I have had annual fees and other benefits provided by my credit card companies in the past when they inconvenienced me by blocking or delaying purchases. Once when booking flights on United Airlines using their mileage Visa card.

  1336. I ordered for my adam. I have full faith in Rohan and NI team and how good adam will be. All im worried is customs tax to US.

  1337. Please stop taking down my posts regarding links to stories that are being posted about Notion Ink and Adam. It only makes NI look bad that they are trying to cover up the truthful stories that are being written today about the Adam pre-sale and everyone’s experiences with it.

  1338. Dear Balli,

    Information on FCC clearance and expected date has been posted 4 times on the blog. The first shipping dates are marked accordingly.

    Regards

  1339. Rohan
    – Can u validate those form fields on order page.. with out entering any user data you r allowing user to give credit card information… This is giving negative impression for users who pre order as scam alert…

  1340. Spending money on something that you haven’t seen IS THE WHOLE IDEA of “Pre-orders”.
    Notice how there is a prefix to the word Order, to make it ‘Pre-order’.

    When you have seen it all, read all the reviews and seen all the videos…that is when you place the ‘order’….
    I hope this explains why a lot of people preorderd.

    Now about FCC.
    If we don’t see FCC approval by December 31…. we still have a right to cancel the order at 5% cost before the shipping date.
    I will end up losing USD 30, and that is all I lose.
    Can you imagine what NI will stand to lose if these orders get cancelled?

  1341. …better yet, that would be great press…you’d have lesbian voilence only to find out one of the she’s is really a he

  1342. Do most people understand the difference between 850 and 900? – I doubt that very much. Why not market this product stating the region of the world, instead of 850 or 900. The problem is people may end up ordering the wrong type for their part of the world. Rohan, please market this properly.

  1343. My 2 cents –

    Long time follower, blog commenter, no preorder email (not even in spam folder). So, I’m disappointed that I’m not anticipating the arrival of my very own adam.

    Having said that, at least this morning I’m only suffering from not-being-able-to-buy remorse rather than buyers remorse! I was able to get to the general pre-order screen but what ultimately held me back from pushing the ‘Buy’ button was my own lack of knowledge. Unlike many of you, I am essentially just an end user. I don’t program, I don’t hack, Ubuntu? Linux? – I’m doing really well in my circle just to know that those are operating systems. (You mean there’s something other than Windows or Apple? Really?) And based on the lack of detailed, specific information on the order page, I wasn’t comfortable taking the risk. Especially if I was going to have to wait 6 to 8 weeks to get the reward for my risk.

    So – I’ll wait for all you techies, geeks or what-have-you to get your new babies (JEALOUS!) and for the system to be more fully developed. I’ll look forward to seeing the video on the 18th. And I hope I can get an adam with the pixelQI screen in the next order. (Some sort of suggestion as to when that might be would be very helpful).

    I still think that adam has the potential to be an amazing product. And that Notion Ink has some fabulous concepts. But, Rohan, there are many of us out here that don’t understand technology the way you do and we need more guidance. We need things (terms, conditions, instructions, specs) in black and white. I stayed within my comfort zone and didn’t preorder. Given the circumstances, that was the right decision for me. I just wish it didn’t have to be.

    Lindr

  1347. I received a reply from NI saying it shouldn’t be a problem and the email will be on the way. Good to know they are working through the issues!
    Keep it up guys!

  1348. Keep the faith.

    It was me who posted the full song for everybody including NI team some time back. Many old timers have kept faith over the last one year. LEt’s take a look at some instances:

    (1) Initial launch was supposed to be in Jun-Aug. But it got delayed due to investors and tegra delays. Still the initial folks kept faith even without any explanations/info on the said delay.

    (2) When many were pushing for dates, still the old timers offered support, encouragement and defended you.

    (3) When the pricing was announced and there was a $50 price increase for PixelQi variants, still they kept their faith.

    (4) Even when the email invites didn’t come, many including me defended you (You can look at yesterday’s comments) even when I asked you some seraching questions (for which I haven’t received any answers yet).

    (5) Even when there was no video, no demo, no pictures and no storage capacity mentioned, many were ready to pre-order

    (6) The so-called family folks took it in their chin when the email invites didn’t come and tried to order when it was opened to public.

    (7) There was a distinct pattern in paying attention to certain folks in the blog over the past few months and ignoring the rest. Still I kept faith

    (8) Even when there was never ending delays for the credit card to be validated by the payment gateway, many persisted and some lucky folks got through after umpteen attempts.

    (9) My 2 attempts went through with both being declined(Order No. NIO1154122 and Order No. NIO897279), came back with the message that the bank declined transaction. No reasons given. Was it shortage of funds in the credit card that was used or was it the bank not entertaining the trasaction (becuase the amount was huge and was coming from a foreign country where the customer wasn’t residing. In my case I’m residing in USA and the transaction request came from India).

    You had mentioned it was weird. Let me assure you that it is a standard practice by major credit card companies. Wish you had brought up all these points before starting the pre-order so that many of us could’ve given our feedback. International amrketing isn’t easy and many who tried to order were the guinea pigs for NI’s learning experience.

    I was trying to order a PixelQi/WiFi and couldn’t and now it is sold out. There are many like me including Bhavya who are stranded. What’s going to be done?

    And I understand that you’re a start-up and a bunch of young kids with a fascinating concept and commited to deliver the same. As I mentioned yesterday, no one and that too different people from differnt countries in the world, would be this patient and tolerant and still try to place an order.

    You owe all these folks a lot and first of all is an apology which I didn’t see yesterday and not in those 2 posts of yours.

    Regretfully
    OneAmongManyIgnored

  1350. Hi Rohan,

    I have been following Notion Ink for the last one year. I have resisted my temptation to get an IPad for a long time only to get the Adam as soon as it is released. Yet things did not go according to my wish. When it came to the prime time, I was amazed at how unprofessionally the whole process went.

    Again I had to resist my temptation: This time not to buy the first Adam.

    Reasons

    1. Being a super fan of the product I would also want to see the concrete product and how it works before investing in it. There should be some logic when you buy a product instead of depending on blind faith. Notion Inc being a start-up company, its first priority should be to remove any customer doubt about the product

    2. Many things can go wrong but a quick feedback can resolve lot of issues. Keeping customer in the dark is not a good idea (specially for a start-up without much history). Clarifications came too late which raised further confusion.

    3. Handling transaction with an untested system definitely scares away customers. I do not want to use my credit card in a system which is unstable in the first place.

    4. Being a software professional I understand that it takes time and testing for a software application to mature and become defect free. When I see that most of the applications are in Beta testing in one week and the other week the product is ready for release it raises a red flag.

    I am sure Notion Inc is a very innovative company, has a brilliant product in hand, all set to become the future Apple (from INDIA) you being the next-gen Steve Jobs (making all of us proud) but please concentrate on the Marketing and Customer Satisfaction aspect. There have been many brilliant product in the past which failed because of bad Marketing and unsatisfactory customers.

    I hope to get the Adam as soon as all my doubts get resolved.

  1351. You need to set up a paypal account. My bank won’t allow a foreign trx to India for more than $200.00. I am very discouraged since I have championed this product and now will have to wait until we see it retail and probably much more expensive then too. I had the email and still lost the one I wanted because it sold out. I am very sad today.

  1352. I hope it all works out for you, as the product does look quite interesting.

    However at this point I’m actually glad that I was one (of the many) folks that did not get the expected pre-order email. Had I received the email, I would most likely have already placed an order…and I now have some doubts about how well this is being managed.

    There is nothing happening today that can’t be fixed, and I’m sure NI will make every effort to correct things. But for now I can happily sit on the sidelines and watch what transpires.

  1354. I have to admit I would have liked to seen a video of the book reading application in action, but I have faith in your company. Although I don’t know why. Probably because so far your company has been far more open than any company I’ve seen in a long time.

    That being said I went and ordered mine last night. Sounds like it was a good thing I did since I wanted the PixelQi with 3G.

    Thanks,
    Etienne66

  1355. Yeah twas a tough night (no make that two) for many of us.

    Shame I couldn’t preorder because of Mastercard, I can also relate to some people’s issues here (like the lack of vids, not being part of the preorder list when you’re an oldie of the blog, or precise specs and so on).

    But I still think it’s going to be a great product. I’ll still follow this blog, contribute to it and participate in this bubbling cauldron of ideas and notions. I’ll just have to wait for the new batch of PixelQi.

    I still trust you people to make for us the best tablets again and again!

    Cheers from France

    GrEEEg

  1356. lets see Rohan says it will be soon. Have to stick to Pixel Qi. Really wanted the Pixel Qi with 3G, but I wanted a both the bands in US and India

  1357. Rohan, for those of us who cannot connect to the server to order, (I keep getting the Merchant URL Invalid) when will this be fixed and when will more of the Pixel Qi be available. I was so looking forward to this and now I can’t get what I want even if I tried. Please let us know! Thanks

  1358. Well, I want your family! What are families for but to fight amongst themselves? That’s how we grow. It is always hardest to take criticism from the ones we love. I did express some concerns, frustrations, and sadness yesterday, but you know what, I still preordered my adam, I still have faith in Notion Ink, but that doesn’t mean I am always going to be happy with everything they do. THAT is a family. Agape love doesn’t mean you always ‘like’ them! Seriously, are all your family gathering/holidays rose colored and luvy-duvy?

    If so, are you looking to adopt?

  1359. i have some questions with my order too, i emailed them and i got a response back. then again i replied to that email with another question and that was answered too. i am not sure if they work in certain time frame (9 to 5 ) and who know what time zone.

  1360. Thanks Rohan for the update.
    1. You could have at least set the stage that only AMEX and VISA will be available for payment method for pre-order because of delay from MC.
    2. Some of the terms of conditions could have been shared before unveiling the pre-order process.
    3. You could have done a test emailing for “family” members of the blog before the actual pre-order email was sent.
    4. You still need to send an email FROM Notion Ink for the customers who pre-ordered and provide an estimated ship date
    5. Why were PayPal or Google checkout options not considered? Were they charging more per transaction?

  1361. Stop with the Android Market already! There are ways to utilize the Market if there is no “official” access with Adam. Other sites, developer sites, fool the Market aps etc. You just put the software on the SD card and click in the file explorer and it installs. The official Market is a dog anyway. Slow downloads, constant updates that you may not want, but try to download anyway. Official access to the Market should not really be an issue for you. The work arounds are too easy and are really preferable.

  1363. Can anyone tell me why when pre-ordering the adam, one has to give our social security number? Also, the PiQ with wi-fi has been sold out. Any idea when it will be avialable again?
    I wanted the adam mainly for reading ebooks. Being able to read outside is a God send. The others specs will be just the side benefits. I tried out other ereaders and they are too small for me to see. The 10.1 screen will help me a great deal but am curious. Will it get hot if reading in bed?
    Thanks in advance for anyone who care to answer my questions.

  1364. @KJ: Ni seems to have kinda look helpful by not giving the buyer the choice. Based on her/his geographical location she/he will get the appropriate series. 🙂
    I am sure NI will correct this also to include your suggestion.

  1365. I concur with everything Bob said. I waited obsessively, crowed about the virtues of Adam over everything else, etc., tried 6 times to preorder and when it failed…found that I really question whether there even is an Adam. The marketing and PR has been handled very poorly and reminds me of scam artists and vaporware products that have ended up with my dollars in the past. We in the US may be fickle bastards, but our money is generally desired and I fear you’ve severely dented your credibility in this country–other than with the rabid fanboys–and if you haven’t, then the press will now dent it for you. I’ll now treat this like any other product and wait to place my order until I see that it exists, read the reviews, etc…which is so disheartening, ’cause I really wanted to believe.

  1366. i am in EAP2 and I don’t think the email i got was related to that, it seemed more like the “family” emails that went out

    like many others stayed up late checking the order page. went to bed woke up to see the Pixel Qi versions sold out

    Happy to wait but any estimate when they will be orderable? 1 month, 2? any rough estimate would go a long way

    thanks for the time and all the hard work

  1367. respected rohan shravan,

    i ask again can we indians buy the adam by cheque, dd, debit card in indian money whenever its possible again.

    how much storage is there ? 8,16,32?
    now i think it just take not even a second to type 2 numbers 16 or 32 right? is it so difficuilt rohan ?
    you want to keep that secret or its difficuilt for you to type ? or u simply dont know yet and your company has not decided yet? if you are not sure u can atleast reply we still dont know how much storage we will offer you as of now its ok atleas same questions over and over again asked by your thousands of followers since a year will stop,
    do you think as a consumer we have the right to ask this small question which is asked maybe million times from thousands of people worldwide.
    again hope that u just type 1 or 2 words to let us know 600us$ for 8 ,16 or 32?.

  1369. When will we be able to order the pixel qi versions again? I am saddened because when I originally tried to order it didnt go through, so I gave up figuring I would have to call my bank and then order it today…. I now see that the pixel qi version is sold out…. I had a priority pre-order, but now Im just disappointed in the whole thing…

  1370. I couldn’t have said it better. I, too, was mocked by various individuals and in the end decided to hold off on purchasing, not because of mocking but because of the lack of transparency. I need to know that I’m buying the product they are advertising. NI needs to win my confidence back. Just sayin’…

  1371. I ended up not ordering due in part to the stiff shipping costs and confusion over the return policy (I would only expect to pay this type of shipping on Ebay, but never for a bulk shipped item). The lack of video evidence of the finished product also factored into my decision along with the delay in pre-order. I also find it amazing that someone would try to sell a product and not describe how much storage ships with it standard.

    I am still very excited to see what this product can do, but my judgment got the better of me yesterday when I realized that a company with so many hiccups (and I understand this is a first attempt at such a large launch) could have other issues as well with things such as quality control, manufacturing, sourcing of materials, etc. I wish you all the best and hope you are able to straighten things out, but this product will never take off in the US without a more simplified and straighforward purchasing process. For instance, just adding $50 to the price and saying that shipping is free would be better than getting sandbagged at the last second of an order with this additional fee. If this product is ever to be offered at a Brick and Mortar store, it would be nice to use them as your shipping agent instead of passing on the $50 to the customer.

  1372. hey tarwinia.. is actually nice find people u r familiar with.. well on the same boat.. !!!
    the first shipment is 6 to 8 weeks..for pixel Qi
    so we can deduce when teh second shipment will be

  1373. @pierre

    Hi Welcome here (sorry I notice you here for the first time)

    You have the wisest decision and you summed it all nicely. This was what Rohan was expecting THAT lot of us will not blindly order. (he thought 10K will be fair amount)

    He miscalculated or did he? Why do I sense a nagging feeling of “sour grapes”? If you got the mail and could order, would you be making this wise decision?

  1374. I don’t expect any customs charges to the US. My itouch (yes an itouch) came from China and I did not get charged one penny.

  1375. One other thing to take into account, Rohan is that several people have had their credit cards put on hold. [Some banks in the U.S.A will do this if they feel there are “unconventional” charges placed on an account.]

    I had to call my bank this morning and tell them to remove a “hold” they placed on my card for “safety” reasons.

    I hope the orders I placed last night will go through and the account will be properly charged.

  1377. respected rohan shravan,

    i ask again can we indians buy the adam by cheque, dd, debit card in indian money whenever its possible again.

    how much storage is there ? 8,16,32?
    now i think it just take not even a second to type 2 numbers 16 or 32 right? is it so difficuilt rohan ?

    is the mystery feature something like till we dont get adam in our hands we wont know abt the memory it comes
    with ?
    you want to keep that secret or its difficuilt for you to type ? or u simply dont know yet and your company has not decided yet? if you are not sure u can atleast reply we still dont know how much storage we will offer you as of now its ok atleas same questions over and over again asked by your thousands of followers since a year will stop,
    do you think as a consumer we have the right to ask this small question which is asked maybe million times from thousands of people worldwide.
    again hope that u just type 1 or 2 words to let us know 600us$ for 8 ,16 or 32?.

  1378. I missed the preorder (live in India, and the preorder started at midnight!!) and the main advantage to this tablet for me is the Pixel Qi, so Im probably not gonna get the Adam at all (the AMD Bobcat Tablet Gen might get my next purchase) but will be keeping my eyes open. If they restock and get more in Jan, I will definetly purchase, but not any later.
    A few other things
    1. The Blog – You have set the bar high, your lasy post announced your tablets release. If your weekend special isn’t too special you will get some criticism. This “blog” has transformed into a social place, to your commercial product (lack of forum or any support is probably the reason)… You will have an angry mob after you if there are any slip-ups. Try to a assign a dedicated employee to upgrade this blog for when you’re traveling. You can’t neglect this…
    2. The Adam – I now have no doubt that this is the greatest tablet ATM. The OS looks very refreshing, and I love the multitasking concept. Ive used the iPad, but was bored of the same boring OS. It lacked alot of features aswell. The Galaxy Tab, had alot to offer, but the OS wasn’t too polished, and my Galaxy S trumps it in most areas. The Playbook might be a worthy competitor, and will certainly be huge in India (Blackberry is at the height of its popularity in Delhi..BBM Darn YOU!!) and it seems good on paper. Lastly, about your secret sensor. I just can hope now, hope that it’s IR. It serves sooo many purposes. It improves on gestures, adds a new deimension to gaming, makes productivity alot easier, and can make it function as a remote of sorts all for a modest fee. How much will it cost to implement, I doubt too much..
    3. The Services – This is by far the most important thing for me. Ive introduced the Adam to many people, but the only reason they don’t believe in it is that “It’s a small start-up. Can’t possibly offer any customer care”
    I remember hearing the Viewsonic’s entire support team disappeared. Don’t let this happen. You’ll lose all credibility.

    The next few weeks can change the course of your lives, of Adam’s life. Don’t let him down. Don’t let us down

    PS: Im just a kid. This may not be very valuable advice, especially when professionals can give you better (professionals I hope you have to guide you). Its just my two cents…

  1379. Looking at the trainwreck that is the comments and blog posts on the internet are wreaking, one wonders how many thousands of units of future sales has been lost due to this launch. In retrospect, I guess I was one of the lucky ones that at least got the email, and got to pre-order the high-end variant, even though I couldn’t access until it had the 6-8 weeks timeframe.

    My fear is that if the actual delivery goes anything like the pre-order launch, NI will go down the tubes shortly thereafter. If people get DOA machines and have to pay extra hundreds and month delays for the privilege of sending them back to NI to get a new one, you can stick a fork in it.

    Rohan, its great that you have (I hope) developed an innovative product. I’ve gone out on extreme risk to order one of these things, primarily because I’m a tech-geek caught up in the hype. I think though at this point, most of your ardent supporters would be betting that Eve never sees the light of day. That you all pay so little attention to basic business and customer service details (waiting to the last minute to get credit cards organized, springing the import fees on folks – which BTW, brings the price right in line with Ipads, trusting your order fulfillment to someone clearly not ready for prime time, not being on call when you’re needed most, etc.) bodes poorly for long term sustainment. Basically, it appears you’ve decided to adopt Apple’s secrecy practices and Google’s customer service approach – this might be fine if you have massive cash reserves, but the fact you had to charge us up-front makes clear this isn’t the case.

    Again, I still eagerly await my (hopefully) working version of the NI. But now as the geek-hype has faded, I’m thinking the chances of me getting a working NI in the 6-8 week timeframe (wish I had been able to get the Jan 6 date, but such is life) is well less than 50%. I’d put the chances of your company surviving to release an Eve version at FAR below that.

    Prove me wrong.

  1380. Congratualtions to Rohan and his NI team for the tremendous work they have put in. Many of us may have some complaints but we do appreciate your work and great ideas that have fanned this excitement among all Adam-doters

  1381. did everyone who ordered have to wait for the general release or was the email link fixed?

  1382. Do you really think any company will make special provisions for one country? If they did, wouldn’t they have to deal with special treatment demands from all other countries as well? Imagine the problems this would cause for them.

    Another thing: They are a start-up company getting their first product out. There are going to be issues. I would not expect any such company to have absolutely *everything* in place and pin-point perfect before their first launch. (I agree though that basic issues like storage capacity and shipping fee disclosure should have been addressed.)

    And I’m sure you will be able to pay using cheque and cash when it launches through retail stores in India. If credit cards are such a problem, just wait for the formal launch and don’t pre-order, there’s nothing more to it.

    All in all, relax, you will get your adam if you still want it when it launches but one shouldn’t expect any special treatment because of a misplaced sense of nationalism.

  1383. @ NI Team, because Rohan is busy replying all over the place 😉

    Why are all my posts in moderation ? Everyting i posted from small answers to others to the big posts supporting NI.

    I changed my name to a similar one i’m using now because there is an other michel posting also

    Can anyone explain why the rest is all running fine ?

    Kind regards

    Michel

  1384. Writing a caution statement is one thing, taking for a joke is something different.
    Why don they dare put Adams spec and Ipad’s spec next to next and talk about it.
    After all they call themselves a tech review blog journalists? dont they 🙂
    I hope they get their backbones straightened at least after Dec 18 the.

    // This is the holiday period when people are deciding what to buy//

    I hope Rohan reads this and takes it seriously. Time is everything , I am sure he knows it.

  1386. Dear Harvey,

    The group was expanded on request to all those who have posted a comment on this blog + left a comment at comments [at] notionink.com (which i up since last 2 years) and facebook. 20% of these were anonymous and the resulting number was around 30k.

    Regards

  1387. HI to all, Guys we have waited for this master piece for an year, we can for another 1 month and we can be assured we will get worth our money, so support Notion Ink in every possible way.
    Well the major websites have been unethical in their approach, well they are just sell news and sensation to morons, they are not worth when it comes to creativity, so lets just unite and abandon them.
    With regard to Pixelqi, i can bet it will sell at 10:1 when compared to normal LCD, so i request Rohan to please see to that when you launch the product in Jan you have enough for everyone!

  1388. @Josie,

    It happened to me too and I was pulling out my hair. Here is how I overcame that. I was trying to order from notionink.in and kept getting the merchant URL invalid. Try using notionink.com. that worked for me. I think there are two payment gateways, one for each website, the notionink.in may be procesing only the indian ones. That’s my guess though. Good luck

  1389. Rohan home page looks awesome now……..i didnt lik the image thta was there before….this pic explains it all

  1391. well said..i am not sure if there is a pressure to go for preorder from investors or vica-versa..but it could have been better if it went out with a better order system and product demos.
    Rohan..if it is real that you don’t have better e-commerce team, please get champions from proven companies (at least for the time being) and rely on them. I am sure big guys like Infosys and Wipro would help given the country’s reputation is at stake..

    This is the first time probably in the history, where people have put orders on such costly item just with trust in your blogs and capabilities without even looking in to final product.
    As Alex said, people in developed countries don’t like ambiguity. They can fall in to even bigger scams where there is no ambiguity with sales/tracking interface they have but it won’t work in the other direction.
    I assume, it is some kind of culture shock ..
    -people in Developing countries take it easy with ambiguity and changes in plans.
    -people in Developed world get hurt even for minor things that shouldn’t matter.
    E.g: A person in India who doesn’t have a Visa card, can ask his friend to put his credit card based on mutual trust.
    You can’t expect the same in USA.Instead they get upset and make sure that others know that they are upset. Trust me.in US.half the conversations in society are talking about what upsets them 🙂

    my two cents 🙂

    Wish you good luck..
    -kumar
    p.s: i have put a pre-order using my ‘developing country’ mind set than in US mode where i am working for more than a decade 🙂

  1392. Rohan,
    Since the Pixel Qi-wifi is sold out, can you provide info (date) on when it will be available again for ordering?

  1393. @GIJoe

    I agree with your statement that in US customers are more demanding. In Russia usual price for different products has 30%-50% markup easily compared to US price (and it`s not only due to custom fees etc.). It`s just reality. And shipping is also very stressfull, so to me nothing special happened today, just ordinary online shopping day 🙂

  1394. I didn’t need an in depth video, just a video of someone holding it in their hands and playing with it a little bit. Also a mention of how much internal memory each variant ships with and if it is easily upgradeable internally. I was very disappointed that we didn’t get any of that.

  1397. No, there were 10K emails that did go out. The preorder didn’t actually open until MAYBE one hour before the ordering was opened up to everyone (it was not the 6 hour window that was proclaimed). Most all of the orders that were placed were during the ‘open to everyone’ window. So, then there would have been many many thousands more than just the 10K email list.

  1398. thanks for sharing this experience, John… nice to know the best case scenario also did happen and I am sure might also be the case for so many others too… unfortunately its only the bad experiences that are being discussed more here…

    it also helps NI/Rohan I guess if they could get as much of the 360 degree feedback as they could get…

  1399. Does the HDMI port offer the option of interface output as well as video stream output?

    Cheers

    Cliff

  1400. If a web site asks for your social security number, I would say, stay away from this site. No one has any business asking for your social security number, especially when you are ordering some merchandise. Rohan, please look into this. The practice of asking for a Social Security number seems whacky and very detrimental for your business.

  1401. What I didn’t say, but should have, is this: no matter how much it hurts, Rohan needs to suck up to these tech bloggers. Personal contact, flattery, free merchandise. Most of these bloggers have enormous egos. You want to find the way to make those egos work for you, not against you. There is NO payoff in getting into any kind of pissing match with them. I feel like NI could use a communications person (no, I’m not trying to get a job, trust me, I’m no communications expert) to vet some of what they are saying publicly. Where’s the payoff in accusing endgadget of “[a] little unprofessional journalism”? There is no payoff; saying something like that is all downside. Instead, they should be saying the opposite, that endgadget is really on the ball and sharp to notice that tiny deviation from one render to the other. That you didn’t think anyone else would have noticed that the first render inaccurately showed a bezel just a fraction wider than the prototype and was therefore promptly correction. Never thought anyone would notice that tiny correction, but endgadget’s bloggers are really on top of every detail, so kudos to them!

    It might hurt, but you gotta suck it up. You need these guys on your side.

  1402. respected rohan shravan,

    i ask again can we indians buy the adam by cheque, dd, debit card in indian money whenever its possible again.

    how much storage is there ? 8,16,32?
    now i think it just take not even a second to type 2 numbers 16 or 32 right? is it so difficuilt rohan ? hope a answer and not a smiley
    you want to keep that secret or its difficuilt for you to type ? or u simply dont know yet and your company has not decided yet? if you are not sure u can atleast reply we still dont know how much storage we will offer you as of now its ok atleas same questions over and over again asked by your thousands of followers since a year will stop,
    do you think as a consumer we have the right to ask this small question which is asked maybe million times from thousands of people worldwide.
    again hope that u just type 1 or 2 words to let us know 600us$ for 8 ,16 or 32?.

  1404. Say you already have service with t-mobile, and your current smartphone has been unlocked. Then as I understand all it needs is that you take the sim card out of your current phone and insert it into Adam.

    After that your guess is as good as mine. My hope: (1) that Adam is all set up with whatever hware/sware stuff required for making calls from Adam; (2) tmobile does not have some detection mechanism that says ‘sorry don’t recognize your contraption’; (3) the GSM/3G frequencies that Adam recognizes/operates on is/are the ones that tmobile does too.

    hope this helps.

  1405. Thank you Christian! I pre-ordered because I think this device will be a game changer, I am will to risk buying something that “doesn’t exist” currently. If he is that concerned he should just go get an ipad and be done with it.

  1406. Well this sucks, not only did I never receive a pre-order link, when I finally get home from school today to see how it’s progressed since last night, I find that the version I wanted to pre-order is sold out. The price was never a problem for me, seeing how the tablet market here in Sweden only consists of iPads and Galaxy Tabs which have a price range around 700-1000 USD. It’s a bit of a let down, but i guess I’ll just have to wait it out.

  1408. It did not ask me for a social security number when I pre-ordered (not as a family member but when it was available to public)

  1409. @Rohan
    Could you please take all the requests and questions and make a FAQ section and put it on the blog, so that questions don’t get repeated and ur replies don’t get buried in the pages.

  1410. hi tarwinia, there is good info from the earlier comments here… seems only Greg and a couple of others from the top commenters list got lucky!

    no worries though … knowing Rohan we should here back from him soon once he collates the info for us

  1411. Hello Rohan,

    I have been following your journey for quite a while, and I am very impressed, with your work and what you and your team have created.

    Yesterday, I was ready to pre order an Adam but I didn’t. I was not for the lack of polish in the look of the website, or the problems that you experienced with payment, or even that there were no videos available. (As far as I am concerned, that is to be expected. It’s your first kick at the cat.)

    The only thing that held me back was the lack of complete disclosure as what is inside that the adam that I was about to purchase. Specifically, the memory configuration.

    Nowhere (that I could find) was there a mention of the amount of memory on board of the (pre order) adam. The PixelQi versions are sold out but that is Ok with me. I will only buy an adam from you when all the parameters are disclosed (or available as a choice for purchase)

    Thanks,

    Andre Tremblay

  1413. I found myself dying of laugh on my own (silly) joke :
    Rohan Shravan posts and comment are like “Lost” episodes : each time we think we are learning something but in fact, each time more question are raised and it keeps our mind busy all day :p

    The good thing is Lost has a happy ending

  1415. On the main webpage that lists features, these statements are made:
    “Who wouldn’t want their entire movie library on their tablet? The Adam
    makes room for all your storage requirements, with a memory expandable
    up to 128GB.”
    Which part and type of the memory is expandable? Is this user upgradeable?

  1417. I have now tried to order 5 times, however been declined.

    I know I have plenty of credit, it’s a VISA, and I spoke to the bank…

    Help

  1418. hi by the way did u get the email finally ? and did u pre-order ? any idea how much storage it has ? thanx in advance atleast i hope u will reply.

  1420. Is the Adam going to be available for purchase at this years CES event? I live one state over from Nevada and would be willing to swing by CES to purchase one of these first hand.

  1424. Sowmya and Cathy,
    I am not sure I understand. The special 6 hour window never really happened even with the special email. The link didn’t do anything special until shortly before the general public pre-order option was available. The Pixel Qi Display didn’t sell out till hours after the general public option was opened. Did you not try and order when it opened for everyone? I know the link was posted in the blog dozens of times? Or did you want to specifically wait for that email? I used my link, but did not get any ‘preferential’ treatment. It was still slated for the 6-8 weeks delivery.

  1425. It’s 7 hrs…. since Rahan started replying and addressing… I am expecting updates on site… and a new blog post sometime soon in 60-90 mins…

    0. We know it’s SOLD OUT but we LOVE to know the NUMBERS 🙂
    1. Customs in India
    2. Complete Tech Specs (Band and Storage Capacity)
    3. Shipping start date
    4. Next pre-order date for Pixel Qi + 3G + WiFi
    5. Monthly / weekly production so as to estimate tentative dates…
    …….

  1426. …also, for those who keep responding with “check Older Comments” to folks who complain about posts being lost, let me assure you that post have most definitely been dropped. I for one have had multiple posts to these blogs go MIA.

    Again…not a big deal, as the Adam would be a toy for me rather than a tool. But as has been pointed out previously, trying to launch a pre-order process via a blog is simply wrong. You cannot apply “social networking” methods to commercial processes, and expect things to run well.

  1427. Agreeing with Lennart. “Deviation from industry standard” is a to get ideas from your users or listen to some of the good ideas floated and criticism of your process (obviously not all !!).

    The standard like apple is “you get what Jobs want …take it or leave it but your neighbour is getting one”.

    This is what we liked with Adam …many of us are getting technology we want in a tablet.

    You will be attacked now…so be ready for it. You are in competition with other companies who want you to fail.

    Best wishes

  1428. Rohan, great that you are replying to the posts. I hope to order my adam(pixel Qi & 3g) at the next shippinground. Looking forward to the extensive vid with all the info we want (which is posted tens of times by my fellow-bloggers).

    and : Congrats on the preoder-launch of the Adam. Hope the Real Launch will be smoother 😉

  1429. Maybe it was written but I cannot find it….

    When will be the Release-Date for everybody?

    In December? Maybe January? What about european languages? Spanish, german… or is it only in english?

    In Germany in January will start a business rival……..

    Thanks for answer! 😉

  1430. Hi rohan, I think u need a better website
    in fact that website is big minus for whole notion ink, They should design much better than this.
    the present website looks ok for adam fans like me, but it does not convince normal website visitor to a potential customer.

  1431. +1
    I think now is the time to fine tune the only communication tool NI has… either setup the NI’s blog for which they already have a placeholder as spotted by one of our friends here…

  1432. Been reading the rest of the comments (I think I burned through all of them in a solid half hour) and can’t help but concur.
    This is a startup company. its been delayed once before (And I’m not blaming you, but it happened nonetheless). It is hard to expect people to have faith in your product (not having the man power, intellectual property, and resources as many of the larger companies,) and faith in you delivering (the average Joe goes on 10 blogs and sees 3 calling this vaporware, then reads about the delays, and lastly gets barely any info on what he’s ordering!). Yet some people did have faith and did take the leap and you HAVE to satisfy these people. They risked quite a sum of ordering without knowing what they were ordering. If they are disappointed, you will be flushed down the next tube.
    A startup company like this has to do EVERYTHING to convince the masses about its products use, innovation (existance?). Yet you tried to imitate Apple, a company which has
    1. An enormous fanbase which line outside its stores ready to buy whatever is in there
    2. Tonnes of spare cash
    3. Proved time and time again that its products deliver.
    When you have
    1. A fair (albeit impressive for a startup) fanbase
    2. No spare cash judging by alot of stuff about the preorders
    3. Never shown a product to the masses

    Please don’t screw this up

  1434. I’m guessing the reason they haven’t answered the storage question is they don’t know yet. Clearly they know what’s one the device (8GB), but haven’t figured out how much they will put in the SD card. Or more likely, will only be giving us 8GB.

  1435. The key word is expected.
    EXPECTED 1.to look forward to; regard as likely to happen
    Like I said, the ADAM HAS NOT passed FCC approval.
    Why do you respond to this, but refuse to respond to the MASSES asking about storage, android market, etc…..
    WHY ARE YOU AVOIDING THESE QUESTIONS, ROHAN?

  1436. Dear Rohanji 🙂

    If you drop by this post of mine would you kindly reply this time.

    I would like to know one thing before i write to your preorders support mail.

    Am I going to pay 600 USD instead of 666 USD when i change the shipping address from India to Germany for my standing preorder, as that would be a safer option for me to receive the adam, since i live in a village here, where parcels from abroad simply tend not to reach.

    PLEASE reply!

    It would safe my day to know i will receive my adam for sure

  1437. +1 – Just went through this ordeal this morning with my bank, Michael.
    They put my card on hold last night after my first purchase. If it effects the purchase / delivery in ANY way, the bank IS going to hear it from me. I understand the banks do this for our protection, but in this case, I prefer to make sure the transaction goes through…

  1438. Hi Rohan,

    I would be happy if you please provide a clarification to my question. Else i’m a worried man.

    Today’s “$” exchange rate was “45.x” so my bill should have been ” Rs 27600 ” but i’ve been changed “Rs 29999” at the rate “49.9”.

    For such issues what is your answer ? What is the redressal for customers like me ???

  1439. I’m in the same boat. I’ve been following Notion Ink for a while, putting input where I thought it was necessary and singing their praises everywhere I’ve gone. Nevertheless, I didn’t receive a pre order email and I did check my spam folder. Now the Pixel Qi variants are sold out, as everyone knows, and I’m in a state of mild panic.

  1440. All Rohan keeps saying is “expected.” Do you people not understand the meaning of expected? Sorry to be such a dick, but I waited like others for months only to have the wool pulled over my eyes. FAIL!!!

  1441. @Bob

    I was exactly in the same situation like you yesterday. However I had registered my real email id long time back, so somehow I could order without any problems.

    Rohan miscalculated (never thought such large people would blindly preorder, some of the comments were like that) and got a compounded problem with servers. (f5s of such enthusiastic fans).

    Maybe the flight was for final orders of manufacturing? (just a guess)

    I sincerely hope that we do not feel so BAD missing the preorders, and some sanity is restored.
    Majority here dont want to preorder without seeing videos, UI but at the same time are so sore at not getting the email link. (noyes!)

    Rohan’s original plan was a befitting showcase in CES 2011. And I believe he sincerely hope that people will then only order AFTER seeing the action (hence his caught unprepared now).

    I hope some sanity is restored here. We have become such bloodthirsty fans that we have forgotten that Rohan and NI are HUMANS, and as a characteristic of humans, they do tend to err.

    This is not the end of the world. Its a matter of one month/ two month. If one is still sore, Ipad 2 is a beatiful options (and Steve Jobs wont disappoint anyone like what this kid Rohan did!!)

  1442. Talking about word press: I made a post with Chrome then I couldn’t find it with Firefox but I could with Chrome. Strange! I do word searches for my name to find my posts to see if anyone has replied to a particular post. You know Edit………find………..Tom C

  1443. Rohan should not abbreviate for the benefit of everyone. India Standard Time, Pacific Standard Time ,etc….;)

  1444. +1.
    Along with a poll asking from future buyers about their preference(PixelQi or LCD) to get a realistic idea about your future requirement from PixelQi.

  1448. Why aren’t you still taking orders for the sold out variants and just saying it is on backorder? That way those of us who have been following and know we want one, before the videos are released and everyone else realizes they want one too, can get in line to get our order filled first.

  1450. Thanks for nothing… I guess I’ll have to wait like a stupid dog left out in the cold. I’ve been following this f-ing thing for so damn long and I was so excited. Now I’m simply let down, left out and screwed because no one told us until the last second what our payment options were until it was too late. I went out, got a pre-paid visa, loaded it with $650 dollars and now the “insert created curse word here” 3g Pixel Qi is sold out. Now I doubt i’ll see my Adam in even January…
    ….
    ….
    This really sucks… Now this stupid damn prepaid Visa will chip away at my balance until I can order again… How much more is this fucking thing going to cost me?

  1451. Let Rohan take care of things one a time. Let him settlle first the one which are very important.

  1453. Rohan, any luck that your system was tracking all the bank denied transactions as a successful purchase when it comes to the count on hand? I ask because the actual number of successful purchases could differ if for some odd reason the unforseen bank issues were depleting the available stock opening up more of the Sold Out products to those of us that are eagerly awaiting. Especially those of us that only use MasterCard and have found a way to make a purchase with a Visa.

    Thanks
    Jesse

  1454. Waited for a long time to be able to buy the Adam and now it has been sold out…When will the second batch be ready to order and how much will it be then?

  1455. im pretty sure it means exactly what it says. 8GB + microSD that YOU add to it.

  1456. I notice some people talk about credibility and accountability. Is it because rohan has made it happen from India. I feel it is biased opinion. Don’t see as it being fraud or rohan being fraud only because he is from India. I totally disagree. Yes i was upset when I did not get email and posted loads of comment but I do understand the issues they are facing. Being a startup they are doing their best to make everything happy. He must have planned the priority to family only for the reason that QI will be in demand but it did not work out the way he wanted and every other person got lucky to order QI. Rohan myself along with many who trust NI and your team and most importantly have faith in your vision and adam are behind you. When you get loads of negative comments that shows the product is already success. it shows people desire to ownatleast one adam.

  1460. Hi,

    All of the major tech websites are calling you scam. It may not be a problem for now if so much people have already preordered, but that could be really threatening for the future of both adam and your company.

    I’m not sure you can afford to let this bad image of you spread so much.

    If you cannot do anything about silly comments like the one about the changes in the rendered picture of Adam, I think you should react _now _ to several really serious comments which have been done. In a week it will be to late, and your brand image will be too damaged to be recoverable.

    Here my 2 cents for what to do, more or less easy to accomplish :
    1) show now a video of Adam running, you do not need to show an in-depth video, just the tablet booting and running one of your application
    2) show a proof of the FCC approval or examination process
    3) show a proof that you are going to CES 2011
    4) show a proof that you are really building this tablet, by example a email from pixeQI confirming that you are buying/licencing their screen.

    Hope that helps

  1462. James, I waited until the general release to pre-order.
    Around 10:30 PM EST [thursday night in the U.S.A]

  1463. Honestly you should not do global pricing. There is a reason every other company sets individual prices for different countries. It is not only foolish from your financial standpoint, but you could offer free shipping if you did not do this. Let the markets pay what they will bear.

  1464. Rohan, I am really supporting you still!

    I think you need to let go of WordPress though.

    Get a content management system online! You could have been posting updates on your website. Your shopping cart had alot to be desired, integrate a real shopping cart where people can login and check their orders, get updates, keep a record of their purchase.

    Am I wrong? I want to help! I mean I dont care if previous posts of mine have been moderated out but I have sites where the shopping carts work really well and then you go to a nice checkout like google or paypal or whatever you want. BUT people can login and feel they actually bought something.

    Please think about this, your site is nice but it does not work for what you need. You would really benefit from a content management site.

    Live updates, live anything that is all anyone wanted was communication and I think you would have had no problems at all. Ok so servers were hit hard that is fine. But if someone could have logged in and saw their order and then had an issue with their bank they could have emailed and said here is my order number and felt safe it was there.

    ????? What do you think?

  1465. Thanks Rohan,
    I appreciate you taking the time to read through that..I myself fell asleep reading the proof through..lol

    We will stand by you!

    thanks
    GIJoe

  1466. What bank are you with? I’m in Canada and mine went through the first time I got to the order page (was a broken 404 then 503 for awhile) and I never had any problems with my VISA. The same visa that called me to double check my card wasnt stolen when I bought a leather jacket… it just seems weird that all of your banks are not up to date or just poorly run…

  1467. Typically the 3G chip sets are Dual Band – one US frequency and one global frequency on the same device. I am starting to suspect that this is the same case with the Adam and am hoping that the 3G version meant both 850 and 900MHz. I will be flying to Europe and expect it works there as well. Guessing why NI team did not list the 3G variants separately. Again, this is my speculation but would be great if Rohan or NI team could confirm that the 3G version I ordered would actually work 🙂

  1468. 🙂 I can see what you mean.
    As part of my job, I do deal with Moscow once in a while!
    greetings!

  1470. Sorry… I’m still dead set on the Adam… Just really upset… So much time wasted for nothing and now just more and more waiting. nuf said

  1471. In the States we have a popular phrase for people who constantly second guess the decisions while they sit in the comforts of their own couch… I now proclaim this blog to be filled with many Couch CEO’s.

    I’m amazed that there are this many people who are just sitting in front of their computer screens and listing everything they would have done better while using extremely negative and demeaning vocabulary towards someone they were previously putting on a pedestal. Don’t get me wrong…I’m a big fan of constructive criticism and feel its needed and just after the events that have taken place the last couple of days (please note- I’ve also read some great constructive posts that are well argued and genuine in the responses to these blog posts) but lets cool down with all the vicious accusations of fraud, ad hominem attacks and faulty logic that has been used in these responses.

    I can’t even believe the idea of punishment and consequences are being argued right now for a start up company after experiencing issues in a pre-order (let me say that again – PRE ORDER) situation as being necessary…just like the consequences needed after someone rapes a woman. Are you kidding me??????

    Get some sleep people.

  1472. I thought the preorder would open up to the folks who were not on the email invite list after 6 hours of launch. Where is the link for that ?

  1474. What a difference does 24 hours make in one’s life? There was euphoria all around especially from commenters on this blog yesterday in anticipation. Now they are all crestfallen. It is not doom and gloom, just yet. You guys at NI and especially you Rohan, need to sit up and take the gist from all the comments, learn and implement. A book can be written based on the comments on the two web posts you made today on how to get this show back up and running. Just read and take them on board. You have a million reasons to explain why things went wrong the way they did yesterday. I would put this to your lack of experience. A start-up is no easy job even for the best of businessmen in this world. There will be lots of trials and tribulations. At the end of the day only the toughest survive. Your education gave you the courage and confidence to take those tough initial steps. Now you know, what can be done and what needs to be done.

    Keep persevering. You and your team very much need that.

  1475. Who else here will tell me before my order ends up in confusion?
    I was charged 66 USD more than someone who used a european shipping address, which i could have done directly if we wouldn´t have been told upfront, that all countries are paying the same price.

  1476. Is it just me or is the storage question kinda obvious.. 8 GB internal + whatever SD card you put in.. i believe this has been said MANY times.

    android market is a good question though

  1477. You might have start the preorder in phases .. but its too late …

    You are working as CEO doing all things alone may make you tiresome but this is startup .. you have to do all stuff ..

    You may see some of the problem sending these tablets to all over world and supporting them in coming days ..

    Its not a good idea to open for all market at the same time without complete details about specification of ordered products ..(colors , Memory , video)
    I am not sure , but putting some picture with all varients on the website is not a big efforts if you are ready with your product ..

    Hope you will start collecting all the inputs .. and give it again a good start !!

    Bregds/Sunil

  1478. @Rohan

    All I would say… Let the product do the talking now! 🙂

    FYI… I ordered one as a gift for someone coming into my family. I was going to use my personal (US) credit card but somehow the system prevented me from shipping it to an address in India with my billing info (in US). So eventually, I ended up ordering it via my family in India since it was to be shipped in India anyways. I want one for myself, but unfortunately I’ll have to wait as I wanted to get PQi + wifi. Are there any plans for in-store retail in the US, or a US based “branch” of notion ink which can make the process of buying easier?

    As for the policies, I personally did not find anything as absurd as people were leading it to be. My only suggestion would be to go easy on people who will try to return a product if it is defective… meaning, they should not be liable for any re-stocking fees etc. etc.

    Looking forward to the videos.

  1479. NI Staff,

    Will the Adam be available for sale at CES 2011? I received a pre-order invite but was unable to order due to sever issues, and now the Pixel QI version is sold out. I’ve searched for NI on the CES exhibitor list however you don’t show up. Do you have a booth number? I would like to add you guys to ”my CES” list.

  1480. Rohan,

    Thank you for your reply so much. I know, inventory is going to be very tough to manage. The product that you are trying to produce is now in extremely high demand worldwide, after people have gotten a taste of similar products. I know that I have been frothing at the mouth since reading about your machine.

    I just want to make sure that at all levels of your company, that the customer is completely put first. Learn from the masters–Sam Walton, the original Sears & Roebuck, and others who got big. They did it by paying attention to the customer and their needs. I really hope the product is fantastic, and I look forward to it. You know that, since I have now invested in you as well. It is your name on the line. Your word means everything to these people.

    I am going to stop writing to you, unless I can actually come up with something concrete that you may need to know, because I know how much you have to do to keep up with this, AND try to run a company. Just know that we are supporting you, and as you learn from this, you will get better and stronger. A lot of people here have experience in what you need, and they will help you. Personally, I worked in electronics and communications on and off for 20 years in one way or another, at the manufacturer level, the rep/distributor level and the retail level. All of them have their trials and tribulations. I want you to be here for a long time.

    All the best,

    Marcus

  1482. I left a comment in the blog as well as comments[at]notionink.com, but did not get a preorder email and pixel qi is already sold out 😦

  1484. Rohan,
    I have trust in you. When you stand in public, anybody can say anything. Don’t let that dishearten you.
    One thing I did not understand is that We in India are being charged at a Dollar conversion rate of nearly Rs 50 ( I paid Rs 29,999 for the high end model costing $599) while the conversion rate as of now is between Rs 45 to 46.

  1485. I don’t get it. Why is everyone pissed at Notion about their own credit card companies denying the charge. This is common when they see abnormal chargest (i.e. to a company outside the US). All it takes is a 2 minute call to your CC company and they will let you put the charge through. Ignoring it and thinking it’s going to go away isn’t going to get the charge through……

  1486. Irish standard time is none. For Ireland they use (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time as the time zone. There is only one IST… Who ever heard of Irish Standard Time…………

  1487. Dear Rohan …continuing to my earlier post…
    Well I do qualify as a Adam family ,as I got order mail from notion ink .Introspection has started at all level.Last 20 hrs were , most disappointing moments I have ever share on this blog….this blog was always meant to me (To all of us) more than anything a place where i could see lots of trust …faith ..love around..every day seeing this blog ..talking about things ,with other”family member” , about what and how we will be using Adam..how adam will change our life???
    But just see now???what has happen??? How come things has fallen like this ???:(
    plenty of things has been said about by others..and you tried to answer some..so lets talk about things need to be done to REBUILD this faith from both side…

    1. Basic Information : about memory just talk about it ..whatever it is openly.. once for all close this topic…YOU will EARN atleast 20% of lost adam follower.
    2.Being INDIAN company: Clear your stand..even if you are unable to reduce price …JUST SAY IT …YOU DONT NEED FCC certificate for this…
    3. TIME-LINE: Either follow or just dont say it …If you are in position to upload video(which has been asked so many times ) by 18 DEC ,then what was the hurry to start pre-order on 9th Dec..we could have waited for 1 more week ..we have waited so long …
    plenty more things …but dont know how to say…I’m feeling very low today…just did not feel like defending notion ink today on Crunchgear/engagdet ..WHY??? …

    need something to hear from you ROHAN…before I decide anything…
    Waiting for your reply…

  1488. +1 to everything you said, with the exception that not everyone with Gmail got their mails, Bob. I was waiting as well, never got it, and I qualified.

  1489. Irish standard time isn’t used anywhere over here anyway its GMT has been all the time I’ve lived here.

  1490. I, for one, am glad to see someone’s asking difficult questions.

    More importantly perhaps, it’s nice to see those questions *not getting deleted*.

    I think of all the worrying things to happen in the last 24 hours, the deletion of critical comments warning people here about *potentially abusive terms, charges and conditions* is the most strange and unsettling thing of all.

    If you haven’t read the Android Police article yet, go read it in full and read the comments. It’s actually pretty terrifying. I’m half-way convinced that I’ve wasted a great deal of what little disposable income I have on this “venture”, and I don’t think I’ll be convinced otherwise unless a tablet arrives in the mail.

  1493. To anyone,

    Can someone volunteer to list the burning questions in everyone’s mind if you have spare time, so it saves Rohan the time?

    Like, What the memory? Will it support Android Apps? payment schems? why is is like this like that, etc…

  1494. Just because u brought up apple and Dell,

    For starters i can walk into a apple store and get my computer swapped if it happens to have a genuine problem for online orders Apple offers free shipping for anything over 50 $ i guess.

    For Dell they send you a prepaid shipping lablel on a return box for any repairs while under warranty even before this they have remote diagnostics to validate if even the inconvenience is required.

    All these companies are real global companies which deal their problems from warehouses in respective countries.

    Not to be disrespectful but whatever given you are a startup and i agree to all the yada yada yada and stuff but dont ever draw parallels with other companies which have setup a supply chain management for over 10 or 15 years

    we all understand that Notion ink is a startup and are ready to deal with the flaws until they are reasonable.

    The only thing that comes to my mind is Steve jobs being Dog headed that it is not a hardware problem even after consumer reports pounded Iphone 4 in their labs.

  1495. I believe someone looked this up and posted that items under $1000 from China will not have any duties.

  1496. Mr. Rohan,
    So when you were on that plane during the melt down at your company yesterday, where were your other officers/staff members, could they not have posted something on this blog to let us know some one is at the controls? Picture yourself on that plane yesterday and a problem develop with the plane while in flight, wouldn’t you want the captain or first officer to make an announcement? As we say in my profession you as good as your last landing.

    You can start by answering the simple questions that do not require a video, like posting close-up pictures of the Adam. I am sure you will not be giving away trade secrets.

    Regards,
    Captain at a US airline

  1497. If you look at business cases about the introduction of the X box 360, the Wii and the iPad you’ll see that even bug companies run into trouble when it comes to logistics. NI have probably underestimated how much effort goes into sales and marketing. Sure they can hire a marketing firm but with the razor thin margins they use that would probably mean that the Adam would be more expensive. Anyway, they sold out most of the products didn’t they? The people that say that they missed “thousands of sales” because of the hiccups just don’t get it. In the end, NI is about maximizing profit by minimizing cost. They spent their money on the Adam, not on the website, communication or service. That is THEIR choice and if you don’t like it, don’t buy. Very simple isn’t it?

  1498. Are you a geek or something? I find you to be the most level headed of all the commenters on the blog. You opinions are balanced and nice to read. Why don’t you help out Rohan on few of the things you mentioned related to spelling and grammar on the UI and the website.

  1500. Rohan,

    What about those who didn’t get the preorder email?

    How do the rest of us order? without a link?

    Two simple questions that remain unanswered.

    A reply would be appreciated and I do appreciate the pressure you are under.

  1502. you reflected my state of mind. Only difference is i found the pre-order invitation on the spam folder. but looking at the shipping cost and the return/service policies made me to think twice before clicking the final purchase button. Apple ships ipad free, but obiviously they are overpriced due to their brand value. Their service policy is good. as long as we are in warranty, they service for free. but NI ask us to pay the full to and fro shipping cost and on top of that 5% off the invoice amt + $9 service charge to service the defective product. if the product is defective, why should a customer pay over 20% of the product price???? this need to change. only fanboys will buy the product with all these restrictions. to win US market, NI should follow the industry standard set by apple. when you compare the final cost to the buyer, no one bothers about how much it cost to shipping. only thing we bother is to compare the shipping cost of apple with NI. Also i am disappointed with the single band 3G card. that is moving back 2 generations? why on earth this decision was made???? also you feel you can put mock renderings and sell the products to general public? i was ready to pre-order it, and i had to hold off just because of the policies that was worring me. why should i have to pay import duty?? if we add up all these, there is a good chance it will well exceed apple’s ipad cost!! this model wont work for general public. hope NI provides amazon.com access to the product or local store access. All the best Rohan and team!! I am still with you and i will buy when the policy becomes more consumer friendly.

  1503. respected rohan shravan,

    i ask again can we indians buy the adam by cheque, dd, debit card in indian money whenever its possible again.

    how much storage is there ? 8,16,32?
    now i think it just take not even a second to type 2 numbers 16 or 32 right? is it so difficuilt rohan ?
    you want to keep that secret or its difficuilt for you to type ? or u simply dont know yet and your company has not decided yet? if you are not sure u can atleast reply we still dont know how much storage we will offer you as of now its ok atleas same questions over and over again asked by your thousands of followers since a year will stop,
    do you think as a consumer we have the right to ask this small question which is asked maybe million times from thousands of people worldwide.
    again hope that u just type 1 or 2 words to let us know 600us$ for 8 ,16 or 32?. any answer on this?

  1504. @Ravi G: Rohan describes two variants of 3G – 850 and 900. Though I specialize in 3G/4G areas, I am no expert on chip sets for 3G. Could it be that these chip sets are cost reduced versions to handle only one band. But that does not make much sense as this would result in unnecessary number of SKUs. May be you are right, it handles both 850 and 900, and it is not two different variants of Adam. Rohan, please clarify.

  1506. YES!! Ultimately, this is the reason I did not place an order; this part of the policy made BIG warning bells go off. It shows little faith in the product; good customer service will ALWAYS say “if the mistake was ours, we will own it and fix it and apologize for the inconvenience,” not “oops, you have to pay for your own shipping back and forth”…I am generally not too unreasonable in my expectations for warranty and support, but if a company ships me a defective product, I don’t think it is too much to ask that the COMPANY rectify their mistake at no cost to me.

    I also deeply agree with all those who suggest a formal PR person being hired to manage the remainder of the launch process, someone who can deal with keeping people informed and maintaining public confidence in the company and the product. While I personally shake my head in bewilderment that people skipped work and sleep yesterday and the night before in order to sit there and hit f5 every 8 seconds, the fact is that many people did, and someone needs to be able to keep them happy, because they will be your strongest customer and fan base. Rohan, you’ve built a great product, you can’t do everything at once for everyone–you need to delegate! (I know this is a very hard thing for very smart, capable, visioned people to do–but it’s ESPECIALLY important for them!)

    Best of luck–I too am a little disappointed that the Pixel Qi is sold out, since that’s my primary reason for wanting an Adam, but I will hold my patience till I can get one.

    peace,
    Jennifer

  1507. where do you live? isnt it illegal for visa to take money off a pre paid card… its illegal here

  1508. Was wondering who’s in charge of marketing at NI. Profile of NI’s co-founder & VP-Sales & Marketing, prior to joining NI in Feb 09 goes like this:

    Portfolio Manager – Reliance Money (6 months: Jun 08 – Nov 08)
    Management Trainee – D&B (2 months: Aug 07 – Sep 07) – looks like an internship
    MBA – Finance from IIPM Delhi (2006 – 2008)
    [Source: LinkedIn]

    When Apple wanted to go big in 1977, they had the help of people like Mike Marakula and Regis McKenna (google them).

    Hmm, that explains.

  1509. Was this post for me, i am a little surprised 🙂
    Ok considering it is for me
    well i am not a geek or something 😉
    and well if it is level headed – its good.. thank you
    I have already conveyed my good share of criticisms to Rohan for the day !
    I guess he needs a break 🙂

  1510. Which tech websites say it is scam? you have to list the websites rather being very general.

  1511. Well I think that it is fair to say this has been a learning experience for NI.

    Having been around here awhile and being most likely one of the older followers of this blog I feel a few thoughts in defense of Rohan and NI are in Order.
    As a retired stockbroker, I have seen start ups come and go and for what its worth I believe that the entire approach by these young men has been admirable and though certainly not without problems, like the last 24-36 hours, I think they have alot to be proud of.

    All the complaining about the ordering and credit cards and waiting and lack of hard evidence is all certainly everyones right, but IMHO the nastiness and focus on the problems is overblown. Could they have done things so everything went perfectly, maybe…are they looking back and saying next time we will do it this way or that way, etc. I’m sure they all are. Hell, I’m 56 and did stuff yesterday I wish today I had done differently. It was a PRE-order of a new product. Like a soft opening of a new store. They call it a soft opening to work out all the known and unknown problems before the Grand Opening.
    As to comparisons to Apple, etc..Even after having been around for ove a decade Apple made terrible corporate decisions, (ie:Newton) had 12 years of crippling losses, had to have Microsoft invest money in them to stay afloat.
    So cut Rohan and the team some slack….I believe that they are sincere and that ADAM will be a commercial success as will NI.

    FWIW…I did have a tough time getting into the pre-orders but yes I did, and yes I ordered the $499 Pixel Qi w/WiFi.

    To all at NI, you keep doing what your doing, learn, that there are many who understand that you cannot foresee everything.
    I look forward to your success and commend you all for your efforts to bring something so state-of-the art and unique to market.
    It is refreshing for this veteran tech head to see something like this product grow from and idea to reality in todays world of copycat, mediocre tech.
    All the best to all at NI, warm regards,
    Ed

  1512. @rohan, this is unfair 😦

    you team told me it was a bank statement, how come this would be true as i paid around 1000$ on a japan website few hours later my try to pre-order ?

    Besides, at my first try there were still some PixelQI tablet, but right after (“your”) false paiement rejectin, there were none available , it was said “sold out”.

    i know you have been overloaded but come on, what’s the point about family, if your faithfull family member(s) are rejected without any reason 😦

    Please @rohan answer me (and all of us who faces kind of the same problem as mine).

  1513. Epic post. EVERYONE READ THIS.

    If only everyone understood that for a startup there are limited options in terms of pleasing everyone and keeping the cost low. Completely agree with everything you said.

  1514. Why are you so desperate buddy? You seem not happy with NI, go and buy any tablet you like and trust. why wasting your time and everyone time. You are just overloading useful comment post here.

  1515. Like the rest of you, I want more information. I came close to preordering yesterday, but there are just too many unanswered questions.
    1. When will it actually hit stores? For how long will the only way to get adam be through ordering online and paying fifty dollars for shipping (I’m a student.. shelling out 550 when I was expecting 498 and then an extra 50 for shipping is just too much!)…
    2. What would the prices be once it is actually released? Will they be higher and thus make the fifty dollars shipping worth it?
    3. As others here have said, what is the timeline for production of more pixel qi (when will that be available again)
    4. REAL PICTURES AND VIDEO please!

  1516. For the record I did order what I needed, although frustrating. Comments below are for structured criticism and not to vent!

    What concerns me is that all of the problems everyone else listed above me is the fact of:

    1) How will NI handle Customer Support. I have emailed many times in the months prior having to get 2 units for field testing for a staff of 70 (for real not a ploy). I did not get a single reply and feel that is VERY disrespectful especially for a start up company. I never asked for anything for free, just information. Respect is earned from response and action!

    2) Also when you have addresses on the contact page it reads “comments at notionink dot com” do you think a company based on technology and email you should have had the proper address (comments@notionink.com)? Sloppy oversight.

    3) You say you can’t make everyone happy, although that is a true statement I feel your ego and pride are getting in the way here. People in general JUST WANT THE TRUTH. They can all deal with any potential problems knowing it upfront. No one likes a mystery that becomes a debacle.

    4) Even though you are a start up company with great ideas some of the ordering issues should have been anticipated. You are a company of technology filled with smart people and should have researched asking the correct questions BEFORE getting this off the ground. You certainly had enough time.
    5) As you have quoted Dell and Apple; they have dealt with every issue and ALWAYS make the reasonable customer happy. They each have a history of this and considering you have no history you should amend your return policies so people can grow faith and respect. I know you want to protect yourself but…….

    6) I always wonder about a company that charges anyone BEFORE shipping. Not a good policy and makes one wonder if NI has the cash or credit to survive.

    All this and yes I did order one.. Just taking the time so you can “learn” what an experienced businessman who helps running a company for many years thinks. I am also a huge fan of technology and hope your company will deliver and do everything it has hyped up the public’s expectations of your products.

  1517. good suggestion. Those who support please provide constructive ideas. People just come here and show hatred and spread rumours that it is scam.

  1518. Well, I too was eagerly anticipating this device – if reality follows the hype/sketchy specs it will be impressive. But the last 24-48hrs have shown this is an immature company which, while it may have decent technology (though on that I am increasingly doubtful), it sure as hell can’t run a piss-up in a brewery, never mind a major global product launch. The fiasco of the last 48hrs has been amateurish at best – and I can understand why some might think them criminal. At the very leat the Ts & Cs ARE illegal, at least here in Europe.

    At this stage, I do not think this is a scam (though I would not be taking any bets on it any more). But I do think that the amateurish showing of the last few days shows that as a company, this stands about as much chance of surviving 6 months in the marketplace as I do of becoming the next Pope. And I say that as a protestant!

    The product might turn out ok. But I doubt the company will survive to support it. And I for one would NEVER sign up to the joke they have produced for Ts & Cs. Not even draft 2 or 3 which they have got though in less than 24 hours. And yes, they “reserve the right” to request SSNs for activation, even if that was eventually removed. Given they also tried to write Ts & Cs that let them vary Ts & Cs at any time for any reason – something they have already done twice today – and I won’t be touching you with a bargepole until I have the security of walking into my local PC World/Curry/Best Buy and getting at least some semblance of customer service if the need arise.

    Oh, and why are you not listed for CES??? Very suspect. Grand product launch?? Are you even going to be there ????? Why are you not listed ???????

  1519. Relax guys 🙂 Just check it out – we are like all those people 🙂 Some turn back, some not 😉
    Couldn’t help but to laugh 🙂

  1520. +1,
    They badly needed a good website with order tracking system, at least people feel secure

  1522. I had a fine experience yesterday.

    Came online and the link was broken… then 503

    finally it worked and I ordered my ADAM without a single bump. I dont understand why an android tablet would not have access to the market. Android is open-source, anyone can access the android market… if it dosnt work on your device then the device gets heat but android dosnt say who can and cant access the market its OPEN SOURCE!

    8 GB+ …. im pretty sure it has been said in videos or posts countless times… but its 8GB internal + whatever memory card you buy… sure there is the person that dosnt understand english… its why they have to put ‘dont put your baby in the freezer’ in fridge manuals.. any why ever since that american spilled coffee on herself cups now say ‘caution your coffee is hot!’

    i totaly understand people want for him to answer every little question you have but seriously people… sometimes you can use your brain.

  1524. Well, I too was eagerly anticipating this device – if reality follows the hype/sketchy specs it will be impressive. But the last 24-48hrs have shown this is an immature company which, while it may have decent technology (though on that I am increasingly doubtful), it sure as hell can’t run a piss-up in a brewery, never mind a major global product launch. The fiasco of the last 48hrs has been amateurish at best – and I can understand why some might think them criminal. At the very leat the Ts & Cs ARE illegal, at least here in Europe.

    At this stage, I do not think this is a scam (though I would not be taking any bets on it any more). But I do think that the amateurish showing of the last few days shows that as a company, tthis stands about as much chance of surviving 6 months in the marketplace as I do of becoming the next Pope. And I say that as a protestant!

    The product might turn out ok. But I doubt the company will survive to support it. And I for one would NEVER sign up to the joke they have produced for Ts & Cs. Not even draft 2 or 3 which they have got though in less than 24 hours. And yes, they “reserve the right” to request SSNs for activation, even if that was eventually removed. Given they also tried to write Ts & Cs that let them vary Ts & Cs at any time for any reason – something they have already done twice today – and I won’t be touching them with a bargepole until I have the security of walking into my local PC World/Curry/Best Buy and getting at least some semblance of customer service if the need arise.

    Oh, and why are you not listed for CES??? Very suspect. Grand product launch???? Are you even going to BE there ????????

  1525. Crunchgear, engadget, phandroid, androidpolice, etc.. do a simple search for notion ink scam.

  1526. @ Rohan Shravan

    A bug in the ordering area, JavaScript:selectVariant(3); allows you to order the Qi + 3G variant even though its not in stock

  1527. The proision of a video on 18th December will not make a difference, all we want is the ability to prorder the Q

  1528. Only 1 question to Rohan Shravan

    What is going to happen with all the people that after being following and commenting in the blog, didn’t get the pre order email???

    Are we going to get any preference in the next shipment (I asume all of us want a PQ screen? or we should assume that there is going to be no preferences for us???

  1529. He has already said that anyone who was in the family group who did not get an email which is about 20k will get first dibs on the second batch of kit its on the first page of comments…

  1531. @Christian Krämer: the “family” actually included people who brought in a lot of points even bluntly showing shortcomings which were discussed by commentators and probably noted by Rohan.

  1532. Mr. Rohan,

    The CES show will be January 6-9, what days will you be there, I will make an effort to meet and talk with you.

    Regards,
    Tony

  1534. Who is deseperate ? I’m just giving my advice because I have nothing better to do now. And if I’m really interested by Adam, I’m waiting for the test to buy one.

  1535. yah.. i remember reading Rohan’s comment that the missed out followers will be given preference with shipping

  1537. Any word on when there will be some stock? So that people like me who did not get the email can preorder.

  1538. Rohan,
    I had a preorder email, but chose not to use it with all the issues and without any Demos or videos or reviews. I have desperately been wanting a Pixel Qi wi-fi only since CES last year, and am disappointed to hear they are already sold out now. Do you know how long it will be before more will be available, especially if I wait until the demos on December 18th or until CES?

  1540. @Adam Z why dont u …. up and rest in peace with ur …

    NO ONE FORCES NO ONE TO PRE-ORDER adam. NO ONE . PERIOD.
    So all the kinder-Garden People if you don’t know the value behind Rohan’s vision , close your eyes and relax

  1541. And by the way…you have my support as well–I don’t mean to come off as a complainer, just offering my opinion. I, like so many others, genuinely believe that the Adam will be a real game-changer, and hold you and your team in HIGHEST respect.
    –J

  1543. I’m still purplexed as to why anyone had to “wait” to call their bank in the morning. When I placed my order, it was declined so I immediatlly called that 800 number on the back of my card and told them to take off the hold. Took them 30 seconds and then I went in and redid my order…….

    This is a pretty common thing that credit card companies do when they see transactions outside of what you normally do.

  1544. Is FCC mandatory for India ? or are there any other certification needed for selling product like this in India

  1547. Dear Rohan and NI Team,

    You guys had a rough day yesterday but you will learn from your mistakes and make your launch in January a complete success… I’m sure of it.

    I did receive an early order email but the server problems prevented me from making a successful transaction before I had to leave for an appointment. By the time I was able to re-attempt a purchase the P-Qi were all sold out. No worries – I’ve waited this long and will wait patiently for the next opportunity to purchase and until then I look forward to seeing your video demonstrations next Saturday.

    As for the comments, I’m sure some of the bad ones cut to the core but those making them have not invested their money, reputation or time on developing what you are about to bring to market so don’t let them cut too deep.

    Good luck to you and your team for the work you have to accomplish in the coming weeks and I will wait patiently for the official kickoff to place my order.

    dph

  1549. Hi Nikhil Sheth,

    Apparently there are more comfy couch potatoes here then pioneers willing to take the first journey.

    No problem, there are enough people here willing to take the plunge and then write up all the reviews that the others are looking for. Those who do not want to take the plunge right now, just have to wait till the PRE- is gone.

    The world has always been full of people who want to be the first to see the world, but when it is time to book the ticket, they are afraid of what there is at the other side of the ocean. They haven’t seen a picture, there is no independent travel guide who has already been there and there are so many unknown bears on the road. For example: does the trip come with minimum accommodation (memory) or with comfortable room for everything.

    That is no problem. I am sure that the first travelers will tell you all about their adventures, about what worked and what didn’t and what the reactions were of all the people who listened to their experiences as first dare devils. Those first-hand reviews will give the best guide-lines for those who wish to go an a guaranteed satisfactory trip. There will be many ship(ment)s and you can then happily step on the next one.

  1550. Well Rohan-I think enough has been said here.
    I must say, some very constructive posts and comments made. Kudos to those members!
    You need to get down and dirty here. It’s going to be a rough one, but you’ve received a ton of good feedback from the community. Indeed changes need to me made right away and you;re on it.
    Ramp up your communication and get yourself out there. We need cold hard facts and data to bring this thing back up.
    As well, prior to the December 18th video, a plethora of images would be appreciated.
    As always, we are here to help and it’s going to be a tough one-the make or break.
    Hang in there and do keep us in the loop.

    Knoc.

  1551. Same here! We stand by you Rohan! I am a notion ink supporter. But never a fan. cause when the zeal is gone, fans can turn to an angry, crazy, disheartened, and irrational mob. 🙂

  1552. Dear Rohan

    You have been replying to comments on the last two posts .. but your comments have been restricted to chosen few who have decided to continue to have faith.

    You have failed to respond to any of the criticisms or given any of the answers.

    All this while I assumed there was an FCC approval in place .. but your vague answers are suggesting that FCC approval is ‘expected’ in end december (before shipping)

    Have you personally seen all of the variants in working condition in their final avatar ? You said you did dry run of all FCC tests beforehand to make sure everything goes off well .. so that implies you had final units at your disposal .. then I am sure you also have pictures and test data … why do we wait till the 18th ?

    Honestly ROhan , is there anything that you are hiding from us ? is this only the tip of the iceberg ?

  1553. Don’t get me wrong — all of us, including start ups, do learn from mistakes. But then, a start up that has created this much attention should have brought in expertise to back up the expectations that it generated in the collective perception of the followers. I was just pointing that out 🙂

    My comment is so that NI seriously thinks about getting the help of experienced professionals (if they haven’t figured out yet).

  1554. नमस्कार

    :
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep.

    Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
    by Robert Frost

  1555. Dear Rohan,
    Try getting Robert Scoble or Guy Kawasaki using your investor contacts, you dont need any more PR than that.
    I am sure would have already known this, but just incase it dint click in your mind.

  1556. *sigh* Rohan. Communication is key. And sometimes it’s more critical than others. Next time we have a big launch….you have to be accessible, able to respond and change plans or provide at least be able to notify us that plans are changing in accordance with the situation. Ah well. Also…please have everything in place so that there is no possibility of a repeat of the pre-ordering ….experience. I did not receive an email and I completely missed the apparently narrow window of opportunity to pick up a Pixel Qi ADAM. I’m ok with it, I can wait, and I will get one as soon as it become available, but …. keep in mind that people, your customers, your family as you call us, are here because of the larger experience. By the time ADAM is available for sale, there will be more…perhaps many more, Tegra 2 based tablets running Android, each with it’s own hardware and software strengths and weaknesses. The area where you and NI have the potential to be truly different is how you interact with us. Good luck at CES. Hope to be able to purchase soon.

  1557. you need to buy a data plan. most probably 850 MHz wont have any problems with ATT. But i am not sure it works with Tmobile as they have different band (i think 2100). 3g sim card is GSM and so it is not compatible with verizon. one option you have is to buy MIFI (i think that can support 5 devices at a time) from verizon and use your wifi with that. but MIFI monthly cost would be 40 as opposed to $15 plan from ATT.

  1558. Well, that’s it for me… These last two days have been a tad anticlimatic for me..although I got the preorder-mail, I don’t buy stuff I never saw in action..
    I want (and I’m going to get) the Adam, but not without seeing it first.. So I’ll be back on the 18th, when there will (?!) be something worth while to read about/drool over..

  1559. Well missed the Pixel Qi because of card transaction issues, what is the plan to reopen pre-orders for these tablets. I would have assumed you would continue to take orders and extend the shipping date. Are they supply chain issues that prevent you from doing it. Is the second batch of tablets far away in the future?

  1561. there is another thing called laptop stick. you need to plug that to USB port. but not sure if that is supported in Android or Adam. not sure who should have the driver software for that? i gusess Tmobile/ATT/Verizon should come up with that software for adam/android.

  1562. Well i said it yesterday! and say it again… i still believe NI!!!! this really points to be a great product and … i have already pre-order mine!!!

    I am just wondering what would be the passing through custioms process in my home country (MEXICO, crapy customs processes by the way)

    anyways, the important is that NI has showed to be really following their beleifs around developing a revolutionary product lke ADAM, and that is something i really like… doing things by heart and not because of the size they wallets will be!… that is one reason why i would not buy apple.. or some other vendors that do things in such way that you need to get married with them in order to get all the juice of their products … and some of them crapy as the IPHONE1.0

    Warm Regards and Congratulations Rohan for your achievment!!!

  1563. Thanks the prompt response Rohan. I appreciated. I will wait until the Pixel Qi version is restocked again.

  1565. Come on E. de Klerk,

    Your seem to be from Europe or the US and judging from your post English is your native language.

    You therefor know that PRE-order is what happens BEFORE orders are accepted.

    Rohan did us a favour by enabling us to ensure that we, as fans, can have one of the first batch going out. He probably did that against the will of his main distributors who all wish to have exclusivity deals (for a period of time). And now he is being burnt for offering an opportunity that nobody is obliged to take?

    Wait till the Adam is in a shop near you. You will still have the pleasant experiences of having a tool with outstanding specs and on top of that you will be assured of all your US or European consumer rights.

    There is NO WAY that a start-up can fulfill all the different consumer rights that apply to different countries. That is what local distributors are for. Rohan is giving you an opportunity to order one BEFORE they launch the product. Many of us are VERY happy that he does so and would appreciate it that those who need more comfort do not spoil the party now, but wait for another 3 weeks when the official launch will most likely take place (January 6-th at the CER).

  1567. replying saperately.. coz i have a boring msg to share wid rohan sir.
    will soon post both simlutaneously.. in a new comment.

  1568. I too missed bus bcoz not invited to get in bus( not got invitation mail)…hope to get in second bus!!

  1569. That’s what I thought. And you have been around forever. As well as Gecko, Greg. Shit happens but he should have just emailed the “family” directly/privately. I’m sure he’s stressed out and things are moving 100MPH Or 1000KMH depending on where you’re from. I just hope he gets in front of this bad press. Android Police dogged Rohan and Notion Ink and Phandroid has already picked up the story. It’s only going to get worse until he delivers something.

  1570. I have pre-order the PixelQi + WiFi+3g. After all these comments I can consider myself as luky.
    Maybe that from Europe the servers where not saturated.
    However, how the pre-order works? Do we still have the choice in the color and in the other optional features? What will be the final terms and conditions since the “extract” proposed during acceptance of the pre-order was not complete?
    Hope no surprises will arise but I’m totally confident on the Notion Ink team.
    It is rare to see dedication and real involment in our days.

    Thanks in advance & wating for some news.

    regards

  1572. this could as well mean the first batch of production is not much. may be it is a trial run and they dont want to risk messing up with too many units. after the trial run, they will scale up the production to millions of units 🙂 so we all should have enough to buy by march. i dont think we will need to wait till sept for this 🙂 by that we will get all the positive reviews about adam and we can confidently buy the product!! i wish Notion Ink all success. eagerly but patiently waiting to get one for me, and more for my family 🙂

  1573. still didn’t get email with link that I was hoping for
    I’m sure I was writing comments back then… usually about how much I want stylus :3

  1574. Wow a personal response from Rohan. I feel special. No problem Rohan. I’m sure you’ll do what it takes to make it right.

  1575. Looks as though posts are starting to slow down some from the angry mob… Children will eventually cry themselves to sleep. I have some questions still. I didn’t pre order last night in hopes that there would be more information soon (hands on video, etc)… Woke up this am to find that all of the PixelQi variants are sold out (Kudos to whoever bought them!). I am a little bummed out, but I’m a big boy and I’ll make out alright… Anyway- the question that’s burning in my mind (and the mind of quite a few others it seems) is when will production catch up with more units available for purchase?

    I have been following this blog and soaking up all the info about NI and PQi on the web for the past year… I feel like you guys are definitely the current frontrunners in the tablet market if you can just get over a couple of humps. The difficulty going forward is that the tech market is full of very fickle lovers- you aren’t going to be the prettiest option on the block forever- with some of the major players coming to market next year (Moto, HTC, etc) with fully spec’d tablets that are advanced beyond the hardware capabilities of Adam and customer service already in place internationally. You guys have a pretty small window of opportunity to really impress with this release and then you better be on your way to bigger and better things in order to just keep a dog in the fight.

    The current snafu- sold out of pixel qi- is just another bump in the road to success, but listen carefully to those sales numbers… For many (most) of us the Pixel Qi screen is what delineates this product as better than the competition. For god’s sake it’s what you have been touting in the internet for the past year- it’s the option that gives us the battery life that we want, it lets us go outside- it makes this tablet better than the others.

    We haven’t seen any confirmation that Eden is actually working. The only video evidence we have are the numerous videos of adam running stock android… You promise a lot, but until we have proof…? You guys need to get a video demo up ASAP. Dec 18th is a start, but something sooner (ie beating a declared deadline) would move mountains in rebuilding some of the consumer trust that for many small reasons has been hurt over the last few days.

    I wish you all the best- I hope that production is already in process of being increased as the demand is obviously very high…

  1576. Your advice is perfect in hindsight, packetloss.

    Glad you were able to pre-order without issue.

    Just hoping to get the update from my bank at the end of the day to show that the charges went through without a hitch!

  1578. Hi Rohan,
    I thought I would put a few thoughts down on paper (or a blog). Let’s start with the good things. The amount of info you have given has been phenomenal, I have followed the blog since August religiously, I am very excited to get the adam tablet I pre-ordered. Before that, I only checked in once a month or so. But there are a few things you need to curb, since you are so busy, you have a tendency to make promises, but not follow-up on them, such as the power calculator, that was a couple of months ago, but still no sign of it, in fact many of the blogs tease that in the next post there will be some more info on a specific topic, but then the next blog comes and we are on to new things, and we never get the follow-up information. The family first was a debacle, personally I have posted several comments on most every blog since I started following back in August, that is when there was like a 100 – 200 comments on a post, not 8000, I waited and waited for the email which never came, I was very disappointed, as I am sure were many other family members. They must have asked the same question as me: Why am I the black sheep? It would have been much better never to have made the promise, then to make it and not come through. And, I am confident it wasn’t a spam filter problem, as I have posted on two separate email addresses, one from home and one from work, and neither received anything, and I am the mail administrator at work, so I know some distant isp didn’t filter it. I am not going to say anything about the order process, since you have explained that pretty well. The color choices, even I knew at the time, that there was no way you could produce multiple color choices, and apparently from your post, you knew the same thing. The blog should have just been what it really was, a chance to vote on aftermarket color accessories that would be offered, we would have been just as happy to vote on that, but it is clear it never was a poll to pick the final color of the adam. Since, white was no were near the top vote getter. Be straight up on all aspects of the tablet, we believe in you and Notion Ink. Make fewer promises, but keep the one you make!
    You lost a lot of credibility yesterday, and sales, I personally was going to purchase three units, one for my wife and son and myself. Instead I only purchased the one for myself, my wife and son were never true believers like me, but I was pulling them along for the ride, but they got off the train yesterday. My sons comment on the order screen was “6 – 8 weeks, I thought the first were going to be by x-mas and no later than CES, if that wasn’t true, why should I believe in the 6 – 8 weeks, Rohan probably will say at CES that it will be released by the end of the 1st quarter or worse by the 2nd quarter”. So, my wife is getting an Ipad, and my son a net book for college. In the grand scheme of things this won’t make any difference to Notion Ink, so it probably doesn’t really matter to your company, but I don’t think it is a good way to start.
    The last few days seems to have been an attempt to start the internet buzz, and it did, but it did it at the expense of your loyal base, we stayed up all night waiting for the big unveiling, only to be told it is 6 more hours, then that was stretched out. You will get a lot more buzz with a video, or a some pictures, which I know you said are coming on the 18th, but I have to say we were going to get better pictures a long time ago and those never came, I am not confident in the 18th date being met, please don’t let this be another missed promise. To close, I am happy I ordered the tablet, I can’t wait to get it, but I have lost a lot of the original enthusiasm I had. I won’t be trying to convert the world to adam, I am just going to worry about myself, even early yesterday, I was posting non-stop trying to calm people down, defending Notion Ink, and you personally. But I have lost my desire to keep defending it, I think your company is going to be a big success, I wish you well, but I don’t feel like family anymore, and I am a little sad about that.

  1580. PS: Rohan, you should be very happy something sold out. But as you know now, had things went smoothly I have no doubt you might have sold EVERYTHING out. ESPECIALLY if you posted a video.

  1581. what the hell is happening with the orders, everytime i try to order using my visa it gets declined, i called my visa company and there is nothing in their system to this transaction, i told them i tried it yesterday about 4 times and today 3 times and there is nothing on file.

  1582. Got really exited yesterday, with the Adam under a blanket, and the pre order NOW sign. Now I’m just sad and it feels like NI let me down.
    Now it’s a new day and some more waiting, I just hope I get a email from NI soon.
    I will never quit following NI, I feel like a part of something big here, and I’m sure things will look up soon.
    All families go through some up and downs. The best thing to do is to try and be positive when it’s bad.

  1583. i just found that when i ordered the pixel qi variant it said that my transaction couldnot be completed.
    but when i checked the balance the amount was deducted
    will i get back my money and when??

  1585. Rohan, Thanks for the detailed update and addressing lots of questions. We dont care about any Mr. Murphy etc.. Price hike.. Okay – Understandable..

    But why do you want to not have a quad band GSM. This is crazy, I do a lot of travel between India and US and this would mean I cannot use it in India.. Please please think about this. Also, Android market? Whats up with it? Can we access it or not?

    For major countries, shouldnt you be shipping in bulk and then distribute locally. Atleast in future do you plan to do so?

  1586. I have been storong fan of Apple for quite many years and have always appreciated their technical capability. In fact I have worked with their tech team for many years. But as an end customer, I have always felt like they treat them like “………” ( not finding suitable word), someone from whome they can get good money and they can boss around. Keeping absolute secracy about what they are doing.

    On the other hand you guys have gone just 180 from them. Idea/product as great as theirs but maintaining complete transparency. In fact you guy go out of the way to explain things to non-techy people. Something I am sure will be a case study in the business school . ( I am sure).

    Though I live in US for many many years but I am proude to see something coming as a product from India. ( no more just the service industry) and especially from my fellow IITians.

    COngratulations !

  1588. Is it just me or does the fact the LCD models still haven’t sold out indicate there is no market for them? I almost think they shouldn’t even produce those models, the Pixel-QI screen is what makes people want Adam, not necessarily the customised OS.

  1589. What a great feedback! I can not agree more! THANKS for the encouraging words and advice to Rohan. You have echoed what every real supporter of Rohan and NI want to say.

    warm regards

  1590. “I think mr. Shravan can hardly keep up with all the posts in this blog (besides doing his job, which is to fix everything everybody is complaining about) so don’t expect him to react to them.”

    That’s what a competent team is for doesn’t it?

  1591. I currently reside in China and down payments here for cars are often 100% of the retail price and I know from my home town in The Netherlands that if a upcoming car is popular, many are willing to fork out the full amount to ensure that they are ahead of their friends.

  1592. ~ Can anyone tell me why when pre-ordering the adam, one has to give our social security number?
    ~ It did not ask me for a social security number when I pre-ordered.

    ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

  1594. If Notion Ink has been planning to unveil Adam at CES, how come they are not listed in the CES exhibitors list?

  1595. Hi Rohan,
    Congratulations! For the pre orders start.

    YOU NEED TO DO
    – Streamline the web site.
    -PLEASE CORRECT THE ENGLISH: grammar/ spellings: Believe whatever people say but, in international market this does not look good= BAD REPUTATION.
    – GET PROFESSIONAL MARKETING: However good the product is, if you can’t sell it, it is as good as dead. With internet you really don’t need to go for the expensive TV adds but you need to be all over the net with actual videos etc. It really won’t harm to get CNET and other to get your product evaluated and reviewed. WITH GOOD PUBLICITY YOU CAN ACTUALLY SELL IPOD, HOWEVER USELESS IT MAY BE then why NOT ADAM, it’s a great product, if it actually works the way it is said to.

    NI is a start up and to grow you need good publicity along with good product. One with out the other is good for nothing. I am sure you just don’t want to sell few ten thousands of it to us followers. At the end of the day SCAM ALERT even if false is no good, I am sure you know it better than me.

    Good luck.

  1596. Rohan clearly mentioned that single device wont have both 850 and 900. that is why he mentioned total 6 variants. i hope Rohan would change the design to include a triband 3g and quad band edge on the device instead of having exclusive single band. otherwise if you buy 3g in USA you can not use the 3G sim card in countries except canaca and some part of south america. rest of the regions including europe and asia uses 900. hopefully Rohan will clear the mis communication. At one side he talks about transparency. but his website says otherwise. even after the pre-order start, the website still lacks any update. it is not at all professional. it will work only with fanboys and those follow his blogs religiously. i still trust Rohan and NI but i had to hold off due to the other policies like service and shipping

  1599. Please try to understand
    NI doesnt have deep pockets. Preorders are also funds to generate the mass production. (the cycle of credit) and also to streamline the expected demands of individual models (crucial for marketing).

  1601. Thanks everyone, I was expecting to get bashed my fellow NI “family” or NI lovers. I wanted to say something constructive. I have faith that NI is working out the kinks. This was a pre-order, not only that but thousands of quiet fans/followers may have mislead Rohan into thinking there would be less interest than expected until he announced the pre-order where everyone came out of the woods and started posting, refreshing, and trying to order. Stuff happens, we know this.

    The hardest part for most of these followers specifically the “family” is that some of them were left high and dry. That’s painful when you followed and even communicated with Rohan directly on the blog (not me but others) then to not get that email you can imagine the anger or feeling of betrayal.

    At the end of the day it’s just a freakin’ tablet computer. Some people are really acting like whining 3 year old children. But then there are those who really felt like this was a “family” so their pain/frustration is understandable. I especially hate those comments like “why are you not taking care of your Desi family” or “what about your Indian brothers”. Come on guys. This isn’t about race, it’s about business. Don’t act so desperate.

    Lastly, some have mentioned investors. Ahh investors are always a pain in the ass. I’m sure Rohan has his hands tied in some aspects when it comes to investors. I hope these investors don’t force Rohan’s hand in rushing tablet not ready for public consumption.

    Ok I’m done. I talk too much. 🙂

  1602. there is nothing wrong in engadget. they are neutral website and what they posted is right. everyone including them agrees that this product is far far superior. but when it comes to common public, everything is on paper. no one saw it real. on paper, indian cricket team has tigers and lions. but when the actual match starts, we know what happens. instead of scolding engadget, NI should come up with hands on and also they should give one unit to these websites to test it and post reviews. then they will post positives only. so nothing wrong with their comment to “be wary”

  1603. Not a big deal, IMHO.

    NI will become a great case study for MBA students very soon.
    – How a bunch of kids went against the most established of the world

  1604. +1

    I managed to place an order, but yes… “I have lost a lot of the original enthusiasm I had too. I won’t be trying to convert the world to adam, I am just going to worry about myself”

    apt and true for me too 😦

  1605. i do not think it have android market
    it has been much speculation round this and if it really had android market they would come out with it
    and they have a separate market that may also indicate that they do not have Androids

  1607. I’m sorry I didn’t notice that the second commenter was Lakshman. Looking at the pink avatars I thought both comments were by one person. Sorry again.

    The day has been a massive heartbreak with all the bad press that Notion Ink got. I guess many, like me, think of NI as our own venture. All this is dis-heartening.

    Shiteth hath hitteth the fan..eth.

  1608. I think I have an answer to your second question. It is probably to keep away the spamming software from trolling through the e-mail address and thereafter spamming their inboxes.

  1610. @Rohan:
    i just found that when i ordered the pixel qi variant it said that my transaction couldnot be completed.
    but when i checked the balance the amount was deducted
    will i get back my money and when??

    please reply

  1611. Hi Rohan,

    The problem about you guys are that you have tried to become too transparent to us! If this was any other company we would not have got any information at all. You do not need to give in to all our demands. But that is the standard that you have set yourself! People are forgetting that preordering is meant to be for those who want the thing before anybody has reviewed it. It has to be on faith that the product would be good. I tried to place my order for the most expensive version but could not get through and it is now sold out. I will order mine whenever it is available. And kudos to you for the way you are trying to conduct your business and are ready to listen to us!
    Wish you and the Notion Ink team all the success!
    Regards,
    Pratik

  1612. “Pre Order Now”, how, if its a link on the main page its dead at the moment!

    Are they sold out?

  1613. One thing that I discovered while doing my thesis work is that when companies start opening up to customer feedback online, users start to feel a certain ownership over the product and as a result start reacting harshly to little details. So cheer up, you guys, you’re doing a good job getting people passionate, even when the loudest voices are angry.

  1614. See pixel qi’s website. They say that they shall be there at CES in a separate meeting room, but are not going to have a booth and so are not listed. Can’t NI adopt a similar path or maybe demo with Pixel Qi?

  1615. @Rohan
    I ordered an adam on faith in NI, but I really would like to know how much storage I ordered in the adam.

  1616. My suggestion is to create a waiting list for sold out models so customers can be contacted and asked if they want to buy when the model they are interested in – is available for shipping. Also maybe post when more are going to be available.

  1617. For some people [ie. students], the lcd models are a prefect match for their needs and are more affordable.

  1618. Proclaimation: I am not a fan of NI, just an admirer of their endeavour. What I am going to say is just what I feel, ?could fathom the reasons of “Why Rohan acted like this?”

    1. NI and Rohan had laboured so hard to creat a device, which they thought could be a platform for their ideology, of the usage of technology to innovate and evolve. They sold the idea to the world.

    2. The world responded. It was such a good idea and godd prospect if implemented.

    3. But actual responses were limited to some techie blogs, some few comments in Rohan’s blog (the early Buzz)

    4. Rohan sold the idea to NVIDIA, PIXEL QI, QUALCOMM, FOXXCON, got positive response and also professional collaboration.

    5. Somehow he fail to sell this radical idea of a device to his original investor, who wanted changes seemingly the opposite of what NI believed. NI persisted with their belief but with the fallout of loosing the investor.

    6. Time lost, investment lost, funds depleted, layoffs with core staff remaining, just on the brink of folding, NI got a new investor who shared their vision.

    7. So what did the investor provide? No one knows, but funds were rejuvenated. But was it billions? No one knows. could be NI could maintain 100K /month with the funds in initial period.

    8. So next what? NI concentrated on their core vision. Flaks, vapourware tags, scam etc floated. Why? they could not maintain a shedule release. Why? tegra issues, flash issues, android 2-1 to 2.2 to ?

    9. But what were they doing? filing patents, hacking jernel codes, designing issues, maintaining a mode of communication, increasing staff.

    10 what about the salaries and the increasing expenses? with no final product? how could they minimsed the cost of development at the same time create the BUZZ to get attention? The investor(s) still goes along with them.

    11 How to make the device a long term success? to-be user feedbacks analysis, community “crowd source’ development method adopted.

    12. Now at the brink of finalising product. But are the funds adequate for the expected demands? Nah, no problem, even though thousands are following the blogs, the actual buyers of preorders will be manageable. Why? majority is giving opinion that they wont buy without video, UI demo. of the final product.

    13. How about beta testing? some 200 or 400 testers will do. So this means total number of first batch of devices wont be much? yeah

    14. But how about the mass production? pre-order funds will be there, the analysis of demand will be there with pre-order. With that data mass production at dec-jan.

    15. how many orders expected? ~10K. How this is arrived at? some computational analysis. What if action videos are asked? those 10K are mostly testers, developers, techies. They know what preorder means.

    16. Why not video? Well want the LAUNCH to be very big (biggest achievable) with full disclosure of UI, apps, ecosystem etc. Surprise factor, unique factor (competition wont have time to copy) and TREAT to fans and followers so they bask at the BUZZ.

    17. So now what? How about the “family”? That can be a big issue. Why? The number of intial responders is BIG and the recent surge in members is huge. Maybe many wont order by the comments

    18 . Reactions from fans? ………..

    *sorrry I dont want to continue*

  1619. !!!ATTENTION!!! !!!ATTENTION!!!

    PLEASE READ this IF your Visa was declined yesterday when you tried to order and you have NOT already contacted your bank!!!

    I was just in a very awkward situation and would like to save you this trouble. I tried to use my Visa yesterday for ordering, but it did not work so I switched to my Amex. That was all fine and good EXCEPT Wells Fargo actually put a stop on ALL purchases just because of the rejected purchase yesterday. The company we tried to order from (apparently) is notorious for fraudulent transactions so Wells Fargo automatically suspended my card WITHOUT any notification to me. I tried to make a purchase today with this card and was quite embarrassed to have my card declined. A few minutes on the phone fixed the problem, but again, I would like to save you this embarrassment and recommend you call your bank.

  1621. So I’m really glad to see that you answered so many of the questions.
    However, I have one more:
    When are the orders for the Pixel Qi going to open back up? I couldn’t get my card to work yesterday, and when I got up this morning, they were listed as sold out. 😦
    Thanks!

  1625. So looking now for a new Memory Card for the unit thinking oh boy Im going to get the biggest one possible. But after doing some digging discovering that Micro SD only go up to 32GB due to limitations inherently from Micro SD. So the most memory this can take via its memory slot is 32GB???? So if I want more then 8 onboard + 32 MicoSD = 40 GB I would have to plug a thumbdrive into it???
    Could someone please chime in and prove me wrong on this?

    I’m not looking for a comparison to Apple, just a solution.

    Something along the lines of…

    The microsd slot that is in the Adam is actually “Secure Digital Extended Capacity” (SDXC) capable, so when the market comes out with a MicroSd version of SDXC it will work in the adam tablet. It just makes sense to me that if you are going to have a slot to add memory it should be able to be more then 32GB.
    Like regular Secure Digital with SDXC or other type of flash media that are capable of more then the 32G limit now on MicorSD cards.

    Is the solution really for me to carry around 24G movies on seperate MicroSd cards? Those things are so small. I somtimes can’t find my car keys let alone a microSd Card that is smaller then my thumbnail.

    Sorry this was posted on the wrong page. I reposted it here in hopes of a solution.

  1627. So I have a question. When it says ships 6-8 weeks (which is an eternity…) does it mean that we should expect to have it in that time? Or does it mean that they will begin shipping it in that time?

  1629. Rohn,

    I have to say that this first pass at getting out the Adam to the loyal followers who have been checking and commenting on this blog has been just short of a disaster.

    But people should have some understanding that for a startup this is not an unheard of occurrence.

    We who have gotten an order placed or still want to order have to remember we are dealing with the first full run off the production line, and there going to be problems, (hopefully minor ones), that have to be worked out. But Rohan, you are going to have to get the delivery times down to a week or ten days if you are only going to do website orders.

    If as some have suggested you can sell through large retailers like Amazon that should solve your delivery problem, as long as the factory can supply enough units in bulk.

    But as of now you have blown any chance of getting any Christmas sales out to the public, and if your backers thought they were going to do this by waiting till now they are going to be really disappointed.

    For now get the factory building in volume so you have enough product to ship fast, and fix the website.

  1630. More than compensated? Umm what part of pre-order email would not work for those lucky (I guess??????) enough to get one? How will all of us “family” members be compensated for that mishap!

  1631. Oh, and if it does clear the FCC soon, any chance you will begin shipping earlier? Would love to have this for Christmas!

  1633. Dear rohan…

    I want to preorder just tell me the answer to two simple questions that have been asked a lot of times by a lot of people including me on this blog… please…

    1) access to android marketplace?
    2) The hard drive capacity of adam (8+)…???

    Please… this is the last time i want to ask this… please let me know… or if u cant for some reason (?) please just mention it…

  1634. According to Rohan, THE SHIPPING DETAILS ARE SELF EVIDENT

    At least to him.

    My guess as I read it, they will not be shippied until 6-8 weeks.

  1635. Hey Asshole,

    Do you have any personal animosity against Rohan?
    Don’t you have anything else to do?
    Why are you posting the same comments every three minutes?

  1637. There is always a +ve and -ve side of things . The -ve side of the “family” showed up in the last 48 hours. I guess NI strategy was a bit naive to be honest. Maybe you guys tried too hard to bring the pre order thingy on 9th. I guess a general pre order much closer to the shipping date might have been better but hindsight is always wise :P. Anyways the most important thing is that you can’t please everybody 🙂

  1639. The one thing i don’t get is the absurd fickleness of the people on this blog

    You had 2 options pre-order, if you were madly in love with product and could overlook details, or don’t. No one forced anyone either way.

    When you have pre-ordered don’t go around posting stupid stuff that I don’t believe this company will produce, this company won’t be around more than 6 months etc. Shut up and wait for at least until the shipping date. Because doubting the company is one thing but what does it say about you ? saying all this just within 24 hrs ?

    The other thing I don’t get is this family thing going on, you/we commented on the blog because we loved the product and we were paid back by responses from Rohan accordingly. They had a goof up with sending out emails, who wont when you send out 30 K ? You didn’t get one sucks but move on, you should have ordered when it was open for everyone, which was open for atleast a couple of hours.

    There is no obligation from anyone to anyone other than good product for a decent price. You wont accept a screen with a scratch because NI is family ,or NI wont accept less than retail price because we are family. This is a business, everyone has their own needs.

    The only thing that matters is Product and the support. If they come out with a product which blows the socks and what not off the reviewers then the people who were complaining here about payment gateways won’t hesitate to wire money to Assange if needed to get an adam.

    One thing Apple proves is, if your product has the best experience and quality then people will tolerate a lot of dickishness. This is evident in Iphone 4 antenna gate and Steve jobs initial response. This is the only factor IMO.

  1640. Rohan, Focus more on the product release and less on what people are saying about you or adam. But you seem to be doing the other way around. Initially i was thinking, this may be due to the fact that you have all your ducks in a row and waiting for some date. But gradually you lost my trust. Why would you take time to respond to critics on crunchgear or some other site but can’t upload a demo. What happened to the NI logo, the sdk, the EAP, the power usage data etc etc. You are yourself to blame for the mess you created. That’s because people on this forum have been asking those questions for a long time, and you been giving an impression that you are listening to them. It was almost childish to see you post the popularity of this blog using WordPress stats.

    I suspected something was amiss when some of my previos comments were deleted.

    Has anyone seen NI office in Bangalore ? Can you post some photographs of your office ? I bet you can’t.

  1641. Too bad they could not moderate the blog during pre-orders!~

    Oh I know they were on a plane… right! How was it you were able to comment on youtube and even on the blog with one liners that really gave no information to anyone except your bankers as you expresssed how things would really pick up once the US and EU servers were up.

    I call BS on it all Rohan, what a let down, what a finger in the eye, what ever ephumism you want to adopt.

  1642. @Rohan

    If you had also put PayPal option much of the heartburning would not have been there. PayPal has a 60-day refund policy without deducting any processing fees from the merchant. This covers your intended shipping schedule of 6 to 8 weeks.

    You could have collected only a small token amount and NOT the full price and also collected the buyer’s expression of interest for a particular model. The balance amount could have been collected just before shipping.

    All that could also have been preceded with information of the exact specifications that you can make public at the point of pre-order AND also a date (for example CES 2011) when the rest of the secret features (and a count of how many) would be revealed.

    The pre-order could be open to all AND open up to the public launch within a 60 day (or 8 weeks) window.

    On an alternate (wild) note, instead of selling the non-revealable product, you could have sold subscription, worth say $50, to the Genesis marketplace and then allowed ordering preference to such subscribers over the general public.

  1643. Oh and I guess we should have just disregarded Android Police’s reports after all they have only given us misleading information, right? Oh wait that was YOU!

  1644. Can we all take a moment to think?

    When Apple releases a product… do reviewers get to review it BEFORE it is released? NOPE

    People line up for hours (similar to preoder) to buy this thing without EVER seeing a single review.

    Steve Jobs holds up the product at a event (kinda like CES) before its on the market (kinda like CES)

    We got the opportunity to PREODER the product before this happens… Yes there was problems and sure people disagreed with shippings costs or w.e. but common people…

    Notion Ink went out and did what apple does every time… Notion Ink, however,

    – let us know everything along the way of development

    – gave us the opportunity to preoder before the product unveiling

    – answered a lot of our questions

    they are trying to go public. When they get to CES they want to be the big hit. They want to reach out to the average consumer, which wont happen if they sell all their stuff to the people who go online. If all their videos were online and review online… this product will NEVER reach mass market. This needs to be in stores to reach mass market and it wont get there without a big splash. Yes things didnt go smoothly. People are complaining that notion ink did too much and not enough at the same time. I think they did a great job, would have been better if the payment went smoother, but all things considered they gave people who followed the chance to buy their product as best they could while still keeping us within the development.

  1646. @Diwa: Good one.. 🙂 even i did find it, but think twice before u post such kind of info on blog. U might be willing to help rohan, but better do that using mail. Android police or someone sneaking through this blog may just pick it and create more fuss…

  1648. @rohan

    It sounds like you really want to make this better and are listening (reading) intently to our comments.

    I can put together a list for you, but it seems to boil down to being more transparent with information and in a timely fashion.

    Get someone (a few) to help with this stuff. If you try it all on your own… I am sure you can even get some volunteers from this blog to help you (for free). Never be afraid to ask for help.

    What we have already been told, post it somewhere on the site (FAQ style for example). If there is something you can’t tell us, tell us you can’t tell us (you have done this). If there is something your hiding, just tell us to figure it out (like you did with the riddles) or tell us your not talking about it. Just be transparent.

    While most of us are enjoying this ride, you have thousands who are upset for one reason or another. That is not your intent (clearly). While I suspect 95% of them will buy an adam when given the chance…that does not matter. You don’t want a single person on this blog to tell anyone not on the blog, something negative. Bad news travels faster then good news. I think at this point, being transparent with dates, or saying you will tell the dates as soon as you know, will help the situation.

    What can set NI apart from other companies is transparency with your flair for getting our attention and keep us intrigued. Most of all, develop products that will improve…our lives.

  1650. LOL! Thanks Christian and Greg. I read somewhere that Adam is like a Unicorn, too good to be true. But if it is, I sure as hell am not missing it!!

  1652. Another post that still doesn’t give any more info about the device its self. Can you not see that’s all we want?! More information about the device! It can’t possibly take over a week (“18th December”) to snap some photos, shoot a video, and upload.

  1654. lol. I am seriously amazed at the number of people who still believe there is hope! I was a great NI fan up until the day before when this whole fiasco unfolded. I dont want the company I buy a product from to “retroactively” respond to blog posts around the world: ala androidpolice. I want the company to proactively set up a system so that there is no room for error. LinkedIn lists 30 employees of NI including a person supposedly heading sales and marketing. Shouldn’t he be the face of pre-orders? Shouldn’t he be the one out there with a demo unit showing it off on video?

    Why Dec 18 th? Its almost ten days away. Is NI Adam not a finished product yet? If you are at a stage where you can start pre-orders and charge people money, why cant a video demo be made immediately? All photos, renders and videos shared so far in the recent months have been home-made and poor quality any way. I dont think NI fans mind some one filming Adam on a smartphone and posting it on youtube. Just not in a dark room where no one knows what the hell is going on…like you did on your 1080p video.

    I did not order one but I do feel really pissed off that others have with some pretty bizzarre T&C for returns/ refund. I am more pissed that you projected yourself and your company has India’s answer to the iPad- what with statements like Adam plays flash, its open et al. Please dont ever do that. And seriously, what company’s CEO puts up the link to the sales/returns agreement of another company on his website to justify everything that has happened. And links to Apple? Please do not embarrass yourself and NI.

    After all the bad press, I still cannot believe your ‘supposed’ investors are not jittery and out there saying there really is a product and it will be announced in due course. Not one developer has mentioned getting a unit to write his apps. Every software upgrade you mention is likely being done by people hired by NI. I am going only based on your blog posts in the recent past. Why isnt any single person out there coming out and saying they have seen/used the product? Seriously dude, if this is vaporware, I hope the law catches up and puts an end to the nonsense. But I really hope for the sake of the people that have paid up, NI Adam is real.

  1655. Hi Rohan,

    I appreciate you taking the time to address some of the more major concerns we had regarding the 30 hour fiasco that was the prelaunch. I’ve had a chance to get a good nights sleep (my pre-order having been processed :D) and am now feeling a lot more level headed and less frustrated by the process.

    I would however like to voice some items I still haven’t heard addressed, and would be very interested in your reply, albiet them being more minor in the grand scheme of things – the pre-orders did not specify a variety of information, which suggests to me that NI will have to queue all pre-orderers for the remaining information, and I was wondering what/how this would be done.

    Items that were not addressed include:
    – HDD Size
    – Color options (It was established that your partners would be selling interchangable strips down the road, but I haven’t seen any elective for the primary unit colors as was originally established)
    – Shipping options (you did address this somewhat, but I feel it still needs some clarification – NI waves liability if a package is lost, for example – can I add insurance to my package to cover it in that event, and how would I go about paying NI for this service? Similarly, what if I would like to expedite the package – can I pay a premium to have it arrive sooner (post Jan 6)?)
    – 3G band selection (There was no option distinguishing whether I require 850 or 900)

    Thanks for your attention Rohan; I look forward to receiving my Adam in 6-8 weeks. 🙂

  1658. Hi Rohan. Many thanks for posting up information to explain the situation with Mastercard. It was a disappointment that I wasn’t able to join in the first wave making a pre-order, but it’s very good to see that you responded with an explanation. I’m sure this is a HUGE learning curve, and you clearly wish to give a great product and service. As soon as the Mastercard clears, then you will have my support in the shape of an order.

    My oh my, you have some reading to do with all this blog activity. People are fickle with their disappointments in this day and age; don’t take it too much to heart – the enthusiasm with be back I’m sure for many once they see the product and its huge benefits. Well done Notion Ink team!

  1660. Thanks for the post Rohan. Glad to hear that the video shall be available on 18th. I hope you realize that by now you have a serious credibility problem the way things were handled yesterday. So please make sure you stick to the date and not delay the video due to *any* reason.
    Also, please make sure it is not a half baked 30second video, rather a comprehensive one showing the lcd and pixel qi screens, inside and outside in the sun, different apps, etc etc.

    Please also address the other couple of unanswered questions people have:
    1) How much is the onboard flash? It says 8+GB on the website which is vague.
    2) Will we be able to download and run apps from the android marketplace? Or will we be restricted to NI’s store. In the video please show downloading an app or two from the android stores and running them.

    Again, the video needs to be top-notch. Days of blogging, renders and images are gone. Any more slip-ups and most people shall just take you off their radar.

  1661. Rohan,

    I am trying to get our college computer store to be the official distributor of Adam in the whole of our country. I am sure it will sell pretty well to the student and business community in the college and beyond. We are in a college city with over 10 universities and colleges and the home to Oil and Gas Head Quarters. It is also home to to Information Technology firms that provide such services to the Oil and Gas companies. Please contact or let me know if that can be arragned. So far the store is the official distributor of Entrourage Edge, which does not match up to Notion Ink Adam.

  1662. Why is NI not registered as a vendor at CES? As someone who goes to Vegas twice a year for the M.A.G.I.C. SHOW(clothing apparel ) I understand how these are setup. I checked vendors, exhibitors, etc and didn’t see them anywhere. Hmmmmm

  1663. @Zach,
    Thanks for the post. Will be helpful to many folks that could order 😉

    So stupid of these banks/credit cards. I can understand them not honoring a transaction that they doubt to be fraud, but suspending the card itself is ridiculous.

    And what’s the basis that they deem a transaction fraud? Just because it came from India or some such developing country? Is it not discrimination?

    Some cards like Amazon-chase hold the transactions and ask for confirmation via email or phone and then approve the transaction/release the money. That’s much better when compared to things like these.

  1664. @Rohan
    Plz can u tell us when can we order again because my birthday is on jan 10 n i hoed to get it around dat tym…so plzzzzzzzzz can tell me..

  1665. Rohan, Please engage PR guys at this stage. It’s crucial. I know the product will be great!. if you get bad publicity (I can see in other blogs) for the product, it would be bit difficult to keep the current momentum. Atlease add Gallery section on website and post some images, that would give some kind of relief to our disheartened fans.

  1666. Lost Revenue –

    I would like to say that I originally intended to pre-order three 3g/Wifi units, but with the lack of a common shopping cart functionality coupled with american express declining my first attempts to purchase, AND $50 each to ship the item (no bundled shipments), I only opted for one at this time. C’mon, really?

    I gotta’ say, I’m excited to eventually (finally) get my hands on the Adam, but I believe you need to iron out some kinks before going prime-time. You need to get your distribution channels established. I’d find it hard to believe people would buy ANYTHING (especially an unknown commodity like the Adam) tacking an additional $50 dollars to the price-tag for shipping. Yeeash.

  1667. Well I cant wait for the 18th should be a good day. hopefully when he says in-depth he means that it will be a long video showing most if not all the apps that they have developed to come out with the adam. I am hoping for 10 minutes or so.

  1669. Likewise. Today has probably been a disappointing day for a whole lot of fans, but I am just super-excited that my pre-order got through. Can’t wait to hold the Adam in my hands!

  1671. What happen with the forum?.
    which was meant to be going up,This blog has become a joke since the blog got so busy

  1673. quit your whining Pratik, no one cares about your Birthday especially NI

    They certainly didn’t show any care for family or even EAP applicants!!!

  1675. Android Market is a service operated by Google. Achieving compatibility is a prerequisite for obtaining access to the Android Market software and branding. Device manufacturers should contact Google to obtain access to Android Market.

    this means that google just gives them a licence and they have access. Maybe google is waiting for FCC approval before giving licence. or maybe they will not have it and keep theirs until 3.0 comes out with tablet ready apps.

    Storage, as mentioned BY ROHAN countless times is 8gb internal memory. You can add a SD card yourself of any size… maybe adam with come with an SD card mayby it wont. SD cards are a done a dozen so its not a big deal.

  1676. I bought an Archos 101 to hold me over. PS: It’s a disappointment. Then my daughter managed to break my Archos. Then my Droid X died last night. I have no more toys to play with.

  1677. Only if the device has phone capability is my understanding. Not sure if 3G counts. Either way you can easily side-load the Android market. It’s a non-issue. The other tablets that don’t “allow” Android market have already got Android Market loaded. It’s another app (i.e. APK) if you’re familiar.

  1678. Where is the PR? Support Forum? FAQ?

    We need more info, you aren’t Apple yet. Secrecy will only goes so far before people start to wonder!

    Android Market support? Full specs? I want the Adam very badly, but I can’t afford to gamble $550…

  1679. In retrospect, what brought the house down was a simple, honest gesture which turned out to be a nightmare.

    That gesture was – telling commenters that they’ll be given a priority on pre-ordering. All those who had been commenting on this blog had been pushing NI for a discount/preferential treatment for months. As a reward for patrons they announced a priority window. With that celestial happenstance, the blog began to explode. What was once a small gathering, turned into a rowdy club. From 500 comments the numbers skyrocketed to 10,000 comments. Earlier one could see who said what, a little bit of humour, some digs at one another. Now it became a cluster of ‘me too’s. People stopped reading what others said. They just wanted to say that they commented once on July 27th at 00:14 AM.

    Instead of concentrating on the pre-orders, the NI engineers had to devise algorithms to send priority emails as promised. Then the whole I-didn’t-get-my-email fiasco was pathetic. Maybe the gesture was too nice and Rohan was being too sweet. That all backfired. Reminds me of the maxim – Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.

    Many of us think of Notion Ink as our own company, as our own community. And ADAM as our own invention. I’ve done nothing today but scanned comments as they crop up on this blog, with a sad face. This is dystopia.

    This is just another comment that will be lost among many.

  1680. Well Explained Rohan,

    I think people forget that
    1) you are providing an International warranty and consequently your transportation costs would also increase

    2) As you have shown, restocking fees are applied by even big companies, and they dont even provide international warranties!

    3) For the same above reasons, you obviously cannot follow “Industry Standard” practices, as your whole approach of “One world One price” and International Warranty redefines the concept of International E-Commerce. you my man are refusing to follow all set rules of business and I am with you on that! People need to know that there is more than one way you can buy and sell internationally.

    all said n done, a video and / Or actual photographs of the Adam at work should dispel fears of this being a scam in anyone’s minds.Those who have more doubts about android marketplace, memory, bands, etc. should wait till CES where all will be revealed. Nobody gives as much detail as you have given about your product in the last one year.However nobody also opens up for pre – orders before they do so. So its upto the buyer to wait or not.

    Will be waiting eagerly for the photos and videos before i Order.

    Cheers and Best of Luck.
    Kirtan

  1681. Additional information on Tmobile 3g/4g.
    —————-
    Short for “fourth generation,” 4G is about performance and provides our fastest data speeds, up to three times faster than Verizon’s standard 3G networks, while allowing simultaneous voice and data capabilities for the ultimate wireless voice and data experience. (For example, you can make a call at the same time you’re surfing the Web.) T-Mobile offers America’s largest 4G network, using HSPA+ technology to offer theoretical peak download speeds of up to 21 Mbps and peak upload speeds of up to 5.7 Mbps. This allows many users to experience a mobile broadband experience comparable to the high-speed connections of a home or work computer.
    3G
    As our 4G network continues to expand, our nationwide 3G network offers advanced high-speed coverage. This means you get simultaneous voice and data capabilities for an amazing wireless experience—while on the go.
    ——————
    So looks like Adam should work with Tmobile. (Hope HSPA is technically compatible with HSPA+. Maybe Tmob added the + to differentiate itself:-)). I was with ATT, and now am with Tmobile (last 2 yrs). My experience with Tmob (in Minnesota) has been very good. (Also, its rates seems to be lower than ATT’s.). I am on a $10 data plan – added to the voice plan that I already had with Tmob. As you can guess there are sign-up/start-up fees. Be sure to check whether they will waive those various fees. My local retailer does for educators.

  1682. I don’t think they are maximizing their profits or minimizing costs here. Remember there is a lot of technology going into the Adam. GPS, HDMI, Pixel Qi, Camera, WIFI, 3G, USB, etc… It isn’t cheap. This could easily go for $700-$900 price range. The markup for the Adam is probably extremely low whereas Apple products usually have 2-3 times markup (for example the highest end iPad model costs around 350 and sales for over 800 and that’s with much less technology!).

    Most of the profits will go directly to the investors. This is how they can keep the prices low compared to the competition. They are running on an extremely tight budget which I don’t think excuses them from some of the problems lately but I think people need to be a little more understanding.

  1683. you are mistaken. They demo it at conference THEN let you line up for release date.

    Notion ink is doing this same thing, but allowed preorders before CES…

  1684. !!!ATTENTION!!! !!!ATTENTION!!!

    (I am re-posting this on the new page because of its significance)

    PLEASE READ this IF your Visa was declined yesterday when you tried to order and you have NOT already contacted your bank!!!

    I was just in a very awkward situation and would like to save you this trouble. I tried to use my Visa yesterday for ordering, but it did not work so I switched to my Amex. That was all fine and good EXCEPT Wells Fargo actually put a stop on ALL purchases just because of the rejected purchase yesterday. The company we tried to order from (apparently) is notorious for fraudulent transactions so Wells Fargo automatically suspended my card WITHOUT any notification to me. I tried to make a purchase today with this card and was quite embarrassed to have my card declined. A few minutes on the phone fixed the problem, but again, I would like to save you this embarrassment and recommend you call your bank.

  1685. I sent an email to relations at notionink dot com and about that issue with a copy of the email I recieved. I didn’t bring it up in the blog as the email expressly requested confidentiality.

  1688. So how do we pre-order now? I see no Order link. Wassn’t pre-order supposed to be open to the rest of us after 6 hours? (even though I’ve been part of this site for many many months but didn’t receive an email)

  1689. See my point being one among many ignored is true. no replies. I would like to specifically know what steps NI are taking to make sure that those who wanted to pre-order yesterday (and couldn’t because of payment gateway issues) are in that same batch as those who have ordered.

    When you had 30,000 emails to be sent out, why were there not suitable quantities in stock? It reminds of building castles in thin air.

    Hope you get your act together quick. all the best.

  1690. Amazing product (spec wise) worst PR, Sales Marketing, Customer Service ever. I mean yes if this tablet is true, and has exactly what is advertised it will be 100% owned by me. But Lastnight when I went to preorder, way to much shaky looking stuff for me so I held off for now.

    My question is, why no videos or images even after everyone complained? Why 8 days later? I mean just a couple quick pictures of a real product will silence a lot of the doubters. I am very confused here.

  1692. donno about gifting to below 10 yr old. I think our 18 month old daughter will be a primary user of our Adam. I would like to gift Adam to my parents who are kinda wary about not going anywhere near internet.

  1695. Rohan,

    Could you please address the questions that were raised about specs? Specifically, clarification on the 8+ storage…..

  1696. Hi Rohan and everybody who is foul mouthing here….

    Would like to say my pre-order request bombed (miserably) after 5 hours of waiting and more waiting (not to mention..almost an year of waiting)….

    But I just wanna say.What The F***.I m gonna wait and wait till I get my “Baby” in my hands.and Mr. Rohan Shravan.u damn well make sure that we all get it.take your time.me in no hurry.have waited longggggg enuf.few more days n weeks wudn hurt much…

    Read someone talking about u not being transparent.well i guess they have not followed uah blogs properly.u’v always been transparent.becoming the numb 2 blogger isnt a days work,…

    If u ppl followed him till now….why beat rotten trumpets now…why cant u just stick with him even now.give that poor kid sometime (guess u r young…so kid).let him breathe…

    @ Rohan….u rock!!! donno much abt Notion Ink.i have known u for sometime.thru ur blog and other blogs….just wanna say.don give a damn abt what the world says. do uah stuff well. which u already are!! Take a flight to which ever place u want to and get back fresh with a bang…prove all these damn buggers wrong!! Sorry for the language, but no one is a saint here.

    Always remembah: In any game, only the spectators make noise…not the players. Players just play their games! And u will surely win…

    Cheers

  1698. Pixel Qi has already sold out ;-(
    Sold out 4ever? 😉
    Is there a chance to get some info
    when PQ-Adam will be available in NI stores again?

    thx al

  1699. @Rohan

    Comment with the link is being moderated, so I’ll ask without the link to the directory.

    If you are exhibiting at CES, wouldn’t you show up in the directory?

    I don’t see Notion Ink. 😦

  1700. I as well have been hyping the Adam for months now to family and friends, but feel sort of slighted that 1. I did not recieve one of the early invites even though I have posted AND even went as far as submitting a logo design. 2. To many questions have been posted with little to no responses or information to follow-up with.

    I think I actually had my wife convinced that I would be ordering one, but now…. I”m not so sure. I want to believe everything positive and still have hopes, but am just not as convinced as I once was.

  1703. @vijay: seems to me website is still “under construction” there are parts with colored background which look more final in compare to the grey ones. Remember how the “Features” looked a short time ago. With more content came more color.

  1704. Also, please make sure the instruction manuals and quick reference user guides, that are included with the product, are provided to people all around the world before the release. If you do not plan on hiring professionals, this will allow for proofreading and corrections. Best decision would be to hire professionals for each target market but that is a ton of money, if you dont plan on doing this, just release it first to a select group on the blog or a private group for proofreading. Most of us wouldn’t mind helping out with this.

  1705. Hey Rohan, when am I, along with the other logo competition entrants going to be able to claim our discounted adams? I am assuming i should not participate in the pre-order scheme? Please message me back (i also sent you an email) or comment with a response,

    Thanks,
    George Baxter

  1706. I guess that last couple of days, the productivity of many people at work might have tanked.

    Though the pre-order process was very painful experience to people and NI, and it
    gave an ammunition to those who were ready to attack, I think it’s amazing that NI,
    a start-up company with no previous product to back it up, has kept/raise the peoples’
    iinterest for so long and up to this level. On that, Rohan did a amazing job.

    I’m sure he has a team of bright engineers working for/with him. I hope he will have some
    help in areas of customer relations/marketing etc. He can’t carry everyting on his shoulder alone.

  1708. Hey Rohan, when am I, along with the other logo competition entrants going to be able to claim our discounted adams (I reached the final 42, and you mentioned we would be recieving a ‘heavy’ but yet unspecified discount)? I am assuming i should not participate in the pre-order scheme? Please message me back (i also sent you an email) or comment with a response,

    Thanks,
    George Baxter

  1709. Rohan, I have to say this. I was looking forward to being in there as one of the pre-orders. I have been posting both here and on the Facebook site and as many others, never even got a chance to purchase the Pixel Qi version, the full fledged version.

    I don’t get how I see people saying all over the place that they “posted random comments and got the Pre Order link”, while I, who have been posting here for months, got nothing. It is really disheartening that something that I was so looking forward to, something that I have the money to buy, I can’t buy until who knows when. Undoubtedly, I am not part of the “family”…

    Now that I got that off my chest, I am a fervent Notion Ink supporter and look forward to the time in which I am actually able to buy my Adam.

  1710. Is it really 8GB of primary storage? Has Rohan confirmed it? 8GB+ is a bit confusing to tell.
    I would love to see some videos and the Genesis App Store before I order, that’s what I am holding out for.

  1712. Usually once my mind is set on a specific product I will hold out for it but I’ve never been more tempted to buy something else. The temp of the anger expressed in this blog can be brought to a simmer instead of a violent boil by doing a couple of things.

    – Show us a Video / Pictures of the real device already. The 18th is way too far away. We’ve waited long enough and I doubt some will continue waiting for much longer
    – Tell us when the next pre-order’s will be taken… How many units will ship day one? Will day one shipping include pre-order round 1 & 2 or just 1?
    – Tell us what your doing to try and meet the demand… Are you in full production… How many units per day are you capable of spitting out?

    The time for keeping us in the dark is over and wont be looked at presently if it continues. We waited so long and spent countless hours on your riddles waiting for the binary countdown to reach 0 just to be utterly disappointed. Do the right thing and address the concerns of your potential customers before its too late.

  1713. On the challenges of what comes after Product Development –

    Frankly, I’m surprised that with all the financing raised by the company, the team hasn’t been able to get its operations and product launch strategy ready to go. It’s one thing to say that the product was built to the best specifications, and another to see the logistics of the delivery get mired in unfortunate details like not being able to test payment gateways and having a very clear plan for what information is released when to customers.

    Right now, its fair to say that even with shipping, the Adam is less expensive than a similar model Ipad, but until the distribution channels are set up, I’m going to wait and see. And really, NotionInk, just put up a photo of Rohan holding the tablet, or of your team holding it. (or dropping it, or eating bisibelebath next to it or something…) Please don’t use stock photography or models – let’s see the people behind the product. That’s the path to credibility.

    Additionally, it looks to me like NotionInk’s pricing strategy is still a work in progress. I will be interested in seeing if NotionInk goes with a global model or moves to a regional model for distribution, since one of the challenges with shipping must be to prove to DHL (or UPS or whoever) that there will be enough volume. This raises another question about profit margins and financing, (since most other firms give free shipping on items above $100 – which must mean that those companies include the cost of shipping in their profits) is Notion Ink under some sort of pressure to recover their investment in a very short period of time? or at least break even, or prove something to their investors? those are the questions I wonder about…

    Rohan, I’m sorry you have to deal with all this drama now, especially because this brings your ability to lead the company into question, now that it’s entering a new phase. I can’t imagine that the investors are not paying close attention right now, and I’ll leave it to them to deliver all the angry phone calls on behalf of your potential customers.

    But, my 2 cents, because I would like to see Notion Ink become a global player in the technology industry – even though you’re looking to do something completely different, get someone who is passionate about open standards for technology and has a lot of experience in marketing to lay out a clear communication strategy for the company, and instead of putting all the additional details in small print, make it clear to the market exactly what’s involved.

  1714. Usually once my mind is set on a specific product I will hold out for it but I’ve never been more tempted to buy something else. The temp of the anger expressed in this blog can be brought to a simmer instead of a violent boil by doing a couple of things.

    – Show us a Video / Pictures of the real device already. The 18th is way too far away. We’ve waited long enough and I doubt some will continue waiting for much longer
    – Tell us when the next pre-order’s will be taken… How many units will ship day one? Will day one shipping include pre-order round 1 & 2 or just 1?
    – Tell us what your doing to try and meet the demand… Are you in full production… How many units per day are you capable of spitting out?

    The time for keeping us in the dark is over and wont be looked at pleasantly if it continues. We waited so long and spent countless hours on your riddles waiting for the binary countdown to reach 0 just to be utterly disappointed. Do the right thing and address the concerns of your potential customers before its too late.

  1715. can someone please explain this Mr. Murphy issue to me, i don’t really understand what is going on :s

  1717. Rohan,

    I would very much please like to know what you are doing about your “family” who should have received a pre-order email yesterday, but did not. What are you going to do to make it right for them? We had to sit here and watch people exclaim in joy that they got theirs over and over while we stared at empty inboxes. Some of these people openly admitting they only posted on the last blog and still got a pre-order link. How is that fair or good business?

    The right thing and the best customer service approach would to make sure those people not only got the Adam of their choice (and I frankly don’t care how you do it, just do it) and that it ships in the 1st wave on Jan 6th.

    There really is no excuse for how yesterday was handle (or better to say *not* handled). Getting us our Adam would be the 1st right step. You left many of your family out in the cold. That is very much not right.

    Also, I don’t want to hear from people who DID get their pre-order link that NI are a start-up and they are trying their best and they should get some slack. Please just close your mouth and sit down…you’re getting your Adam and I really don’t want to hear it. NI is entering the playing field to contend with the “big boys”; they needed to be so much together and prepared than they were yesterday. Just how much slack should they get and for how long?

    Anyway, now please tell me, Rohan, what you are going to do to make this right?

  1719. Rohan this is my NIO10415*** order no. Finally i booked it. Only one request, please make sure after the last person on preorder list you sell adam to local market. It will be unfair if genaral people buy it from the market before us.
    Regards & best wishes,
    Biswajit saha

  1721. Understanding that the Terms and Conditions outlined in the website represent “legalease” The real test of the company will be how the company handles returns, repairs and refunds on a case by case basis. Dell for example has a ton of legal documents and policies posted on thier website but for me at least they have always been a remarkably easy company to deal with, accepting that whenthe issues at hand are not of the customers origin and doing whatever is needed to rectify the situation. Unfortunately (and fortunately for us!) NI is a new company so little is known about the support side of the company only time will tell but I’d like to think that NI truly does stand behind it’s products and cares about it’s customers. With luck NI’s support website will allow it’s customers to air out thier issues and see them resolved (as much as possible, publicly). Some companies moderate this type of site limiting or removing negative posts, this is VERY dangerous (customers will go to complain elsewhere if needed). I’ve never seen this type of moderation on the blog and would not expect to see it on the support site either.
    The NI DOA policy is written a little harshly and overall it reads such that “if we send you a bad/wrong product you have to pay us to correct it”. Take a looke at Apple’s DOA policy.

    Dead On Arrival (DOA) Product: System Failure Out of the Box
    An Apple-branded hardware product is considered DOA if it shows symptoms of a hardware failure, preventing basic operability, when you first use it after opening the box. If you believe that your product is DOA, please call AppleCare Technical Support at 1-800-APL-CARE (1-800-275-2273) within 30 calendar days of the invoice date. AppleCare Technical Support will determine whether the product is DOA and offer you the following options:

    Replacement: Apple, at its expense, will ship another of the same product. AppleCare Technical Support will put you in touch with an Apple Store Customer Service Representative who will arrange for replacement and the DOA product’s return.

    Service: You may have the product repaired. However, once you choose that option, you may not request replacement of the product.

    If AppleCare Technical Support determines that a returned product is not DOA, Apple will apply Apple’s standard product warranty to the product. Further, if AppleCare determines that you have misrepresented a returned product’s condition and that the product is not DOA, Apple may impose a $400 handling fee.

    This is the type of policy I would like to see for NI. We all understand this is a brand new product and may very well experience issues within the “first run” that could result from anything from a bad manufacturing proccess to packaging issues. Making sure the customer isn’t penalized for what would be considered NI’s mistakes is paramount to a successful company. Remember, DOA issues are happen when your customers first receive thier new Adams, the opinions they have of NI in those first few days will determine whether you have added a new member to the NI family or just another angry customer.

    As far as the ordering proccess goes, mine was terrifically simple one I got to the order page. I did expect to and receive a call from my CC company about a potential fraudulent charge in India but like I said I expected it and it did not cause an issue with the transaction.

    I’m still a huge NI fan and simply can’t wait to receive my Adam. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little concerned at how NI plans to support it’s customer base as this truly is the difference between a great company and a failed company. Everthing I’ve seen up until this point implys that NI is destined for greatness but only time and actions will tell.

    Steve

  1722. Wow! Bravo! Aren’t you the smart one in the bunch. I guess you realized that a five year-old’s behavior of insulting people without any base for it is perfectly acceptable. But then again, maybe you really ARE five, in which case I’m sorry for even replying to your post.

    Yes, Rohan DID make promises, and yes he DID brake them. It’s ok not to accept that fact because you’re too happy with the idea that in 8-10 weeks you’ll be placing your adam on ebay to make money, while I will gladly pay an extra $100 because I wasn’t allowed to pre-order; but it’s NOT ok to insult me. I’ve been following this product ever since I saw the first video and demonstration, more than 1 year ago. I’ve been actively involved in the blog and you can go all the way to June and look up my comments. I’ve applied for EAP, participated in every challenge and voting, and now THIS IS WHAT I GET??? A comment from a disrespectful blogger? Am I supposed to speak up only when things are rosy and nice, and never express frustration?

    I also understand why you mention the ipad, even though it has nothing to do with this; you have to hate something instead of just acknowledging it, and improving yourself. You should learn a little bit more from Rohan!

    I have forgiven Rohan several times for breaking his promises, and I will forgive him this time again. I will not jump on another product just because my feelings are hurt right now. Not everybody is as impulsive and bitter as you. This used to be a very nice community until the doors opened for the zoo.

    Rohan Shravan, or anyone at NI, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE delete/moderate Vinay’s post (December 10, 2010 15:01). Keep at least a little bit of decency on this blog! I don’t want to stop following it or posting because of people like him/her.

  1723. Not to mention the CEO of a company responding within hours of issues and working through the entire night to get it done and working the next day to make it right. If anyone cant see how much love and care Rohan is putting into this, then maybe they dont deserve the first shipment.

    Rohan, everyone is going to have a hard time in their life. What is important is how you handle it. You, my friend, have proven yourself in one of the most difficult PR situations a company might have. Lesson’s learned. You can avoid many mistakes by spending tons of money and hiring professionals that have been through all of this before, or people can understand they are getting a more affordable product because they are buying it from a newly emerging company trying to do their best. Even Apple had problems when they released the Iphone 4 and they have done this MANY times.

    You have my respect Rohan. For those who decided to hold off their purchase because of questions and missed out on the item they wanted, you might consider extending the shipping discount to the select few, but I dont see ANY way you can figure out who was rightfully deserving and who just wants a discount.

    Keep your chin up and keep producing a GREAT product. Roll with the punches! As Bruce Wayne’s father told him “Why do we fall Bruce? To get right back up!”

  1724. Thank you for saying this… I was trying to formulate a similar response but you nailed it… especially to all us “suckers”.

    As someone else said… if you don’t think you want to risk it… don’t buy it, buy it later, or buy an alternative device…. But I’ve ordered mine and I can’t wait to get my hands on it…

    Bring on the software.

  1725. Rohan this is my NIO10415*** order no. Finally i booked it. Only one request, please make sure after the last person on preorder list, you sell adam to local market. It will be unfair if people buy it from the market before us.
    Regards & best wishes,
    Biswajit saha

  1728. yes, please let us know your production schedule and how much you will be producing a month to get an idea of restocking.

  1729. I agree with your sentiments. I also believe that finding out that my credit card was no good on the day is totally unacceptable. Just because NI didn’t get their side of things sorted out should not have eliminated most of us in Europe.

    Rohan, how are you going to make this right?

  1731. Sorry if this may come out as rude, but how old are you?

    You seem to be complaining about getting un-preferential treatment, and even go as far as to DEMAND Notion Ink to correct their mistakes in wronging you. In what position are you to demand anything? Sure, NI tried to do something good for the avid followers, but it backfired…. It happens. Their intention was there. Stop being an immature fool, crying over how you did not get what you wanted.

  1733. it would be nice to send a new email yo everyone that lost the previus pre order confirming that

  1735. I was just in time for pre-order one :):), so I’m trully happy, just have to wait a little more.
    The thing is that I didn’t get everything very clear, specially in the part of how much storage does the Adam really has, is it 8 Gb with espandable memory through microSD or does it have more internal memory? Would be glad if you can answer me because I don’t want to have a bad surprise next 🙂

    Bye

    Juan Pablo Ospina

  1738. +1000.
    And the last para sums it up excellently. And I should be honest too, I have done nothing today except reading all the comments and posting some but all with a sad heart.

  1740. So what your saying is Notion Ink should be more like Apple? Don’t leak any product details, don’t get anyone in the community involve that may help shape products, jack up prices sky high a la Apple and on and on…

    I don’t think people understand how massive it would have been for them to show it off first at CES and how much exposure that could have gave them but now they have to spend time putting out a firestorm of bad press. Somehow I doubt that if Rohan came out and told you that details and videos are coming during CES it would be fine with everyone. People will still complain how it isn’t fair that others get to pre-order while others need to wait a month to see the product. You really can’t make everyone happy…

  1742. @pratik

    and your comment is certainly not lost.

    Seems we first had a family and now everybody is running in to become a friend as well without acknowledging the very personal relationship we had with Notion Ink.

    It changes the party.

  1744. that is hilarious and actually depicts a lot of the way people acted yesterday… I love it.

  1745. That is just part of the problem. Have you seen the final product/UI? Do you know what we are really getting (final specs, google marketplace, etc..)? Oh wait, you probably dont care since you are getting one for free. How dare people complain about the lack of transparency. And yes, I posted when we were only 500, I did not get the email and I don’t care.

  1746. i dont think rohan must give so many details not required atall, i am very angry because , simple questions like storage have not answered here from rohan, some guys who have pre-order it they are assuming it is 8gb this info must be given by a company offical on this blog or on the website , this prema guy who is from india is asking for so manytimes he dosent have answer , indians paying 50rs to 1 us$ when exachange rate is 45rs per 1 us$ this annoying and very angry because any details technical ones are not answered atall by rohan.

    and at the same time i dont feel rohan and his company is a a scam no they are not and i dont feel they must give fcc reg papers and there addmision papers in ces and all here no need .

    they mjust answer simple questions which people have asked here with respect and dignity that is what is needed. if possible post a real pic of adam or a small video which shows the real adam front and back with its UI in action clearly saying that this is just a small video and the in depth 1 will come on 18 .
    and i still dont understand why cant rohan standup and honestly tell us that they dont have any sample adam to show as of now because they have not arrived yet . tht will be ok its fine rather he and his team are giving chance to speculate which is bad for the company.

  1748. Hopefully NI the path will be a little easier from now onwards! People must remember to that for a startup trying to do a global launch is going to logistically very difficult. Hopefully people will remember this (in particular some journalists) a remain patient a polite and give NI the time to sort out the teething problems!
    Keep going strong NI – things will start looking up! Adam is going to be amazing and think- it will be even sweeter when you prove all those critics wrong!!!! Good luck:)

  1749. Your comment is awaiting moderation.

    @ Caleb Bowen
    go to http : // www . notionink . com / or http : // www . notionink . com/ order .php for pre order (remove space from given link)

  1750. And I am sure if I am sure instead of breaking down on these kind of comments(they are sincere but I have personal reservations), I am sure Rohan would learn even from your harsh words.
    “lied to” and “ruined Christmas” : blatantly wrong and unfairly attributed to Rohan, I think.

  1751. Hi Rohan,

    I am very saddened and upset that after months of following the Adam and the progress and being so close to each and every blog post and even jumping on the preorder as soon as it was ready and available – I could not order the Adam because of the Master card not being able to be accepted.

    I Feel very dejected & sad and now I have to wait even longer to get the Adam because the PixelQi version is out of stock. I am not bad mouthing you guys but pouring out my heart to you how badly I wanted the Adam (Its not even a product anymore)

    Sigh!!! Please do let me know how and when I can order one. PLease 😦

    Regards
    Joe

  1753. oh shut up @pierre (of pirrelab)

    You are not an immature teenager, and nor a techie! (how can you?)
    You are old enough to have patience. Dont sound so much sour grapes.

    Till now I had some respect for you and have been commenting on your blogs. Now I feel you are just one of these cry-babies. Go redefine pre-order.

  1755. @Pratik,
    You’ve highlighted one dimension of it. what about the payment gateway fiasco? the mastercard fiasco? Some of those info could’v/should’ve been released beforehand.

    That would’ve readied the folks a lot. There are many who didn’t get emails and even without any videos/photos were ready to order and the system wouldn’t allow. And sold out now.

    Rohan wanted to draw more crowd and generate more buzz. He succeeded and NI investors must be happy with the preorder stats. Regular folks who couldn’t get their order in are left to their own.

    Hope you see their point of view too. I’m not condemning Rohan/NI and not supporting the umpteen posters who post mindlessly without reading anything. I’m also not supporting those forums/blogs that publish things without even bothering to verify and more commenters on those blogs spinning stories from nowhere.

    NI has become both famous and infamous. Old timers here feel that pain too along with the painful fact of not being bale to order.

  1758. Just a quick suggestion. Many people might have told this already. But just my 2 cents.
    Please add the option of Paypal. This way, you need not worry whatever card the customer holds. Since yest, many people are commenting about the unavailability of Master card. Tomorrow, someone might say Discover card option is not there. Paypal will be the easy solution to such questions.

  1759. then there is something wrong with your browser. When i click on the red arrow, i get to the pre-order page, where i can choose between the two small adam variants (because the “big” PixelQI ones are already sold out).

  1761. @rohan
    congratulations!!! i actually have very little idea how difficult it must have been for you to finally get adam in the market. i can only imagine the troubles you had to go through. this is still a great achievement and i can only expect greater things in the future from Notion Ink. But rohan you need to get your marketing and distribution channels in order, ASAP. We would hate to see such a revolutionary gadget do down due to bad press. GEt a good PR consultant and please show us some pics and videos of adam along with real people working on it. i understand that your investors might be holding you back from displaying vital information but this is really important. i wanted to gift one to my mum on her bday and would really love it if adam hits the shelves by feb. my best wishes to you and your team.

  1765. Seven facts:

    1. I never receive an email.
    2. I always waiting for it.
    3. Even that, As Mastercard did not work, I can not order the QI 3G.
    4. I read you message “ Two or Three more weeks to wait for people like me“, means maybe in Febuary
    5. I still waiting for your “You will see the complete document reflected on the website in couple of hours from now.”
    6. 8 more days for just as the privilege to see one video.
    7. Your other words: “how exactly you want us to deviate from industry standards”, as customers, I only wait for an innovating product just conform to industry standard.

  1766. I’m 34, actually not that it’s any of your business, and probably unlike you, I’ve spent several of those years in direct customer service. I was sent around the country to train personnel at a major hotel chain in customer service. I know customer service, thank you very much.

    When you make an offer/promise, you follow through with it. When you make a mistake, you make it right. As a customer or potential customer, yes, I have the right to ask what they are going to do to make it right. If you haven’t noticed, NI if getting *a lot* a bad press at the moment. Having unhappy customers is certainly not going to help their cause right now. I hardly think it’s unreasonable to ask what NI is going to do about it. If you think so, that’s fine. I really don’t care what you think, however. I care to know what Rohan is thinking.

  1767. I´m ashamed that such a post can even be placed. You really expect notionink to have reps fluent in 195 languages before you´re allowed to preorder.

    Can you mention one company who has this in place?

  1768. bruce i did grew up longtime ago do u work for NI ? are u their sales manager ? we r giving money to u or NI ? who must answer this question i hope some 1 frrom NI right people who are going to bringa revolution in tech world .
    by the way if u are from NI and u answered my question iam deeeply thankfull to u . hope u get ur adam on time with 8,16,32 ohhh iam sorry maybe u will also know after the launch right ?

  1769. Good words Danyo. Well said! Time will surely tell. And I m with you and of course Rohan and his army :-)) They have done great work. I don’t care if I see only renders and not real videos as of now. I don’t care if those poor guys couldn’t get the website parts properly done. All I care is that I have seen the work and hard work they have put in.

    Sites like engadget and slashgear (and many more) are there to tear people with dreams and visions apart. They can be as cruel as hawks and I don’t really see a point in loosing hope after all those blogs and snippets that Rohan has shared. Ever seen dear Steve Jobs do that? What more transparency and forthrightness are people expecting??!!!

    Its a start up. They are learning. give them sometime. They haven’t made imaginary promises that they can’t materialize and give it to the world. Sure, things have not gone right. First the never ending delays and now some certification issues…to list a few. But thats not intentional i believe. No one would want to stain his new venture or give make believe products to the world…He surely has a plan and a little more patience will not hurt anyone!

    Rohan, I would just like to say that people like Danyo and me are always there for Notion Ink and ready to wait (only a little longer though) to get the much awaited Adam….

    If you do require help (technical) please feel free to let me know.

    Ardent Follower
    JNS
    (CA, USA)

  1770. NI is a young team with good will. New comers tend to do sth different and new, but… It was shocking at the same time revealing to me that how the real business and market are so ruthless and unagainstable regardless your initial intention. Everyone plays a role what he is supposed to play exactly without possibly knowing it. I learned a lot myself, which I guess could doom to be part of the ride, never only happiness, but tears as well. If Rohan will publish a book or sth later on, oh, there have been so many priceless materials…

    BTW, from another perspective, I do get a feeling that there could be lots of things going on between Rohan and the board (investor), which could like pain in an a**, but just cannot say…

  1771. Thank you so much for this comment, Pratik. The only thing I’m still doing here is reading Rohan’s posts and comments, everything else is simply rediculous. SO many first-minute-follower who don’t know the Golden Ratio and who ask bloody stupid questions so that I don’t enjoy this “forum” anymore.
    Yes, I’m one of the victims of the not-working payment, my order didn’t make it through, now I have to wait like most others because Adam’s already sold out. But why not?
    And yes, Rohan’s nice move to prefer the old guys here was not nice for the not-so-old-ones and it was also not nice because it wasn’t thought through properly for “us old guys” as well. In Germany there’s a nice say: reach your little finger and they will take the complete hand. Rohan offered the pre-order voluntarily, now the barefaced “friends” of Adam and NI DEMAND to have Adam NOW and for free or at least cheap.

    Ah, I will (have to) wait. I only hope NI and Rohan are okay and do their job, probably a bit more professional (only regarding marketing, I’m feeling absolutely confident with Adam and NI and I would still do the pre-order if it would work for me, even without having seen him/it life or working.

  1772. The Day After…..

    I’ll start by saying awesome video We all need to laugh

    A huge mistake was made yesterday…. Rohan and Notion Ink already are feeling the sting of it even though many Adams have already been pre-ordered. Hind sight is 20 20 and Notion Ink’s young team like all of us did not know what they were in for. Have they learned? Hopefully. There should have been no release or pre order of Adam to family or anyone until after the debut at CES in January. FCC approval should have been fully finalized so that product offered for sale could have been shown in all it’s glory. Adams should have distributed for review. A truly professional promotional video should have been made. The payment system should have been tested and functional, including Mastercard. What was unveiled yesterday was a rendering of Adam not the real Adam we were all waiting to see. What we experienced yesterday was a premature ejaculation. Even those of us who were able to successfully pre-order (which includes me) are left with a bit of empty feeling. Many now worry if they will even receive their new Adam. So many of us took a leap of faith, plunged in and ordered. We used our hearts and desire instead of hour heads. If there is one saving grace for Rohan and his team is that they were able to instill excitement with a vision and idea of Adam and how he would fit into and change our ecosystem. They climbed nearly to the mountains peak and have fallen back. They are young and eager, and with help maybe able to recover. Our world can be cruel to those who misstep. Hopefully these young men will be spared some of it’s cruelty. It is where and how they go forward that will make that determination. I wish them all the best, in the hard work that lays ahead. I considered canceling my credit card payment for Adam this morning. For all the sensible reasons that I will not enumerate here. My heart won out though and I’m sticking with Rohan and his team. I’m rooting for them!!!! I’m praying for them….May they climb to the mountains top. With Peace and love Wally

  1774. “Earlier one could see who said what, a little bit of humour, some digs at one another”
    Yeah I concur with it. Even during my exams in Octobers I used to take breaks in between to see what familiar guys over notionink have posted and @Pratik’s website to check some new episodes of Company Bahadur 🙂 .

    @Pratik: Those episodes are really cool. Specially yours and Sardarji’s Acting(reminds me of My Sardar Chemistry Teacher in 12th :)) are pretty solid.

  1775. well i did get the email but i think that was because i subcribed to multiple posts maybe?
    But still in the same boat as u guys cause i slept by 3 ist but the preorder only opened by 5 ist ?
    By the time i woke up all pixel qi was sold out plus i didnt like their policies !
    But nice to see everyone is still here 🙂

  1776. It would be great if you could ship some units to third party gadget blogs etc. That would be more important because they could review and tell us if it’s any good (sure it is, but just for confirmation :D).

    I don’t think I’ll be watching many hands on or full review or unboxing videos because this is such a wondrous device that I want to experience it first myself.

  1777. is there anyway to get someone making nonconstructive comments blocked from the forum?

  1778. @ Jesse

    Check the “Older Comments” section. most likely you find your comment there.

    The number and type of critical remarks, including completely undeserved insults, make it very unlikely that Notion Ink is moderating anything.

  1779. it is not about HSPA or HSPA+. it is about the band it supports on HSPA. i am not sure if adam will work with TMobile. because they were not clear if they will just support only 850 or 850 and 1900/2100. also i dont think TMobile 4G is compatible with ADAM. none of the tablets so far has 4G antenna

  1780. That was the most respectly and heartened response one could expect. Rohan, I appreciate your time and energy. I will await my product with patience. Thank you!

  1781. TMobile sucks in rest of the regions 🙂 esp in NJ/NY/TX area. i have seen bad experience personally. my colleague had tmobile and it will work on one cube but not on another cube in office. same with high rise buildings 🙂 If it works for your area, you are lucky 🙂

  1782. HAHAHAHA. When you replied to my previous comment calling me @pierre I thought there was some type of mixup but now I know you are just a very confused and angry person. Maybe you should research how a proper pre-order is done before you ask me to define it.

  1783. Zack’s message titled “!!!ATTENTION !!!! ATTENTION!!!” applies to American Express also. Thanks to Zack and a few other commenters’ posts, I contacted AmEx first (the agent seemed to seriously appreciate my notice) then placed my order for the Adam. The purchase was completely uneventful.

  1784. 🙂
    Thanks Himanshu. I’ll let the Sardarji know you complimented him.
    BTW he & I are of the same age (22) but it worked for the show that he looks 40!

  1785. @Rohan I sincerely hope you have a great CES event. The attention NI adam gets will be astounding. I understand the lure of unveiling adam at CES. In my opinion you should have announced pre order immediately after CES.
    The current state of affairs just makes me sad. Its tough to start something new. As your popularity is growing I hope you set up a dedicated customer support forum.

  1786. Rohan – Some just don’t get it. Hang in there and keep up the great work. I didn’t get to pre-Order 1 due to the Master Card issue and the second was on my end. it is disappointing but this is only Pre order. I will be ordering on the 6th or as soon as I can.

    The warning:
    Rohan I will warn you now I am planning to be at CES. If you lay your adam down and turn around. I will be the Fat american running away screaming I got it. Just grab the white envolope I left in its place with $600.00 inside and deal with it. Don’t worry I will give it a good home.

  1787. Amen.

    Boy, this is some family. I can’t believe I’m reading things like this.

    They tried to do a good thing it backfired. Get over it. Either you want the product enough to wait or you’ll get something else. A lot of the comments that have been sound like children not getting a present from santa claus.

    It is a start-up meaning this is their first time tackling these issues. If they learn from their mistakes and improve, then they will survive and get better. They made mistakes, and deserve some legitimate critisim, but some of the whining that has been posted is beyond belief.

    However, people act like NI should have been instantly perfect. a small business entering a global market is hard. if you get your stuff and it works as they said, I will be impressed. more importantly, I will be looking to buy one myself with envy for not getting it early.

    A part of me wishes he didn’t make the announcement, the way all these people turned on the company like ungratful children is depressing.

  1788. my biggest fear is the warranty: it makes no sense that a consumer has to dish out money to return a defective product. i would also like to know some details about import duties. in Canada there is no duty on computers; will DHL be charging any custom duties? how much? is the product insured?

  1789. Just noticed that no where in that lengthy post did Rohan offer any apology for their lack of transparency or technical gaffes during the preorder process. Bad form guys

  1790. so what makes you think, that those people got their pre-order? I read tgis stuff from several people who DIDN’T get a mail – same with me. I started posting here every week months ago (and have been a silent “lurker” before that, since this blog started). And i didn’t get a pre order mail. But i did write that nI is a start up that is doing their first release and that everybody should calm down and soothe his temper.
    if you want “big boys” and the professionality that usually goes with it, there are many of them out there, no one keeps you from buying a galaxy- or iPad.
    The Adam is different, _because_ it’s not that kind of “big boy” professional thinking, that created it, it isn’t the usual “let’s buy some cheap hardware, squeeze an android on it and let’s see if we could do some serious fishing in apples pond” – thing, that “big professional boys” would do – it’s been created with love and passion, by humans, who just underestimated the pre-ordering situation but that doesn’t make them frauds.

  1791. not worried about any service charges? 🙂 strange ppl are worried about one time charges but not anything else. hope you saw NI’s warranty service policy and return policy even for “Dead On Arrival”??

  1792. Well in that case I must congratulate your makeup-man/woman too:). Sardarji was looking 35 something so realistically that i felt the boy he brought to the office(in one of the episode, he came with his son) was his own!!
    Best of luck for your future episodes.The story and actors have a great potential.

  1794. oh yeah!

    you want to be anonymous just because you removed your photo? wow you are not even teenager you are infantile!!!

  1798. Well Rohan I hope you have thick skin as some of these people obviously did not learn patience when they were a spoiled little brat. Apple had supply problems their first day of the ipad launch and their product did not work flawlessly that day under Steve Job’s hand either and unlike NI, apples launch was for regular orders with mature distributers and they still could not produce enough to supply demands and millions of customers were talking all kinds of bad things about them because they could not get one. But today no-one even thinks about that fateful launch day. So in a couple of years you will look back on this day and see it was not near as bad as it seems in this moment. and what did apple’s stock do? just kept on climbing busting over $300 per share. So all I can say is “does your company have public stocks for purchase?” I would love to buy some now while there are all these idiots talking out their #*$ and it’s still cheap before they realize how really valuable this company truly is.

  1799. This is an excellent idea. I was disappointed that the Adam I wanted (the most expensive one) was already sold out, but since I will want one the moment it is available I am more than willing to go on a backorder list.

  1800. Hi Rohan and everyone!
    Thanks for all the good clarifications. The one thing that made me hesitate long enough to miss out on my much-fantasized about Pixel Qi version (I guess I’m just going to have to wait) was the customs question in the disclaimer. I’ve been caught by customs before and it can cost a fortune to pick things up. Would you please give us some more information about possible customs costs? That could really throw off the one price worldwide vision, and be a really nasty surprise.

    Also, If you could let us know anything about the Pixel Qi outlook, that would be so wonderful!

    Thanks so much in advance! I can’t wait till I can get one!

  1801. @ Pratik said, on December 10, 2010 at 23:17

    > This is just another comment that will be lost among many.

    Dude, no worries. I hit ‘Print Screen’ as I am writing. Your comment will be saved for posterity.

  1803. Sorry to harp on this but I continue to be amazed that people are willing to purchase a product and still not know specifically how much flash memory comes on the device. If those people purchasing are saying that 8gb is enough then maybe that is why, although I would never purchase this device if that is all it had.
    It is very clear that this is an important spec to consider when making a purchase like this yet there still is no response with the specifics.

  1804. Rohon as for model Backlit LCD, Wifi + 3G the price qouted is 425.33$ + 50$ = 475.33$.
    But it was an amount of 23,766.00 INR / 526.320$ charged. I would really like to know why? I have no doubt in NI but i think it is a serious issue to be answered.
    Regards & best wishes,
    Biswajit saha

  1806. I thought the return policy was pretty fair compared to other companies, although I was rather uncomfortable with paying a shipping charge that was just about 10% of what I paid for the device. However, as a fanboy to the new Adam I am willing to forego the risks and the price premium, which isn’t much when compared to others like iPad and Galaxy, as long as I can get my hands on that mofo as soon as possible. btw, I helped Samsung do their beta testing in U.S. and I was severely disappointed by the overall quality of the device apart from the entire device heating up to a very uncomfortable tempt, it frequently crashed… hope Adam will not be that… Notion Ink~ I hope you are my next Apple~~!!

  1807. Hi Rohon,
    For model Backlit LCD, Wifi + 3G the price qouted is 425.33$ + 50$ = 475.33$.
    But it was an amount of 23,766.00 INR / 526.320$ charged. I would really like to know why? I have no doubt in NI but i think it is a serious issue to be answered.
    Regards & best wishes,
    Biswajit saha

  1809. Hi Rohan,
    I see none of the ol Pals demanding for weekend special. But I am still asking for a one, indeed a real special one.

    1) If you do have a near final version of the product (I do believe you have one) then just come up with a homemade video showing of adam in action, show us some of the UI in action. This will shut the mouth of many of us commenting on the credibility of a new start-up. This will be then indeed be a “TRUE WEEKEND SPECIAL”.

    2) Talk to some of the tech shows like “Gadget Guru” or someone who can cover you immediately in Bangalore. I am sure they will be ready to cover you and telecast ASAP and show to the world a real technological breakthrough device. The same videos can be shared on YouTube for rest of the world to see.

    3) Send the first batch of production quality adam’s to tech product review sites (at least some of them). They are more important than EAP members or the family members (like me). Good words from them can re create the lost magic in Notion Ink. (In fact it was one of these sites which said adam to be an iPAD killer about a year back, which made me an adam follower)

    4) Stop relying on the blog, going forward try and have weekend special as a new set of information added on to the main website (notionink.com). This will add extra pressure on you by making all the revealed details as official information, but it’s worth it. Instead of a good looking PHP website with lot of Easter eggs try to have a proper CMS which can help you to add the required information without code change/need to get the site down.

    — I know I am giving too many free advices which are not asked for, but I could not resist it. I really thought you have great (much better) plans in mind. But after looking at the way “Dec 9th” was handled, I could not resist putting up my advice. Being a true adam fan I want you to do some damage repair ASAP. Otherwise as someone already said, “December 18th? that’s way too late! The Notion Ink name will be toast by then” might come true 😦

    On a leaving note, I hope my comment does not get lost and you do read it with a smile.

    Regards,
    Pavan

  1810. it comes with 8GB flash memory, but has the ability to expand using MicroSD. By offering various disk spaces, the number of variants will easily double and triple~ it’s probably best for Adam to be manufactured with a set memory and give the people option to upgrade because it’ll be cheaper to manufacture

  1813. Haha. I am the make-up man (and any other crew you can think of)! All I do is add some talcum on his chin.
    Thanks for your wishes.

  1815. @ Pratik said, on December 11, 2010 at 00:24

    > BTW he & I are of the same age (22) but it worked for the show that he looks 40!

    22 yr old Sardarji looks 40 yrs now !?! What show is this ? Clearly, the show has started to affect Sardarji’s health !

    For Pete’s sake, ask Sardarji to take a break.

    🙂

  1817. +1 – Hope NI learns from their mistakes. Will wait for couple of more months, I guess. I started off after deciding to go for a Kindle and ended up in Adam. Guess I will have to get a Kindle and get an ADAM later. Hope Rohan doesn’t end up with a product with similar fiasco as yesterday.

    He has a great product idea and I do believe in him. I think he should come up with a product better tested even if it is late than rush and end up like yesterday. Some stress testing would’ve avoided (at least reduced) yesterday’s fiasco. And you at least should’ve given an indication of the number of units available and managed the mad rush…

    I had my wallet ready with card for an email not received! Now, the excitement has died down, but I will surely be around in the blog. This blog has given been some good friends, helped me learn a lot about technology and some happy moments.

    On a closing note, perhaps it is me only or your wordings, but I felt you had a touch of arrogance in this post. In the lines of, we did what we know is best. I could be wrong. It’s your company and your personal blog. This is just my humble opinion.

  1818. First of all, Rohan, congratulations for you and your team for this fantastic project. I understand you are now in a crucial phase where thousands of fans are rushing to be the first to test and use the ADAM.
    I thought I could be one of these, but I did not succeed to preorder (several issues encountered and at the end I understand that I would have failed anyway due to the Mastercard issue). I was a bit frustrated but it’s over now, time is not so important, EDEN can wait.

    My question is: do have any information to give about the future:
    – on line order possibility (including Mastercard option) of the QI WIFI only version,
    or
    – when, where it will be possible to buy it in a store in France.

    Again, best wishes in this transition phase where you must be more than busy to manage all these topcs.

  1819. I guess IE 8 and older usage among this crowd is non-existent but from the versions of IE 8 I have the “Buy” links in the order page are invisible! In this case it might be that certain css features are not supported. css-tricks.com / rgba-browser-support /

  1820. Nicely done. Some people just need to lighten up a little. It going to be a great holiday season and 2011 is just around the corner…. Wow! Beam me up Scotty!

  1821. I was waiting for the email as well, only to realize that my gmail filtered it as a junkmail. I realized that 30 minutes into general pre order…

  1823. I second the Amazon suggestion. They are very reliable and delivery is free. That is what we are used to in the UK.

  1824. I agree that was the initial plan. But now since the damage is already done, something needs to be done to repair it ASAP. Wait till Dec 18 may be too long… especially for common users who haven’t been following adam for long.

  1826. seems obvious that it means 8gb of flash storage, and as much storage space as you can fit into an SD slot, and two usb ports. I don’t know where all these people were getting the idea that there were 16 gb, 32 gb, and even 64gb (really?!?) variants when the blog specifically only mentions 8 gb.

  1829. Dear PK, Amazon will put this product on their website only when they see it and are sure it exists. I believe notion ink still has a few prototypes and not yet finalized their product. I don,t think they even got the FCC clearance. Why are they hiding their product so much, they did not have that problem last year when they made a couple of videos. I can,t believe they are not even able to publish single real picture of Adam. Why do they have to depend on Photoshop so much, what harm will be done if they put a picture of Adam, I smell some very very bad intentions here.what if they just get money from the 1000 stupids who ordered and run away never to be heard of again afte all they are present in the virtual world only. It is a nice game to earn half a million from stupids who can order things which they have never seen, not even a single real picture.

  1833. First step in healing , is to acknowledge you are sick.

    Second step is to correct it, no excuses.

    Rohan has taken that first step. the rest will require time and diligent work on the part of Notion Ink. personally I highly recommend they stringently evaluate their products before they release them, even if it means an unplanned delay. As much as I hate to say that, it is the best PR i think he could come up with at this point to show Notion Ink is the real deal, unwilling to compromise on integrity and product quality. To do otherwise if they allow it to be released with ANY suspected quality issues , especially after how the pre-order ball got fumbled, such an act on Notion Inks part will kill this company. But make no mistake about the consequences for the slopiness of the release of the Adam will linger for a while, it has driven some away, it has inserted mistrust, and surely some scathing reviews will shortly follow, unfortunately those are the cost Notion Ink will have to bare. Lets watch Rohan and see if he learns quickly, this will be the best PR Rohan can hope for.

  1835. @Krish said, on December 10, 2010 at 23:51

    > Well, that aint clickable…

    So they do not support the Lynx web browser ? Try Firefox, Chrome or Konqueror.

    Oh, and use the mouse.

  1836. But dont you think CES is far away? I mean what about the negative wave which is already created? It should not wash away potential buyers right?

    I agree with you that blog only represents a tiny fraction of people craving adam, So i am asking them to add information on to their website.. (see my point no 4)

  1837. the fact that you would even say this appals me. The price you’re paying for what they’re putting into this monster of a tablet is peanuts… after the preorder fiasco, i believe what NI needs now is support, not cynicism…

  1838. the blog post, which you are commenting on, specifically states that Mastercard basically dropped the ball on Notion Ink. they said it would take 2 weeks to get the payment stuff set-up and approved, now they want an additional 3 weeks. I do not see how Rohan could possibly make that better other than simply laying out the facts exactly the way he did. It is not like he has much weight to throw around with one of the largest credit card companies in the world

  1839. WOW! Just wow.

    First everyone here is pissed cause MasterCard was not an option, I am not sure if you guys noticed but MasterCard has been having issues as of late.. yeah hackers killed their servers so even if it were an option it probably would not have processed. So maybe you need to direct your attention towards MasterCard failure to A. Maintain server security (hacking issues) and B. Inability to process paper work in a timely manner.

    Second, most of the people I think who are/were worried about the item being VAPORWARE, were the new last minute posters. If you had followed the blog you would have noticed info here and there which showed the product as real…IDK maybe the pictures of the device for color poll and umm videos of the tedx example on youtube.

    Third, this quote “family” bs. The fact is Rohan is not mistreating anyone and did his best to ensure his “family” got a tablet. However $hi! happens.

    Fourth, Apple comparisons… this is not apple, if it were I wouldn’t be here. Also all the input and even the replies for Rohan would not be here. Simple fact is apple is a Crap company (my opinion), case and point would iphone antenna issue (CEO: just hold it differently).

    Fifth, I think the world standard for warranty is a great idea. This means that everyone is getting a better than the world’s best required warranty. For example, in the US you are required to have a year warranty on products; this may not be the case for everyone else. As such countries that do not have this requirement get the benefit of it.

    All that being said, I did not order a Adam, not because I doubted Rohan or its existence, but because of the potential threat of the sites ordering feature being hacked and/or shut down by people refreshing the page every 5 seconds. I still plan on buying the tablet, looking forward to a chance to be honest, but I sat on my hands so I only have me to blame. Additionally, I did not receive an email even though I posted way back and still I say, well that’s disappointing, but it happens.

    Suggestion for Rohan, might be to get a production count/estimate up so people have an idea on how things are going to unfold. Make those who can make happy, but you cant give them the world. Also maybe bring some to CES to sale. This will shut up the naysayers who can see the item, and purchase it right on the spot.

    All in all, this is a long post that I hope actually sticks as most get deleted/removed/ whatever.

    Also, for those of you who not obtaining one ruined their night/day/week it seems like things could be a lot worse for you so just count your blessings.

    Life’s a learning lesson!

    Thanks for undertaking this challenge Rohan, tired of cookie cutter products.

  1840. These may make us feel a little better, but they are not the new and Final Adam. I think we may see an in depth video of the new one with it’s larger bezel (which I have no problem with) on the 18th Of December. It would be one step in the right direction….

  1841. I do not expect Notion Ink to have 195 different languages. I was referring to the quality of the languages Notion Ink does decide to release the Adam in. The image that I was referring to was released for marketing purposes, or in other words, is supposed to motivate Notion Inks loyal followers and give us something to look forward to. However, there was a critical spelling error.

    I hope that Adam will be released in as many languages as possible to help and satisfy many, many people. However, even if just one or two languages were provided, it’s Notion Inks responsibility to ensure they are the best quality possible.

  1842. I have been part of the community, but never made a comment until Dec. 8th. I did not get offer the email, was a bit bummed, but waited for general public to put in my order. It took 4 time for my AmEx to get approved, but it all worked. 😉

    As for the the no vids or photos, I am going by blind faith as I believe this will be the best tablet other there for a while. I TRUST Notion Ink.

  1843. notionaddicts dot com/forums/showthread.php/559-UK-Cost-delivered-inc-taxes-.-all-models

    check out the forum members have started putting various countries prices together

  1844. Am I an Ol Pal? No, probably not like Greg or Pratik…

    I’m here and I’m still backing NI, even if the payment didn’t work for me either and I now will have to wait like many of us.

  1845. I too, was excited about pre-ordering, but would like some things addressed before I spend my money:
    1. Unclear import process. I have dealt with receiving international shipping via DHL in the US. Even though my shipments are company internal transactions, the shipments always seem to get stuck in customs. We have an import agent who takes care of these things, I have no idea what will happen if I have to deal with this. If you or DHL could classify the product for import, add the charge for import duties, that would simplify imports.

    2. There are no local service centers. While I understand this is a startup product, if I am one of the unlucky 1%-5% of people to have a product which breaks during the warranty period, I really don’t want to have to deal with international shipments. There are plenty of companies that repairing electronics. One of them is likely to have ordered an Adam and will immediately tear it apart. It would probably be cheaper for both of us for you to contract for repairs with one such vendor in each major region.

    3. Unclear handling of 3G modem. Do I have to activate it as part of setting up the tablet, or can that be deferred. Also, the 3G services aren’t just on 1 frequency, the modem capabilities were not well described. Could a 850 version also handle 1900? While a quad-band modem would be more expensive, it would likely be worth the extra expense. Also, have any carriers performed tests required before they allow the device onto their network?

    4. Don’t charge for the Adam until it actually ships.

    5. If you are going to have a mass mailing, let people know the sender address so people can put it on their safe sender list.

  1846. @ JR said, on December 10, 2010 at 23:25

    > Why 8 days later?

    I noticed Rohan created an account on YouTube on Dec. 9th.

    So, I guess he was planning to release videos of ADAM even before he posted this err..post. Since this will be a video of a product very near its launch time, I guess he wants to hire professionals to make it. At least this is my assumption on why he wants some time.

  1847. If you were sitting in a restaurant bar waiting for a table you were told would be available to you as a vip customer in 30minutes and after 2 hours they told you that you have to leave and you wont be getting your meals as they have sold out. Would you not be mad and complain? Especially when it looks like they never had enough for everyone in the first place.
    Nothing childish at all. They ruined a lot of peoples days and didnt even have someone available on a multi million dollar project to explain things to them. Ironically perhaps is India is famous for support phone lines being outsourced to there.
    I see the family marketing in full force. I posted it on another page but I will repeat. If the worlds most amazing tablet came out tomorrow for a $1 everyone(including you) would abandon the adam. That is the reality of the situation. Family has nothing to do with anything. There is also nothing a customer should be grateful about. Company offers product consumer buys product. Customer support being a service offered as part of the transaction.
    No one is doing anyone favors. a company is trying to make some money. Anything else you believe is pure marketing.
    If Rohan was told they would loose 20% of all profit if he posted on here I bet he would stop. Same as everyone would leave when offered a better deal.

  1848. +1, my only fear is 18th December might be too late, looking at the size of negative wave which is already created.

  1849. Rohan was spot on in unveiling at CES. The global tech focus will be on CES. Jan 6th aint that far away.
    That said NI adam will shape tech industry whenever it is launched which in my opinion should have been a long time ago.

  1850. at least somebody here had the wherewithall to read through the whole site before pre-ordering. I feel like many of the flamers from last night and the night before were not aware that there are real pictures here on the blog, there are specs on the website, and the ideas presented here are very valuable in and of themselves, and it would be utterly dumb from a pure monetary standpoint, to put out all this detail and new concepts (many of which will likely be copied in future tablet) without releasing a real product. Any money that would be made from a pre-order “scam” will pale in comparison to the amount of money that could be made from selling a real product.

  1851. wow u must write a book belive me it will be a bestseller atleast among us followers of NI for a longtime

  1852. You are not alone.. there are many of us waiting.. 🙂 I am just concerned for NI that they might loose many potential customers. (Not everyone is patient enough to wait like us ;))

  1853. My Dear Prasad,

    That extra is NOT by the credit card company but by the merchant processor CCAvenue. They LOOT over 10% compared to PayPal who charge only between 3 to 4% (that too from the merchant, not the buyer).

    If we use our Bank/Card to pay USD directly, we usually shell out about 3 to 4% over the current exchange rate. It would have cost us INR 28000 instead of 29999, that too only if we were paying to a seller outside India.

    You are also wrong about currency conversion! CCAvenue will pay INR to Notion Ink in India. So, if a buyer is in India and paying in INR there should be no currency conversion.

    Weaker Rupee = more Rupees per Dollar = good if you are selling
    Stronger Rupee = less Rupees per Dollar = good if you are buying 😉

    @Rohan
    You actually lose with the INR being strong now. Also, you should fix the price of the product in the currency in which you will (or want to) ultimately receive the payment, i.e., INR. You will get lesser rupees for the fixed dollar price, while on the other hand you are charging more from the Indian buyers.

  1854. Very disappointed that the Pixel Qi models are already sold out, but not surprised!

    I’ll be waiting for my chance to buy!

  1855. Hey Rohan,

    I havent posted much but I have been following adam from the very first day I came across it a year or so back.
    I’m an avid reader of books of various genre(used to read more before I became a techie/coder/resource) and also read a lot of comics so wanted a device which does that and it had to be color of course (can you imagine comics in black and white??)
    Thanks to huge collections of pdf/doc/cbz/cbr (hoping adam supports cbr ) available freely online I wanted a device which would support all this.
    Of course in addition to this, it also had to play movies, songs, support games and so on and somehow none of the devices which were available a year ago did all this and those that did did not appeal to me. This was until I came across adam and that was when I knew that you had just created the device I was looking for, the one I was thinking about, the one which was best suited for me, the one I know would cherish having.
    From then on I have been religiously following all possible updates and continue to wait for the day when I can lay my hands on adam. Of course I did get the pre-order mail but couldnt open the link (was getting come back at 12pm) and when did get through after a few hours of sleep, the variant I was looking for was completely sold out.
    This however does not make me sad or angry. I’m in fact happy for the NI team that there has been so much demand and these have sold out so quickly and that it has all worked out well. I have waited so long and for sure I can wait for a few more weeks. You see what had happened was that in the process of participating in the creation of the adam through this blog (albeit I wasnt commenting but was still reading) the feeling that I also in a way am part of the NI team has become instilled in me and as you said Im (we) also part of the NI family 🙂 so this is a reason for us to celebrate.To see a sold out sign of a a device within a few hours is no mean achievement and the fact that it is a new company, an Indian one at that from namma bengalooru makes it even more special.
    Now I know that there have been a few people who have started to create noise because of some minor issues but please dont pay heed to them. Carry on the amazing work that you are doing. The world awaits you, India’s future depends on visionaries like you and we (family) are there to back you.
    To me it does not matter what the return policy says. It does not matter what the warranty is, what it covers or what it doesnt or what the shipping price is.
    You are also part of our family and in you I trust.
    So dont feel dejected because of what few others are saying.
    Take some rest and carry on doing the awesome work you are doing.

    Regards,
    Ramana

    P.S – to all Shakespeares and Miltons reading this, there may be a few spelling / grammatical mistakes in this post and that is partially because of hitting F5 through the night for last 2 days/nights (NI BLOG :)) and partially because of a screwball software dev project Im currently working on.

  1856. dono y my previous post went into moderation 4 hrs ago.. 😦

    This comment is the continuation of comment chat between Me, another atul tiwari and mrzeal, u can search that in “more comments”

    Posting saperately, coz finally this time i dared something to say Rohan Sir, other than simply saying Thakns
    Hope neither he nor anybody else mind it.

    @ atul tiwari – I hope so…that someday i will be able to buy PQ version.

    Bt at present, only Rohan Sir can show some mercy

    Can u imagine, how much i will have to listen from everybody (including my parents)… y shud i buy adam. and i had to answer the people who even dono what actually android and/or tablet is ?
    coz all think .. that .. even when its hard to get medical stuffs for windows..
    how can we get that for android or tablets.

    I had to answer them, coz i wasnt spending my internship stipend in partying at night when we get only INR 2,500/- per month ($50)…. n by this money only we do watever we want .. n m saving almost complete stipend from d day when i came to kno that some day ADAM will be launched … (in a way I saved my 1st income for ADAM…n today i m very happy that i invested in pre-ordering ADAM …. n i cant 4get that in my life…)

    Since Post Graduation Exams are on my head.. so usually i just read the post of Rohan never comment…
    This is 2nd time m reading comments..

    N now i can say for sure that Rohan Sir is reading each and every comment that is posted here, and replying where-ever necessary. I am glad.. who else takes so much pain to read so much comments…

    @ Rohan Sir, this is for u –

    A person is making a thing… which no one else cud have even imagined b4. now he is gonna release it soon. he has done a gr8 job, and he is learning from his mistakes (which is the 2nd best part of this story.. according to me)..

    i think best part is… he is responding to the criticizes so calmly… if i wud be M.D. Psychiatry … i wud have questioned him.. how can he react so calmy to those who criticized him, even without thinking that how much you had to suffer on your journey…

    there may be a hard time when he may have thought to shut down d project (strongly wish m WRONG)… few months ago.. when it got delayed to next yr.. many sites said something like… It’s failed….

    n see he is still here… fighting wid the world (for his NEWBORN BABY)… and see the crowd… that appeared when ppl came to kno that pre-order is opening. (its the REPLY to those who said it failed.) …

    Here..I want to share some experiences of my life wid Rohan sir

    Sir,

    In my graduation and internship, i learned how to deliver a baby…. when i 1st saw it … i prayed to god .. i dont wana see such things again… the pain a mother bears while delivering her baby.. it can bring tears in eyes who watches her… den one cant think .. wat’s the condition of the mother will be..
    but she forgets her all her pain which she beard alone for 9 months.. and while delivering… once she get the baby in her hands … One can clearly see the smile.. the feeling that .. it was worth to have that much of pain, for her baby.

    [here i want to tell that other people who are reading this post, that in our medical studies, sometimes its said that the pain in Delivering a baby a is more than a Heart attack.]

    Rohan sir, I feel ur condition same as this mother…
    Really, Hats off to you.
    If you ask me u not just the Father of the ADAM, more than that u r MOTHER of the ADAM.

    Lastly,
    I want to suggest something to Rohan Sir,
    Recently i bought Samsung Galaxy 3 (of course my dad purchased it for me).
    I installed Skyscape software (company that provides medical software)..
    I want u to suggest to make something like that in ADAM..once it get stable.

    Coz personally, i can say that Medical studies are much more practical than theoritical knowlege.i have seen the stress.. the students here feel in completing books of 2000-3000 pages in one night…

    its a good way to demonstrate medical studies (by softwares / videos) to students …. so that they can learn more.. so that they be some relaxed too.
    it’s my plan to work on it.. after completion of my graduation.. and i get at least a job in my hand.. to earn money to spend into this project. wish i cud do a bit of that in my life.
    i nver ever shared this idea wid any one previously, coz every1 else is working on making money only… 1st time i saw a person who is caring that other can afford it or not.

    Sorry 4 my poor english, writing in a hustle.
    Thanks… if u cud read the complete post even after feeling drowsy.
    (wish i get reply from Sir…. though i wont b able to search in this huge list of comments..)

  1857. @ Thomson Valliyakalayil said, on December 10, 2010 at 23:44

    > eating bisibelebath next to it

    Is that something you eat while in the bath? Do they package it with every ADAM ? Free ? What if bisibelebath is DOA? The Return Policy did not make any mention of it. Am feeling disappointed.

  1858. I really hope it will be so 😀 Now I see some good inspiring words regarding adam. I was just fed-up reading all negative and rude comments regarding NI for past 24 hours… But cant blame anyone, all have their own valid points.

  1859. Rohan,

    You are using an Indian firm CCAvenue for processing global payments… Do they have any international experience under their belt ? According to your post they process transactions for the Indian Railways: again it is not the number of transactions (just like it is not the number of people in a country) but their experise. What a big misstep… just like your one pricing for all countries..

    Do not forget that you have a lot of competition in the form of Motorola(Android tablet) in addition to RIMM, Apple, Samsung and a host of others, not to mention the media, TechCrunch etc.

    Hope you resolve these issues quickly.

    Good luck
    PR

  1863. i hope you post several videos about adam/notion ink. describe the history and background. describe the features. describe the software. show us how to use Adam. it doesnt have to be a 10 minute youtube video. they could be 1-2 minute.

    i was hope to see a gallery photos. 360 photos. photos of the display at different angles.

    these are worth a gold mine

  1864. yeah yeah you can use your debit card. For the product we all gambled with faith that it will trun into a better one. so have faith like us and in rohan.

  1865. Wouldn’t it be smart to release the video now VS a week from now? The longer you wait to show some substanial evidence that ADAM exists the more people are believing it to be a scam. Engadget, Gizmodo, Phandroid, AndriodPolice, etc.. have already told everyone to be extremely cautious and already called it out as a scam. It just seems like it would make more sense to shut the naysayers up now VS waiting and potentially losing out on a lot of customers. The longer you wait, the more credibility you lose…

  1866. “I believe our team did an error by mentioning the policies in few readable lines. You will see the complete document reflected on the website in couple of hours from now.”

    That was a major problem for me, or at least in the way things were mentioned. Return fees are pretty much expected but to charge return fees(with inconsistent descriptions), shipping fees(with inconsistent descriptions), and require a short(inconsistently described) return date on even defective units was depressing. You’re really going to charge people because something went wrong in production or shipping? I don’t care if you’re a start up or apple, charging for a defective unit is an extremely bad business policy. It essentially translates to “We will charge you for anything bad that happened on our end”. On top of that we are told that if the unit gets lost during shipping that we’re on our own, lovely.

    So lets pretend the product makes it safely but we want to return it. Reading the return policy I see a no questions asked return, awesome. But the “no questions asked” requires a letter explaining why you are returning… wait isn’t that a question asked? Oh well shipping the item back with the answer to a no question asked policy the no questions asked return is then inspected(more questions) to decide I would either get a full refund-shipping-5% service fee or if I’ll get deducted up to 75% reduced off of my refund+$9 inspection fee. That really isn’t much of a “no questions asked” policy and is pretty much just another conflicting return policy to the others already in there.

    Lets pretend I’m returning the product un-opened but the packaging was beat up either coming to me or sending it off to NI. Doesn’t matter that the shipping company did it, I’m going to be charged an additional 5% repackaging and 3% restocking fee.

    The privacy policy was the absolute worst though. I don’t think you could possibly justify requiring a SSN. I think I’d have a pretty hard time agreeing to give you(NI) the power to take all info I may put on the adam including my name, cc info, address, friends/family names and addresses, and other personal info.

    Also in the original copy of the T&C there was a mention of how by agreeing to the T&C you agree to any changes that may be made. I wouldn’t trust the Red Cross with such an agreement, I’m certainly not going to trust any business with one.

    I want the product, I liked the company, but not enough to look past the troubles the T&C can bring. The return fees need to be straightened out, defective units should not cost customers money, lost/damaged items during shipping should be handled by the company selling the product(you as a business hold more power over them than one individual person), T&C should not include the agreement to automatically agree to changes, and the privacy policy needs a complete overhaul along with a complete retraction on the original.

    I’m giving the info of what I’d like to be changed in order for me to get back into pre-ordering. As I said before I like the product and the company but the T&C is a mess and so anti-consumer friendly that it made me go from credit card out up all night waiting, to card put away shaking my head wondering what is going on.

    Amazing product, terrible policies.

  1867. I had the same issue, contacted them asking about the official confirmation email. All they mentioned was the order was in their system as well but no official email. Will have to wait and see if i get something tomorrow.

  1868. Great valid question Jake. I’m sure he has some sort of answer/response. Let’s wait and see what that is. Rohan?

  1870. He could’ve explained it before hand so that people would know what would work and what wouldn’t. They might even have had time to get their visa gift cards online.

  1871. @ starlee said, on December 11, 2010 at 00:48

    > Who da heck is he ??

    Uhh..Rohan’s maternal uncle’s third child’s fourth son-in-law’s great grand aunt’s second male cat, twice removed.?

    You know, someone close to him.

  1872. I would agree to help with manuals and reference guides as well. I’ve done technical writing for several years in the US market. Primarily in the IT departments of companies–both hardware and software. While many of the early adapters may not use them, most people still count on them and a good one cuts way down on support calls.

  1873. Hi Rohan,

    Your streamlining of Shipping cost does not seem to be “streamlined” really.

    Are you kidding me and want me to pay $50 for shipping it to my door step, when sellers like Amazon ships products worth $25 or more for free to my door step.

    You need to have resellers/dealers or some sort of central shipping location with in US and one for Europe and so on, so that each one pays a fair and a reasonable price.

    Just the thought of paying $50 for shipping is making me hesitant in actually buying the product.

  1874. This isn’t some little shop down the street making home-made goods that decides to start selling on the internet. There are and should be expectations with NI. They are entering a global market, competing in a field with well-established, well-known companies. NI wants you to buy their product, which right now has the best specs and features on-board, but how long is that going to be the case?

    Do you really think there won’t be tablets on the horizon that will compete with the specs of the Adam? As it is right now, it seems people will be waiting until MARCH (based on the last posted shipping time frame) for an Adam. That is a long time to see what other tablets will be coming out.

    Right now, yes, I am very disappointed in NI and how things played out last night. I waited a whole year for yesterday. It was a disaster. It’s sweet all the people defending yesterday, but I don’t get it. Yesterday was far from professionally handled, and there SHOULD be expectations. When you say you are going to do something, you do it. They should have been better prepared. They should have had someone from NI making official blog updates here. There should have been a better payment system in place and support for those having problems. The founder should not have been unavailable in the air without having capable people in charge, leaving the day to turn into a mess with hardly a peep from anyone at NI.

    That shouldn’t be something you only see in hindsight. Nor should it be something waved off as them only being a start-up. Like I said this isn’t some mom and pop place selling stuff on ebay (though I’m sure that would actually have been smoother). This is a real company, and with that comes expectations. When you buy a product, you get the company along with it. What good is a great product when the company behind it isn’t? Do you want an orphaned device? I sure don’t…

    I guess I am trying to hold NI to a higher standard than they showed yesterday, and that’s bad why? They NEED to be better than yesterday. If they weren’t *SURE* they could have pulled off per-orders smoothly, than they never should have promised it. And like you, I wish they never did.

    I have followed the Adam closely for a year. I held off buying anything else when I really could have used it, bc back in the spring it was supposed to be coming soon. They had problems (which I understood) and it was delayed. Ok, I could wait. So I (and anyone else following for that long) waited and waited and have been teased with blog entries along the way. Finally *THE* day arrived. I had been up since Wed morning. I couldn’t have been more excited. I lashed out on the blog to the negative posters (so I get your post, even though I may not like it).

    We were told by Rohan himself that we would be able to pre-order, that we should be receiving an email. It was very upsetting to see people post again and again they received theirs, while anyone who didn’t have a gmail account was left in the cold. It was especially upsetting to read some of those people had only just posted on the last blog or only very recently found out about the Adam. If I would have received that email like promised, I would have been one of the 1st to pre-order (I had my Visa all ready =p), but that didn’t happen…

    And while waiting and waiting for some official word from NI about what was going on and still trying to be patient for my email, I read those *horrible* policies. The original policies were unacceptable. They were incomplete, contradictory, unreasonable, and even a bit shady. They they were suddenly removed w/o word and replaced (after people had already been ordering) with the current Terms & Conditions, which seems to have ignored privacy, which was highly suspect in the original policy.

    And you really…in all seriousness…think it’s reasonable to excuse yesterday and not have higher expectations? No, sorry, I just can’t accept that.

    Looking back, NI shouldn’t have made the pre-order offer bc they weren’t prepared, but Rohan did, and the way it played out hurt and disappointed a lot of people. I also don’t think it’s expecting too much for them to do *something* to start making up for it. At the very, very least he could acknowledge that yesterday alienated, disappointed and hurt some of his “family” and that he’s sincerely sorry.

    At the very least, you apologize for your mistakes. Or is that also higher than your low expectations? If it is, you might need to work on your self-esteem…

  1875. Rohan,

    I have been following the adam most of the year, and have been reading this blog religiously since the first or second weekend updates. I have been following many 10″ tablets closely so i can test and recommend the best ones to be used for accessing training for over 60,000 employees. I’ve had the iPad since it came out (very impressive, but lacking some key features), received the Archos 101 yesterday (disappointing), but have been most excited about and committed to Notion Ink and the adam. I was very impressed with the openess you’ve had on the blog, and even though I did not comment on the posts, I voted on colors and logos, and I feel like I’m a part of this. I have hyped the adam to my supervisors, family, friends, and anyone who will listen. I did not expect a preorder email, but I was fully prepared to put my trust in you and Notion Ink (with or without images or videos) soley based on the specs, but mainly because of the trust you’ve built through this blog. I could tell that this project was like your child, and that was enough for me to believe that you will do what it takes to maike it great.

    I was glued to my computer the entire day yesterday (resulting in 0 productivity for the day), and I scoured every single comment for hours and hours on end. Finally, I filled out the form to order a 3G Pixel Qi (the first of hopefully many Notion Ink purchases), but I could not bring myself to enter the payment information. My gut told me there were too many red flags (no pictures/video, the several glitches from yesterday, gramatical errors, beta apps, raised prices, general lack of information, etc. – all of which I was aware of and still willing to risk the purchase), but I just could not get past red flags on 2 things: the lack of response and report from you during the problems, and the claims of issues with the payment processes.

    We have gotten so used to your heeding input and communicating with us, that the lack thereof was glaringly obvious, and it raised a much bigger flag than it would have if you had never opened those communication chanels. But even through your silence, I was still willing to buy into your dream. So when I went to submit payment, and saw that others were being charged when the order did not go through, or they did not receive a confirmation from Notion Ink, and that Notion Ink was not responsible even if the item didn’t show up, and I had to 100% upfront, and I had to pay a fee to cancel – it was the final straw. Even though my company would reimburse me for the cost, and I could explain if the adam somehow was not everything it promised to be, I did not feel 100% confident it would even get here or that I could exchange it if something was wrong. I could not defend a decision to my supervisors if I was not 100% confident. Perhaps if you had been more present yesterday, I might have been reassured enough to purchase.

    I am required to make recommendations with several tablets ready to use February, sp users may experiment and make a deciscion on what to purchase. I wanted the adam to be at the top of that list. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to purchase a lot more iPads to meet this need. I’ll be at CES, and I hope to regret my deciscion to hold off on the adam until my confidence is restored. I am still holding onto the hope that I can confidently order several to use as demonstrations in our company exposition by February. Time will tell…

    A disappointed, but somehow still hopeful, fan

  1876. What we need is somebody like Charles Petzold for Microsoft…

    Somebody who knows the nitty gritty of the whats and whys of the hardware and software development process…

    A person like him, writing the first few manuals… would be a big boost for NI…

  1877. +1 Rowan fire.

    “When you make a mistake, you make it right. As a customer or potential customer, yes, I have the right to ask what they are going to do to make it right. “

  1878. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab and I have no heating problem but did you get that from normal use or could you please tell me what use of programs would get the heat up? Thanks.

  1880. Yes Public Relations are EVERYTHING NOW!!!!! Rohan must work hard to undue the damage done. He’s be getting pre-orders but he needs to get the horse ahead of the cart. Forget the mysteries and games, You want to play with the big boys your going to have to step up and be one. Hire a PR person that knows what to do. Someone with experience……you are beyond blog hits and publicity. You need good publicity not the kind your getting now. You know your product is good the public does not. Prove to them that is. Hope I don’t sound to harsh… I just want you to succeed…..

  1883. it is funny that this may make people feel better, those of us who have been following the blog for months have seen these a ton and knew they were out there and had little doubt yesterday. The problem was all the people who didnt follow the blog coming in and freaking out because they have not done any research and a preorder was released. All they knew was their techy friend told them this was the best thing since peanut butter (love it!) and they went to go buy it and thought it was a scam because of how unfinished everything was (the legal docs). The preorder was meant for the geeks and we all brought our friends and they all freaked… Next time dont invite your friends to a preorder ;P

  1884. @Christian : I think you know I was not talking about you when I said “from your harsh words”. It should have read “from harsh words”

  1885. great news!! Rohan a big congratulations and wishing you a very happy and prosperous future 🙂

  1887. Well, after a lot of thought I’ve placed an order for an Archos 101 even though I’d have preferred an Adam.

    There are simply too many variables about the Adam for my confidence right now. I sort of feel like Notion Ink is a mad genius of a company spinning frantically in place and fighting for balance. I firmly believe that within a year or so, they’ll be the platform to beat, but right now I can’t help but think that the various professional gaffes of the last few days on the marketing, POS, and public relations front will be mirrored with equal initial bugs and frustrations on the production/troubleshooting front.

    I admire that mad whirling genius, but I’m going to wait for him to achieve stability before I climb onboard.

    So here’s hoping that next year NI’s market niche will be established, and the Adam will be in full production and in stock at major retailers worldwide. I’ll be about ready for a new tablet by then.

  1888. Pratik,
    Thank you for echoing my sentiments as well. It is dystopia indeed. I was one of the lurkers till recently, but I’m speaking out because it saddens me to see that a desire to do some good on Rohan’s part ended up generating so much of negativity.

    In this modern world, sharing information is required to generate buzz, but it really can have a nasty bite when things go even slightly bad. On one hand, you have Steve Jobs and his ultra-secretive culture that permeates the entire company and carefully choreographed stage events. I think he gets away with it because he has a great track record of matching up to heightened expectations. But even Apple stumbled recently with the entire Antennagate issue on the iPhone. Again turns out it was a few very noisy bloggers who made this a big issue. Apple wasn’t blameless, they tried blaming the customers and then when the issue wouldn’t go away, gave away bumpers.

    So here we have Rohan the young CEO of a product company in India (seems strange just saying that) who has been posting every week for the last few months, including photos of his “baby” when it came out a few weeks back, but it has done nothing to quell demands of getting pictures of the “real” products. I guess everyone has their own level of trust, especially when it comes to parting with money so I don’t fault anyone.
    To me though, the entire ruckus over the last few days seems a bit farcical. This might not be a perfect analogy, but it’s like you’ve been dating this great girl for the past year. She’s everything you’ve always wanted in your life partner. Besides her honesty is refreshing, she’s been very open about her upbringing, why she did the things she did and even her past relationships. You are ready to commit and get married, but you come across an old picture of her with some other guy (aka pre-ordering issues). The next minute you know, you’re accusing her of being a Whore, out to get your money and that you will NOT marry her until you see ALL the pictures and Videos and a chastity certificate from a Doctor!

    As any well meaning friend would say to the bewildered and disappointed girl (Notion Ink team): You deserve better. Hang in there. I can’t get my hands on the Pixel Qi version, but I’m going to wait. I trust you… despite your relative inexperience, communication abilities and execution missteps.

    Thanks for reading
    Prakash

  1889. He’s not avoiding the question on the FCC, they can’t do anything more than expect it to pass before it passes. They’ve already carried out the FCC tests themselves and it’s passed, so as long as ADAM doesn’t get nervous and **** up or something, it’ll pull it off. We do need to know more about Adam itself, though.

  1890. Those who loves numbers..here are some stats for the blog

    Blog Post : Week-End Special -XI
    Total Comments : 9,499
    bloggers like this post : 248

    Blog Post: 1.61803399
    Total Comments : 8,720
    bloggers like this post : 239

    Blog Post: FIAT LUX
    Total Comments : 7,474
    bloggers like this post : 107

    Blog Post: OUCH
    Total Comments : 577
    bloggers like this post : 17

    Blog Post: Introspection
    Total Comments :1,901
    bloggers like this post : 36

    In statistics term, Notion ink has completed one full normal distribution. From the <300 comments to Peak at the 9000+ comments and back to the 577 comments.

    Lets hope now NotionInk can start another normal distribution starting with 1,901 comments and hopefully they keep the peak for longer this time….

    I know its boring ..but Risk Analyst in me couldnt help but to notice this Bell curve.

    as one of the Indian Movie says "ALL IZZ WELL" ,
    cheers.

    Credit Risk Analyst.

    Lets hope the

  1891. I agree with your post and its tone, however Rohan made two major errors in starting pre-orders without the above explanations and without a long video presentation.

    They should have waited until Dec 18th to get the credit card and the video sorted.

  1892. Ever hear of professionalism? You can be a start-up, but still be professional. I want an Adam, but I want it from a competent company. Whether or not NI turns out to be that remains to be seen. Yesterday did not display professionalism or competency. If they step up, and there isn’t something comparable to the Adam in March, I’ll buy one. However it won’t be easy to forget yesterday happened.

    Also, since you are replying to my post, don’t imply I ever called NI frauds. I don’t think that’s the case at all.

  1893. hope that there will be another preorder for the ones that could not order due to mastercard thing….or the old guys (folowers) that did not get a pre order mail.

    Still like to have a QI 3g Version….

  1894. Count me in for for manual Spanish translation help.
    Every little bit helps and I’m pretty sure there will be more people willing to help with other languages as well if Rohan takes the offer.
    Best wishes for you Rohan.
    Regards,

  1895. Send a few demo units to third party reviewers such as cnet, nytimes etc. as well as a few news channels such as cnn and some blogs once you have ironed out the wrinkles in the website. That should help a lot with the publicity.

    Please rethink your philosophy on one product pricing since a consumer in US is not excited to subsidize another person around the world.

    Roll it out in phazes with one continent at a time. You have a great product and the edge over ipad is not going away even after launch of ipad 2.

  1896. Rohan and the team at Notionink have NEVER removed comments from naysayers. fyi Maurice…

  1897. @ rowan fire said, on December 11, 2010 at 00:11

    > I’m 34, …, I’ve spent several of those years in direct customer service….

    Son, wake up ! It’s time to get ready for your pre-school.

  1898. you can pay $50 bucks for shipping (FYI if you saw the real price you would freak because this was actually a discount and will go up in the future) or you can let companies mark up the product to include shipping from china and then charge you $25 bucks on top of that. You complainers about the shipping do not understand that shipping from china is considered a cost of doing business and you ALL pay for it in EVERYTHING you buy, it is just included in markup and you are never aware you paid for it. Then you get charged for shipping it to your door from the warehouse for a small fee.

    A normal customer does not understand this and are always going to freak when they dont understand what is going on.

    PLEASE understand that $50 bucks was a discount and many of us could have paid near $180… NI took a BIG hit selling to everyone at a flat fee, APPRECIATE it…

    Sorry if it sounds like I just went on a rant against you. Many people have expressed what you are saying and they don’t understand the costs of doing business globally…

    Also, original intentions were to release only in the US, now NI is releasing world wide on day one… ;OO; I personally think it went smoothly for a world wide preorder…

    he responded within hours…. hours people…. hours…..he personally, a CEO of a soon to be billion dollar company… responded… himself…. within hours in the middle of the NIGHT

  1899. I’m here and didn’t get one. and didn’t like the way Dec 9 event was handled. Was callous and unthoughtful.

  1903. I doubt you are medical student. Pathetic english. even in sleep no medical student can write this bad english. Anyway you are supporting Rohan and I should appreciate that.

  1906. In-depth video will be released on 18th December, and till then you can hold on continuing your purchases.

    I hope for the adam it will be the best product video i´ve ever seen in my entire life.You got 8 day´s.Don´t forget it Rohan.

    ps.: a whole YOUTUBE NOTION INK CHANNEL is possible

  1907. there was a one hour gap in between posting Ouch and introspection!!!! Every other post had a lot longer than that. How about you calculate the comments per hour or just look at the traffic to the site per post, those will be more logical.

  1909. I double posted in an attempt to figure out this stupid blog and why it throws messages all over the place…………….Tom C

  1910. @Rohan – have Harvard Business School been in touch yet to ask if they can use this fiasco as a lesson in how NOT to run a startup? Or are they still rolling on the floor laughing at the general incompetence of it all?

  1911. You know that those pictures weren’t of the final version of the Adam, right? In those pics, the Adam has a back trackpad. People have been asking over and over for weeks if it still does, and Rohan has chosen not to answer. Don’t you think that question should have been answered before people paid $600. If you go by those pictures you are basing your argument on, then it better have the trackpad…and if it doesn’t…you’ll be totally ok with that, will you?

    The specs are unclear. What does 8+ mean exactly? People have asked that over and over to know how much memory Adam will on *on-board*, again with no answer. If it only has 8, clearly say it only has 8. Saying 8+ implies there are other memory variants, but there wasn’t when ppl ordered yesterday. So, if that’s the case, then there really is only 8 and the + is misleading.

    So, yes, please tell me again where in this blog or the Adam site one can go to get this information? I’ve read EVERYTHING posted by Rohan and those answers, among others have never been clearly answered.

  1912. FYI the only reason he didnt respond in less than hours is because he said he was on a flight at the time of the release…”Oouch!…Bad time to be in flight”-Rohan

  1913. You should wait for the iPad 2. You are taking a massive risk if you go with the Adam. It might be technologically superior but if the support is anything like what has happened in the last few days, you will be in a world of hurt!

  1914. I for one do agree ..
    I think its the family’s responsibility to be critical .. and to show the way ..

    this family arrived a little late .. the cracks had been showing since weeks

  1916. I think that is partially our fault. He wants to please us and we all demanded preorders, after every update he was bashed for not preordering and enough teasing us, get on with the preorders, take my money please! He listened and it bit him.

  1917. I agree with you “Twist” that there are outliers in the DATA. In absence of detail data and lack of time, i had to just go with initial exploratory data analysis. However may be over a weekend I can put to gather detail analysis. 🙂 .

    Were you able to Order your ADAM ? I coudlnt , By the time i got back to the site, PIXEL QI were all gone.

  1918. Other people have responded to you to point out that what you identified was only part of the problem.

    In my opinion, you are just wrong (except about the pre-preorders being a fiasco). What you are complaining about first is the fact that the blog is now too busy, and has a lot of negative comments. To that point, I have lurked on this blog for months, and I therefore cannot assume that the other “new” (and by implication, bad) people have not also been lurkers. I have also thought of Notion Ink as “my company” and the ADAM as “my device.” Certainly not from a development standpoint, but from a standpoint of my identity as a consumer.

    But even that’s not really the issue. Metaphorically speaking, the blog is on a completely different planet than the launch coordination and payment gateway, which is what failed.

  1919. @Ed, if you look at all the comments, what we are asking are very simple things. forget about hands on video. if NI could not provide a decent TECH Spec with what exactly each model will have, what is the memory, what all 3G bands each model will support, what is the battery life for each model, etc. if a company can not have all those ready before the pre-order, they are not at all professional. i still support NI. i still recommend NI to everyone. i want NI to succeed in this. infact most of the blog followers are…. that is the reason why we are pointing all wrong things. it is like a member of the family scolding you so that you can correct the mistakes and shine in the outside world….

    this is the first time ppl would have blindly bought a big priced product without any concrete details. what we have is abstract promises….

  1920. Rohan,
    Would it be possible for the ones that couldnt preorder due to the CC issues (like me), to perhaps have a prior notification on the Qi Pixel once you have date availability?
    That way we will have a better chance of not missing the train again…
    Hope to hear from you.
    Thanks,

  1921. If the spelling in your posts is anything to go by (see early ADAPTERS – sic), then can I ask that you do not help proofreading the manuals? It doesn’t look as though it would be any improvement on the sh!t currently coming out of NI.

  1925. From a blog post back on Nov 6th, it was stated:

    “All 43 entries will enjoy a steep discount, so keep an eye on your mail box.”

    Is that still true? I was one of these finalists and am eager to order, but I need to know how steep this discount is…haven’t seen anything in my email yet.

  1926. 1. I’d like to have more information about the backlit LCD version, how does it compare to Pixel Qi indoors? I will mainly use the Adam indoors or while traveling (bus, train, etc.) with very little outdoor use. Readability in bright sunlight is not that important for me, but color fidelity and saturation is. We heard the strengths of Pixel Qi, but are there any weaknesses compared to backlit LCD (I repeat: for indoor use)?

    2. If you need translation / proofreading for Hungarian or Romanian, I can gladly help.

    3. Pretty please fix the MasterCard issue, I won’t be able to order the Adam otherwise.

  1928. I’m a woman, so keep making assumptions please. Also, did I say that I was still in a customer training position? No, I don’t believe I did. I used the past tense. I moved on to something different quite a while ago. While although I am not offended by your implication that working in customer service is somehow not good enough, others might be. You might want to check your condescension at the door.

    I’d suggest it’s not I who needs pre-school with the immature attitude you are displaying, but thanks for posting =)

  1929. Anyone else thinking of “the Emperor’s New Clothes” at present? Or are you all still to blinded by the “Cult of Adam” to see that NI (in corporate terms) is stark bollock naked??

  1930. The ordering was open to everyone after the initial pre-order, it was open for a couple of hours atleast. You should have ordered then.

  1931. You said you will be at CES, but I do not see you listed in the CES directory. Are you listed under something other than “Notion Ink”?

    Go to the CES website and look at the list of exhibitors. I hope I am simply looking at the wrong list….

  1932. Hi Anil!
    I am extremely interested in getting a first-hand user review of the adam by an Indian customer, so that I have an exact idea of the total amount I have to pay incuding duties etc. Since you have already booked an Adam PQ+3g – the one I want, and would be an early user, would it be possible for me to get in touch with you? May I please have your email id? Mine is abhirup_basak at yahoo.co.in Do reply!

  1933. Are you sure about “no duty on computers”? It may be so if they are made in the NA.
    When I bought a Sony Vaio- from Japan in 2009. DHL delivered it. The package was stuck at DHL’s warehouse in Canada for some paperwork. I was asked where was the manufacturer and info. about my VISA, and I signed and faxed / e-mail back the document to them. And my record shows a payment of 13% of the cost.

    I don’t know why it was like that. When I got my phones delivered from US by Fedx, they just delivered and charge me duties on delivery. If it is the cost of the good, I’m hoping Adam is ok as it is cheaper than the phones.

  1934. I will never give apple another cent of my money. I don’t care if the new iPad turns water in to wine, I will not buy it.

    You don’t seem to understand the product. Even if the company goes under, support and development will go on. That is the nature of open source.

    With Mac, you are stuck with Apple. Apple tells you what you can or can’t have. Apple tells you what you should need.

    With Android you get choice. And that is worth the risk.

    If everyone thought like you, nothing would ever change. The world needs brave early adopters to push technology ahead.

  1935. Visa Credit Card still being declined… Plenty of money, called the bank they don’t even show that someone attempted to run the number…I’m at a loss.

  1936. Ya… I clicked post and the stop right after to try and fix a typo. lol it double posted anyway.

  1937. Many of us believe in this product because we have been contributing towards it for quite some time now and have done the research. What have you done? walk into the blog without reading all of them and think you know what you are blogging about? Who is the one naked? The uninformed…

  1942. I agree, Albert. Lots of PR is needed, especially for a start up. How about giving us a way a way to contact customer service about orders? What’s the good of having the best product in the world if you can’t support it? All of those countries you are shipping to, you need to have a number for someone to call or, at a minimum, an email support service with a specific time frame guaranteed for reply.

    Who is providing the 3G service anyway?? Best wishes to you, but PR + customer service make a good company … legendary!!

  1943. I do have to ask…given that the main product launch has been shelved for CES 2011 why is there no mention what so ever of NotionInk, Adam or Rohan on the CES website? Are you exhibiting on somebody else’s stand, roaming the halls, what’s the deal?

  1944. You my friend are blinded. You have done NOTHING to contribute to the product. You may think you have done something but in actuality the truth is quite clear. Now you will respond with being on the boards for so long and I am new or something to that effect, but you won’t respond with what it is you contributed that Rohan listened to and used.

  1946. Rohan,

    Just wanted to drop in and say that you guys are doing the right things.
    I trust NI most of all because of Rohan’s openness right from the get go.

    I will be ordering as soon a Pixel QI versions are available again.

    Go Rohan and the NI team !

    Best regards,

  1947. last time i see the pixel qi model will be shipped in 8-12 weeks (3 months), it really make me hesitated to preorder + the bizarre things that happen and no words from rohan till the qi version sold out (yes i’m a family with yahoo account…no mail for me)

    in my opinion the main reason that will save NI is “we don’t have a choice” till late january maybe, after that who knows? some of the big boys are indicating a q1 release (hey they have a representative stores here), maybe honeycomb too (hint: an OS don’t come alone)…

    so for me if the next batch pixelqi preorder is march shipping, i’m out…
    thanks rohan and Ni for the excitement you bring in the last 7 month (for me).

  1949. It is due to a css attribute that IE8 does not support. there is a fallback that can be used which I posted somewhere in this thread.

  1950. Did you read their original policies? I did. I have them copied to a Word doc so I could read them better and save them. They were still in place when orders were opened to the public. They were unacceptable. They were incomplete, contradictory, unreasonable, and even a bit shady. By the time I realized they were removed and replaced with new Terms and Conditions, which still aren’t very good (you shouldn’t have to pay *anything* if you receive a DOA/defective/wrong device), the model I wanted was sold out.

    Thanks for you advice though =)

  1951. Ok so ppl are disappointed, I am one of them,but these things happen, its not life or death, the process could have been handled better but Rohan has got till Jan- Feb to Sort Problems Out, Distribution, Payment, Pics, Website, Marketing, T&Cs, Returns. I also think it is unfair for ‘Family’ to comment on late commers, i have been following Adam for a while never commented because i felt i didnt have anything constructive to say.

    Rohan has got a lot to learn and i hope they are success as i want an Adam i will have to wait and be patient, I hope he can have them in major retailers around the world as i think this will make or break the Adam.

  1953. In a way I am glad the hype has come to an end..People who stay back now are true supporters..not fans, but supporters.
    We set apart ourselves as ones who understand the NI dream, and want to encourage them.
    Welcome back Adam family!

    Nevertheless, as being said umpteen times before – questions need to be answered, and lessons learned need to be translated into actions..We are here for you.

    Respect!!

  1955. Erf….
    No possibility to buy it…. and there is no more pixel Qi version ….
    Rohan, is there possibility to know when we could buy pixel Qi again?
    If I can say something, don’t forget that Ipad 2 will come soon… They are talking about retina screen?
    It woulb be preferable to be in possibility to sell more of Adam before the coming of Ipad 2…
    Best regards

  1956. Oh i would like some money seeds, I have a coupon here for 97% off plus free shipping.

    Well I really want this Adam and have been following it since the start, however right now I have an iPad and a tablet is essential to me for school, starting new term in a few weeks and for me to get this Adam I was going to sell the iPad and use the money for the Adam but shipping is too long 6-8 weeks and the one I has almost purchased was 8-12, just too long. Was wondering though 12 weeks from now will those shipping times decrease, and would you offer different shipping options like expedient shipping and so forth or will it always be a good length. Also hope by then master card has been implemented. Your doing great though I’m so egar to get this device.

    Thanks,
    Jonathan

  1957. @prakash
    the thing is the girl is online … could be a really good animator for all i know or some fat jerk … ;-). i trust rohan and NI is it so hard to post some real time images and vids of adam on the blog?? again if rohan had notified “the family” about the mastercard issue there probably would have been a little less to worry about. i know i trust NI but they need to return the favour too. its a 2 way street… doesnt matter though, waited fr a year whats another month???

  1958. Agreed. I am certainly not a “long timer” but I have written to Rohan and the gang as well as written some blogs about Adam. I have full faith in what they’re doing and have since I first heard about Adam.

    Like you, I was a victim of the bank error…my bank wouldn’t approve a trx for more than $200 overseas and they sold out before I could work out another solution. So…hopefully they’ll sell on Amazon or structure a paypal account…something.

    I am sad because I missed my chance (and I did get the email) but I still believe.

  1959. I also want to point out that while I did get a laugh at the clock always being at 4:20 in the pictures, this made the whole thing look a little juvenile and, in my mind, added to worries that this is one of the greatest scams in internet history.

    I don’t think the Adam is a scam, but if it is, good show sir. Pulling off a grift of this magnitude would be even more impressive than actually releasing the Adam.

  1960. This.

    The fact is it was open to everyone after six hrs.

    Also, I have no problem with critisim, I have a problem with object whining and alot of that is going on this blog.

    He explained what happened but thats not good enough for some people here, they didn’t get their adam so hot damn somehow that makes the sky fall.

    They explained what happened and hopefully they will fix it. I cannot believe how devastated people are to not have the opportunity to pre-order some thing to the point of clowning the owner of the company after he explained the problems.

    Look, i believe that they handled their crisis the best way they could with a lot of professiionlism. Shit fucking happens and if a start up company is not allow to make mistakes then go to the big boys who have already had the time to perfect their business and buy their crap.

    Hell I was not happy about the price hike but i didn’t get on a blog and scream and hollar at the ceo like he OWED me something. It was a business decision and thems the breaks.

    The servers went down, mastercard got a bug up its ass but somehow, NI was suppose to be superman and figure it out. they did what they could. if it was not enough for you so be it.

    I’m taking a break from the comments. I miss when people had a lot of constructive information to provide to others. i guess people feel to need to go off. hopefully by his next entry folks will be finished and we can get back to discussion the specs, tech and the adam itself.

  1961. I booked LCD + 3G model as i will be using it mostly indoor and i dont read e book. Did i made the right choice? I heard PixelQ is not that gr8 in backlight mode?

  1962. I’m not sure if this has been mentioned yet, so apologies if this is now old news.

    I got an email from Notionink addressing a couple of questions:

    1. Memory. The unit does indeed ship with only 8GB of internal memory. This is expandable by up to 128GB through the SD card slot and by whatever size external HDD you attached via USB.

    2. The 3G model sent to you will be based on the country listed in your shipping address.

    Personally I would prefer more internal memory, but the fact I can add through the SD card slot means this isn’t really a big issue.

    Regarding shipping, the complaints on price are very naive. International courier shipping is very expensive. $50 worldwide is a fantastic price. Many of you are used to subsidized local shipping within your country, but as someone who lives outside the US (Australia), let me tell you this is cheap. It cost me $100 to have an Exopc shipped from Canada and it cost US recipients $60 to have it shipped (again from Canada). That’s just one example. Even Amazon’s base rate (before additional item charges) for international courier delivery is $30.

    I see a lot of negative comments here and I feel for those of you how are confused (the level of info wasn’t adequate) and upset that you missed something you wanted. I also see alot of people here to do nothing but troll and try and feed of this disappointment for their own personal amusement.

    To those yet to order, be patient. A lot worse things have happened in the world today than missing the first batch of Adam’s.

    To those looking for more information, be patient too. Rohan has said it is coming over the next week. Clearly the marketing side of the business is not ready and rightly or wrongly that’s the situation we are in. If you’re not confident yet, don’t order.

    To those trolls, well, all I can say is you have my pity.

    Peace and chill out everyone.

  1963. whay are you moderating innocuous questions? I am asking whether your participation in CES 2011 is confirmed as I dont see it on their site

  1966. You didnt hear anything? What about EAP people??? I remember about the logos because I was upset I never designed one. How about is there even a logo 🙂

  1967. I don’t get all the frustration people have! It was already known that de NI Adam would be available AFTER the holidays. No promise made!
    I agree they didn’t do a good job with the preorders, but now everything works and peoply can CHOOSE if they want to have the Adam (unseen) as early as januari 6 2011.
    Adam will be reviewed many times when it hits the market in 2011. People who don’t trust it, just wait for the reviews and order then if you like!

    Typical that so many people got on this blog the last days, just hoping that they could get a first row seat to get the Adam. And now that not everything is as perfect as they expected, they moan on this forum. A bit childish!

    I am still confident that Adam will rock the tablet market, but let the good people of engadget, slashgear etc. give their honest opinion at the reviews first!

    @Sighted: can you act a little bit less frustrated!!!!

  1968. I would be down for this. Also I think a lot of the instructions could be universally communicated through various illustrations. A lot appears to be gesture oriented. There will always be the need for documentation on e-mail setup, etc.

  1969. I understand the criticism because a few things seem quite fishy. Hopefully, this is really just a glitch in the process of a start-up and it will be corrected soon. For my part, I will wait until the product has been shipped out and there are sufficient reviews. Then I can still decide to go with this or another product.

  1971. not got any info at all? Check how Steve Jobs released IPad and by the time he announced the pre-order all the specs and full details about the product and its features were available everywhere. if you have a great product, what is the problem in putting a decent webpage will all the details? dont we have good web developers out there? that is one thing we do better :-D. i dont think NI is very transparent. ofcourse, this blog has all the great information for the geeks. but geeks are just a very small fraction of the large consumer market. notionink.com does not provide good clear details in plain simple english for average joes. NI can look at apple.com or samsung galaxy website or anyother website to understand how to present the features and details about the product in plain simple to understand english. What they need the most is a good professional person who understand the market conditions.

  1972. Really I dont understand the motivation of you naysayers. Why do you spend time lingering in this blog to bash the product and Rohan? Do you have nothing better to do? Comments like “you are all blind” and “vapor ware” are unproductive to this forum and your life. Do you not have any real world ties where you can contribute? because here there is nothing for you and you gain nothing from it…

    Sounds to me like someone might have not had a close relationship with their mother and wants to take out the frustration of an unsuccessful life out on others and feeds on it. Were you a bully in highschool? were you bullied? I encourage you Break the Cycle! Please come see my priest and we can try and do a demon expulsion ritual on you… really….

  1973. Although there were a few bumps in the road, and continue to be this is all just a start we hope! If this product is able to live up to the collective dreams of this community than a few bumps in the road only bring it closer together.

    I still have 2 lingering questions…

    How successful has the pre-sale been thus far?
    Also I ordered a 3g variant but did not have an option to chose the frequency850/900. Is this because it will be automatically selected based on country? I know that for a country like Canada 850 is really the only model that can be used.

  1974. Thanks a lot to pratik for this comment, couldn’t agree more with you, It’s sad to see that those who have kept updated all the time on this blog wheren’t the one rewarded.
    I must say it’s a bit pathetic to see all those people rushing on the blog and commenting it unwisely just to try and have a pre-order mail.
    I couldn’t agree more with your maxim : ‘Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first’

    and hang on your comment is not lost, we’re with you.

  1976. OK, so I’m not sure how the NI team decided on the production volume for the different variants. Twenty four hours into the pre-order and the LCD’s haven’t sold out.

    Rohan this should be a key indicator for you. Millions of people sprung 500+ for iPads, those millions of people can spring for your top of the line!

  1981. Also… I just called DHL. If a pixel Qi +3g would be available I would have to pay an extra $170 in taxes in order to get my Adam in Ecuador. Looks like I won’t be getting it till June 😦

  1985. The PQ screen is the main attraction I have for the adam, everything else is great and it has since really sold the product, but with the PQ screen, everything else is icing on the cake.

  1987. It’s not that NI doesn’t want to sell the top of the line.
    The problem is there are only a limited amount of Qi screens (Pixel Qi is a startup themself)

  1989. If you don’t realize that I was pulling your leg or are unable to take a joke, take a break.

  1990. Please someone respond to this. The idea or notion of the Adam was released at the CES 2010 correct???

    Why would they go again and show the same item OK yes agree its in final version now at CES 2011? People are saying they are not on the list either? Can someone seriously clear this up?

    None of my comments are ever answered and its frustrating. They are so simple.

  1991. Trolling and trying to get a rile out of people has been around for a long time. Furthermore, venting frustration at the internet is easy.

    The motivations aren’t complex – they’re usually pretty base in nature. It’s just seeking some form of gratification and, in some cases, trying to hurt others as they feel they have been wronged.

    Not justifying or supporting it, however.

  1992. Really? I would be surprised if this hit Harvard radar. More so, the transparency and inclusion that Rohan has created with his company is just now what business schools are teaching as a successful business plan.

    Companies have set backs, and the ship will right itself. If you notice his release in spite of problems still sold out the higher models with people asking for more. More so, the major companies you are told to follow and invest in have had issues. Example: the Apple issues with Iphone 3g, both on at&t and apples sites. Interesting, how they had the same ordering issues, yet they are one of the more successful companies right now.

    I am sure Rohan knows there has been a problem. You pointing it out at this point, is nothing more than kicking a man while he is down.

    Rohan, make your business work, and watch others follow suit until Harvard is asking you to do a lecture series.

    -TLD

  1994. Pre-order inventory of two most expensive models was sold out in 3 hours.

    Probably same thing will happen in next round too.

    Fiasco…hmmm.

  1996. I agree.. it’s not them not wanting to sell them. But it is, it seems to me a miscalculation of demand. people are truly open to purchasing the Qi screens, and making a pre-order and having it sell out in less than 12 hours is bound to get you angry customers. Especially after 12months of waiting. This also means that they had 12 months to properly aski Pixel Qi to produce the amount of screens needed.

  1997. it doesn’t matter what anyone says, i am still getting the Adam tablet, and will be waiting till CES and till notion ink fixes their payment options and their website, this is by far the best tablet and we can wait and support Rohan in every decision he takes, remember we are all one family.

  1998. Yeah. alberts wright. If you guys want to call things like the adam vaporware than just go buy a freakin ipad like all the other noobs in the world. Even if the adam some how never made it to my hands its still better as “vaporware” than a real ipad. or beter yet “Icant”

  1999. I would like to begin a positive posting campaign, something to raise the spirits. We simply post:

    I believe in Adam!

    That’s it! I think the boys and gals at NI deserve it!

  2000. Rohan,

    Please make sure that folks at NI don’t mess up this time. Dec 18 is Dec 18. Earlier is fine, but later would be a strict no-no. Please make sure you specify the time and timezone as well. Lot of followers are already pissed at having to refresh the blog every 5 minutes for updates, during the now famed pre-order disaster. Give a time and sticking to it, may help recover some of the lost reputation!!!

  2001. They would do it to:

    1. Get Press
    2. Show people is not vapor ware (foot traffic at this event alone is amazing.)
    3. Let people interact with the device
    4. Let is stand against the up and comings/ current releases.

    Also, so people know the tegra chipset was announced in 2007 i believe with a viable test phone at ces… yet the product took years to make it into devices.

  2003. Me TOO!!!! I’ll be getting the Pixel Qi/wifi/3G. I just don’t think that I can wait the 6-8 weeks… what am I gonna do until then!!??

    🙂

  2004. If you are keeping track, I did receive an e-mail after checking my spam, but the link wouldn’t let me into the system. And the the PQ sold out, I am looking forward to the next round. The e-mail previously went to nll083t at gmail.com.

  2005. Rohan, you should have disabled commenting on the post where you said mails would be sent out to the family. At least these whiners would have made a big fuss on the other sites about how unfair you are and waited until CES. Most of these people clamoring for service right NOW will in fact end up buying the product anyway. They just like to make a mess of it beforehand to take out their frustration of not being treated *royally*. The ones here shouting *sheesh* about the shipping will pay the fricking 50 bucks after CES – in fact may be they *like* standing in lines around buildings only to complain about it later on the blogs. Hypocrisy.

  2006. I could have and it may turn out that i should have bought 3G pixel Qi, but I felt that it was going to spend $600 on a tablet I want to know everything. I know Rohan an NI are more open than most companies but I felt that yesterday I didnt know enough about the device. So I held off even though I will order the adam once 3rd party reviews come out.

  2008. Its a totalitarian conspiracy. You are the pioneer for the free world. Do not give up.

  2009. No email for me either… 😦

    I must agree with all the negative comments and frustration against NI (especially with what rowan fire said). I have posted lots and lots of comments on this blog over the past year. Furthermore I have sent more than 10 emails directly to NI and not one reply!!!

    I was rather disappointed but if a company can’t reply to an email in 6 months, I wonder how well can they handle issues on a worldwide scale. The proof was yesterday. One is expected to hand $550 without knowing what exactly one is getting. I wish I had more cash at disposal : )

    Kno is launching a new tablet as well (not comparable to Adam but at least it has a digitiser – useful for my hospital work) but the customer service is EXCELLENT and full specs and facts are on the website. If you have any questions you can call/email or chat! NI does not have a telephone number and email is futile, maybe I should try writing a letter : )

    I hope all goes well for the new customers (and that there are no bad surprises with the Adam) and I hope you guys can enjoy the product.

    At the end of the day there are worse things in life than not getting a tablet. With great sadness it looks like I will have to wait for another company to release a good tablet. Likelihood is that we won’t have to wait for too long…

  2010. Exact same case with me. I am an IT director for Health care company. We have been using windows tablets mainly from Fujitsu and Toshiba ($2000). I have been researching for better tablets since 2004. I wanted to buy Adam to evaluate for the company needs. But some Orange flags for now-especially to try out for business. I will try early next year . Ipad apps and accessories are useful in connecting Ipad to business. There is a lot of demand for tablets in the businesses. I wish best of luck to Notion Ink and hopefully they will meet business needs along with consumer needs.
    IMP-You can charge premium for business-close to $700.00- and businesses do not need extra ports or latest displays or even 3g- what they need is- apps to connect to the existing servers,Reliability,pen input.If you are interested in meeting business needs, please let me know-we have been supporting windows tablets for 6 years for our doctors. I will email my experiences.

  2012. I should say I got in on the first go and used my MC card and picked the top of the line… where’s the software… where’s the software

  2014. I think the way they compiled the list required the user to be a registered wordpress user. Makes sense if they wanted to weed out people that were using false email addresses but a lot of people that did post regularly were left out. I only started posting sporadically a couple of weeks ago so it did not bother me but I can see how regular contributors could have been very surprised not to get the link.

  2015. If his continued posts (they go back a long time) in this blog are anything to go on, Rohan has proven that he is a trusting and trustworthy person. I’m sure now he has realized that this is a fatal flaw in someone running a business. That’s the sad truth.

    I didn’t realize there was such a large hoopla around the pre-order. Why would people get so angry and upset over a product they know almost nothing about? One early video on a functional prototype is all we have to go on. I refuse to buy based on computer rendered images, but you better believe that I will be watching intensely for NI’s CES presentation.

    I believe that the NI folk have put all of their energy into creating a superior product, and that they honestly overlooked advertising/promotion, etc. This is a surprising strategy given what the competition is doing. Many would call it disappointing, but I call it refreshing. Let your hard word speak for itself, Rohan.

    I’m looking forward to seeing the fruit of your labors at CES.

  2016. I checked too, couldn’t find Notion Ink under the wireless and wireless devices section.

  2018. So are you saying you only want fanboys on this blog? Getting both sides is extremely important. People come to these types of forums to do research and determine if a product meets their needs. How would this be a productive blog if everyone was just raving about how great the adam was and how it was going to save the world? If people have concerns or doubts, those need to be aired. Do you really think Rohan just wants to hear his praise sung all day long?

    Your logic could be turned back on you. Stop reading the posts that do not agree with your world view and stop spending your time commenting on such posts. Or you could continue the debate in a respectable manner and point out why you think the adam really is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Up to you.

  2020. Are you done?

    They did not “handle their crisis the best way they could with a lot of professionalism.” THEY DIDN’T HANDLE IT AT ALL!! Where the hell were you yesterday? It definitely couldn’t have been in front of your computer watching everything that was and was not happening.

    Like you I’m sick. But I’m sick of people like you making excuses for yesterday. Tell me what they did yesterday to address and/or fix the mess yesterday in a way that was professional and competent? Today he is rationalizing, not that he’s even touched on the missed email thing.

    You’re being blindly defensive and it’s a bit sad. He’s excusing and rationalizing their *current* terms and conditions, which is still unreasonable for a person to pay anything at all for a DOA/defective/wrong device. What about the original ones which were in place early on in the odering? Are the people who ordered under them going to be stuck with them? They were RIDICULOUS. How any reasonable person can say they weren’t boggles the mind.

    He knew that people weren’t going to be able to pay with Mastercard, which didn’t effect me any since I had Visa as well. However, a hell of a lot of people did only have Mastercard, especially in Europe/UK, which Rohan claimed was an important market for them. So you think it’s unreasonable for Rohan to have given a heads-up to people who only had Mastercard to try to make other arrangements? Actually, it’s funny because if you took the time to read their original Sales Policy, it clearly stated that NI would be accepting Matercard along with a bank transfer, among other methods…so now isn’t that a little confusing?

    He said there would be details on the Adam on the pre-order page, but there weren’t. For anyone who actually cared what they were paying for, they were out of luck or had to take a leap of faith, which in my opinion, just wasn’t deserved based on how things were playing out and the original Return policy.

    Obviously you do have a problem with criticism. Point out one incorrect or unreasonable thing I’ve said regarding issues that happened yesterday and what should/could have been done? It’s so frustrating dealing with the blindly defensive.

    Oh, and I never once complained about the price of the Adam or shipping actually, so please don’t post crying about ppl crying about that on my post. Hope you clear you head and see things a little better for how they were and are later. Thanks, bye =)

  2022. With all due respect, closing the blog and leaving people to third-party areas would probably be the worst thing to do. Letting people air their grievances in a relatively cordoned-off area is far better than casting to the wind, since a) tech blogs get less ha-ha-told-you-so ammo (deserved or not); and b) gives NI a chance to explain and work through on home turf. Granted, if people still want to complain outside, they will do so, but are less likely if they can complain closer to the source.

    I may not agree with all of NI’s actions, but nothing would make me sadder to see them turn tail and run at the first sign of fire.

  2023. I agree it is hard to find info in the comments here. I did not try to “pre-order” because of lack of Mastercard, lack of clarity on the 8+ GB issue, and problems with orders cited in the comments.

    I also have an android phone with maxed memory with 32 GB card (1/2 full–audiobooks) but maxed memory, and my wife has a 64 GB Ipad.

    Are there any plans on having more than 8 GB memory on-board? Had I clearly understood this, I would have ordered. If there is no plan for a larger on-board flash memory, then I would want to know. I was accustomed to having +3g and different memory sizes available (thanks, Apple) and the 8+ was a major problem. I had hoped that the ordering portal would give drop-down options (memory) available and it had no information at all.

    The problem with added chips: micro SD available = 32 GB at a high price (just over $100 at best) and ? slower read-write than onboard (not expert here). There is no way that 128 GB max is any place achievable in the near future.

    So–My main question: any plans for more on-board memory, and if so, in what time frame? If that will be part of Adam2, then so be it. I don’t want to purchase one, only to find out 1 week later that there are more options available. I have no clue the problems involved in upping the memory from a manufacturing viewpoint–but know that I would pay a premium for additional on-board memory…

    If this gets answered succinctly, that would be my main concern. I’d be ready to spend $ (need Mastercard option which is in-progress).

    Also, any way to order and get on “wait list” ? it seems that the pre-order stuff of interest to me (Pixel Qi) is no longer available, but I’d want to get in-line for one without having to visit the site too frequently.

    I would be thrilled with answers to these few concerns!

  2024. My efforts today are not to change anything but to keep the privileges this forum offers. For the first time in history, we have the ear of a CEO while a product is under development. If you read the forums, he has made changes to this product based on many different people’s feedback. I can almost guarantee you that his board is very upset with him over this forum. He has created a direct public relations communication relay through this forum and not just Geeks have picked up on this but also the tabloids. Before Rohan had a chance to fix the problems, they were reported on by bloggers and press such as PC Magazine, etc. If this forum becomes completely unproductive and a negative public relations nightmare, the board will demand Rohan shut it down. We will lose our ability to communicate with him on a moments notice. And that is not something any of us want to lose. Even those of you bashing the company. You are here to be heard. Make it constructive and you will. He has stated time and time again that he reads every post and revels every post. He does not sensor.

  2025. I’m not part of the family since i did not get the email invite 😉

    But I agree that Adam will be the best tablet but the overall user experience needs to be improved (right from the information available on the web site to the ordering process to responding to queries).

    Apple’s products are not bad but they do have deficiencies but customers are willing to compromise if the whole user experience is good.

  2026. His Problem Is Showing The Final Product before fcc approval. I think he is counting on fcc approval by the 18th.

  2027. +1 DarkWinterNights.

    More so, at sighted if you read the older posts you will notice that the investors wanted to change the tablet to a netbook and it was the forum support that kept it in tablet forum. Not saying albert was one of them, but this is a community device as far as it can be. Its liked a beefed up chumby business model.

    Sighted, by your writing style you seem to be an intelligent individual, I cant help but feel your energy would be better suited coming up with solutions vs pointing out shortcomings/ asking people to prove themselves.

    NI is like a faith for some, they know what they know. Do not fight it, just accept it and wait till the end to see who was right.

    -TLD

  2028. Well, if it’s 128 GB max, there’s only 8 GB onboard, and you max out external sources (microSD + USB flash), I would guess that maybe the internal flash is user-serviceable? I remember seeing (e)MMC mentioned at least once here, so maybe it can be upgraded? Usually internal flash is soldered direct to the board, but I’ve heard rumors that some products use consumer-available flash cards (SD, MMC, etc) on the inside. Maybe that’s the case here.

  2029. Nope, they didn’t, but dozens and dozens of people complained about their comments not showing up after wordpress started dividing the flood of comments onto seperate pages (because they checked on the wrong page). That’s where that comes from.

  2031. Rohan- HANG IN THERE! People appreciate the fact that you are an independent, organic company, and I’ve followed your posts for months now and am happy I got in my Preorder and look forward to the Adam. I think the transparency you’ve shown is very refreshing and indicative of the final product. (for instance, Dell would have had “Free Shipping”- but just added the $50 to the cost of the item…) I think now that concept has become reality, some people expected an Apple-like corporate experience, and that has not been the philosophy from Day 1. So please keep up the good work, and know that you have a core group of believers who are looking forward to a product that will revolutionize an industry.

  2032. Hi Rohan,
    I know this questions has been asked a lot. I will ask the question again to make sure that you refer to it in your next post.
    Pixel Qi is sold out.
    Will it be produced again so some of us can order it? Some of us really want that version.
    Thank you

  2034. I put my money where my mouth is yesterday and bought the $550 adam…

    Rohan damage control from the fall out from yesterday needs to happen sooner as opposed to later. Dec 18th is fine but there’s so many customers you’re losing in the mean time… don’t allow an angry mob of ignorant people to bring down your company before it gets started. I know you’re extremely busy from yesterday’s set back, but it’s put up or shut up time if you want to see your dream realized.

  2036. So according to you, if you held back from ordering an Adam yesterday because questions weren’t answered and things were handled badly, you’re not a “true supporter”

    …and yet in the same post, you say, “questions need to be answered, and lessons learned need to be translated into actions.” Oh, so because you took a blind leap and handed over $600 yesterday, it’s ok for *YOU* to ask for that, but not for other people.

    Ok?

  2037. with all due respect to all the tablets that are out there ( and those that aren’t!!) i cant understand why do people so badly need them? wander how they got work done without the ipad???? guys technology is there to help us but the way we become totally dependant on it is highly detrimental. i am not talking about “google making us stupid” but dont u wander how lazy we have become?? none of the kids in my colony come out to play, rather they prefer to sit in front of their computer screens and play fifa or cs or cod… u get my drift. my point is that these devices and that includes ADAM (sorry rohan!!!) should only be a means and not an end in themselves…

  2038. I’m going to agree with Andew M. on this one. It’s a fallacy in logic to state that since there are no pictures there are no finished Adams. While this could certainly be something you believe to be true, I would refrain from stating it’s a fact … since it’s not.

    Moreover, why aren’t people considering the fact that Notion Ink could have had a plan to not release any major pics or demos of Adam until CES. Not sure I would blame that strategy. Not sure I’d blame them doing a … wait for it … Pre-Sale to anyone interested to buy an Adam before CES. So, for the many that are posting that they will not purchase without seeing it, then don’t buy it. Rohan said it himself… (that scam artist trying to play reverse psychology :)) Obviously, the sold out note on the pre-order page should tell you that others were not as reluctant to purchase without images or demo (I’m not one of them but not because of fear of vaporware)

  2039. Rohan, I just have to ask this question again because it seems so important:

    Is the 3qi screen shipping with the preorders the 2nd gen WIDE VIEW display, or is it the 1st gen which is very sensitive to viewing angles?

  2040. Great Post!
    I’m pre-ordered for the LCD version, I am not upset at all either because I am getting a product that I am confident will be better than the iPad.

    I have no negative feelings towards a startup company with an amazing product, people are definitely way too bent out of shape about this.

    I did order the 3G version, because I figured it will be an added bonus to have no matter if I intend to use it or not. It will be my choice depending on what kind of carrier I will have to sign a plan with and what the plan offers. Otherwise, I will tether with my rooted Droid which is not so bad at all.

    CHILL OUT PEOPLE, enjoy the wait for a great product. Rome wasn’t built in a day and the NotionInk people are working their asses off.

  2041. I am a proud pre-orderer. I love the transparency that Rohan has given to all of us – and I have faith that the Adam will be a great product despite all ye nay-sayers and negative bloggers.

    Everyone feels they’re owed something – and this is not the case… NI does not owe you a video, or a cheaper shipping price, or detailed warranty info, or anything. You can either pre-order on faith – or you can wait for the safe approval of your engadget/slashgear/phandroid/gizmodo to tell you that it’s OKAY to take out your little pocket book and buy the “it” product.

    If you have followed this blog for nearly a year (like many of us have) and still have doubts… what are you even doing here??? Go buy an ipad.

  2042. Yes you made the right choice the pixel qi screen is not worth it for the normal user. I mean us tech types don’t go outside anyways.

  2043. Please look at other countries before you make broad statements like “the world’s best required warranty”. European standards state two years and the UK has the sale of goods act which says liability may be 6 years or more. I’m sure there are other countries with even better consumer protection.

    One thing I would say for definite is that a years warranty is far form world leading especially if it requires the product to be shipped to India or China.

  2044. I fully agree and usually try to go the opposite direction of the argument just for such a purpose. Cheerleading is important, but being able to make constructive criticism is essential to developing any worthwhile product, or for that matter conversation. 🙂

  2045. +10000000 i agree with u rowan .
    i belive in this company , i kinow they are for real for sure. but my wife just asked me 1 question what will u do if your adam stops working for a while how will u send it across ? u dont even have a proper phone number were u can call . i think even now this pre-order thing must stop. u have enough time 6-9 jan give a super product launch let the world see glory of adam , answer all the questions there while u are there . let the other team work on distribution , let them go and talk to shops like cromo in india , same in europe , bestbuy mabe in usa online patners like amazon, paypal get things in order and start the delivery by march there is no prob when we had to wait for a whole year we can wait for more days . let it come in style and win the market .
    by the way i again request you though its sound cute and sweet this whole family thing is crap , keep it to the point and proffesional pls.
    even in the so called family there some who just belive. something in them tells them to belive tells them to go blind (. i know many people who buy apple products because they are in awe with mr jobs and how he is amazing leader.)
    and then in the so called family there are rational people who support and belive and follow and but in the end will ask for a video and some facts ( i also know people who hate mr jobs and dont ever care abt him still buy apple products because they like the product).

    somehere s are in awe with ur personality ur openness and just in their gut feel everything is fine and will be super fine .
    somehere are also following your blog for a longtime but their intrest is in the product and just final product if u cant give them any evidence they will have doubts.

    i know many including me ask u many silly questions but this is what u started right ? u started a blog asking us our suggestions . we dont even know nay 1 else in NI not even a single guy i just saw 1 with u on the tv and thats abt it . so who are we going to ask our questions ? do u have a 1-800 number we can call there for sure.

    pls giving reff of apple and dell is really not good . they are global players rohan with an outstanding record for so many years . and if u ask us to see their warranty pages and shiiping info pls also go and check their product info page how in detail they lay down every aspect pics, specs video just everything .if u have such support already with u then u can give their example if not it is seriously silly. adam is great then ipad right now i agree and belive but just on paper as of now.

    hope things will be fine and adam will have its glory. and i and my wife would enjoy it a loooooooooooooot.

    but though i follow your blog since june pls dont again start this family thing pls this is proffessional stuff and keep it proffessional . let it be a CEO talks to his would be buyers via blog every week or everyday and gets suugestions and answers their questions as simple as that. dont make it cult club .

  2046. So now it seems when I comment the comments don’t follow up the comment I had intended them to. 😛 Not that I’m particularly saying anything insightful anyways, but it was always kind of nice. 😉

  2047. Calm and wise words Patrik; and your comment is not lost; it’s in my heart, as is what I hoped the people on this blog, Notion Ink and Adam are. Thank you; it’s been a pleasure t be here with you.

  2049. Uh, those of us who were around for a long time read on the website and on NI posts; possibly someone with better skills and more time to invest in this than me can post a link to those shots.

  2050. You are entering in the dot com link, you need to enter in notionink dot in. Ok? I have the same problem, in the site dot in it works!. Unfortunatelly, I participate of the blog until the begining and didn’t received any e-mail, when I say, the pixel qi version finished! Shame Notion Ink! So I will buy only when people test, and the product reduce the price, I only want one because of the pixel qi.

  2051. “when I say, NO, when I SEE” sorry I’m from Brazil, some words, the sound…

  2052. Rohan,

    It sucks that I can’t order my Pixel Q Adam because you are sold out.
    You can’t please all, but I must say this was poor planning on your team/operations part.
    All you guys had was to do was two things –
    – Email and find out from each “family” member which model they wanted and manufacture accordingly and
    – Send an email to the ‘family” with a code for purchasing it.
    I am extremely disappointed, as this was perfect timing for me to gifted my self with the Adam as I got my green card was approved on the 9th too. Hope I get a surprise from you.
    Cheers

  2053. I (Mbuulih, real name) have already written NI to volunteer editing/drafting Adam literature for English markets. That offer stands.

    However, this calibre of product WILL survive those who use typos as excuses for bad mouthing the Adam.

  2056. @patrick (December 11, 2010 at 00:59)

    Did you even bother to read rowan’s post? There was nothing about mastercard in it at all. It was about the “family pre-order email”. Incase you don’t have a clue about what went on, those who had posted in the blog with a valid email were to be sent an early invitation so as to avoid the rush as a reward for being long time supporters. For whatever unexplained reason NI was not able to send out the family post to everyone. Really hoping wordpress went crazy again and your post landed in the wrong spot.

  2057. For anyone that ordered from the US; I wanted to share this info – There will be no duty fees or taxes due at delivery.

  2058. Just leave the trolls alone. when we do not entertain them, even if we are dying inside to kick their asses, they will just eVAPORate.

  2061. Hell hath no fury like a NImily scorned…;-)

    @Kaozskyblade I am with you on this. A couple of thoughts:
    1. “NImily” pre-order was a privilege – it was gesture made in good faith;
    2. You can have expectations, but do not confuse it as your right and start making demands;
    3. @rowan fire and @Jason: Customer service is not a monolith; This is not service industry. I can only speak of the tech world – they will be polite but firm on forwarding you to sales;

    End of day, you did not get the email that you were expecting and the demand was overwhelming so some of the products sold out and you will wait a few more weeks than the someothers in the “MImily”.

    End of the day, do you still believe this is a technically competent team with the right intent, attempting their best to do the right thing?

  2062. HI Abhirup,

    I have ordered it after the first 6 hours when the pre-ordering was open for everyone (as I didn’t get the email). I may get the item only after 6-8 weeks, hopefully 6 weeks or less.

    Yes, you can contact me at anilphv at hotmail . com and I am from Bangalore.

  2063. Rohan – you posted the link to Apple’s waranty and return policy to justify Notion Ink’s return policy, but it does nothing of the sort. It, in fact, points out the fundamental problem with that policy. If you receive a defective unit from Apple:

    Replacement: Apple, *at its expense* will ship another of the same product. AppleCare Technical Support will put you in touch with an Apple Store Customer Service Representative who will arrange for replacement and the DOA product’s return.

    WHERE is the comparable policy from Notion Ink? How can anyone with any intelligence at all be expected to buy a product which costs a half-thousand dollars, knowing that they have to pay shipping fees and import fees and processing fees just to get a defective product replaced?

    The idea that the consumers should pay a dime to replace a *defective* product is insane and has cost you my business, and I am sure that of many others.

  2064. wow all the commenting has slown:( I guess all the “loyal family” has left. well atleast i’m able to read through comments now. I don’t have to worry about reading ten comments and refreshing to see 50 new ones or 100 new ones. well Rohan can probably start to read all or most of them again

  2065. frustration has gone 🙂

    I waited long I’ll be waiting a little bit more. I’m happy it’s not a vaporware, I’m sure it will be a very good product and it will be a good way to spend a few hundred euros. Really looking forward for the 18th.

  2067. @Rohan

    ok i giveup if it have palm rejection send me a mail.
    it may be that I come back and order one if there are some movies that show that there is palm rejection on the adam

  2068. Or everyone has decided a brief respite is in order after yesterday’s fiasco. 😉

  2069. Hey James,

    I attempted to use passive voice to indicate that things are different world wide.(hence the may be) The idea is that each country has different standards, which require different warranty periods. With that being know if you use a blanket warranty it requires you to have the best of all countries combined as to not fall short of your legal obligations in any one.

    I had no intent to convey that Americas warranty was the best, it was only an example to convey the idea.

    So, given your example people in the states who would normally only be required a 1 year warranty are now granted a 2 year warranty. I have not read the exact terms of the NI warranty, but this is my basic understanding. Do correct me if i am wrong.

    Life is a learning lesson.

    -TDL

    P.S. Not all Americans think everything we do is best 😉

  2070. Rohan

    Keep it up, you are doing an excellent job handling all the pressure and your response has been commendable.

    In these situations things always go wrong (even with all your good intentions). I am one of those who will continue to support you because I can understand how difficult this whole process must be.

    Learn from the mistakes and move on! 🙂

    Immediate things to rectify:

    Community Manager/PR/Communications

    I am happy to assist at no cost with communications/spell checking/FAQs etc.

    Good luck buddy 🙂

  2072. It is not that it is any troll, I believe that the people have scared a bit on having seen what to past with the pre-order, I between them, sincerely, believe that seen credit would help a bit photos or any video before the pre-order and if you prop at the moment of buying, it had put an option with Paypal, fewer people had had problems at the moment of paying, since to several persons fail the visa card.
    This is only a constructive critique, without intention of offending, and to be a troll, I am the first one that I want an Adam, but to my money it is not anything that me on,I don´t know if you understand me

  2073. @Sowmya Please don’t give such muted response. This blog was made so much interesting by few people like you. I want greg, gecko, dev, Cathy, phillip etc to come back. Please dont be hurt. It was something that Rohan and his team will give their everything to make right. Everybody is disappointed but not down. Please come back with a smile and enlighten this blog.

  2075. Hey folks,

    In this blog post, Rohan mentioned that they intend to launch ADAM at CES 2011, (emphasis on ‘intend’ and not ‘will’)

    As of now, there is no company registered at CES with the keyword “Notion” or “Adam”

    1. http ://ces11.mapyourshow.com/3_0/search.cfm?search=keyword&search_term=Notion

    2. http ://ces11.mapyourshow.com/3_0/search.cfm?search=keyword&search_term=Adam

    Has Anyone had any luck it locating them at CES ?

    Don’t you think NI is cutting it a little short in getting a booth at CES 2011?

  2076. If they had disitribution centers in the major markets (US, UK) then they could ship them on cargo ships much cheaper to those centers and let the national carriers (FedEx, UPS, etc) handle the door-to-door delivery. I understand that shipping charges are in everything (even if it is made in the country you are purchasing it from) but there are ways to minimize those charges and that should have been looked into. And although I feel for the people that would pay more if the shipping wasn’t the same (global), what about the ones where it would be cheaper – they are paying more than they need to to offset the cost for someone across the world.

    I am good with trying to be a global company and all of that, but in the realm of shipping charges, you know where you live and you know historically what shipping charges are to where you live. Getting a 3 pound item to the US from China should not cost $50. It should be shipped via cargo ship to the states (by the tens of thousands) factoring in that much lower shipping charge per unit into the selling price and then shipped using FedEx or UPS (LA to New York Home delivery is $12).

    If you think about it, if NI decides to have others sell their product for them (Best Buy, Amazon, whatever) then they will be selling to those companies at a discount so the companies can mark up the product. The end user will purchase from Amazon (most likely for the same price as pre-order or else the price will be too close to the iPad and most casual users would choose that for lack of knowledge) or whatever and pay minimal shipping, if any at all. NI is basically doubling their profit margin by selling directly initially and then tacking on the shipping charges. Many people won’t buy a piece of tech gear from across the world without touching it so I can see problems selling adams in the future if NI doesn’t enlist companies to be their “brick-and-mortar” stores where people can touch one.

    Don’t take this post wrong – I am a huge fan. I will be ordering, but I am going to wait until some of this is ironed out.

  2077. Hey James,

    I attempted to use passive voice to indicate that things are different world wide.(hence the may be) The idea is that each country has different standards, which require different warranty periods. With that being know if you use a blanket warranty it requires you to have the best of all countries combined as to not fall short of your legal obligations in any one.

    I had no intent to convey that Americas warranty was the best, it was only an example to convey the idea.

    So, given your example people in the states who would normally only be required a 1 year warranty are now granted a 2 year warranty. I have not read the exact terms of the NI warranty, but this is my basic understanding. Do correct me if i am wrong.

    As for shipping a product to India or China, well here in the US this is the model Toshiba has employed. So i guess it could be much worse.

    Life is a learning lesson.

    -TDL

    P.S. Not all Americans think everything we do is best 😉

  2078. @Rohan MEMORY!!

    I’ve been rabid for adam for nearly a year – got the email – choked a bit at the QI/3G price hike plus duty and VAT – but my biggest issue is the memory aka “never ending storage” – -why haven’t you answered this; I assume adam is only coming with 8gb whereas 16/32 or more had previously been suggested???

  2079. The specs doesn’t say whether the product comes with 8 Gb or 16Gb memory. Can some one let me know.

  2080. I’m Jewish. Your priest cannot help me. Maybe I went overboard, but why are people neglecting to see what is in front of them. Tech sites are not bashing N1 just for shits and giggles. I was like the rest of you, waiting and refreshing every few minutes in hopes of getting my hands on something that he had promised us. When the time arrived, N1 had nothing to offer us. They handled this entire launch poorly, and still refuse to answer important qestions that this so called family have been asking.

  2081. at Rohan: If this is the case : Congratulations to You an your ladyfriend and all the best you can get in life.

    (and now back to work 😉 )

  2082. I’m not gonna sit here and say mistakes haven’t been made. I will say I’m still hoping for a great product – at the end of the day this will all blow over if the product is what many have envisioned. But what I truly appreciate is that Rohan is a stand up guy who is putting himself out there to be criticized and I take my hat off that he didn’t run and hide from the issues despite the fact he is obviously beyond ‘busy’ at the moment. Here’s to hoping it all works out in the end. Despite the early hiccups I certainly appreciate the effort and the unique way this startup has attempted to do things.

    And enough about the 10% price increase on the pixel qi model. If you’ll recall all the hype before launch on the $499 Ipad price and look in the rearview mirror at the sales numbers it turns out the one everyone wanted is near double that.

  2083. To say they have to make things right assumes that they in some way wronged you or caused some sort of damage… for pete’s sake- you didn’t get an email- an email that didn’t work for anybody anyway… what should they do? call a mulligan? OK everybody- do over!? Would you have them cancel all the orders placed yesterday just so Rowan Fire can get her first pick at the toy store?

  2084. Pratik

    Hats off to you and all the guys at NotionInk, please do not get too disheartened. The blog did explode and personally I dont think a large company would have been able to cope with all the comments let alone a new startup.

    Emotions were running high on both sides and people on this side were tired having stayed up for hours and hours with barely contained excitement only to have it tarnsformed into dismay as things didnt go their way, due to technical reasonings, lack of information, lack of payment options etc

    The product looks like its going to be amazing and both NI and us customers need to be a little more patient and learn from all of this.

    Beleive it or not everyone wants this product to do well even the doubters.

    So hang in there.

  2086. What a day was yesterday. It was sad that that nightmarish thing happened. On the positive note, the server crashing several times is a sign that people love to have the product, as there is no current tablet that matches ADAM’s specs. Now, the comments on the blog are back to normal and most of them are the old notion ink supporters, like Albert Wertz, Pratik has resurrected  ! Sowmya still around ( r u the new Crystal, just a thought), and Himanshu to name a few. I’m glad that people volunteered to translate the manuals (Rohan, when you agreed to get their help, make sure they are on your side and not some pretenders trolling around NI!). I must admit the lack on your part to show a demo of the product was disheartening for the lack of insight. Imitate tried and tested method of marketing. Reinvent but do not depart too much. I was thinking, you were overzealous that you would want us to discover for ourselves how great the goodies we will get from NI, but sadly that is not many of us wanted. Most people are Thomases ( They would want to see it first and then believe). It was good that you were able to bounce back this fast.I would imagine how difficult it is for a 25 y.o. CEO to have these stumbling blocks with the eyes of the investors and consumers alike on you. Albert Wertz had given you sound advice. Take counsel young man! You can’t do it all! But you can start it all! Make the greatest comeback in the Tech World!

  2089. @ GIJoe said, on December 10, 2010 at 21:31

    > As part of my job, I do deal with Moscow once in a while!

    Hitman ?

  2090. One more thing: is Pixel QI ready to support all the demands? As far as i know it’s not a huge company and until now it couldn’t ship that many screens.

  2092. Hello Rohan – 2 things:

    1.) As a new soon to be Adam owner in the U.S., please don’t charge anything for a DoA or defective item. After paying $600 only to find the Adam doesn’t work as soon as I receive it is very dis-heartening! For defective or DoA devices, please don’t let the customer incur any additional costs.
    2.) With Notion Ink being a startup, you may want to reconsider your fixed shipping charges and go with actual costs. This way you won’t be incurring too much of a loss.

    As a pre-orderer of the Adam, I’m really looking forward to receiving and using the device!

    Best regards,
    Ron

  2094. Hi Rohan, congratulations, you did it!

    I’m really surprised with a delivery price for Russia 😦 And actually I missed the pre-ordering for the top model (with PixelQI and 3G onboard).

    By the way, I don’t think models with LCD screen will be popular. For most potential buyerstThe unique feature of ADAM is, actually, a hybrid screen.

    So producing just one top model instead of 4 makes sense. Just let everybody buy it!

    Warm regards,
    ND

  2096. “”Rohan Shravan said, on December 10, 2010 at 13:57

    We are shipping directly from China. I will suggest we wait for the retail presence for much lower prices.
    Regards””

    I guess this answers mine as well as my other fellow Indians whinings!
    🙂

    Regards

  2098. “im pretty sure it means…”

    And that’s the problem, now isn’t it?

    I can come up with several other explanations (although yours is the most probable). A technical specifications page is supposed to be clear-cut. Saying “8+” is not. Better would be something like “8GB, expandable up to 40GB” or whatever.

    It’s also lower than the cheapest iPad, which is really bad PR.

  2099. Rohan,

    Is it a possibility to declare some Sales Numbers?
    Congrats again on the successful launch.

    And don’t get disheartened by the few hurdles. Just keep at it!!
    I will await the video post eagerly!!

    Regards,
    Ronak Rathod

  2100. @ all fellow Indians :-

    “”Rohan Shravan said, on December 10, 2010 at 13:57

    We are shipping directly from China. I will suggest we wait for the retail presence for much lower prices.
    Regards””

    I guess this answers mine as well as my other fellow Indians whinings!

    🙂

    Regards

  2101. I read some of the comments here and some of them make me laugh, even if it was a little bit sad. I think at all the “old guys” fans of NI that cant preorder the adam.

    How long do you wait for the adam? 1 year? 1 year and a half? Two years maybe? Does 2 months change really anything in your life?

    I think that if you believe in the wonderful guys at NI, either you find a way to preorder adam just now, either you just wait a little longer, you get videos, pictures, a lot of infos coming right from Rohan, you see the system of NIs business being organized and all the problems solved and you’ll have no problem and a wonderful companion named adam in no time.

    Because don’t worry, there will be other problems. Adam is the first one and NI is a young but really astonishing company with a lot of promesses I hope they will keep.

    (Sorry for the english level, I am french and I try my best to speak an understandable english ^^)

    I love adam, but I’ll wait to see more of it before ordering it 😉 thanks for all Rohan and NI, we trust you. Continue changing the just industrial way to do products in a more “thinked” way, we (I) love it!!

  2102. Why didn’t my post get to the bottom? oO
    Well, in any case.
    Here the video again, in case you haven’t noticed it:

  2104. I definitely agree!! NI stuff happens, brush your knees off and keep going! This is simply a learning experience for you guys. By the sheer amount of people offering to translate your manual shows that their is still some semblance of family here. Some of the bloggers are asking for info that was either stated here earlier or from one of your (Rohan) many interviews that can be easily found on youtube! If you don’t know about the device then do some research, novel concept huh?!? I’m still excited and can’t wait to order and get my own. Oh yeah please make more of the Pixel QI version, cause that’s the one that I want :p

    FYI It is an Android tablet, that means it has access to the market … smh. They (Notion Ink) also want to create apps specifically for it, and possibly have their own app store.

  2106. I’ve got the feeling the blog finally calmed down again. It seems like the old folks are returning and the newbees with no history ran off. I’m a silent follower for almost a year, but read allmost every single comment untill it exploded. I commented a couple of times the last few days cause it broke my heart to see people break down something honest and open, just for some sellfish reasons. So let’s take a fresh start and help adam become an even greater product

  2107. I am not sure that you can actually make *phone* calls with the ADAM. Rather, it means that you can use your data plan to access the Internets. You can of course make VOIP calls, I assume, once the Internets access is available.

  2108. But you see the real question is whether the amateur release will be a reflection of a poorly made tablet.

    There were many other problems, the restocking fee was a joke and the $50 shipping is odd. As is the cannibalism of the Adam by Eve.

    How can one convince the masses that these questionable business tactics translate into a big product?

    I’m hoping that Rohan delivers, but now the Adam will have to overcome even more naysayers.

  2110. Oh come on, we all just want a new toy, we ARE always like kids, and we all know we’re all gonna get that toy, sooner or later, now, its all about maintaining the control over the irresistible temptation to scream out “Mine! Mine! Give Me! Give Meee!). However you phrase it, nagging at Notion Ink or any one for that matter, in this matter, is way childish. I’m sure EVERYONE here can say, oh I wanted it the baddest, the mostEST! It’s like fighting over who is the biggest Michael Jackson fan, (I am btw, and don’t you challenge that! 😉 I want that s.x.y. Adam too, so don’t push the lineup cuz’ I’ll push back! Come on, lets go watch some hilarious shopping frenzies on YouTube to remind our selves, the consumers how we really look! Ugly? well then lets have some humility and let the anticipation build, and please PLEASE do not blame Notion Ink for the world Bank issues, etc, NOONE in the world wants this to succeed and sell out more than them, it is their bebe’. I worked for Microsoft Store . com, and comparing the product launch of lets say Windows 7, ZuneHD, Xbox Slim that we did, Notion is lookin’ like a hot knife slicing through butter! Guys if you only knew what I witnessed with this particular company, these minor glitches would only be acknowledged by the sweat drop on Notion Ink’s hard working team’s foreheads, who must be on FIRE right now, and I don’t have a slight doubt about a team which is about to unleash the most sophisticated, versatile mobile computer on this Planet – my eyes are like peaches. If Rohan was building them one by one by hand, I’d still wait in the line – Rohan IS Adam. I was trying not to be technical or formal in this (first!) post, as I just want to be myself, instead of replacing it with technical specs, dates, and glitches.
    Go Adam, Go Adam Go Adam!!! I’m gonna get you….after the dust settles. There’s time, Adam is future proof and here to stay.

    Best Regards

  2111. Ok, a few hours later i can see the things from a different point of view. In my rage because i didn’t get my version i wrote an angry comment. Now i want to apologize, because i think you do actually a really great job at notion ink. We all knew, that there were risks and isn’t it the beauty of this project that it is not save played like a tablet from microsoft or apple? These guys can prove that it is still possible to fascinate thousands of people just by an good idea and hard work!
    Let me tell you rohan, i will wait for adam even it will last another 6 month because i think it is great. And by the way: because of all this critics you,can see which potential your product has and how many people are loving this idea

  2112. By the way!
    Does anyone know, how many units there were for pre-order?
    I mean, it has to be a BUNCH right?
    Just how many people had to have bought it if they are all sold out.

    I don’t consider der non-PixelQi models to be a real ADAM at all.
    Would be better if they would dump them and create more PixelQi ones instead!

  2113. @PK said, on December 10, 2010 at 22:37

    > …indian cricket team has tigers and lions

    Whoa…just like in the Bollywood movies. 🙂

    Seriously though, I had to look it up in Wikipedia to make sure that you were not serious.

  2114. @ Rohan

    I did a little bit more research! Since you were at the Nvidia booth last year at CES 2010 (from what I can gather), I expect you will be sharing booth space again with another company, perhaps Nvidia or maybe Pixel Qi.

  2115. Its funny how we presume that the Terms And Conditions of Notion Ink are unfair.
    It was really an eye-opener to read Rohan’s comparison of NI’s TNC with that of say Dell or Apple. It seems more than fair!!
    The only difference being NI is new and Dell is an Old Co, and Apple is an Old Co with a base of retail store outlets!!
    I think it also seems fair for people to be sceptical of NI since its new and does not have a reputation to boast!!

    Having said this, my opinion is NI could have easily said “All returns accepted, no questions asked, 100% Guarantee” etc.. But I often associate such things with scams or questionable practices!!
    With Electronic products, restocking fees is normal for both retail stores and online stores. If we talk about COSTCO’s return policy, then that is different, but we all know how much people abuse their return policy.

  2116. Unfortunately, after reading the return policies, etc. I probably won’t be ordering one. $50 shipping is bad enough, paying another $50 to ship it back if it’s defective is worse, then being charged a 5% fee on top of that is ludicrous. Thanks, but no. If I can get one in a local store or form a reputable dealer in the states, I’ll look at it but otherwise, not a chance.

    Dan

  2119. So as I was browsing for “ADAM’ news in Google and dealing with my addiction, this is what I got ….

    “If we focus on our own game, regardless of who we are playing against, I think we are good enough to take points off anyone” Quote by Adam Rooney

    And so Rohan, Keep going.. We believe in your passion and so waht if there are glitches. Those who cant take it can leave… Why whine here …

    If there is a constructive criticism, Please stay and contribute..

    Funny that I saw some product feature and cost analysis by the same people who are punching on thier Ipad’s and Iphones and reading that ipad’s and Iphones margin are grossly huge gains for apple 🙂 and come from thier pockets …:)

  2120. I agree, I am a specs kinda guy myself. I think the intent was to create a gift type excitement with the product but that seems to have caused some distress.

    I think everyone agrees the launch was handled poorly. But it was just a preorder, and lets keep in mind when apples launch failed (iphone notation) not only did at&t’s site go down but so did apples. Best yet was the confirmations that got through were mixed up and sent to random email addresses.

    Specs page should have been updated or at least confirmed prior to preorder launch.

    As for answering questions, give him time. I am sure he wants to give out just enough information without providing the world all the product details. Harder to compete with a device when you do not know all the details.

    -TLD

  2121. I love this company’s approach to making a product….. Its such a breath of fresh air in a world full of companies that make something and then convince us it is what we want….. You asked us what we wanted and made a device that exceeds everyones hopes and expectations. Sadly for me one of the most exciting parts of this product was its Pixel Qi screen. I know things are hectic now, but I am here to essentially beg you: Make as many more as you can as soon as possible. I have my heart set upon the perfect tablet. Your tablet, but it cannot be truly perfect with a LCD screen. I will be checking the website daily from now on to see if it gets restocked. Thank you for all of your hard work making the perfect product for people at a price we can actually afford. Its so much more than an iPad or a Galaxy Tab, and costs so much less.

  2122. Why does he have to? Do ANY vendors ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD explain their pricing? get real.

  2123. Gecko is a bit scare nowadays due to family matters. However, I’m not entirely absent. So that means Arete77’s posts don’t have to make you smile anymore.

    heh

  2124. Its not lost. I am sure many people keep an eye out for the “ol timers’ since you all were the ones who helped keep the forum informative and entertaining. Personally, I did not post prior to the weekend special XI, but i had been following and visiting this blog pretty much daily since earlier this year.

  2126. No worries Rohan. I’ll be ready when you are ready.

    Chin up – hope you’ve got some good bootstrap reading and leading edge technology journals to keep you focussed.

    Glad the PixelQi sold out for you – hopefully I will be able to get one in the next year or so.

  2127. Well then thats not a simple yes or no is it??!!! If he ses NO then he has to explain and give timelines for when cause your/we’re a demanding SOB.

  2128. I’ve been waiting patiently for Adam for almost a year… I was a believer for a long time.

    Now, given all the amateur hour fuck ups this company passes off as “unique” and “rebellious” behavior, I wouldn’t touch an Adam with a ten foot pole right now.

    If I were to list the specifics on what NI has done wrong, it would be a bible, and I would call it “How to Ruin a Grassroots Revolution”.

    I’ll wait and see if it’s actually worth a damn… one bad review and all this happy, feel-good idealistic babble is worth NOTHING.

    iPad 2, I have a feeling we’ll be getting to know each other pretty well.

  2130. Paul Schoe:
    >Come on E. de Klerk,
    > Your seem to be from Europe or the US and judging from your post English is your native language.

    You are correct. English is E de K’s native language because he’s Dutch, and Dutch people are born speaking 3 languages.

    You are wrong about pre-orders, though. When a company takes your money, that’s a legal order, even if they call it “pre-order” for advertising or other purposes. If McDonald’s gives you a hamburger and tells you it’s a McChicken sandwich, it’s still a hamburger, no matter what they say. It’s not clear that anyone can actually tell the difference, but the principle still holds.

  2131. rohan
    to get away from all of this,,, when you start putting them together and ready to ship, my question is how long are you going to burn them in , before you pack them up and send them out,,, to make sure there are fewer problems,,, paul

  2132. I saw Vietnam was in the list of distribution, so I can do the Vietnamese translation 🙂

  2133. lol you don’t think others stayed up and went sleep deprived for exactly the reason your pleading to be treated as special?
    2AM would have been quite early compared to many whom didn’t go to sleep the whole night and put in an order at 5am.
    If your not going to camp outside the store don’t be surprised when you walk in later and their sold out???
    How don’t you get this?

  2134. @Boybarbados, i dont agree with your opinion that they are cheating. if their intention is to cheat then they would have left the ordering for pqi versions open and grabbed as much as they can. NI is here to stay and excel. i dont have any doubts on that. just because they are startups the processes are not yet in place. even when ipad was released, the activation network collapsed. so yesterday’s ordering problem is also ok. but the service and other policies should be more customer friendly and they have to update the website with real photos and hands on videos. at the least NI should have clear specs and features in plain english. they should compare their website with that of apple to see where they are lagging.

  2135. Just to reassure peeps – I did eventually geta response from support at NI and am sorting out getting the charge cancelled. No Adam this time round though 😦

  2136. @Boybarbados, i dont agree with your opinion that they are cheating. if their intention is to cheat then they would have left the ordering for pqi versions open and grabbed as much as they can. NI is here to stay and excel. i dont have any doubts on that. just because they are startups the processes are not yet in place. even when ipad was released, the activation network collapsed. so yesterday’s ordering problem is also ok. but the service and other policies should be more customer friendly and they have to update the website with real photos and hands on videos. at the least NI should have clear specs and features in plain english. they should compare their website with that of apple to see where they are lagging.

  2137. Rohan,

    Some suggestions,
    1) Setup small presence in each of your Major Markets – e.g. USA, Europe (London, Paris?), Asia (China, Japan, India?), and so on. This will help in building some confidence in people who may not trust an India based Company before it has set a reputation. This presence can be limited to taking returns and exchanges. This will keep Customer’s Shipping Costs low. NI can use bulk shipping to bring these returns to China (repair facility?).
    2) Setup a Call Center to provide support – sales, returns, product support. Not everyone is Tech Savvy, and many may require support.
    3) Create a buzz about the product in the Education segment. Have a promotional Test Run with some Universities in each major market. This should help spread the word.
    4) Release a very professional looking product video, that highlights the major features of adam. Do not spend too much time on each feature, there should be enough curiosity left for the view to want to find out more about the product.

    Just My Suggestions, I hope You Read them.
    Regards,
    Ronak Rathod

  2138. I agree that most companies do include free shipping but that has not always been the case and I am not sure it is the case in all parts of the world. I still remember ordering laptops and other computer equipment and paying over a $100 to have the item shipped. That is why many companies have gone to selling through retailers but then the costs are just tied up in the overhead. It may be a model for NI to look at since it is cheaper to send a bulk shipment of 10,000 tablets rather than each one individually. To me, in this case, a $40-50 premium was worth not waiting until that type of logistics chain is established. I also suspect that the profit margin on Adam is not as high as it currently is on the iPad.

  2139. I believe they have always moderated comments. I remember a lot of people complaining about it. I think it picks up on any URL to cut down on SPAM.

  2141. Unfortunately we learn with customer Service reps that being rude pays. And then we complain we are becoming more rude as a society.

    Not saying if there is a valid complaint it should not be made right but not getting preferential treatment is not valid IMHO.

  2143. And no, I did not get an email and have not complained about delays in the previous blogs. I have understood from the beginning with the launch of a new product there will be issues. I’ve learned this from 20 years in the IT industry.

  2144. I preordered my Adam almost 24hrs ago. No buyer’s remorse and I look forward to its delivery.

    The $50 shipping was unanticipated and a bit of a surprise to me. I don’t like surprises. Then I recalled that a few days ago I spent $31 to ship two boxes via UPS within the US. Shipping from China for $50 didn’t seem so bad after all.

    My only concern is, can Adam take the market lead because it’s the best? History is full of examples of the best technology being bested by the lesser technology. My two favorite examples are Beta vs. VHS (Betamax is still used today because it’s a superior format) and the Commodore Amiga vs all computers of its day (There are Amigas still in use today.)

    Now that the Adam is in production (Rohan, do say “YES”), let the phase 2 orders begin and unleash the marketing team. ‘May the force of a superior product be with you.’

  2145. You are really confused on many things, Madhu. Are you really an innocent Adam watcher or some one with some other ulterior motives ? I saw some of your comments and apparently you comment only to encourage some protests. Like some of those wave flagging protestors who are paid to wave a flag.

    Have you read the details on the product ? Do you know how it stakes up to an Apple Ipad ?

    Just curious and deifnitely not confused.

  2147. Rohan— or ANYONE—

    Could you please clarify your specifications on the product that is being shipped? I think that will go a long way to dismissing the growing Vapor Ware Critics you are facing. For instance how much storage memory is being shipped with each variant? What carriers will work with the your 3G HSPA (I’m assuming you mean HSDPA)….The lack of specifications is only fueling the fire.

    MIND YOU… I have my order in for the 3G/WiFi Pixel Qi… but only because I have faith in Notion Ink and am willing to put my money where my mouth and heart is…. But your critics need to hear details….

    I sincerely think you would have sold out in hours were you clear on your specifications (and Mr. Murphy hadn’t had a hand in the ordering process…).

  2150. American Express was declining the transaction and so my order did not get through first time. Some time back I came back to the pre-order form and now it says PixelQI 3G is sold out. Should we be able to order one given that there were known issues with credit card processing?

  2153. it really is nice to see the blog calm down again. Hopefully it can soon become that informative and idea rich blog that it was not so very long. I myself am not that tech savvy -i hooked up my wireless router and am now looking toward setting up a wireless printer :D- but I did enjoy reading and trying to understand all of the tech ideas that were posted here, on what the Adam could be, and what could potentially be expected and/or implemented in present/future electronic devices (specifically Adam)… ex: i had no clue what a digitzer was, let alone that there are passive and active ones… and now that i know… i want one! 🙂

  2154. American Express was declining the transaction and so my order did not get through first time. Some time later I came back to the pre-order form and now it says PixelQI 3G is sold out. Should we be able to order one given that there were known issues with credit card processing?

  2156. Missed the preorder, I´m a bit happy to be able to see more informations coming befor I buy, but a bit upset that I wont be one of the first persons who will have the device.

    Did I mentioned that I like to have one of these silicon cases, covering the whole device and securing it from dust, scratches and gives better performance in outdoor applications?

    Would be great!

  2157. It’s just you. It’s one of the most asked questions here, and Rohan hasn’t answered it. On the site, it says there can be up to 128 gig storage. There are various way to add 8 gig flash memory to other things (SD card, flash drive, whatever) to get 128 gig, but they all seem a little forced, and why should we have to guess at something like this?

    I think that Rohan did say in one of the videos that Adam will have access to the Android market, but he really should clarify that, as well as a lot of other things. The fact that he’s repeatedly ignored some of these questions does not give me a pleasantly warm, fuzzy feeling. I mean, a pleasantly cool, scaly feeling. Whatever.

  2158. Oh, I assumed that was WordPress messing up and repeatedly posting his message. You’re right; he’s the one doing that. Whoops.

  2159. Pre-order for a compagny is also always a testcase for there launch, so they can correct any flaws (and there where some).
    But you now what they say about a bad reversal. Most of the time it’s followd by a great premierre.

    (and if anybody nows how I can get a pre-order of the PQi3G in the first shipment on 6Jan it would be much apriciated 😉 )

  2161. KJ:
    > Do most people understand the difference between 850 and 900?

    50. Don’t ask me to prove this, though. I don’t have enough fingers.

  2164. Pre-order for a compagny is also always a testcase for there launch, so they can correct any flaws (and there where some).
    But you now what they say about a bad reversal. Most of the time it’s followd by a great premierre.

    (and if anybody nows how I can get a pre-order of the PQi3G in the first shipment on 6Jan it would be much apriciated )

    (repost, original was dumped somewhere in the middle)

  2165. For Example… I am evaluating Notion Ink for warehouse personnel, who generally work under the sun… and we are developing applications, that could take signatures from customers / drivers, and potentially will be signing under the sun, etc.,

    Under those circumstances,…. a Pixel Qi could be a god send….

  2166. you my friend are obviously very bitter. Relax, it is just a tablet. If you did not order, you have nothing to worry about. There’s no reason that you need to sit on this sight and bash Notion Ink all day. Go find some product you like and enjoy it. As for the ones who ordered the ADAM, we will see ourselves how we feel about the company.

  2169. @arcticfox what is that you are trying to acieve here in this blog with your mind blowing thought ?

    get youself some rest and think before you say anythign anymore about adam buddy

  2170. Do we think we’ll be back to a regular weekend post?

    I’d hate to see too much in terms of an apology. They had a hiccup…just move on with it and make it better next time.

    Remember…being part of something special makes you special. Let’s ride the wave.

  2172. Even the most devote Adam loyalist must have questioned what went down. The Adam’s pre-ordering was plagued by website issues, surprise terms and conditions, a huge shipping fee, and a return policy that stated loud and clear that Notion Ink doesn’t believe in their product.

    We’ve been mighty skeptical about the Adam for some time now but we’re not alone. Engadget caught them this morning swapping renders which changed the size of the screen/bezel. That was just the start of today’s surprises.

    Once the pre-ordering started those lucky enough to get an email allowing them early access and a January 9th shipping date discovered a bunch of surprises. The website was often down. The storage size of the tablets weren’t listed. The shipping charge was $50. The original contact phone number was 1-800-123-4567. The original terms and conditioned included a 25% restocking fee and made buyers pay for shipping back to India. The 25% restocking fee was later removed, but replaced with 5% cancellation fee that would apply even if a person canceled their order before the Adam shipped. There was more!

    Mastercard payments weren’t accepted, VISA cards were often turned down, banks were flagging transactions as fraudulent and the full cost of the product was processed instantly. But yet according to the comment section on the Notion Ink blog, some people looked past all these issues and ordered one anyway; I somewhat get it.

    These hiccups alone wouldn’t have swayed me if I truly wanted a product. Websites have issues and so do payment processing companies. Consumers understand that. But I wouldn’t drop hundreds of dollars on something I haven’t seen. Notion Ink hasn’t shown one product photo or video of the final product. That’s shady. The company attacking Engadget for posting the bezel inconsistencies was a tad troublesome as well; it was actually Notion Ink’s mistake.

    Everything above mixes up into one nasty cocktail that just isn’t consumer focused. The Adam might be the real deal and not vaporware. The company’s CEO, Rohan, might be just be a poor marketer with a Steve Jobs complex and not some scammer running an impressive take on a Nigerian prince scam. But what the hell are you doing giving this company your money anyway? The terms and conditions prevent buyers from getting their entire pre-order amount back even if the damn thing never ships and you’ve never seen it. That’s nuts.

    Besides, CES 2011 is three weeks away anyway and it’s going to be a tabletpalooza. What’s the harm in waiting at this point? The Adam isn’t shipping for 6-8 weeks. By that time, the dust would have settled, the legitimacy of Notion Ink will be clear and there will be whole batch of the new hot tablets to choose from.

  2173. hi! not a avid commenter, but did want to buy the 3G PQi model. The pricing made me stop and think. Went out of stock by the time I got back. would appreciate clarity on a few things,

    (a) the pricing is wrong. the currency converter translates $ 600 as 27145 against 29999 asked by ccavenues

    (b) Is their support for jockey- plan to us WiFi PQi model with a 3G or 4G dongle

    (c) when will it be available for order again?

    (d) What is the media player? addicted to VLC’s ability to play everything

    Reply

  2175. Not true… FCC approval has nothing to do with the ability to show the final product, it gives the company the right to sell their product in the US market.

  2176. Rohan does not sensor comments. if it says under moderation id could be random, could be first post, could be post with a link. etc

  2179. I swear I’ve never had occasion to use this acronym before but:

    ROFLMAO

    That was the funniest misprint/fractured English I’ve ever seen. Thanks!

  2181. I just wanted to say that is it refreshing to to someone excited about their product and showing their raw excitement, unfiltered. It would be nice if all companies could be genuine and in love with their product vs greedy and calculated as many seem to be currently.

    I could not hit the pre-order site from my blackberry, it would not work so I did not get to hit it, but know that I am looking forward to getting my hands on this and seeing what I can do with it. I wish you guys all the luck in the world and upon great success hope you keep your honesty and excitement.

  2182. Actually, we got the information well before the launch, quite some time ago. There were two models, one with 16 gig and one with 32 gigs. But the information then changed on the website. No comment from Rohan.

  2183. These laws are not applicable for products advertised outside of Europe. See my much longer post on the whole subject of 10 dec. 10:20.

  2184. i think it is time you post a very good Weekend special. i am not saying we should forgot what happened, we should learn from what happened and move on.

    i am expecting a very good and long week end special with some good details.

  2186. yep some people are sheep, a minority are independant thinkers. Sheep ofcourse will blame the guy digging the trench for them going in circles!!!

    LOVE IT THANKYOU FOR THE VID!!!

  2187. A customer care call center? Did you ever see from one from the row of sleeping bags in front of the Apple store? Ever tried to call Dell even after you just normally bought it?

  2188. I’m very disheartened by the fact that there is no Pixel Qi left (and this could mean I might be getting an adam much later)

    I WANTED to pre-order on, but seeing the lack of proper information, I think it was right of me to wait a bot before ordering (i was planning to order once there are some pics and vids from CES).

    But then I really want an android tablet NOW. But don’t really want to settle for a galxy tab (too common) or archos 101 (lacks appeal)

  2189. It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.
    P. G. Wodehouse

  2192. Hmm….interesting speculation. I recalled that NVIDIA CEO had made some comments recently regarding the upcoming Tegra tablets.

    Googling a little, I found the following article: http ://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20022471-64.html .

    Quoting from the above article:

    “There’s going to be all kinds of interesting industrial designs,” he said. “And I think the high-level concept is that when you have such an incredibly low-power SOC [system-on-a-chip] then industrial design freedom really grows.” He made clear during the earnings conference call that his company is working with Google on Android tablets”

    Perhaps NVIDIA is a potential investor ?

  2193. @ Rohan, we also had to comment on Facebook and on the comment email?
    Wow, totally didn’t see that coming.

    So I can kiss the second round of pre-order-special-for-family a sweet goodbye.

    Let’s just be optimistic and wait because that is the only thing you can do if you want the PQ version (are you really serious it’s 8GB + additional micro-sdhc?) with wifi and 3G.

    Speaking of 3G, does the 3G version have more things built in BESIDES the 3G module compared to the wifi version? Who can tell me that?

    Greetz without World Peace because I am bummed out.

    Daryl.

    PS just kidding ofcourse World Peace. =)

  2194. @bob, I don’t think the people on the blog before preorder would have waited a couple of extra week for shipping via cargo ship, everyone wants it now so we paid for that. I would also guess that there would not be much of an additional discount for those resellers so after their markup you are probably looking at at least the same price as ADAM+shipping or potentially even more.

  2195. I am afraid I am one of the newbies to this forum. I actually only heard (or actually read) about this item about 2 days ago. I have been looking for an Android tablet and was not sure which one to get. Now I know. This is the one I want. Unfortunately I have to wait for all my holiday pay before I can order one so I hope it will not be too late to order one. I do not expect to get one at a discount I just want one of my very own.

  2197. true. but at the same time it is a two way. some policies like service charges are not fair. that is not the way the industry works. we trust in pre-ordering the product without even seeing hands on video, but when that product is not working as it is supposed to, it is not fair to ask for more charge to fix the issue with the product. main problem is the expectation and excitement. many of us are following this blog for close to an year. we have criticised Rohan when the product got delayed without any clear explanation, but immediately supported him when we came to know of the real issue he is facing. even now, it is like a family fight. this wont last for long. everyone wish NI all the success but at the same time there should be more fair play. Rohan could have easily explained the memory and other specs on this blog. why did not he do that? where is the transparency you guys are talking about? we like the eden concept but most of us would have appreciated if he explained the specs.

  2198. The real question is, do you ever plan to allow other internet distributors to carry your item?
    I’d rather fancy buying mine from newegg or amazon at some point.

  2199. I dont believe taht the release will be a reflection of a poorly made tablet. From what we have been given, Rohan and team have put a ton of effort paying attention to every detail that is on Adam which should lead to a quality product… and that is why I have been following Adam for as long as I have. The iPad is a great product, i have played with it and I would be happy with it… but the interaction here with Rohan and the chance to see the passion that creator/CEO has and has put into his “child” is what has won me over and kept me from buying any other tablet. Unfortunately, I have been let down by other big tech companies, so I will be holding my decision to buying it until I am able to have a hands on experience… i hope I don’t have to wait until sometime in Feb/Mar…

    As for the restocking fee, correct me if I am wrong, but I only saw a %5 restocking fee, which sounds reasonable. Best Buy has a %15 restocking fee on electronics. Maybe something could be worked out about a DOA product. It would be nice if the shipping was free 😀 but it is international, so it seems fine… unless you live nearby the shipping warehouse, then maybe a “pick up” option could be offered. While sending a 3lb package from California to my girlfriend in Hawaii, I found out that FedEx charges $35 to ship standard :(.
    I am not sure what or how much the Duty charges/ and or tariffs would be or if they are applied. Maybe more information could be given on this. When purchasing, I just want to know what I am getting , and how much I will be paying. I don’t want to worry about additional fees that might arise upon arrival.

    As for 3g, I came across a few posts where Adam was to be a gift in a different country. Maybe there could be a option to change the frequency (freq), while having one of the two pre selected or highlighted depending on where the product is being shipped to… or have a chart with what freq are used in what country (if there is one).

  2200. If they had followed international laws they should have done what all these companies do: simplify the process by only selling to the US.

    That would have made a lot people angry.

    (you´re aware that in Europe f.i. Apple launches his products months and sometimes half a year later?)

  2201. Your device is only PQ that I know of. I want it.

    I bought early PSION organizer II, C64 & Amiga2000. I never regretted these. I don’t anticipate problem with your ADAM.

    You will have loyal fan base, most people who wish to have an ADAM are quiet. The angry ones are more vocal.

    Please don’t think we are all upset. Your job is to create the magic. We are here, we will stay here.

  2203. It’s funny how everyone is discussing every aspect of a product only very few people have ever seen. On the other hand, the stock market is full of companies that have never seen a profit and that doesn’t seem to hold people back. I for one don’t think that the Adam is a scam I.m.h.o the worst case scenario is that NI ran out of money and is pre selling to raise money to finance the first batch. That would explain the amateurish marketing, lack of communication and the lack of proper terms and conditions. There just wasn’t time anymore to prepare the launch because one or more suppliers were rattling the doors. No parts, no Adam. I don’t like the lack of transparency about this if this is the case. The buyers run the risk and getting nothing in return. If this scenario is not true, NI should at least clarify the technical questions. If I were NI I would have kept the whole sale silent until the Grand Unveiling like Apple is used to doing. The fact that that hasn’t happened makes me assume the worst case scenario which isn’t that bad if NI can solve it’s liquidity problems.

  2207. I think its good news that an android OS for tablets will be here in 2011. It appears 2011 will be the year of the Tablet. Lots of ipad2 & android tablets. Good news. The dream about adam may be realized in 2011 also. After the hands on reviews, videos and users who pre-ordered share their happy experiences with adam. That would be cool. Regardless tablet users, 2011 is your year

    PS
    Rather than a tablet I’m now looking at the Macbook Air 13″ to use with my white Nov2007 macbook. Apple may be overpriced and lagging in many ways but their execution of OS and hardware is excellent.

  2209. Not all the old folks are here , where’s Greg ? and Philip ? and yeah the most prominent one GECKO ??

  2210. Really good post Syed…Such constructive criticism is the need of the hour..

    Gift Adam Voucher ->> +100
    Simple options ->> +100

  2211. hoping for a great december 18.
    With videos ,full specs, and the ability to pre order the swcond round of pixel qi screens

    Cheers
    Jayanth

  2212. You are right in many respects, but the one thing is disagree with is you saying that adam isn’t our invention. While Rohan desverves 100% of the credit, without the enourmous amount of interest i suspect the investors would have pulled out lon ago and this would be for nothing.

  2213. “Trust, but verify.”

    I trust NI will deliver a great product, and it will be verified (or refuted) in six to eight weeks. 🙂

  2218. rf:
    > In those pics, the Adam has a back trackpad. People have been asking over and over for weeks if it still does, and Rohan has chosen not to answer.

    I think Rohan did answer; he said something like “Nothing has been taken away.” (Is this true of the memory?) He certainly hasn’t given a straightforward answer, though.

  2220. I feel like the movement forward might have tanked becasue they were so busy fixing the pre-order, but no doubt the lights probably were never off last night in their office

  2221. No more teasing, after what has happened in the past 48 hours. Notion Ink should not be playing games anymore with clues, hints, and testing peoples patience. It’s time to get to the point and put out straight facts !!!

  2222. Rohan did say “We know Tegra (a) little better than the rest…”, but then followed it up with “(just because we have spent time)”. Maybe that was short for, “just because we have spent time working closely with nvidia”?

  2223. they really need to get like disqus on the comments or something. WordPress is just too overloaded

  2224. This is all you need to do, video doesn’t have to be fancy … just show the basics. Is it that hard to pull out a camera and record yourself using it? Takes ten minutes and a few more to upload. It does not take a week …

    http ://www.youtube.com/v/PYZDl4RNEVE?version=3

  2225. Surely the whole point of these ‘angel investors’ is to provide a modicum of business guidance/expertise — they should’ve stepped in; ultimately, if NI rockets in value and IPOs, they have the most to gain

    I’d be interested to see what level of interaction these investors have had in NI’s delivery/operation so far

  2227. I often get email from others here asking what I think about things. After everything that went on yesterday one person wrote and asked if I am still a fan, etc. I though I’d share that conversation as it provides a brief summary of how I am feeling right now. (I blocked out their name since I did not ask if it was okay to post here).

    —–

    Hey Greg,
    I’ve been following Rohan’s blog for quite some time, and I can see from your comments that you have as well. I was wondering what you think about Notion Ink as of right now, what with all of the bad press they’re getting. Did you preorder? Are you still a fan? I was really looking forward to buying and using an Adam tablet…now, not so much.

    Thanks,
    XXXX

    —–

    Hi XXXX,

    I’m confident all the issues will be resolved and Notion Ink will come out on top. The bad press is unfortunate. But the tech sites need readership and sensationalism serves them well. In the end I don’t think it will hurt NI very much. By the time CES comes around they will have purchasing/shipping and other issues worked out and Adam’s innovative and industry leading features will get all the attention. Then everyone will be singing a different song…

    Yes I did preorder and I feel very good about my decision. With that said, I’m never an early acceptor of any products. But with Adam it is different. I believe it is a great tablet and then some. And the only tablet that meets all my wants and needs. I can’t wait for it to arrive!

    So yes, I am still a fan, and more so every day!

    –Greg

  2228. Rowan I really think you have good points, but it would be nice if you presented them in a little more friendly manner

  2229. > I got an email from Notionink addressing a couple of questions:
    1. Memory. The unit does indeed ship with only 8GB of internal memory. This is expandable by up to 128GB through the SD card slot and by whatever size external HDD you attached via USB.

    This sucks big time. There’s no such thing as a 128gb or even 64gb microsd card. What is Rohan talking about? And to imply that an external hard-drive someone counts as memory is, um, very poor wording. I’m being polite.

    The sucky part isn’t even that Adam is underpowered compared to the previous specs. The sucky part is that Rohan will answer your private e-mail while there have been literally kazillions of people asking about this on the blog here.

    I do so wish he’d quit the “family” nonsense. Ignoring your family’s legitimate questions is a pretty shabby thing to do.

  2230. @raviraj

    arre kya farak penda? beta?

    kaam to karega na? usb aur SD kya hai.?

    were you so worried for 8 GB ipod touch?

    try to learn to use what is that in between your ears, instead of rambling on and on.

    (if you have kids you’ll understand apoon kya bolta hai!)

  2232. Tried to order, but just like many other members here couldn’t really go through, had issues with ordering; I think site overload.

    With all the other negative feedback, holding back my purchase for now; but I’m sure this is not vaporware (as some suggest), but I’m sure Rohan will showcase the Adam soon and we’ll all be happy.

    But would suggest (as a keen follower who wants you to succeed) that you overhaul the website and ordering pages. I think we need to see more details like photos, videos, specs, detailed ordering pages and a better checkout process.

    Also the cost, I’m not sure but I think with the shipping cost and duties, we’re going to a very higher cost than expected. Also surprised at the conversion rate… from when did 1$ = Rs.50; that’s the conversion I saw when I tried to order for myself in India. This neatly adds an almost 10% markup for Indian customers. Not something I’m happy about. When you said global one rate, I really hope it will be one-rate and NotionInk won’t over-charge India customers like all other big vendors.

    Wish you all the best… but you need to really introspect.

  2233. There is a picture showing the Adam having a back trackpad, my guess is Rohan hasn’t mentioned it because it has something to do with the special feature.

    While I do agree with the validnesses of your point that we should know all the facts before we order something, I feel that the pre-order system was only for people that don’t need that, and the real launch will be more polished.

    Maybe they expected enough people pre-ordering that it would overwhelm their 100,000 units a month capacity, and they designed the pre-order only to attract die-hard fans.

    Just my 0.02

  2234. I think getting paypal on their will take another 3 or 4 days, but I bet that they are already working on it

  2235. i think it is time to be positive, we have waited for this for a long time, basically without any big problems, and the one time there are, we need to support rohan and the team.

    enough is enough, lets get over it, and support them

  2237. despite your eliteist use of ol pals, i agree that we need a deicated base who will stay strong

  2238. Second day into it and the Preorder is still showing some problem !! When you are checking out it shows this message!!!!
    Roshan you are missing some real good customers!!

    Merchant URL is Incorrect.

    Sorry, Your order cannot be processed as the website is not authorised for Transactions through CCAvenue.

    Please contact the Webstore Administrator to report this error.

  2240. @Pratik Thank you! You just saved me a lot of time. I have been thinking all day while I have been kept away about how I want to write about “December 9, 2010 In Retrospect”. Many of your thoughts echo mine. In hind sight I see how things came to be and what could have been done different. I know Rohan and his team have learned from it and will do all they can to resolve the issues and make the future better.

    The Adam is still the same Adam as it was before yesterday. It is the best! Once Notion Ink gets it to market, everyone’s concerns will be resolved and things will be on a positive note again.

    Well, your comments are not lost amongst many. They are valued by me and I’m sure many others too. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. 🙂

  2241. Where can l see the claim that the adam will be delivered by jan 6.

    It’s my understanding adam will be shipped by either the 6th, 9th or 19th of Jan and allow for 6 to 8 weeks for delivery.

    LeoP

  2242. I agree, the blog really has calmed down- gone are the days when comments would skyrocket by a couple of thousand overnight, based on panic and greed (sort of, more…fiscally conservative). I really wish I had not held my tongue earlier, being part of the conversation seemed so exhilarating.

    While its a little sad that the pre-order didn’t work as expected (plus, credit card transactions are the deal breaker with my parents- if it isn’t paypal or another credit card transaction, you’re not getting it), so many things will be solved with time. The videos and photos on the 18th will confirm those doubts, arguably paranoid doubts. It would not be in the interest of notionink as a company, which has already planned for another product, to sell the adam under false pretenses (i.e. that it had access to the android marketplace). This company is not Apple, Samsung or Sony, it would not survive if such a key feature were falsely advertised. Plus, to all those asking questions about the Android Marketplace support…read the blog, now. To my knowledge, the only details that have changed since they were published on the blog (for the first time, that is) are improvements- 802.11g to n, A-GPS to GPS (though I’m a little unsure as to what is meant by this improvement) or price increases.

    Also, on another note, its rather a telltale sign of being a ‘newb’ (no implication meant towards you, just putting it in the train of thought response), when they’re asking questions that could easily be answered by trawling the past notion ink blog posts, or even (shock and horror!) actually doing a google search, or checking on the wikipedia page (which, as much as everyone lambasts it, is an excellent place to mine the sources in the ‘references’ section). Also, the confusion about whether or not it had the touchpad, that was hysterical.

    On a more sentimental note, I love it that Rohan makes the blog what a company blog should be (giving us information about the product), as well as making it personal- his appreciation for mathematical beauty (the golden ratio), love for the product and the inimitable thoughtfulness of declaring the readership as family (despite the unfortunate events that followed). I know of very few CEOs who would go to such trouble, or risk their neck with the sponsors. Even those who do end up connecting with the world, such as Bill Gates, end up doing so after leaving their company.

    Lastly, the sense of excitement and discovery when we were all prodding at what exactly the mystery feature was (an answer to which is still yet to appear), what the binary countdown meant, what the constant string of characters meant beneath it, as well as the host of new questions that these opened up (what detail about Tesla does it concern? which of his inventions? How’s it been changed?), that was truly fantastic. Despite never having been the type to wait with bated breath for the next Harry Potter (as in the whole midnight release at the bookstore), or camp out overnight for an Apple product (hell no :|), its been alot like that (partially because of the unfortunate fact that everyone’s in different time zones).

  2244. I have trust in Rohan and Notion Inc. In the midst of big established corporate companies, this situation is expected for beginners who plan something big. They are going to be looked at with suspicion.
    My only gripe being that we in India are charged at higher dollar conversion rate (nearly Rs 50 ) than the real one ( Rs 45 to 46 ).

  2245. For me, a family is where where two way communication takes place. But recently, there has been very little communication from NI, apart from trying to defend themselves.

    I will eventually buy Adam because I am a gadget freak…
    But the point I am trying to make is, that this may not work for an average customer. If NI really wants to reach to average customers and not only to tech geeks, they need to focus on communication. Communication is the step in building brand…

    “First impression is the last impression”, this may not hold true for gadgets, but its worth considering.

  2246. I can appreciate the frustration NI and Rohan personally are feeling. The Adam is a terrific product that many of us have been waiting for the better part of the year. I had hoped he would be able to enjoy the success of a great pre-sale and with 2 of the 4 versions sold out the evidence of Adam’s popularity has been proven. Bugs will be worked out and life will go on. I look forward to learning more about the product I bought as time goes on.

    Rohan, please let your team have a well deserved rest.

  2247. Good thing u remove that post Rohan. I actually do not agree that you remove negative comments but that one was inappropriate. Remove my comments to if u have time since it seems out of place now. Only f u have. Don’t bother otherwise.

  2248. If Adam is going to be unveiled in CES, why Notion Ink has not been listed in their ‘Exhibitors list’. Just curious to know.

  2249. From what I understood by reading all the comments above, they already had a batch with them. They shipped out (or will be shipping out) the units to the EAP registrants. The remaining were available for pre-order.

    Since they were planning to unveil it at CES 2011, they could not deliver it before that; otherwise, there would be reviews and such out in the media, and their media announcement at CES 2011 would have a damper.

    Also, they are dependent on another startup, PixelQi, to ramp up the production of the screens so that they can be shipped to the ADAM “manufacturing plant”.

    Only after this happens can Rohan estimate how many PixelQi variants of ADAM will be available, and and when the manufactured ADAM will be available for shipping.

  2250. @Sowmya, Jai, Mr. Zeal, Gururaj, Levpius

    Thanks, it is nice to see others in the same boat. Not because misery loves company and I feel great that you were unlucky but because of the sympathy I perceive from you guys (granted, I could be imagining it, but I like to think you’re all kind souls 🙂 )

  2252. @Greg no sweat, was just wondering where u guys were , even though i don’t post much i know all you guys by name 😀 . And trust me your absence does make an impact

  2254. I got a freaking email from Notion Ink EAP saying I would get early access and a discout! What happend? Please answer it said second or third week of December while these bloggers just get to cut in line?! Rohan your my guy but help me out man!

  2256. @Rohan…

    I hope things are going better for you and Notion Ink today. Hang in there!

    I’m looking forward to your next blog post. 🙂

  2257. Can someone please clarify how the 3g version will work. Will I need cellular service that is 3g capable? Can I mobile 3g service for the Adam separate from my cell phone service? Right now I have verizon for my cell phone (which I’d like to keep, but my contract is up soon and I need a new phone), but i’d like some cheaper service for my 3g adam when it arrives. Any help would be great.
    Thanks.

  2258. I wish everyone would cut NI some slack. They aren’t Apple or Samsung. They’re a new startup and there’s going to be “hickups” like every new player will face. Just because everyone has been waiting patiently for over a year for this product, doesn’t mean everyone has to get their panties in a bunch over lack of information, videos or a stable ordering system. These glitches will get worked out. If you participate in a pre launch of a product expect these type of challenges. If you can’t handle a few minor go-live issues go buy a fadtastic ipad to quench your instant-satisfaction complex…

  2259. I look forward to the video reveal on December 18th. I am going to buy the Pixel Qi version which is out of stock now but still when it is available and being shipped I can try again. I have been waiting for this device for over a year and I can wait a bit longer. I am very happy with the features that have been revealed by you (Rohan) and can’t wait to see them in action.

    Every time there has been an update I have become excited like it (Notion ink Adam) has been my very own project. I wish you success as this was a very difficult endeavor indeed and you really can’t please everyone. However, people do forgive and forget rather easily and swiftly :D.

  2260. Adam was hot because of Qi. I think Rohan and team might have missed it. Maybe, NI should try to increase the production of Qi version and lesser of the lcd version. This will definitely help to pacify some of those that has missed out. Maybe another round of pre-order for the rest of the supporters? Support is another issue that they might need to iron out. All the best! 🙂

  2261. Hi Gecko. Good to see you here back.
    Btw one of the person who had commented a whille back has told that he/she has received a mail from NI which has specified that adam will indeed ship with 8Gb memory which can be expanded to 128 gb using ssd card or upto any limit using external HD etc using USB.

  2262. can we get an update on the QI after all i was trying to order one but my CC declined the order …. because of the CC.A guys

    PLEASE i will be a good boy for Cmas just let me order one 😉 well i want 2 but i will take one for now…. 😉 i want QI with 3g

  2263. @Pratik: So far in this post the nay-sayers have put it quite articulate and with a barrage of descriptions. I think you have done an excellent job of explaining the real other side for the NI team who have put in a lot for an honest product.
    I do share your sadness. I wont say “lets not be bitter”. Rather lets look forward to NI emerging vindicated by slowly making Adam tablets spread all over the world and making people happy….

  2264. Lol. Nice video to lighten up things. This video shows same behaviour we all have shown yesterday. Ppl at android police r wailing for nothing. They r needed to be consoled . Any one of us can do the honour , let Rohan be busy about more earthy things. OverCritisizing anything is not good. It was very first venture from a very new and inexperienced ppl, though there was many glitches but it worked. Now comperison with samsungs/apples is not good ,as they r corporate giants. So dear Rohan you should have ur chin up and work hard.we shall overcome. Note -this is second post, first is lost somewhere.

  2265. I believe in fairness all the so called family members should had some sort of opportunity in the future. Many of us, including myself were never sent an email to be given the chance to purchase. Now that all of this has taken place we should be given the chance again once the dust has settled and we can see what the NI ADAM able to do we should have first opportunity to order the units that are not available now. Possibly when they are available once again.

  2267. Well just to make facts correct, I have indeed called Dell many times during the one year warranty period, whenever I had problems in my laptop and the help was very prompt.Indeed I received in between calls from Dell too just to check whether my problem has been solved or not.

    But then they are very well established companies with infrastructure that has taken a long time which is not the case with NI right now(being a startup).Hope NI will come with the same in years to come.

  2268. I can think of many reasons why he may not answer the questions to which people want answers. 1) Intellectual property issues; it’s not just Family that lurks on this blog. 2) Things like the final memory configuration are probably not yet decided; it’s an easy enough thing to switch. Memory prices are exceedingly volatile. 3) The element of surprise, very important in warfare as in business, and here, I don’t mean a surprise for the denizens of this blog, but the wider world he will reach out to at a venue like the CES. I was at first disappointed that Rohan didn’t reveal the elusive Tesla connection, but could understand the logic of it with a bit of reflection.

    Just because I ask a question on this blog, doesn’t mean he owes me an answer. It’s not just a matter of courtesy, but because of some of the reasons above. The man is trying to create not just Adam, the product of his dreams, but a viable business as well. It is the latter prospect that attracts the investor who, it is amply evident given the resources that seem available to Rohan now, merely wishes to exploit this creative spark, so they can tally a 35x or a 10x in their spreadsheets. But without that infusion of capital, the dream, like many others, stays merely a dream. So, they too, among God’s other creatures, have their purpose in the saga of Adam and Eve.

    To pre-order, as I did, is to take a considerable risk. I laid 600 crisp ones at their door based on trust which I expect Rohan & Co. to redeem. Without trust, and the taking of risks, there is no progress, nothing is ventured, and nothing gained. Ever think about the kind of risks he is taking to get Notion Ink off the ground, and that too in a place in India, which is not exactly Silicon Valley with their competing venture capitalists? Is it possible to imagine the effort and the frustration and the sheer banging of heads against bureaucratic walls that got them this far? I can.

    Of course, I am giving him and NI the benefit of the doubt. But I have followed this blog for almost a year, and the young people have to be applauded for their ambition and the hard work they have put in. Of course, they have made Inspector Clouseau look like Sherlock Holmes lately but, as the saying goes, stuff happens. Their character and their ability to keep their eyes on the prize will show in how they actually deliver on the product in less than a month’s time. The technical press will not tolerate a second tease at the CES.

    Am I a fanboy? Hardly. In fact, I am not an early adopter at all. I don’t even have a laptop or a smart phone. While I have no reason to doubt Rohan’s integrity and ethical compass, I do have doubts, shared by many others here, about their ability to take their product to the finish line, as reflected in their woeful inattention to detail. I can only hope that this is because they are attending to technical detail and see the matter of language on their website, or the choice of type for the degree symbol, the posterization evident in their weather images, or basic grammar in their UI legends or web forms as somehow secondary. Yes, they are indeed secondary because unlike hardware, these can be easily patched and refined in software upgrades. But, as the saying goes, you only get one chance at a first impression. And perceptions matter.

    Its wonderful to see someone with a vision execute on that vision, as Rohan & Co. are doing. One would hope that there is someone else, if not Rohan, at NI who has similar imagination. Only, this imagination is necessarily a bit perverse: it considers all of the things that can go wrong, and has a Plan B for every conceivable situation. This sort of thing separates the professionals from the dilettantes. Let’s not invoke Mr. Murphy ever again, please. It doesn’t behoove people with a scientific bend of mind and blessed with the talents that those at NI seem to have. Yes, life, as those who are a trifle more mellow than 25 can attest, is a game of Snakes and Ladders and there is much room for randomness, but as Andy Grove remarked: “Only the paranoid survive”.

  2269. lol, i thought you were talking to me with the above post eric. It does seem a little out of place.

  2272. Hi Rohan,

    Pre order chaos reveal the fantastic demand for the product. Take it as a positive. Most of the blogs world over are happy that the Adam is being released. Only a very few (three) of them have behaved like they have some previous hatred towards Notion Ink.
    Many people after reading about Adam in the mainstream blogs Ars Technica, CNET etc are really impressed. If you can increase production of the Pixel Qi version, you have a fantastic hit on your hands. Think – not even a single video released, not even a single review written, but the product is sold out. Impressive. Really impressive.
    Of course you have to iron out the issues in the marketing front.
    I can find huge opportunities for the product even if the general public doesn’t buy a single piece 😉
    Be proud of yourself. 🙂

  2273. @Rohan wanted to make one suggestion.
    Flipkart is one of the company coming out of Bangalore, dealing with books and lately with Mobile Phones too. It started at a very small scale but made it a point to deliver books promptly and hassle free from the beginning. This was the key thing in building user’s confidence which led majority of user turning to their website. And with time they have expanded their business so and so that is now the de-facto name of ordering books online in India(majorly because of their prompt delivery, you will find hundred of tweets per week and guys have received their books and mobile with in 24 hours).
    There are some of the examples to learn from flipkart that can we very easily incorporated in to Notion Ink when you embark on a successful journey in times to come.

  2274. @Rohan wanted to make one suggestion.
    Flipkart is one of the company coming out of Bangalore, dealing with books and lately with Mobile Phones too. It started at a very small scale but made it a point to deliver books promptly and hassle free from the beginning. This was the key thing in building user’s confidence which led majority of user turning to their website. And with time they have expanded their business so and so that is now the de-facto name of ordering books online in India(majorly because of their prompt delivery, you will find hundred of tweets per week and guys have received their books and mobile with in 24 hours).
    There are some of the examples to learn from flipkart that can we very easily incorporated in to Notion Ink when you embark on a successful journey in times to come.

  2276. “Earlier one could see who said what, a little bit of humour, some digs at one another”
    very true cannot deny the fun!

  2277. alternative might be to set up serverside redirect so that all requests to .in are sent to .com

  2278. michael

    the blog gives exposure which can be considered miniscule.

    the importance of CES:

    1. business collaborations (newer), content providers, carriers (impact factor)
    2. Differentiation, as currently NI is the only one with Eden style execution of Android UI (even from Playbook, which will look inferior)
    3. Business impact of partners (Pixel Qi, Longbox etc etc)
    4. Consumer exposure (videos, hands on) which the “common” consumer will be happy
    5. Cost effective media campaign for NI (tech reviews without any hassle)
    6. Reliable data for future production.
    7. Enterprise exposure to NI
    8. A BIG change in IDEA about Indian Companies : Start ups are coming with serious business
    9. Direction of NI ecosystem
    10. Future iteration with ?differnt hardware (?Bobcat anyone? …..thats AMD btw)

    i can list more, but lets wait.

  2279. >>>@prakash
    To me though, the entire ruckus over the last few days seems a bit farcical. This might not be a perfect analogy, but it’s like you’ve been dating this great girl for the past year. She’s everything you’ve always wanted in your life partner. Besides her honesty is refreshing, she’s been very open about her upbringing, why she did the things she did and even her past relationships. You are ready to commit and get married, but you come across an old picture of her with some other guy (aka pre-ordering issues). The next minute you know, you’re accusing her of being a Whore, out to get your money and that you will NOT marry her until you see ALL the pictures and Videos and a chastity certificate from a Doctor!

    he he he , good humor, made me laugh , but as varun said
    Girl is online, but ya a true beauty and the fact this girl comes with a 5% refund offer, so that does scare you !!!
    and the fact is neither do u want her without she showing her pics and videos nor do u want someone else to take her (thats why the ruckus- everyone loves ADAM but it so happened only few can have it)
    But the fact still goes, when u have decided to marry better enter the relationship without any doubts so asking for a few photos are not gonna matter cos u havent seen her in real !!!

  2280. I just have one question:

    Is the 6-8 week shipping only because these are the early pre-orders?

    Come January, will this time period remain so long or will it shorten to like one week?

  2282. Never got my pre-pre order link then couldn’t get into the site without it crashing 😦

    ultimately I guess i will have to wait, it makes me sad but what can I do now?

    I’m still unsure why we can’t see a final production picture. One single image could quell many fears.

  2285. Aye Rohan. Hope that next post will have some solid information and address the valid concerns raised.
    Looking forward to the weekend update.
    Hang in there. Keep your head high and know that you still have the community backing you.
    The good, the bad-comes with the territory. You get up-and you come out strong with all that was learned.
    Looking forward.

    Knoc

  2286. Since you mentioned that you are a part of verizon… i assume you are from the United States… and that your contract is close to expiration…

    Under such circumstances… you are better off… going just with the Wifi version of Adam…

    The primary reason being that a majority of the MSAs (metro areas) have already been setup with Sprint 4G. I think even Verizon & TMobile have 4G plans… So all you need to do is to get a 4G smart phone.. with the data plan…

    After that, you can connect adam to the 4G plan using a Wifi connection… and the 4G plan in turn will connect you to the internet. like a mobile hotspot…

    You will get atleast 5 times the speed of 3G…

  2287. I am repeating my reply to @vector66 (Michael)

    WHY CES 2011 for Adam?

    This is my take:

    This blog gives exposure which can be considered miniscule for NI as far as their global market is concerned. After all this brouhaha, NI has a list of ~30K only. SO…

    the importance of CES:

    1. business collaborations (newer), content providers, carriers (impact factor)
    2. Differentiation, as currently NI is the only one with Eden style execution of Android UI (even from Playbook, which will look inferior)
    3. Business impact of partners (Pixel Qi, Longbox etc etc)
    4. Consumer exposure (videos, hands on) which the “common” consumer will be happy
    5. Cost effective media campaign for NI (tech reviews without any hassle)
    6. Reliable data for future production.
    7. Enterprise exposure to NI
    8. A BIG change in IDEA about Indian Companies : Start ups are coming with serious business
    9. Direction of NI ecosystem
    10. Future iteration with ?differnt hardware (?Bobcat anyone? …..thats AMD btw)

    i can list more, but lets wait.

  2291. hey rohan don’t worry i trust notion ink, though this post will help clarify people’s doubts.

    notion ink cheer up it’s impossible to keep everyone happy (though that dosen’t mean you should just give up trying to XD).

  2292. Just curious about the number of pieces available / sold out. Rohan, can you publish the statistics(or atleast by next week) if it is not effecting your marketing !!

  2293. Getting excited for Adam to get here!
    So in the USA, being that 3g is 850 frequency, what options do we have for SIM cards/ Internet?
    Just AT&T or any others? (T-Mo runs on 2 different frequencies so I don’t think it will be available… unfortunately because it’s super fast…)

  2294. Well I was about to comment the same about the girl 🙂 🙂
    It actually happened with one of my friend during engineering days. They used to talk a lot over phone and chat but after months when they met for the first time the girl was quite the opposite what was described or told over phone and chat. And He was shouting like anything after the meet to lessen his frustration :). But then within a week he found a new girl over the net and the same story began again 😛 :P.

    Saying that I am not at all comparing it with adam. But that online girl thing totally cracked me up 🙂

    I do hope guys and girl really want to talk and understand each other in *real life* and don’t casually take major decisions offline i.e. marriage just based on online chat(though exceptions are everywhere)

  2295. Adam is my dream tablet. I can’t wait to own the PQi. I’ve been a tablet user (at work) for the last 4yrs and an Iphone user from the begining (remember all of those glitches) and I can clearly see how this tablet can fit in to my everyday life. So waiting 6 or 8 weeks is not big deal compared to waiting years for a product like this. Yeah NI. Take your time and do it right.

  2296. Well I was about to comment the same about the girl 🙂 🙂
    It actually happened with one of my friend during engineering days. They used to talk a lot over phone and chat but after months when they met for the first time the girl was quite the opposite what was described or told over phone and chat. And He was shouting like anything after the meet to lessen his frustration :). But then within a week he found a new girl over the net and the same story began again 😛 :P.

    Saying that I am not at all comparing it with adam. But that online girl thing totally cracked me up 🙂

    I do hope guys and girl really want to talk and understand each other in *real life* and don’t casually take major decisions of their life i.e. marriage just based on online chat(though exceptions are everywhere)

  2297. oh no.. no chocolate.. no coffee… 😦

    good to see you back.
    What abt u Gecko..u r being very silent…

    Is everything fine in ur family ?

  2298. Just to clarify: the 8+ GB of storage means that all versions have 8 GB and we can add more ourselves via microsd? It would be nice to have this spelled out.

  2299. I would like to give a great big THANK YOU to Rohan and all those involved with Notion Ink. What you have done, and are doing, is amazing. Your determination, openness and ingenuity is very inspiring.

    I was one of the fortunate ones who ordered an Adam. Would I have liked more information before I ordered? Sure, but I thought there was lots of information available on the site and videos already on the web. Yes, they were not the final version, but I was very impressed from what I saw. And besides, no one was forcing me to pre-order. I pre-ordered because I believed that Adam has the potential to be something amazing and I want to be part of that. I also wanted to help Notion Ink any way I could, and that was through making a purchase.

    Mistakes happen, and boy did they happen yesterday, but nothing will silence the critics more than an amazing product. The fact that Rohan has since made two posts and explained the situation is to be commended. (For the record, I strongly support the One Global Price.) I know it is hard, but Rohan and Notion Ink, please do not be discouraged from the negative comments posted regarding the pre-sales. Clearly some are upset, and they have a right to be. But I think people are overreacting and need to show more patience and understanding; because no matter how you look at it, Notion Ink is a start up.

    While we all make mistakes, it is what we do to fix those mistakes that counts. From what I know of Rohan and Notion Ink, I believe they will do everything in their power to make things right, it just may take some time.

    Wishing you all the best,

    Richard

  2300. Seems my comment has been posted twice. Apologies:)( it was of their life and not offline)

  2301. Rohan
    About the pre-order. I really didn’t have a problem with it. I mean besides the delay at the beginning, which i didn’t really mind because i believe adam is worth it, i got into the store and ordered perfectly fine with no problems what so ever.
    now with everything that people keep asking for, i won’t really worry about it. they obviously don’t understand what pre-order stands for. I know the adam is currently under final tweaks and that you’ll keep slowly giving us more information about it ask you feel its time. I know that your a perfectionist about the adam because its your baby and you’ll only show things about the adam when you feel they are done. You don’t want to show off a product that isn’t up to par with your vision. its better to show off something that works properly and isn’t just slapped together.
    So all in all I believe you are doing an excellent job considering its your first time. I know the hick-ups in the pre-order mad people mad, but hey any time anything doesn’t work out properly people get angry. I know you probably had everything figured out in your head, but they just didn’t work out like that so don’t worry.
    so just keep doing your thing cause everything is working out.

  2302. I really don’t understand how people can be surprised about shipping cost especially with international shipping from China no less. I understand it’s an added cost and no one likes those but come on… Generally when I purchase items from the U.S. to be shipped to Canada shipping costs are usually $25 or more. Heck it costs me $25 to ship a $5 HDMI cable from Monoprice. Tigerdirect also costs $25 or so for small items and I’m only one province away.

    As much as we would love the Adam to take the market lead I doubt it will. They don’t have the marketing budget of an Apple or Samsung for example. A lot of its’ success will depend on word of mouth, positive reviews, distribution channels (huge advantage if they can sell through big retailers) and of course some marketing.

    Ah, I remember the Amiga. It was the first computer I bought with my own money. Loved it even though it was mainly used for games lol.

    I really do hope the Adam is a runaway hit and sells millions (wonders if Rohan will be sharing units sold with the community in the near future ;-)). Anyways can’t wait for my unit to arrive!

  2303. I hope Rohan still has his spirits high and continues the weekend specials with the same enthusiasm. Rohan don’t let the recent frustrations affect you, let that reinforce you positively

  2304. @Saurabh I respectfully disagree. This post clarified many of the issues. I also disagree with folks who say that NI needs PR spin. Thats the last thing I and many others here need or want. Ideally a tech company works by people who have strong engg skills coupled with imagination and business savvy supported by wise investors and advisors who provide oversight. This blog is brilliant; no doubt about it. Its brilliance is not due to Rohan’s wordsmithing prowess but the rare capacity he has shown in combining technical chops with imagination and, I suspect, as yet unseen (by us) powers of persuasion and inspiration. The fact that he reads the comments section and takes inputs seriously is highly commendable. In part thats what makes this blog addictive and thats why I did the pre-order despite having to talk to my cc people to authorize the transaction. Obviously NI is not just about one person. There is a saying: first rate people will attract first rate people but second rate people will attract third rate people. So its extremely important in startups that you only have first rate people at the top. Bringing in some mediocre PR hacks or tech writers will be counterproductive.

    Having said that, here is my attempt at Monday morning quarterbacking. NI probably had a master email list of folks who had contacted them in the past. They could have randomly selected a few hundred to send emails to preorder (with custom urls for each person). Its very likely that most of the key issues (ccavenue hitches) would have been uncovered and then they could have delayed this preorder so that it went more smoothly (and also did the family stuff right). Check out Jim Manzi’s articles on how to do mini experiments to optimize decision making (for tech companies). I am typing this on an Android set top TV (google tv) and dont have an obvious way of doing cut and paste from another window) and so I will try to paste that in my reply.

  2305. Sorry, I don’t know this. And, I want to avoid giving an incorrect answer. It is best if Rohan provides more information on this.

  2306. You do realize this is pre-ordering, don’t you? When you pre-order, you 1) express support for a fledgling company that needs to show hard cash and proof to gimlet-eyed manufacturers and investors that there’s incentive to set up a large production run 2) get in early on the action yourself so you can be coolest kid in town 3) just can’t wait.

    Shipping costs for a securely packed, insured product carried by a reputable courier all the way from China is going to be expensive no matter what. Once they establish warehouses in the U.S or Europe or India, they can ship from China in bulk, and use local carriers. This is the stage where mature companies are when they can offer ‘free shipping’. Some of that ‘free’ is merely eye-wash; the subject of pricing and the psychological compulsions that make a consumer choose a price-product pair over another, is an exceedingly fascinating one.

    Should they at least keep to international standards on the Returns policy and explain the discrepancies because they have a unique one-price-fits-all approach? Yes, absolutely.

  2307. +1

    No sign of them actually going to CES, at least with a booth, unless they are going to be with someone else….or just walking around…

    And why are they debuting a finalized product at what is generally a trade show for upcoming devices? I realize a lot of media will be there but if the Adam is as good as we are led to believe the sooner people see it the sooner the word will spread.

    A lot of blogs are suggesting not to preorder based on everything that has happened, slashgear, crunchgear (they where biased to begin but still), android police, etc. This is terrible publicity, basically people are insinuating that NI is a scam/vaporware, you would think damage control would be your highest priority. Like even if you where hiding something groundbreakinng beyond imagination you would try to quell this with some sort of hard evidence…..

    I also still can’t understand why you would start preorders without having a warranty, finalized spec sheet, or all credit cards available, what’s the rush? I mean they where using a template without changing the telephone…..I get that “preorders is for testing/diehards/anotherexcuse” but seems like regardless a customer would want to know what they are buying, even if is just a finalized spec sheet (how much memory does it really have?). This preorder wasn’t a test, they where caught with their pants down. I Don’t care what anyone says, there is honestly no proof what they claim exist actually does.

    So why rush the preorders only to wait to do a demo? What happened to the EAP and the SDK? Why can’t we get a real picture of the UI, and the Adam running it? If you needed this preorder money for capital to actually manufacture or for some other reason just say it…too many unanswered questions.

    Argh, just frustrating to follow a product for so long and then to watch something like this
    happen……rant over

  2308. Mr.Koolaid…its just a tablet! Relax your attitude and try to look at things from a critical angle too…guess I am talking to a frog in the well! I feel sorry for you dude.

  2310. I am repeating my reply to @vector66 (Michael)

    WHY CES 2011 for Adam?

    This is my take:

    This blog gives exposure which can be considered miniscule for NI as far as their global market is concerned. After all this brouhaha, NI has a list of ~30K only. SO…

    the importance of CES:

    1. business collaborations (newer), content providers, carriers (impact factor)
    2. Differentiation, as currently NI is the only one with Eden style execution of Android UI (even from Playbook, which will look inferior)
    3. Business impact of partners (Pixel Qi, Longbox etc etc)
    4. Consumer exposure (videos, hands on) which the “common” consumer will be happy
    5. Cost effective media campaign for NI (tech reviews without any hassle)
    6. Reliable data for future production.
    7. Enterprise exposure to NI
    8. A BIG change in IDEA about Indian Companies : Start ups are coming with serious business
    9. Direction of NI ecosystem
    10. Future iteration with ?differnt hardware (?Bobcat anyone? …..thats AMD btw)

    i can list more, but lets wait.

    *sorry for the repeat post*

  2311. @Anand Shah,

    Thank you for the clear and concise explanation to a question I had as well, as I am also a U.S. Verizon customer with an expiring service plan. Now I know exactly what to do next, as for business and personal reasons I need to stay with Verizon. Especially the tip about “5 times the speed of 3 G” … This is a bit back in the blog now; hope you see this 🙂

  2312. Hey there Oswald,

    Check the comment by SRK and the responses to it. Here is the link to it (I added a space after “http”): http ://notionink.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/introspection/comment-page-5/#comment-53024

  2315. @oswald an dJrong
    Ok, i actually dint wanna get in between ur conversation, anyways

    > NI is waiting for their FCC expected around DEC 20’s ( since hey have already conducted their in house trials, they are hopeful FCC clearance will be glitch free)

    > As far as i know, there is no specific deadline for CES registration, u can even register for a booth by the end of this month. So they may be waiting for their FCC and other things to materialize to place the final call for the booth

    > Else, they might have already registered, but under a different name. Sure details will follow

  2317. Hey Anand,

    ” you can connect adam to the 4G plan using a Wifi connection”

    I am a little confused with your above statement. Can you please explain further?

    From your statement, one can conclude that one can simply use WiFi (i.e. 802.11b/g/n) to connect to the 4G network.

    Are you talking about WiMax? If so, then won’t you need a special WiMax feature (chip) in the device to make use of it?

  2318. Nice review to read (if you haven’t seen it)

    http : // arstechnica . com/gadgets/news/2010/12/adam-notion-ink-tablet-pc-pre-orders-now-open.ars

    Hope everyone’s having a good day!

  2319. @ Rohan. There has been a lull for sometime. I am eagerly waiting for a detailed post and an update to the NI website with full detailed technical specifications. I have a question and I am sure this has been asked many times already. Can you please perform a bulk shipping from China to India and then send internal courier deliveries? The shipping cost is a detrimental factor and you not mentioning before the pre-orders started did not go well with many (including me)

  2321. @ Rohan. In your next post (the weekend special — is there one this time?) I am awaiting to hear from you on storage, Android Market compatibility, shipping start date, customs duty, expected delivery dates, when Pixel QI models will be next available, any corrective measures that will be taken for the ones that were impacted by the pre-order issues, what is in the packaging along with Adam. You already mentioned about the videos. Is there a way to accelerate them? Most of us here are eagerly waiting. Can you please share screen grabs early from the actual device if not the videos? You have responded a lot of comments before in this blog. But I am not able to comprehend why you have stayed away from some questions like the ones I have in this comment. I am sure you have an explanation for that. Please provide that too in the next post.

  2322. He is talking about the mobile hotspot feature built into some cellphones. The phone connects to a mobile network, and then broadcasts its own wifi signal. It is, in fact, a form of tethering. This can also be accomplished via bluetooth or usb. But regardless, you will only get as much speed as the phone’s wifi and mobile network can provide. Also, most carriers have rules against such things, they expect you to pay a “tethering fee” to offset the increased traffic.

    If that didn’t help, or made it worse, click on my face and shoot me an email. (gravatar has it posted)

  2323. ++ @bruce. good points.. Its a mistake to think that NI is in the same space as Apple. There is space for many players, with their own niches.

  2324. @ Rohan: When will there be an chance to get the Wi-fi PQi model again? I tried ordering many time on the opening but the site for taking CC was down. Good luck at CES. I understand that you need to hold info on the ADAM close for now. Thanks and Good Luck to you and the NI team.

  2325. hahahhahaha @albert wert, I love your comment. Invite me for demon expulsion ritual for that guy. I might able to help you.

  2326. John,

    NI are dependent on another startup, called PixelQi, to supply NI with PixelQi’s 3Qi screens. Depending on PixelQi’s production and inventory capability, the screens will be shipped to the ADAM “manufacturing plant”.

    Only after this happens can Rohan estimate how many PixelQi variants of ADAM will be available, and when the manufactured ADAM will be available for shipping.

    In fact, if one thinks a little more about it, NI actually is dependent on several suppliers for parts ranging from the various connectors, motherboard, antennae, enclosure, motherboard, Tegra etc. This is typical in all of the consumer electronics industry.

    It is a wonder that consumer industry gets anything manufactured in this fashion at all ! Due to this setup, there are many avenues for delays and inventory control very quickly becomes complicated.

    Only those companies which have been around long enough and have sufficient funds can control the supply chain where in they manufacture major parts of the device themselves. Samsung is a common and good example. They manufacture their own screens (AMOLED, LED LCD etc), their own computing chips, their own memory chips and so on. So, they are able to control costs and inventory much better.

    But I digress.

  2327. THE NOTION INK CHRISTMAS GIFT LIST…

    1) A public relations firm
    2) A fullfillment company
    3) A logistics consultant specializing in the e-tail space
    4) the courage to cut through all the explanations and excuses and simply say, “I’m sorry” to your consumers

  2328. Don’t know if this has anything to do with anything but you’ve gotta wonder…

    Nvidia Tesla Overview
    Because of the very high computational power (measured in floating point operations per second or FLOPS) compared to recent microprocessors, the Tesla products are intended for the high performance computing market. The lack of ability to output images to a display is the main difference between Tesla products and ordinary video cards. For equivalent single precision output, Fermi based Geforce cards also have four times less dual precision performance. The primary function of Tesla products are to aid in simulations, large scale calculations (especially floating-point calculations), and image generation for professional and scientific fields, with the use of OpenCL or CUDA.

    Nvidia Teslas currently power the fastest supercomputer in the world, Tianhe-1A in Tianjin, China.

  2329. I was not part of the winning batch, but I think this is a valid question and should be answered Rohan. It’s only fair that you keep your word and offer the discounts for those that have earned it through the logo contest.

  2330. I’m sorry that so many people feel the need to be negative. I provide constructive criticism, because that’s what I want for myself. But this blog is evidence that NI is a truly unique company, and I am glad that I found it in time to be a part of it.

    I do a lot of writing. When I give something I’ve written to someone, and they say “its good. Don’t change a thing” I get very frustrated. Nothing is ever perfect, and I want people to tell me what’s wrong so I can make it better.

    Thus do I say that Rohan needs to provide us with a non-render, up to date video of the final, finished, polished, production UI in action. That will allow your fans to be confident and feel secure, and that will allow for pre-orders.

    Also, it will help tremendously if you provide review units to those who review them. A lot of people read those sites before buying things, and allowing them to speak impartially about the device will convince people its real.

    You could even ship one to me. Although I ordered one anyway (pixelQi + 3g), so that will happen eventually no matter what.

    I want NI to succeed. And if it does, it will show other tech companies that secrecy and ignoring customers aren’t the only ways to do things.

  2331. The poorly executed pre-order session brings into question this company’s ability to create bug free user interface. I suggest you consult with UI experts before releasing the gadget for main stream adaptation.
    I am surprised that preorder screens did not have validation when the address is interested, before asking for credit card details. This shows hoe inexperienced CCA company is and had not learnt anything from existing companies like ebay, amazon, google check out. It seems CCA lived in their own cocoon of indian online market for all these years.

  2332. one last time (sorry for the moderation repeats)

    www dot manhattan-institute dot org / html / miarticle.htm ? id=6494 is a Jim Manzi article about how random assignment works in field trials and how its extensively used by google et al. Without random assignment and/or sampling polls aren’t that useful as all sorts of biases can tilt the result.

    excerpt from article

    —–

    Suppose marketers wanted to know whether a credit card solicitation would meet with greater success if it was mailed in a blue envelope or in a white one. Rather than debate the question, the company would simply mail, say, 50,000 randomly selected households the solicitation in a blue envelope and 50,000 randomly selected households the same solicitation in a white envelope, and then measure the relative profitability of the resulting customer relationships from each group.

  2333. I have sent NotionInk the following letter, because I was taken aback when I realized that we were charged 11% extra in terms of the real USD/INR exchange rate, and not made fully aware of the Customs / VAT implications:

    Attn: Mr.Rohan Shravan.

    I have been a long-time supporter of your company, and have even demonstrated this by preordering the Adam. However, upon rechecking the transaction, I have learnt that you have overcharged me by applying a USD/INR exchange rate of Rs.50 instead of the prevailing rate of Rs.45. Further, this rate is applicable to not just the product, but the shipping charges as well.

    You had claimed in your blog that the prices are the same for all geographies, but it seems that the reality is quite different, and you are overcharging the customers in the very country where you are based. You did not even reveal before ordering, or when mentioning the price on the preorder page, that customs duties and other taxes were extra, which makes your claims even more misleading.

    You have a duty towards your customers and supporters to inform them of the correct price they are paying for the product. Your claims have been that you will sell the Adam at a price lower than its competition, but from all indications, this is not correct. Street prices for devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab are close enough even in India.

    Taking all of the above into perspective, it seems that trusting customers like myself are being fleeced even if we cancel the preorder, as we lose out on a substantial amount of money paid UPFRONT even though you have not taken a single step towards supply. This has made the whole of this transaction and the motives odious, and I honestly think you need to rescue your reputation immediately.

    I would suggest that you take the honourable step of refunding the extra 11% you are charging as per the published price and bring the exchange rate in conformity with the market rate, or cancel the transaction without levying any penalty. You owe us at least that much.

    I am also putting up this letter on your blog, and expect to receive your reply soon.

    With best regards,

    Nishit Dave

  2334. Sorry. Couple of mistypes.
    validation –> validation screen.
    hoe–> how.
    interested –> entered.

  2335. It is not One Global Price. Indian customers have been charged 11% extra, and I think the same may apply to Europeans as well. Read my post a little way down the line.

  2336. you know, I just had an idea. If possible rohan, and everyone else do you think we could show you small start up companies for you to think about includeing in your product. I am sure we all know about many smalll companies with amazeing ideas from all around the world. so why not post them here?

  2337. One extremely important rule moving forward, Rohan:

    Please, please doublecheck your email service settings. Many people who have yahoo.com and hotmail.com accounts did not receive emails from NotionInk.

    I received confirmation for the units purchased from ccavenue, but not from NotionInk. [I have a yahoo.com account]

    Moving forward, the ability to connect to your fanbase is going to be crucial. Please make sure you have someone in house who is well versed with knowledge of sending emails.

    Please make sure that whoever tests your emails has accounts with major mail carriers [yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc.] and can send proofs out to those accounts to validate the emails before sending mass emails.

    I feel this and the mastercard issue were the two largest detriments to this initiative.

    I do agree with the public here in that prior knowledge of what payment options would be accepted needed to be posted at least 24 hours before pre-order go live.

    Experience makes us wiser.

    One hint to the yahoo.com issue I may be able to help out with: I DID receive the “Fasten Your Seatbelt” email sent back in August to my yahoo account, so whatever program you used to send out that email worked fine! All others – the “ol pals” emails and the “notion ink confirmation” emails I have not received with my yahoo account.

  2338. Same here. Yeah.. well.. !, hope this workout for the best, a little more patience and we will get to see the whole enchilada, .. piñata… in action before we place and order..
    Remember .. Rohan seconds before pre-order started I advice you on getting your things straight and in order… for a smooth ride..?.. (didn’t meant you get on the airplane and observe the whole show from above, plant your feet solid in the ground now is the time, meditate more to Kali or whatever, relax, exercise etc..)mm… lack of sleep maybe…? hope we all learn from this experience and get solid on the promise to deliver we all count on you guys we almost there… cheers..

  2339. Sorry for this repost, but feel it’s relatively important: [got buried a bit above]

    One extremely important rule moving forward, Rohan:

    Please, please doublecheck your email service settings. Many people who have yahoo.com and hotmail.com accounts did not receive emails from NotionInk.

    I received confirmation for the units purchased from ccavenue, but not from NotionInk. [I have a yahoo.com account]

    Moving forward, the ability to connect to your fanbase is going to be crucial. Please make sure you have someone in house who is well versed with knowledge of sending emails.

    Please make sure that whoever tests your emails has accounts with major mail carriers [yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc.] and can send proofs out to those accounts to validate the emails before sending mass emails.

    I feel this and the mastercard issue were the two largest detriments to this initiative.

    I do agree with the public here in that prior knowledge of what payment options would be accepted needed to be posted at least 24 hours before pre-order go live.

    Experience makes us wiser.

    One hint to the yahoo.com issue I may be able to help out with: I DID receive the “Fasten Your Seatbelt” email sent back in August to my yahoo account, so whatever program you used to send out that email worked fine! All others – the “ol pals” emails and the “notion ink confirmation” emails I have not received with my yahoo account.

  2340. @Rohan….Say about three months from now,when you look back I am sure you will be able to smile in satisfaction on a successful launch,in spite of all the problems a start up has to face. Do not get disheartened…keep it up…NI will SUCCEED. a smiley from me 🙂

  2341. Good morning everyone! 🙂

    Adams world is looking better now after i caught some sleep! 😉

    Happy to got a preorder!

  2342. Just curious to know why Notion Ink’s name has not been listed in the CES 2011 event’s Exhibitor’s List

  2343. @Rohan….Say about three months from now,when you look back I am sure you will be able to smile in satisfaction on a successful launch,in spite of all the problems a start up has to face. Do not get disheartened…keep it up…NI will SUCCEED. a smiley from me for NI team 🙂
    (repeating the post again…not sure i posted it properly last time)

  2344. Rohan,
    The best and most sincere advice I can give you is to get professional advice. Hire someone who’s had experience with mass roll-outs of consumer products. Let him help you through these difficult times. Your eagerness to explain things might actually be doing more harm than good. For example, was it really Mastercard’s fault that their approval process takes much longer than Visa’s? Why didn’t NI have it squared away months ago?

    Was it really that hard to imagine that banks/credit cards in USA would decline high-value transactions originating in a foreign country? CCAvenue might be a reputed firm in India, but have they had experience in handling foreign/global transactions? Again, why wasn’t this process tested months ago?

    One global price might be a noble goal, but North American customers do not want to subsidize high shipping costs to Russia.

    Since you don’t have a retail presence in North America, your return policies need to be extra-generous. Customers are loathe to buying a product unseen, and then having to pay exorbitant shipping/restocking fees.

    Your website needs to have a professional look and feel. For example, look at your Contact page. It says “You need more information about Notion Ink or its products: info at notionink dot com”. Why not provide the proper-formatted email address?

    Please do seek help from people who’re experts in this. Or take a page from Apple’s playbook and learn how they do things.

  2345. @All

    Frankly speaking I’ve never seen any company blog or even a tech article even a review to be so live as NI blog is; nor I’ve seen any company who actually depends on user inputs through comments what ever they may be to shape it’s product development.

    If you people have such names please mention.

  2346. The reply was from the team at the pre-order email address, not Rohan, and I presume I got an answer because I had a question about an order and quoted an order number.

    Just checked and you are right regarding the capacity of the add on SD cards. Bummer. Might have to swap out the internal memory. Hopes it’s a standard oem memory.

  2347. Though I don’t think SAMSUNG Galaxy TAB is available for anything less than 35K and it is not even comparable with ADAM… ADAM is different set of features however usage is same…

    Having said that and acknowledging that we are getting MUSH BETTER product / feature then competition but THE 11% extra and additional Customs Duty is something that needs clarification.

    $50 for shipping should be destination specific.

    Regards,

    Manish Sabharwal

  2348. All your NI folks,

    Despite everything you see and read here, give yourselves a break and a nice big pat on the back. Have been in product development for a number of years, you can never get everything right. But the trick is in going back and improving on everything. So all the best with that.

    Secondly a question – (apologies if this is a dumb question!!) – can I use a STYLUS with Adam. I have ordered the PixelQi version. I intend to use the Adam as a replacement for thenotebook i carry around at work. With a stylus and the Paint program you guys have, can I use this as a suitable replacement. Again when I say ‘stylus’ i dont mean the normal ones, there are these new conductive stylus that can be used the the Samsung Tab and even the iPad. So let me know.

  2349. Thanks jrgong & Sowmya for your thoughts on this . I did’t notice your response. Sorry about the repost.

  2350. Dear Rohan,

    Though I don’t think SAMSUNG Galaxy TAB is available for anything less than 35K and it is not even comparable with ADAM… ADAM is different set of features however usage is same…

    Having said that and acknowledging that we are getting MUSH BETTER product / feature then competition but THE 11% extra and additional Customs Duty is something that needs clarification.

    $50 for shipping should be destination specific.

    Regards,

    MS

  2354. @Zach,

    It was the case for me. I did look for the special email, but fully expected issues with so many people joining the blog at the last minute for a chance to be in the “family”. Had my 3 credit cards and PayPal account up, ready and funded, as NI refused to tell us ahead of time what method could be used. Refreshed both the blog and the website on double screens for close to 24 hours in case of errors in time zones etc. I was prepared on my end for “start up” issues, and prepared to go along with that. As I saw as well as you, the initial links didn’t work until shortly before the public offering. Once the public offering went up, I tried for hours to get through and simply couldn’t; I finally gave up when the Pixel Q I wanted sold out. Just my story, as you asked above. Can’t speak for others. I congratulate Rohan on the successful sell out, and wish the best for him and his team.

  2355. The difference is that the Tab is available NOW and is very usable. The Adam definitely has superior specs, but where is it now? We have put our trust in NI, but it seems there is a very good chance of it being misplaced.

    Just think about it: I paid through Netbanking, not even a credit card.

    I would like to give Rohan and his team the benefit of doubt. I can stand stumbling up on preordering, but I can’t stand greed or taking customers for granted.

    The Joojoo fiasco is out there for everyone to see, and I would hate to see Rohan being compared with Chandra.

  2356. @Sowmya,

    Yes Yes Yes to stay in touch … how and where? No, I don’t twitter. Yes I have email but would rather not post publicly; WordPress and NI have … 🙂 … Facebook, hate it, but yes because of family … suggestions?

  2357. @Biswajeet Saha

    They are charging you at Rs.50 per USD rather than Rs.45. I have asked them to refund the extra 11%, because this is more than unfair. This does not even include the customs duty or VAT.

  2358. well, lots of things zach, i slept at 3 am (IST) without any notification, I was supposed to order was another family member, then i woke up late ‘cos i slept late, i had my work to take care first and then i realized I could as well order 2 ( one for myself as well, i had my funds rearranged), i had some stuff in my paypal, had to do a couple of calls to use a credit card..i logged in, yup pretty disappointing that no mail.. then there were lots of issues raised by fellow bloggers reg shipping issue to India etc and no videos,i tot there would be some notification, some post by Rohan to allay all fears.. so i just wanted to make sure what i was doing is right and i was going thro few member’s post and was calling and i had my work to attend to in between… at the end of all this, Pixel Q! 3G was sold out ! long story cut short…

  2359. I had the same problem with the order page, but using my years of IT and internet knowledge i closed internet explorer and opened firefox, fixed.

  2360. Hi,

    i have expanded my statements above…

    @ Joshua’s comments exactly match mine…

    A Wifi connection’s speed is about 54 mbps and a 4G connection speed is about 4-6 Mbps down / 600 – 800 kbps UP… so the weakest link is the WiMAX connection speed…

    Even with a WiMAX… you will need a modem or a router…

    A Sprint overdrive or your 4G Cell phone… acts like one… only difference being… A Sprint Overdrive can accept 8 devices… a 4G cell phone can accept 5 devices… like the HTC Evo

    The technology is called tethering… and depending on the devices… it can be achieved either using USB, Bluetooth or Wifi

  2361. Yep, 🙂

    First let me say sorry that you people (and myself) are bored by this topic, but as it only affects Indian shipping addresses it may be a minority that was overcharged.
    But it simply has to be addressed!

    The 11% extra (66 USD) on the whole price, only when shipping to India, was the biggest letdown.

    Furthermore during the order process the text informed us at that time about the cost when sending the adam back to “INDIA”. (it was changed later on, but screen grabs exist)
    So everyone had to get the impression you are shipping from here and the extra charge is the Indian sales tax.

    I am sure this was a mistake by the Payment gateway that NotionInk setup for the orders and the overcharged money going to be refunded to our credit cards soon.
    Rohan will surely address this problem

    I was a little bit shocked to hear that it is coming from China and not India because of two other things:
    – One being the Indian customs which can easily charge up to 58% of import duties.
    – The other point being that parcels (yes also from dhl) from overseas get regularly
    lost, stolen or damaged when send to our places here.

    I tried to ask Rohan and also wrote the sales team if we can at least change the shipping address to somewhere overseas to get the 66USD refunded and minimize the parcel and duties issue, but got no reply as of yet.

    Guys, the last impression I want to give is being on the negative side!
    Let me assure you i LOVE Rohan, adam, NotionInk and the family that has formed around it and i am looking very much forward for the final product with plenty of happiness in my heart.
    These “minor glitches” simply can and have to be sorted out, but they have to be addressed in the first place.

    PEACE 🙂

  2362. heyyy
    click on my lily avatar and could u drop in ur mail id or any contact in my wordpress blog ( u wont see my mail id, but if u drop in a msg i will receive one)

  2363. A normal iPhone / HTC Evo user would pay about 70-85$ / month for both phone and data plan…

    In my case… I am going with a simple phone @ 30-40$ / month (as I am going to carry my adam always) and a Sprint overdrive (@ 30-40$ / month) and achieve the same thing…

    I get long battery times on my phone (since I am back to a traditional phone) and I am always connected with a much better tablet interface for my mobile needs either using Apple iPad or preferably Notion Ink adam !!!

    Besides if I am at a team conference or some such place… about 8 laptops can use my connection as a gateway to the internet… no extra charge…

    lastly, the connection automatically drops to a 3G, when a 4G signal is not available…

    In short… why marry the device to a 3G, when you can separate to 4G and allow multiple connections whether @ home or office… using the portable router…

  2364. My two cents worth

    I wonder why guys insist on Videos before pre-ordering I thot Pre-ordering entailed taking the risk of buying a product that you might not like at the end. Having said that some non rendered images could have been shown on the final preorder page (Or nwas not having the FCC in the bag the problem).

    I for one wouldnt buy a product unless I have seen and held it and hence most often than not am never a first mover.

    Rohan not clarifying on the memory part is what is more worrying. That actually has been asked many times on this blog comments and categoric clarification would indeed be welcome.

  2365. This is simply not just right. First, we all stayed up almost overnight or jumped out of bed before crack of dawn so that we could get our priority orders in. Then, the site started to crash, so there was no time to check the rates, and when I did some quick math the extra charge worked out to 12% of the Adam’s price (minus shipping), so I assumed it was VAT or Customs and ploughed in, because I did not want to miss out on the first, powerful Pixel Qi tablet.

    Immediately upon getting order confirmation, I wrote to NI asking for clarification of charges and duties, but it still had not dawned on me that the exchange rate was higher.

    This is just not done. Not when you are touting a One Global Price, not when you’re supposed to try and minimise the Customs duty in your home country. Even if the mistake has been at CCAvenue’s end, the Notion Ink management cannot come out of this without being proven irresponsible.

    Consider this, even if I ask them to cancel my order, I will lose at least 5%, and that too @Rs.50 and not Rs.45.

  2367. exactly… i smell a scam here.. how could they make the big reveal at a place where they are not even recognized as being registered..

  2369. C’mon, not again.

    Don’t make Rohan to answer all of your questions. It is exactly because of such demands that Rohan feels pressurized to make promises that he is unable to keep. And then he tries and provides incomplete or conflicting information. Let us leave the man alone and let him focus on the issues at hand (one among which is CES 2011).

    If you are having buyer’s remorse, then dude no one pressurized you to buy one and if you did, it is your own fault; honest!. If you are uncomfortable with the information provided, call up the credit card company and feel free to deny and cancel your order. Or, wait until Rohan is prepared to share additional information with you.

    If you are waiting for more information before buying, then join the club. Rohan has already mentioned that the baton is in his hands now. It would be no surprise if he has managed to stretch himself too thin handling too many things, fighting too many fires, and handling the PR disaster the pre-order turned out to be.

    Yes, we are all waiting for the same information that you are clamoring for. Making demands of him will not help him, and more importantly, not help us either.

    As per Rohan, the official product launch is at CES 2011 and thus not at this blog. So, he has every right to decide what information he choses to reveal at this blog. I suggest waiting to see what information he is willing share with us now, and what he will reveal at CES 2011 which is just a few weeks away.

    I, for one, will be more concerned if ADAM turns out to be a no show at CES 2011. But until that time, I am willing to give the man the breathing space he requires to focus, and get things moving and get things done.

    Shyam bro, I am sincerely not upset or angry with you or with anyone that has similar concerns and questions. It is just frustrating to see the same complaints and demands in every other comment in the last couple of blog posts. And due to all such comments, there is a general feeling of distrust and anger at this blog.

    Peace out \/.

  2370. Hi Nishit ,

    I think you might want to check with your cc card company first, all international transaction have an additional processing fee included. So the charges you will see on your cc statement will be (Item Cost + Transaction Processing Fee) Since your transaction is in dollars, it will be treated as international transaction i guess. You first confirm with your bank, instead of simply blaming it on Rohan.

    Peace

  2371. And sorry I am interfering in between.But even in my case after waiting till 2:30 AM for my email, i slept but woke up at 5:50 AM. And after seeing no email i went for general public order.I had no mastercard but then I decided to go for direct netbanking which was available for Indian customers. But though at that time many pixelQi adams were available, following things happened::

    (1) I was able to go to payment page without even filling any shipping or billing address at all which was really scary for me.

    (2) The conversion amount for Indians came up as 29,999 in Indian currency which amounted around about $650. Yes CCAvenue must be taking some charges but this was not my first experience in ordering either from CCAvenue or ordering internationally but $50 is really too much.(I hope this point will be cleared in the next blog by Rohan)

    On top of that continuous comments about problems faced by several users and even in spite of that no official word from NotionINK , raised so many red flags in my mind that I decided to wait and not to order until officially things are cleared.And when things were cleared pixelQi was out of stock.

  2372. I hope that in the weekend blog Rohan will tell us what their idea is for those 20k of people not receiving their email.
    I don’t know if I am on that list, but I still think that it would be fair to those on that list that somehow they will get in front of the big bunch of preorders made after the 6 hours for those with an email.
    @Rohan, keep on the spirits! Even most of the people complaining here are people that would love to have your product, they are just disappointed.
    Rohan and team keep going and in the end you can look back and say that the startup had a glitch but it all smoothend out.

    Greetings,

    Edju13

  2373. @Siva said, on December 11, 2010 at 11:08

    > Sorry. Couple of mistypes.

    May I suggest that you get your comment reviewed by a couple of experts before you post them ?

    🙂

  2374. +1 yes me too! I never got my confirmation email! Also never received my pre order “family”email. I too am on a hotmail account. Please check this Rohan as i am sure there are many others in the same boat- Thanks

  2375. You know whats really disappointing? I submitted my order yesterday (when it was in stock and all!) and today i received an email from CCAvenue stating that my order had not worked out and I now can’t order my Adam because the Qi version is sold out….

    That sucks and I can’t do anything about it….

  2377. Oooh oh, WordPress makes a mess of the messages again.
    They all end up all over the place!

  2378. No, first of all this wasn’t a credit card transaction, but a direct debit to my bank account. Secondly, I have spent enough money internationally on my credit card and done international transactions to know that markups are never 11%. Even the worst among them would not exceed 5%, especially if it were USD.

    Apart from this, Notion Ink would be expected to bill in INR to Indian customers, and they should be doing bulk shipments to India and then shipping to domestic customers. They would definitely be able to hedge their forex risk once they had contractual liabilities and predictable pre-order inflows.

    I wouldn’t have complained if this were justifiable.

  2379. Hmm, i guess i’m the same. Received an email from CCAvenue confirming, however this morning i received an email from them saying that it was not approved…..

  2382. Unacceptable reply, Rohan. YOU said the price for Pixel Qi LCD + WiFi was USD 499.45, plus the exorbitant $50 charge of shipping from China to India, where so many are able to source so much so cheaply.

    The exchange rate has nothing to do with the origin, especially if you have quoted the price in USD. We will forget about the shipping charges, although it should have been NI’s responsibility to get all pre-ordered Adams in India first and then ship after QA.

  2386. @SRK said, on December 11, 2010 at 12:14

    + (a very large number).

    Agree with your sentiments, in principle.

    Even though I am a very ol’ pal, neither did I receive a pre-order link nor did I plan to pre-order even if I received a pre-order link.

    As early as late July / early August I was hoping that NI will have a product launch at CES 2011 as it is a great avenue for media spotlight. In fact I also posted a comment to this affect in one of the very earlier blog posts.

    Given the $ amount involved, I prefer to make an informed decision and hence I am prepared to wait until CES 2011, see what information is revealed and then make my own judgement of this product, and then make my buying decision. Besides, it would be interesting to see ADAM holds its own against all the newer tablets that will be announced at CES 2011.

    Go Rohan ! Make it happen at CES 2011 !

    And yeah, world peace \/ and soft bunnies.

  2390. @Nishit, Be logical. NI will only charge you cost of adam plus shipping, all in dollars. After that it is bank/cc company applies transaction charges, conversion charges. Therefore, please contact your bank first and ask them for breakdown of payment. Then you may demand Rohan for action.

  2391. I wouldn’t be surprised if the banks detecting fraud had to do with a number of charges by the same company all in a very short period of time.

  2392. Also- although i will forget about it now, but never got my family email even though i am friends with Rohan on facebook and have commented well over 100 times on the blog and was told that i would get the family email. Nothing can be done now i guess. Just have to wiat 6- 8 weeks instead.

  2393. Great..Let us support and encourage the team..already they are disapponted at the fiasco..I trust the team and will always back you up… keep up the good work…

  2394. Thanks guys for the further explanations; I think I understand … I’ve been existing with wi-fi when traveling; no data plan on cell phone till this summer, when disaster struck; no wi-fi connections, a brochure to proof in an emergency … Found myself sitting in the parking lots of McDonalds and Days Inn, stealing … er, borrowing service while my husband slept in the drivers’ seat. He’s a great guy, but he thinks you shut down a laptop by closing the lid …:); he said we need data plan … hope to use with Adam.

    I am stuck with Verizon on the cell phone; any further advice on new phones, plans and access pertinent to Verizon? Appreciate the help!

  2396. 7 inch Pixel Qi screen mass production in H1 2011. I hope Eve will be available for the early 2011 H2.
    Yesterday, pre-ordering PQ+3g from Europe was very smooth.
    If you are not happy, please look at Innoversal webpage. And compare.
    Notion ink should become a public company? I want to buy some shares.

  2397. Um hello, I don’t know if you noticed, but you have to select your method of payment AFTER the charge in INR is displayed. Please do not jump in without knowing what you’re talking about.

    This is very much NI’s responsibility, even if the charge calculation were done by CCavenue. They should have checked. I will repeat for your benefit: NO BANK OR CREDIT CARD COMPANY HAS AN 11% MARKUP.

  2398. Please check your Junk mail folder. I received CCAvenue and NI mail in the junk mail folder..

  2400. Seems my last comment was in moderation:So i am puttingdot in place of .

    @Nishit Well this is the compare chart link provided by CCavenue:
    world dot ccavenue dot com/content/compare dot jsp

    It seems the transaction cost deducted by CCAcenue on the actual amount is 7%or 5% or 3% depending on the setup account taken by the company(In this case NI).

    Going Further I found this on ccAvenue page about how to convert Payment from USD to Indian rupee

    Q:: Is it possible to sell my product and service in more than one currency? How is the charge reflected in my customers’ Credit Card statement?

    Ans:: You may represent your product pricing in any number of currencies. At the end of the transaction when your client has to checkout to the CCAvenue payment option page, we require that the payment amount is in INR equivalent only. This is because we do not process the final payment in any other currency but INR as we are subject to such RBI rules and Regulations. You need not create a different set of shopping cart links.

    Example:
    Let us assume you are keen to sell a product at US$ 10/- to a prospective US customer and feel that it is an attractive price for your product. So you represent US$ 10 on your web page. When the customer completes his shopping and the data of your shopping cart is to be sent to the CCAvenue pay page you need to ensure that you have converted this amount to INR.

    What benchmark to use? No genius in the world can predict at what exchange rate (INR >< US$ rate of exchange and ensure that at any given time the difference parameter is maintained. However one great factor which works in your favor constantly is the fact that the US$ is constantly appreciating against the INR so even if you do not change or monitor your differential factor for small changes you will still land up charging the customer a little lesser in US$ than that he was shown the bill for. However you must also ensure that you do not under price yourself on the exchange rate too much and do upwardly revise your INR calculation if there is a huge jump in the exchange rates, so that this jump can add to your profitability.

    Therefore, when you throw the final amount of your shopping cart onto the CCAvenue pay page, you need to convert this amount at a fixed rate into INR and throw the INR amount only. Your buyer from outside India will see the INR amount on this CCAvenue page (which offers multiple payment options). He will also be told that if he wants to view this INR amount in his local currency he could also use the live CCAvenue currency converter link. This would show him the approximate amount in his local currency, which would be billed to his Credit Card statement at the time of that precise particular transaction. Your customer will be billed in his local currency in his card statement.

    RBI insists that Merchants in India settle transactions in INR only and the respective banks give a foreign exchange inward remittance certificate (F.I.R.C.), which we (CCAvenue) then pass on to you (Our Sub Merchant). This takes care of the Income Tax part of things, to enable you to claim exports benefits under section 80 HH of the Income Tax Act.

    CCAvenue will issue you a FIRC (Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate) for all overseas transactions done. This will be issued on a quarterly basis. A small documentation fee may be levied.

  2402. @Prasad

    It is you who need to be logical. The amount payable of INR 29999 (against pre-order value of USD 599.99) was shown before the entry of any card or bank or payment details. So, it is the amount being charged BY CCAvenue.

    It entails an unreasonable excess charge of around INR 2900.

    If the buyer’s own bank or credit card issuer charges anything, it would be over and above that INR 29999.

    FYI, the payment submission page has now changed and CCAvenue now shows the price in USD and provides a link to check the approximate value that will be charged in the buyer’s local currency – which NOW shows approximate value of “26,984.55 INR” against USD 599.99.

    I am sure Notion Ink would be refunding the difference amount to all the buyers who were charged the excess amount.

  2403. There have been dozens if not hundreds of offers from people around the world to help with proofing, editing, writing, computer, customer service pertinent to individual countries, email technical knowledge etc., nearly all volunteers with professional expertise in their fields. I was one, a long set of posts back, along with a number of others. I take it as a sign of both the worldwide hunger for a device like this, and the contagion of Rohan’s personal vision.

    The Notion Ink team did respond to some of the suggestions for improvement to the website wording. Had they been free to use this knowledge base effectively as a resource, I suspect many of the problems we saw this past week would not have occurred. As a new start up company so obviously overworked, I would strongly urge them to take what the faithful people on this blog have offered to heart and make effective use of these generous offers.

    Hoping for much success for Adam and Notion Ink.

  2405. Rohan!

    Is there going to be some weekend special ?

    I know you are very busy in setting the things correct. but 18th is too far away and 6-8 weeks, when i am expecting my order to arrive is little bit more– so some change is needed …

    I know some guys will criticize…and may say here again go the vapor.. ….. but then we should move on ..l personally like the details of your posts, the h/w and s/w issues-challenges..So anything you like is ok.

    regards

  2407. Of course , I’ve checked !
    I saw these advices in a lot of comments and I followed them.
    It’s clear I and a lot of others have a trouble to receive emails from NI
    (I have an hotmail account)

  2409. > Craig_123 said, on December 11, 2010 at 13:08

    @ 5) Proof the Adam actually exists !!!!!!

    Based on what little I know of the Bible,

    If Adam did not exist, I don’t think you (or any or us) would be here. Literally.
    Since your existence (and ours) is not in question, ergo proof.

    🙂

    Seriously though, I suggest to hold off making such comments until CES 2011. If ADAM is a no show at CES 2011, then you can join the throng making similar comments.

  2410. Ah, a family to come back to … Dreams are not so easily given up nor taken away, despite no success with getting my Adam. A LITTLE sleep, a lot of work still not finished, but had come back and see if my friends were okay. Yes, a tear or a few, but not drowned yet … and a smile for old friends, and even one for Rohan 🙂

  2412. +1 Just Cheked it on the website. And well this is seriously unfair with guys who have paid 29,999 rs for it earlier. Nit team require to address it whenever they make a next update.

  2413. @ Siva said, on December 11, 2010 at 11:06

    > hoe inexperienced CCA company

    Must.resist.responding

    🙂

  2414. Based on Consumer Reports, there will be at least 50 tablets showing off on CES 2011, most from big companies. There is no guarantee NI could be kept in the game with just one product Adam. As a CEO with vision and aiming to stay and grow, Rohan must bring sth more onto the table.

  2416. in addition there is a 1 GB of SLC storage… which is very useful and much faster than normal flash drives…

    i think notion ink uses that as some form of a performance cache….

  2417. @ Andrew Britton

    yeah!

    in the same boat- but not sure whether we are supposed to receive any mail or not from ni?

    i used my Yahoo id!

    I also did not receive any pre-order mail- but then 2/3 rd of the members are out- so no hard feelings as this was not intentional.

    ordered LCD version. Wanted to order PQ- but out of stock.

    For me It is ok, as PQ screen is good for e-reading – good for eyes perhaps, outdoor viewing and battery savings- but I thought on it a lot and check my usability of adam.

    i will not go into sunlight for study, i will do some e-mail check and some less intensive work. i have no time during daytime to play. only weekends- that too sunday.

    if i need for e-book reading, i hope normal lcd can also use the ambient light sensor- for brightness control- not best solution but ok!

    Regarding battery, tegra 2 chip low power consumption may help to get 15 hrs for normal use- thats enough for me.

    I could not wait more for PQ screen- i gave up and ordered lcd- i hope things will turn up in my favor and i will not regret.

    Sorry Andrew! — many things i said is not related to your post.

    regards

  2418. I was and am one of the people saying NI needs a PR and CS head. Not “spin”, just dedicated Mgmt types who understand these functions well handling these functions, because Rohan can’t be and shouldn’t try to be everywhere. These folks need not be superstars, just professionals because that is exactly what is sorely needed here.

    I am fully convinced that NI have the best inventions and a great product, but irrespective of what I think the big bad world out there does not see Rohan and his gang’s trials and tribulations and cheer on but see a company with a funny name who apparently aren’t great about communication. Many people take a look at this scenario and instantly start thinking “scam out of India”.

    Why aren’t Adam samples out to Anandtech, Ars, TH etc for a preview? What is the need to wait for CES11 when there was already a debut at CES’10? This particular piece of news is rather disturbing, because traditionally CES is the place for a “yet to be launched” product, not a product that is taking pre-orders.

    Why aren’t we at least “leaking” a roadmap for the next six months or even three months? Rohan has been so open and forthcoming with us for the last year, expectations have simply gone up! This is no time to rest but to trudge on.

    In a Jobesque phenomenon, you’ve got loads of fans Rohan, and fortunately they’re not fan-buoys but real fans who care about the company and the product! It’s been a great run so far, just keep on showing the same openness till the hard launch!

    Cheers,
    Neel

  2419. Hope The Ni Team Add Paypal and more Payment options. I got a Mail but no credit card. In Germany the people dont use credit card like in the us.

  2420. and why u think NI is not showing us a pic or video ?? or atleast write a simple post telling us the reason why they cant dont u think tht will cool down many people ? i mean atleast iam here to support NI and there are many but just a simple post is what is required dont u think so ?

  2421. Can you please answer the MARKET question ?

    I need a lot of apps from market :
    — dropbox (everyday use) ;
    — spotify (very important !) ;
    — music composition apps ;
    — music utilities (i’d like to read scores on the tablet and have metronom, etc.) ;
    — information (lots of french diaries,) ;
    — dictionaries (specific french ones) ;
    — medical apps (everyday use) ;
    — fbreader & adliko for ebooks ;
    — vlc stream from my computer on local network ;
    — access to tv on the tablet with free, my provider ;
    — alternate keyboard (or include the french dvorak bepo) ;
    — games ;

    Not answering sound like a « no » to my ears. And a really childish « no ». A « we working on » would be more adult.

    Regards.

  2422. Well, now I know why I’ve survived so long … paranoia … thanks Dev for the thoughtful post 🙂 I was fully prepared to make the same decision you did to take the gamble on Adam; with multiple funded and preapproved payment options lined up, ready for that promised email or the public option as a backup (remember the paranoia part 😉 as I expected some things to go wrong … life experience has taught me if it can it will. Just could not get through the logjam when public orders started until long after the Pixel Q sold out. Will be watching to see how everyone fares; please report back with posts like this for the rest of us; we appreciate it.

  2423. ces11.mapyourshow.com/3_0/search.cfm?let=N

    Why isnt Notion Ink regeistered for CES 2011?

  2424. @Sam
    Please think, do you want a replacement to your laptop or do you want a device which is filling the gap between laptop and mobile phone? If it is former you have selected wrong device!

  2425. 8 GB of internal storage for a tablet is no good if one is planning to port another operating system onto it. If you want to just use Eden interface maybe you can use the micro SD card storage.

  2428. I really believe that the NI Adam is truly an iPad Killer. On paper the device looks great. I hope the videos on the 18th will confirm this. I really want to buy an Adam with the PQi screen and 3g (even though I will probably just tether it to my android phone to access the Internet, but it is good to have the option).

    I believe the Notion Ink team can pull off a successful product launch; no doubt in my mind. I probably would have waited and done a few things a little differently myself for the pre-order, but oh well.

    For those who say “scam” or “shady” or whatever, you have little faith. If it is a “scam” (which I highly doubt it is) NI would be in some serious legal trouble. The only thing I really am concerned about are scared Investors. A word for those investors: Don’t be. All start up companies have bumps in the road, or even sink holes to recover from, but look at what this device is said to be able to do. Look at its features versus other devices of the same. And the UI, from renders/pics and what is said it can do on paper, is amazing. This will be a new direction in tablet computers. This is what the consumer has been waiting for.

    I can’t wait to get my hands on this sweet piece of hardware. I wish Notion Ink the best of luck in recovering from this hole in the road and getting back up to speed.

    Notion Ink FTW!

  2431. @Rohan, I wish to let you know that I am eagerly waiting for your weekend special for this week.

    I enjoy the travel much more than the destination.

  2433. Nishit,

    Just out of curiosity, why did you go ahead with your pre-order when you were not satisfied with the pricing(conversion rate or whatever)?

  2434. Back to the product development:
    I love the cartoon style of sniffer and there is also a good example in form of the calendar icon on the top left of the calendar application. I would prefer to see that all Eden applications would use completely this style. So if all of the calendar app would be based on this cartoon style. Other example are the postage stamp icon of “Mail’d”. Now, NotionInk is mixing between differen styles. I would be great to have the Eden UI consequent usage of this cartoon like style.

  2436. Just googled for this no and came across Bible reading Fellowshio.
    Is that what you also meant?

  2439. Hi Rohan,

    Just looked at your new terms and conditions on the pre-order page.
    It has become a lot clearer, Most of the charges are because of international distribution.
    We get that.

    by the way in the last paragraph “tampered” is misspelled as tempered 🙂

    If it helps the adam become tougher like samurai steel maybe i shall try it when i receive mine 😛

  2440. Well On a positive note receiving pre-orders from 96 different countries is an achievement in itself. It itself tells about adam’s worldwide demand. Hope NI will come back strongly to fulfill the hopes entrusted upon it .

  2442. I think I mentioned it earlier, with all the delays and website crashes, it was very hard to figure out what the exchange rate was, and whether any taxes were included. I wrote to NI immediately upon confirmation (however, to the wrong ID) and commented on the blog as well, for clarity about taxes.

    It seemed to me that the additional charge was VAT or Customs Duty, but only upon closer examination did I realize that it was neither, and just a case of overcharging.

    But all in all, it seems that my trust on NI metamorphosed into faith in a moment of thrill, and I did not crosscheck my assumption.

    This does not mean that NI also is absolved of responsibility of mentioning correct prices and taxes.

    Just out of curiosity, did you order as well?

  2443. I am part of EAP II, My company hired paid-programmers to work on software development for Adam. I have not received any email, I have not received the SDK, I didn’t not receive a pre-order email, even though I posted several times on this blog. Do I have to wait 3-4 months to get the device? According to the email sent by the EAP team I should be holding the device by next week (with discounted pricing).

  2445. @Rohan
    I am part of EAP II, My company hired paid-programmers to work on software development for Adam. I have not received any email, I have not received the SDK, I didn’t not receive a pre-order email, even though I posted several times on this blog. Do I have to wait 3-4 months to get the device? According to the email sent by the EAP team I should be holding the device by next week (with discounted pricing).

  2446. @Himanshu Jain Thanks, don’t you think NI should have computed that charge and added it to the price? If it is a transaction charge, it applies to all customers. This just becomes a matter of unrealistic pricing plus overcharging.

  2449. Well I concur. And If you read comment by Sri -below mine , now the prices shown by CCavenue are just USD and *not* in converted Indian Rupees and without adding any extra charges,which i feel a bit unfair for guys who have paid 29,999 rs yesterday. Frankly this was one of the reason that i decided not going for Ordering one.

  2450. Same problem here, I bought Top model and after everything finished, Ii found that it is out of stock. How many adams were in stock than? Before order?
    No reply from CCA yet even after sending many mails.

  2451. Hi Rohan,

    say for some reason we need to return the product do we need to return to india/china or will there be a service centre or something like that in each country and issues will be handled from there? if that is the case i dont think we need to worry too much.

    how long do you think it will take to be in retail stores?

    Best of luck with your actual product launch. i guess every thing will cool down with time once some reviews come out.

  2453. I am also in your boat, No confirmation mail.
    Use @in.com account.
    Dont know what happend to my order?

  2454. I hope they refund the difference. I have already been charged Rs.27,472 in my bank account.

    On second thoughts, I am not willing to pay another 50% as customs duty and more and more for other taxes and duties and then wait for another two months while risking damage to the product, paying more for asking for a replacement, and then waiting some more.

    Rationality is the first casualty when emotion strikes, and my support to Notion Ink has been rather emotional.

  2455. We all thought it includes the local 12% VAT on the product price, which matches the 29999 INR price given to us.

    btw, i got a reply that changing the shipping address to overseas will not reduce the price charged.

    They told me that only a international card with international billing address will be charged the USD price.
    And now the interesting part, i indeed used an international credit card with an international billing address and was still charged 29999 INR…?! 😉

  2457. if you smell a scam then maybe it’s time to change your underwear.

    Seriously… many companies setup camp in hotels near CES itself so they can invite people (tech blog ect..) to their private meetings. It’s also possible that their investor has a place on CES and NI will be on their stand

  2458. This is entirely unfair. Notion Ink should import the Adam into India for whatever number they think the Indian demand might be, and pay customs duties themselves. They should then charge us realistic prices and shipping costs entirely in INR, based on whatever profit they think is realistic.

  2459. What strange is that i received 4 confirmation of failed payment from CCavenue but when the payment is ok.

    I’ve got nothing, is it normal ?

    I’ve send an email on info at notionink dot com to know if my pre-order is confirmed … hope i’ve got on monday …

  2461. What abnout people who could not order because they do not have visa ?
    There is no more pixel Qi version……
    And as If I would like to buy an LCD one, I won’t be able to to … In only have a master card 😦

  2462. Great News guys..I got the following reply to my query to on
    1) custom duties
    2) color
    3) Android Market place

    : –

    Greetings from the Notion Ink Support Team!

    The default colour is Matt Black. However, we intend to make the
    interchangeable colour strips available shortly. You can choose which strip
    you want and have it delivered.

    About customs duties, it is not under our control. However, in some rare
    cases, the duty might be charged.

    Yes, the Adam supports the Android Marketplace!

    Thank you for your continued support to Notion Ink!

  2464. Ops, it seems indeed that you need access to the market to download the app… Back to square one.

  2467. Very well put, Bryan, couldn’t have said it any better! You just can’t please some people, especially on the internet where people feel safe to gripe about everything.

  2468. Dear Rohan

    After going through all the comments…positives and negatives…..I feel nothing much can be done now. And I am sure you doing level best to fix whatever gaps are/were there. All the very best for that.

    I just have one suggestion least you could do for people following you for so long and whom you called ‘Family’ sometime back ( which I loved it, honestly) some kind of confirmation that they will be contacted, whenever their preferred model ( i guess most of them are waiting for Pixcel QI )will be available or atleast get their choice option collected, so as to what number of screen you will be requiring to make ‘Family’ happy. (For sure I need 2 of them.)

    And this ‘Family” will be with you for many many years look forward to new product you will come out with…….

    FTR – I still haven’t received any pre order email till now.

    Rgds

  2469. Neel +1

    Engineering skills and imagination create a product, not a business.

    The reason so many people here are disappointed and worried is because we _know_ that NotionInk has a fantastic product on its hands (or at least very nice mockups – I’ll get to that) but it doesn’t have a good business (yet).

    While you might not like your stereotypical idea of PR people and Marketers, their job is vital. Investors and advisors don’t provide oversight, they provide money and advice – true oversight can only be offered by someone on the ground.

    The first job of a marketer is to find problems the customer might have and address them before they become problems – FAQ sheets, smooth sales channels, etc.
    The PR cleans up if the marketer does a bad job, answering questions and responding to issues.

    Rohan currently seems to be doing both these jobs – it’s great to see a hands on CEO, but the worry for people like me is that if he doesn’t get someone who can manage these things better (one should be enough for the moment for both jobs), the fantastic product that is the Adam, will never get into anyone’s hands because there wasn’t a workable business behind it.

  2471. A well written post…agree with u on many fronts
    and i respectfully disagree with you on few areas well

    > To justify the lack of information/ to justify Rohan’s non-willingness to answer

    Well, ‘information is wealth’, here we are dealing with varied consumers whose needs are different and they want answers to appease their rational and intellectual mind before they hand over their hard earned notes. Asking questions in the blog is not wrong, esp in this case, cos NI’s only mode of communication has been this blog and the only person at the user end is Rohan, the CEO himself, he is playing many roles.

    Should i be demanding for my answers from the CEO? well no, of course, but u require an answer from NI.. anyone from NI.. because few questions here are basic, elementary like a photo, video etc… If there was a dedicated Phone line or a customer care centre, don’t you think half the repeated questions here would vanish. You can never ask people to stop questioning, questions keep arising.. otherwise how did BPO/Call centres flourish.

    But again, it is Rohan’s choice to choose and answer.. True cos this is an official unofficial blog and viewed by all over the world. He has a reputation to maintain. but questions have to be answered, cannot be ignored/postponed, so a solution has to be arrived, either a live chat box or a dedicated call center service with NI executives. at the end of the day NI which has taken huge care and effort in designing devices to provide great intuitive user experience shouldn’t go down on a nightmarish customer experience. ‘Cos as more products move into the market, it is only the customer experience that will play a huge role.

    > NI the benefit of doubt. They are a startup, you gotta imagine their struggle.

    Yes, we can give NI the benefit of doubt. but who can give? you, me, ppl who have been following. What about the general public? i may believe in NI, Rohan.
    I cannot call the people who take a leap of faith and place their money on the unseen ADAM as risk takers and the intellects or as fools who dunno how to use their money and the others who wish to get their queries answered as non believers or non risk takers. This generalization is not go good. As i said earlier, People following this blog are familiar with him and his ways and few are ready to trust him and the team and they are little more aware of ADAM than the others. At the same time i personally feel it is not nice to shove our beliefs down someone’s throat but open the doors for them to understand the concept, the product and abt NI themselves; which will convince them far better. (every person even the NI lover would have started from here). Decisions are personal and based on needs taking into several parameters.
    So am i placing the money on the ‘faith’ or on the ‘product’ – for me it is both but the parameters vary for people.

    >Perceptions matter and they differ

    So if i talk to my friend who wants to buy this and ended up with a bad experience with orders, i don’t go about justifying the delays and problems saying oh you know, they are a start up, they have struggled,give them a chance !! My friend needn’t give them a chance but i may be willing to, cos perceptions differ, opinions differ. And it is essential to consider different shades of people in the society. There is a famous saying, Business is ruthless, at the end of the day a consumer is a consumer , though i wish to sell my vision along with the product, i should first market the product rightly with all its features before bringing in my vision.

    > Silence is not always golden, words do matter (a lot, that too proper words)

    It is like you ask me to queue up for a harry potter movie ticket, and i stand in the cold snow from the morning as u said you will open the counters for first set of tickets and few people would be given preference. As u put out this notice, people throng, they sit outside your office from previous night, and as the clock strikes 12, they wait, wait, and no information. So as a rational person but a Harry potter fan lover who does not want to leave without a ticket, what should i do?? Obviously,call out, see why they haven’t opened – So the problem is if there were people to address this issue and ask the crowd to stay quiet people would have done that.. so here do i look at this as a issue with the theatre owners or the impatient crowd. ??

    I totally agree with you on having a plan B, testing before executing and not bringing Mr.Murphy and as we all start writing essays, we also without our notice turn into couch CEO’s; wanting to analyze and bring out the best Mckinsey kinda report!

    (my lunch time got extended, i better get going)

  2472. “Yes, the Adam supports the Android Marketplace!”

    This is the best news I have heard all week

  2473. Well Rohan, you haven’t talked to me yet…I have been giving golden advice after advice 😉

    I haven’t updated my blog HandheldTablet dot com for months, waiting for the Adam’s release! I want to do a hands on review of the six variants. Can I come down to Bangalore and visit Notion Ink HQ?

  2474. Well this is a bit demanding from your side Nishit.

    As Rohan as explained in his latest post that shipping was universal for *all the countries in the world* and that adam was to be shipped from China. And moreover I don’t find any statement from Rohan where he has promised that for Indian customers ,custom duties will be paid by NotionInk even in the past or where he has mentioned that adam will be shipped from India. That was mere conclusions derived by us only.
    Don’t you think it will be impartial to Other customers coming from countries other than India .
    Moreover it’s a bit unfair expectation from an Indian company just because he is an Indian and the company’s HQ is in Bangalore(same like asking MR Mallya to have Indian F1 driver in Force India just because It’s a team whose Owner is an Indian) so he will be partial to Indian customers. If it would have been the case ,from the starting Rohan would have provided Indian Prices from the beginning for Indian customers(in Rs ) on his blog(it was always mentioned in USD since August I think).

    Saying that I have read somewhere that NI was planning to start a manufacturing unit In India(i am not 100 percent sure on it). And with collaboration with retail outlets here in India, the street prices will be much competitive as compare to Other countries as an when adam will go full fledged in Q1 2011(as it happened with Nokia N8 whose street price in India was much lesser than the pre-order price)

    Though I am 100 percent agreed over the point that price discrepancy shown by CCavenue for Indian Customers(Yesterday charging in Indian Rs which was about $50 higher and today charging in US dollar ) is totally unfair and should be addressed by NotionInk team at the earliest because it seems a financial fraud of $50 from CCAvenue side for every single purchase coming out of India.

  2476. Rohan:

    There are those who think NI needs a “professional” marketing head. I disagree; I actually think you’re doing fine. Part of the raw appeal for the community here is your seeming honesty and openness; precisely because it is so raw, from-the-gut and stilted [let’s not pussyfoot here; as awesome as you are, exposition isn’t your strongest point 🙂 ], it seems to strike a lot of followers in an unexpected place, to the point that they have managed to get your costliest, and critically not the cheapest, version sold-out. In short, whatever you’re doing, the bad grammar, awkward phrasing etc, is working. And it is working with people who are willing to spend, who’ve opened their hearts and wallets up, and apparently trust NI at a basic level. Wouldn’t change any bit of this. Keep the flow coming.

    What isn’t working, however, isn’t marketing (aka communication), it’s project-management. What troubles me about the whole pre-order saga is how karma-ic you sounded about it all; in particular this, “all the confusion that erupted because of Mr. Murphy”, is simply unacceptable in any professional setting. Heck, if anyone in my team says something like that, I’d tell her that her attitude needs to change a pronto, or it could go on her evaluation record. In any large-scale undertaking, chaos is always around the corner; leadership is when you foresee risks and problems down the lane, and proactively mitigate them.

    Even something as simple as the pre-ordering system crashing isn’t (shouldn’t be!) an unforeseen crisis; in fact, it is quite disheartening to see you not take ownership here, and instead pushing the blame over to their US webhosts. Seriously dude? This is your business, not the webhost’s. It is in your motivated self-interest to _own_ the process, instead of hoping that your partners – MasterCard, CCAvenue, DHL, what-have you – work effectively and in time. They gain nothing if things go right or wrong; as long as they meet their SLA’s, they’ll get their cash from you.

    Even at this, you haven’t explained the biggest fail of them all: that people could reach the CC-authorization page without entering anything. That’s a very basic misstep that you really cant blame anyone else but yourself. How simple is it to put some basic validations in? If this is the attention to detail that you show in a crucial public-facing site, then I shudder to think how your product’s build quality is.

    In short, I’m sorry: I’m buying none of the explanation in this passive-aggressive “introspection”. I’m certain you mean well, but if this blurb here is any indication, it’s clear that you need some more operational leadership immediately, either by infusing more managerial blood, or more effective delegation or both.

    Furthermore, I’m quite concerned by the passive-aggressive wording towards the end; I get the sense that you’re letting some steam off here, but some friendly advice: emotion doesn’t work well on the Internet. If you find yourself getting angry or frustrated, step away from the screen, do something else, walk, jump, whatever, come back and then try to type things in unemotionally, ideally answering to the point. We don’t need you to be different from industry-standards, just some detailed (even informal!) explanation on the T&C would have sufficed. Instead, you’ve got this emo thing going that’ll be a part of your firm’s permanent record. Problem is,

    Now, I do realize that your team (and you) is (are) overworked, and that you’ve set yourself an ambitious time-line, but really, intent and ideas isn’t everything; you need professionalism in execution as well. You folks have a great thing going out there – you’ve got some great ideas that deserve to be popular – but you’re just setting everyone up for a massive disappointment if you don’t foresee problems in advance and not hope Mr Murphy, as you so quaintly put it, doesn’t show up. He always will; it is your responsibility to ensure he doesn’t wreck havoc.

  2477. Surprisingly …..Indian Mainstream media seems to be Oblivious of Adam’s Pre-Order !!!

  2479. (Ignore the ‘problem is’ strand. Accidentally hit “post” while the gf distracted me.)

  2480. “Pixel Qi: sold out” – when will the “more interesting” variants be available again?

  2482. Thought I should give an appriasal ..

    1.Cost : No worries..Let the product speak the rest.
    2.Refund Policy/Terms:No worries… Processing/Shipping fees a bit downside. restock/repackage is ok. In the long term..Let the product & NI operations/legal team deal with it..
    3.Product Demo: Video would certainly calm down many.Like many, couldn’t understand constraints on your side.Anyway when ads come out..hoping i would see some bollywood participation..(i hope some one volunteers..at least in the beginning) .When it comes to pics, you didn’t do any thing different than Apple . Window dressing is centuries old tradition..but with too much of scrutiny from experts(including pseudo) a bit caution needed.
    4.FCC: As a layman,couldn’t understand your confidence that there won’t be any hicups..you would know better..just assuming that you got some kind of informal nod..
    5.Payment Gateways: Get summary of stats (error counts..) and set expectations. If you plan to use the same gateways in near term, get extra note on pay process that user may need to check with credit card company for clearing overseas transaction.
    6.I-do-it-All : I am sure you didn’t come this far without knowing the value of true collaboration,delegation. you are the only one to know if you need help. delegate it to somebody to narrow it to few important feed backs (like ..mine 🙂 . I am sure you may already be doing that..
    7.Rest : Let the product speak for it..
    8.To your team/Investors: Keep your spirits high and continue help innovation..

    thanks
    kumar

  2483. hmmm… well as your name implies… NI Shit, what do you think happened to the discount? I didn’t get any discount nor did I get the product, or even the SDK for that matter.

  2484. Dear Rohan,

    in case that you want to present adam on CES in front of a big audience, have a look at this video: http ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBkyhKpJ57U&

    Fast forward to 7:45 and look at the presentation of John Wang, Chief Marketing Officer at HTC. For me, one of the best presenters I know in IT industry. He is not a native English speaker (so a good example for you), but I think it doesn’t matter due to his presentation skills. Watch his style, the way he uses pauses and how calm he presents. And in the same time, putting emotions into his speak.

    This is not an HTC teaser. I just want you to see, how to professionally present a product, a great idea, a vision.

    Cheers,
    Alex

  2485. Web team @ NI,

    Is it possible to get a 360 degree rotating picture of ADAM on the website, instead of the static image. Also some kind of messaging when the user hovers over a particular part of the tablet. i think some kind of these cool tricks as seen on car/cellphone websites would entice people more to click on the Tech Specs page and eventually buy the product.

    Anyways I’m patiently waiting to get my Adam already preordered…you guys know the order num 😉

  2486. @VB

    very true.

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

  2489. my take on this:

    once the retail distribution starts, we will have a cheaper Adam for all models.

  2491. To add to the “Emperors New Clothes” statement earlier:

    First, I didn’t think it would create quite such an extreme reaction, but I do not find it altogether surprising

    FWIW, I have been a long time follower of Adam (9 months*+) as one of only 2 tablets of any real promise for my needs – the other being the PlasticLogic Que which has already, sadly, proven to be vaporware. I still believe that the overall spec (form factor, screen, battery life, internals, camera design) is by far the most mature and “complete” design of any tablet to date. I have been generally appreciative of the quirky, rough around the edges style of Rohan’s communication and understand how engaging it has been and how it has helped to build an exceptionally (TOO?) strong brand loyalty for a product which does not even exist in the market yet (and which some people have good reason for worndering whether it will ever mae it to market). I am an engineer & project manager by background and now work as Programmes Director for a global defence company. I have very real interest in this device to underpin a major drive into the Contractorised Logistics Support business with warious Ministries of Defence, and had started to develop projects around the timings and expectations for Adam. I, until 2 days ago, genuinely believed that NI had the potential to really shake up the IT world and to potentially take on the “big boys”. The ambition & basic technology looked promising. I had signed up for the EAP, have a number of Android programmers awaiting the devices, and we already have maturing plans on how we will build a new business stream on the back of Adam. I have personally invested heavily – real money, real business resources and personal credibility – in Notion Ink, albeit knowing there was a degree of risk in doing so with an unknown new start. But until 2 days ago, I felt this level of faith was appropriate.

    Then came 2 days ago. The fiasco. The unmitigated disaster. And I realised how misplaced my faith had been.

    Don’t get me wrong – I had not expected a smooth ride. I always expected technical glitches – servers struggling, the odd dodgy link, mass e-mail/spam problems, a bit of confusion – and was making BIG allowances for that. But the reality was that even by comparison to my wildest nightmares, the pre-launch was a train wreck. A total, utter carnage of a train wreck. And primarily NOT because of the expected IT issues outlined above.

    The biggest problems for me were as follows:

    1) Countdown & timings. The general confusion associated with the specific timings of the rollout (picture reveals and eventually opening of pre-pre-order and pre-order) was a totally avoidable schoolboy error. NI should have used a well known time zone; made the timings clear on the splash page; made the date clear; NEVER use 00:00hrs as a time – it is ambiguous – use 00:01 and everyone is clear; use a simple countdown timer FFS!

    2)The (lack of) specs – even at a pre-order, you HAVE to give clarity on the basic specs. To still have confusion on the amount of storage is, quite frankly, unforgiveable. Whether I can use Android Marketplace is for me a minor detail, though I agree that an answer is required – even if it is still “We are working on it and hope to offer this, though perhaps not yet”.

    3) The delivery costs – not a major consideration for me, but still a shock that a better deal had not been done. I support my sister’s small web-based retail business which has, I reckon, a tiny fraction of the volume NI expects to have, and her worldwide delivery costs as negotiated with one of our UK providers make these seem laughable. While I applaud the aspiration for “One World” pricing, this patently does not stack up as a business model. OK, someone in downtown Kabul might be quids in – but the reality is that customers there or in the arse end of tibet will be few and far between. The volumes to go to SE Asia, Europe & the US should mean that it is here that the effort should be placed to cut costs to the bone. Even if you have 2 or 3 “tiers” of delivery pricing. And as an Indian company, which has made much of its Indian roots, I think more should have been done to get good pricing for the home market. The chatter & disappointment/incredulity on the blog would bear this out

    4) One World Pricing: well, again I applaud the sentiment. BUT the reality is that this has created a HUGE amount of problems. All it has done has been to shift much of the cost from NI straight onto the buyer. And the sad thing is, I don’t think most of the cult-following pre-ordering students and the like have the first idea of the ADDITIONAL costs that are about to hit them when a DHL man turns up on the doorstep demanding an extra 20 – 100% of the price to get the box he has in his hands. For me, at least this is a cost I understand, though it did take an hour or 2 to be sure how much it would be for me. A simple table on the website (or 20 lines of coding) would help customers interested in purchasing to know just how much the final bill will be. For some it won’t be pretty. And if you think there is bad feeling on the blog today, just wait til the start of Jan when people start paying nasty inexpected bills.

    5) Ts &Cs. This for me was the biggest problem. As someone primarily looking at Adam for business purposes, this is by far the most important thing to me. And what I saw truly appalled me. Where do I start?

    Firstly the quality of the English. This was of such poor quality, it was unintelligeble at points. It was certainly not written by even the poorest of lawyers. Or of it was, the Rohan, you need to sack those lawyers asap not to mention any legal advisors and your Legal Director. I am assuming you have a Legal Director. Though I am starting to have serious doubts.

    Secondly the inconsistencies. The Ts & Cs are so inconsistent that you begin to wonder which are the REAL ones. As a contract-wrigting/-signing businessman, I know that this only means BIG legal costs in due course if I try to resolve a problem down the line. Because it WILL end up in the courts to try and unpick the mess of Ts & Cs.

    Thirdly, the content of the Ts & Cs. I do not know whether they are consistent with current custom & practice in India (if they are, then I am shocked at the appalling level of consumer protection in India and pity its residents, because they are getting a shocking deal). What I do know as that these Ts & Cs are quite frankly illegal in Europe, and probably the US (they are certainly far worse than can be customarily expected in the US). Rohan, these Ts & Cs, far from “protecting” your business, actually damage it. Twofold. First, because a very high proportion of potential customers in Europe and the US will just walk away and not buy. Secondly because as unreasonable Ts & Cs, many will buy and, if things go wrong (and some things inevitably will), will immediately take you to court in their own countries. And bacause the Ts & Cs are so badly written and/or illegal, the customers will win. Your reputation will fall even further and legal costs will be high. By then it will be too late.

    It is all very well to dream of and aspire to having a single set of global Ts & Cs, warranties etc. Do you not think the Apples and Microsofts of this world have not thought about this, even tried it and invested heavily in trying to make it work? There are reasons why they do not do so!! And the biggest reason is that if you ARE going to put in a global set of Ts and Cs/Warranty conditions etc, then far from being at the lowest common denominator, it must be at the HIGHEST common denominator. And the aggregation of all the most customer-friendly terms in the world soon becomes prohibitively expensive for the company. So, Rohan, much as I do not want to burst your bubble and shatter your dreams, for the sake of NI, its employees, its (hopeful) customers and your own credibility and sanity, please learn this lesson quickly and get decent, legally sound, local Ts & Cs for each market.

    Going still further on the content, many terms fall into the category of “unreasonable terms in contracts of adhesion”. If you think that I as an individual, never mind on behalf of a business to which I owe a dity of due dilligence, am going to sign to say that you (NI) has the right to vary terms at any time for any reason at will and to anything you choose, then think again. OK, I know that these Ts & Cs will never stand up in court, but I have better things to do with my time than ever get into court, and it is far easier for me to give my money to almost any other company than yours safe in the knowledge I am far less likely to have to take you to court. And why the hell should I sign up to oaying you extra to sort a problem such as DOA??? If you do not send me a working product, then that is YOUR problem & YOUR cost to resolve. And if your warranty & general Ts & Cs do not reflect this, then I have to wonder why. Have you not done your homework and factored the costs of a small %age of duff items into your overall pricing structure? Is your quality so poor that you think this is the only chance for you to survive? Do you even have a proper customer support department set up to resolve problems? The more I read and re-read these Ts & Cs, the more suspicious I am that this is a group of (admittedly competent and innovative) engineers with absolutely no business sense, insufficient funding, no credible business structure and insufficient investment in the support side of the business to be a company I should trade with.

    And furthermore with regard to the Ts & Cs, I have certainly seen some unreasonable/illegal similar terms to the one “we have the right to vary out terms at will”. But I have NEVER before witnessed those Ts & Cs being rewritten, rereleased, moved and the like THREE TIMES in the first 24 hours. How can I in all conscience trust my company’s many to invest in a company which behaves like that?? I cannot!

    And so, Rohan, I am very disappointed. Though perhaps I am also slightly grateful to have been brought to my senses now, before I have invested money in your products, not to mention 1000s of man hours in developping software & solutions based on your products. I will now be rewriting my project plans and watching with interest to see which of the 50+ tablets at CES have sufficient credibility to align with. Who knows – NI may still be a strong contender. Though your competitors will soon be snapping at your heels. And you can be sure that you have now a huge amount of remedial work to do to get me to buy your products after what I have now witnessed. It will take at least 6 and probably 12 months. And if something better comes along in the meantime, I will buy that instead.

    So Rohan, I wish you well, I really do. I hope you learn a lot from the failure of the last few days. If you are to survive in business, you will need to! But I for one have to sadly surmise that the chances of your business surviving 12 months are very low. Your product may be good – from what I have seen, it probably is – but as a business, you clearly do not have the infrastructure, funding, legal and business advice and competence to survive against the big boys.

    And so I stand by my “Emperors New Clothes” statement. I know that this will not please the “caught-up-in-the-cult-of-Adam” fanbois for whom every minor setback just reinforces their blind and mis-placed faith that it is a “sign” that NI and their dreams will one day conquer the world despite all rational evidence to the contrary. This is the stuff of which doomsday cults are made. I almost fell for it myself. But for those of you only slightly caught up in the euphoria and hype, I hope that this will be a wake-up call. It is only a tablet. It is only another underfunded, poorly run tech startup with huge dreams and bugger all chance of realising them. There have been many before. There will be many to follow. A few will succeed. The world will keep turning. And I’m off to walk the dog.

  2493. >That sucks + This one really confuses me. How can something that has not even been made yet be sold out?

    I think “sold out” in this context means, that it can’t be delivered at the day of release (Jan the 6.), because they can only produce a limited amount of the pixelQi version until then.

  2494. Android marketplace support makes it officially the best tablet ‘available’. Can’t wait to see the video on dec 18!

    A few extra pics on the new weekend special would also be great!

  2495. Further, if AppleCare determines that you have misrepresented a returned product’s condition and that the product is not DOA. 400$$$$

    As I live in Europe I only get one year warranty from Ipad. So for my legal rights I can´t order them directly at Apple.

    If the battery fails me within the first year I don´t get a replacement. Nada, nothing. I´m expected to fork out 99E + 11,90E for S/H. Even if it happens after 4 weeks.

    Apple restricts your legal rights in the country you buy it UNLESS the law makes such an exception null and void. Otherwise by buying an Apple product you accept losing all your rights under your own laws protecting customers. This is a literal translation from one of their special European warranties. So the ´much better European´ consumer rights are ignored unless they are enforced on them.

    People had to go to court to respect some of these as they were firmly grounded in law. In other European countries this turned out not to be the case if you had agreed to it yourself!

    And it goes on and on. Apples to apples does Apple has the worst warranty in the world, but in the United States this is considered perfectly acceptable except for Californiia where they have laws very similar to the European model.

  2496. Another quick question Rohan:

    You said, “CES is where we intended to demo, show everything and allow for review…”. Does that mean the Adam will be there in the CES 2011, or were you referring to the earlier CES that you had been?

    Please reply 🙂

  2497. I don´t know about India but your quote You should hire someone from the US experienced in retail, as the expectations here are much much much higher than in India. Companies like apple have set the bar so freaking damn high, you should be in the vicinity atleast.

    While comparisons to apple are good technically, but please don’t compare their policies to yours it comes across as you are unduly justifying yourself. The main difference is you are in India and people have a whole different set of issues when having to deal with anything international. A big company like Lenovo still has issues with the overseas thing.´¨

    Doesn´t hold up. The expectations in the US are far below the European rights and expectations. Try to see things from a global perspective instead of an American only. From a European point of view Apple is an example of one of the worst companies regarding service, warranty, shipping policies etc. Our laws go well beyond the laws in most American states.

    I can´t judge India but Chinese import products like HP and Apple usually function very well. You are aware that there are cour cases against Apple´s lousy customer service and their illegal warranty rules in Europe?

  2500. Good day to you all,

    This is for anyone who purchased an Adam already. Please post a review of the product once you get it. Do a complete un-boxing. That would be superb since the marketing of the Adam seems to be lacking these normal processes.

    Waiting for you on youtube, watching old Dave Allen clips, Monty Python too.

    Dave

  2501. Yes, Notion Ink will do it.
    I dont care much about the ‘Pre Order’ drama. I got the email but could not order one. I cant afford it! But I believe they could have done much better. Its easier said than done. We want Notion Ink to be the best, thats why we are so harsh on them. Lets see whats next!!

    Also, I want to say this that I am so happy that one great product has ‘Made in India’ on it. Other than those ‘Thank you for calling support desk’. We are great at it though, I am on of the guy who is saying that Line for past 2 yeras!

    I feel proud when I see Adam whatever you guys say…….Peaceout

  2502. It’s true, I have been a happy customer of Flipkart. Never seen such prompt service from an online retailer before. Unfortunately, they don’t sell/distribute ebooks, hope they look into this important aspect.

  2503. Hi Olivier,
    Why did you order through the pre launch program if you are an EAP? The last call for action for EAP´s was much earlier.

    I agree it would have been nice to have all these things available (video´s and specs) before ordering, but I want a Tesla S which is on pre-order for some time now and I already have to pay while there is no car ever built and 2012 is the first possible production date.

    Pre-booking of a product is defnitely not for the faint of heart. It´s a privliege you don´t have to grab and I sympathize with everybody who is wise enough to wait for reviews etc. I wasn´t out in my sleep bag waiting for my I-breakfast or whatever Steve Jobs promised me. I stayed home and ate my own breakfast and just waited for the reviews.

    Maybe the core of Notioninks current problems is that they didn´t put up:
    a) a warning that you buy a product you don´t have solid information about
    b) it´s only provided as a service and if you have any doubts just don´t do it.

    A warning like this would also be good for people who buy whole houses ´off plan´ meaning they fork down 60.000$ or more for a house which doesn´t exist on a spot which at the moment is just a bare hill. People like me who like to gamble on products where they are crazy about, like me with my Tesla 🙂

    The rest of the time I am a sensible guy who just wait and sees and prefers his cars one year old so that someone else pay for the hefty premium you pay on driving it out of the garage 🙂

  2504. Very different from the English where the short list is drink, drink, fish and chips, an overly fat Eve and whining 🙂

  2505. Ya! I bought one! I saw just now that my pre-order mail in my spam folder. Shit happens but I´m glad and exited to meet “my Adam” (that sounded a bit weired) in 6-8 weeks….fooock that is a long time to wait! 😀

    Keep up the good work, Notion Ink!

    Greetings from Denmark.

    Ps. What has Nicola Tesla and the movie “Prestige” any thing to do with Adam? I´m wondering my ass of over this….

  2506. Yes, Notion Ink will do it.
    I dont care much about the ‘Pre Order’ drama. I got the email but could not order one. I cant afford it! But I believe they could have done much better. Its easier said than done. We want Notion Ink to be the best, thats why we are so harsh on them. Lets see whats next!!

    Also, I want to say this that I am so happy that one great product has ‘Made in India’ on it. Other than those ‘Thank you for calling support desk’. We are great at it though, I am on of the guy who is saying that Line for past 2 yeras!

    I feel proud when I see Adam whatever you guys say…….Peaceout

  2508. @All

    Here’s an interesting piece of info shared by an Indian gentleman regarding purchase and shipping of Amazon Kindle from USA to India and the experience with DHL and about the custom duty.
    “http://chirag.patnaiks.in/2009/11/kindle-in-india.html” (copy link w/o double quotes)

  2510. I believe you are doing an excellent job,keep the soul alive ,i am waiting for my Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi +3G tablet

    Good luck,

    Greets from nordin

  2513. I would do some research before call “scam”. If you do some research on Linkedin and see who works for Notion INK and their previous employment then you can maybe have a better view of who these people are.

    Also, calling scam before doing any bit of due diligence is extremely risky.

  2515. Notion Ink has replied:

    “As per Government of India rules, all foreign currency transactions on an Indian card by an Indian company are subject to further taxes and charges. So the charge in INR reflected in your statement would not be a direct conversion using the exchange rate. One can expect a difference of about INR 2500. Please understand that this is not under our control and is handled by the bank and payment partners internally. ”

    Now they are taking the plea that their Indian status forces them to pay ‘additional taxes and charges’ to the government and banks if I pay in Indian currency on an international card.

    This is not correct in my case. You have charged me in INR, on my Indian bank account. You should be responsible for charging Indian customers in Indian Rupees, domestically as you are an Indian company.

    You have not done this, and therefore you should be held responsible for this round-tripping.

    You have breached my trust.

    However great may your product and your vision be, I do not want to have anything more to do with it. I am canceling my order, and I want a full refund.

  2516. So the investors wanted to change Adam tablet to a notebook, WHY????
    It indicates the root problem notion ink has, THEIR INVESTORS ARE STUPID. Adam has so much following only because it is a tablet. If I want a notebook with PQ screen I just have to order the screen online and put it in my notebook which I already have. Rohan who ever your investor is I don’t think they have any past experience. Need to kick them out.

  2517. Neel +1
    Alexander Gryson +1

    From reading this blog one can see that most of us are NOT fanboys but real fans and we genuinely want NI and Adam to succeed. I don’t know how many of us are old enough to remember Polaroid Instant camera. That company us also run by an engineer founder. Kodak copiesd the technology and sold more instant cameras. Sure Kodak lost the case in court after how many years but in the mean time due to lack of proper marketing Polaroid did not capitalize on it’s technological advantage.

    All the best to NI team.

  2519. Firstly, the direct shipment from China was a factoid revealed after the pre-order.

    Secondly, I trusted them because they were an Indian company. If they had been based elsewhere, they would have got hardly any supporters from India for an untested, unseen product to be released by a startup.

    It would have been expected of them to get the product in India first, pay Customs and then ship it to us. I would gladly pay for a safe and secure shipping service, but I don’t like nasty surprises.

    Now just consider this reply I got from them:

    “As per Government of India rules, all foreign currency transactions on an Indian card by an Indian company are subject to further taxes and charges. So the charge in INR reflected in your statement would not be a direct conversion using the exchange rate. One can expect a difference of about INR 2500. Please understand that this is not under our control and is handled by the bank and payment partners internally. ”

    Aren’t they trying to make an excuse of their being an Indian company? Why should they be condoned?

  2520. Hi Rohan,

    Can you let us know what the expected future supplies will be for the units? ie. at the point mastercard becomes available, what will be the expected lead time for the fully kitted out units?

  2521. @ all fellow Indians :-

    “”Rohan Shravan said, on December 10, 2010 at 13:57

    We are shipping directly from China. I will suggest we wait for the retail presence for much lower prices.
    Regards””

    I guess this answers mine as well as my other fellow Indians whinings!

    I also did not pre- order it either, I do have certain doubts about certain things that read on the site of NI like requirement of PAN numbers for Indian customers to activate their product, but why PAN number?? do we reveal our PAN number when we buy other electronics products well the ans. is NO, then why here, read somewhere here that it’ll be required by the carrier cos. to activate 3g plans, but what about people who already have 3g connections with them, i have a BSNL 3g connection with me and using it to view and comment on this blog for the past 6 months or so!, so i did not pre order it, would rather wait for the dust to settle, have waited for more than a year, can wait for another 3-4 months, but will for sure buy an adam not anything else! 🙂

    Regards

  2522. I really want the Adam with the Qi screen please leave me an email when it comes. I want 4 for my family and friends. So please let me know when these become available. Thanks

  2524. Hey, ok apprently the first launch was a big mess, I missed the pre-order because of me, not because of any Mastercard system, (I didn’t have time to order in the morning and when I came back, not anymore PQ) 😦 I hope NI will have soon a new provision of this screen.
    About the big mess, I can tell you that it is happening often, how many “big” company had this same problems when they provide new product and even some running company have their website crashing (like train service in France for example).
    We trust in you Rohan, it is true that some pict on the website could have be good, some precision about the device that we order (color for example), but keep your spirit, it is what Adam is, a new spirit (and a good tools).

  2525. Hey, ok apparently the first launch was a big mess, I missed the pre-order because of me, not because of any Mastercard system, (I didn’t have time to order in the morning and when I came back, not anymore PQ) 😦 I hope NI will have soon a new provision of this screen.
    About the big mess, I can tell you that it is happening often, how many “big” company had this same problems when they provide new product and even some running company have their website crashing (like train service in France for example).
    We trust in you Rohan, it is true that some pict on the website could have be good, some precision about the device that we order (color for example), but keep your spirit, it is what Adam is, a new spirit (and a good tools).

  2529. Yes ..
    I think the last post did have a measure of sarcasm
    If NI decided to do it the ‘transparent’ or ‘participative’ way , you ought to also be prepared for brickbats ..

    One of the bigger reasons why larger companies keep their product under wraps is NOT because they want the good news to get out, but they want to contain the bad news in .. because with high praise, comes higher criticism ..

    Initially Rohan’s posts and replies were defiant about setting a new standard etc .. but now they have set a new low standard and its a long way back from here ..

    There is a certain cliched indian disgust for ‘management’ .. its usually looked upon as some kind of inevitable disease .. but innovation is great for the design team , management is crucial for the marketing, PR, operations and sales teams … It has been severely lacking.

    Considering the product is yet to gain FCC approval, and the unveiling is yet to happen , there is still time .. but sadly not a lot of time. Good leadership takes months (if not years) to establish .. so I wish NI all the best.
    Please do no be diffident (as your last post suggests)… learn .. and give us the tablet we all want.
    the news abt access to android marketplace is wonderful ..and should definitely feature in your next post

  2530. Oh, and thankfully, there won’t be anymore weekend specials. He’s taken the few million USD pre-order money and is probably having a wicked time-out on one of the many brilliant carribean beaches.

  2532. I found out about NI because I was looking for a tablet that had both a book-reader screen, and a color screen for Internet apps and such. And now I feel that I’m a member of a very nice community of people!
    So please Rohan let us in on a new pre-order, man!
    Dec. 10 was my b’day and a NI tablet is all I want for Xmas, my b’day and 3 kings day(Jan.6th) combined. Jan 6 is a big holiday in Latin-America with gifts for 50 year-old kids like me.

  2533. Want to clear some of the things
    >Secondly, I trusted them because they were an Indian company

    I don’t think so. I think more interest was shown(and not trust) by more Indians because it was one of the first product based company out of India.

    But saying someone will show more trust based on mere fact that a particular company is Indian is totally non-rational.Will you pay $600 to any company who is based in India. I think the trust was generated from the work and vision shown by Ni and adam over a year on it’s blog and it’s live Demo on CES-2010. So I am saying again and again don’t start a debate over nationalism vs globalism. The argument is not rational. One has paid the money because he/she had the confidence/faith or whatever on the product and *not* on the nationality of Owner( though it may have generated a rush of patriotism seeing an Indian trying to do it Big)
    I for one, will not trust more just because any particular company is India. On the contrary having very nasty experience of online ordering in India, I will be doubly check everything before ordering.(Some buggers don’t even pick call,reply your calls,will put you on hold for hours one they get the money and one has to always give them threats of consumer court l before getting things in fine shape at their doorsteps)

    >It would have been expected of them to get the product in India first, pay Customs and then ship it to us. I would gladly pay for a safe and secure shipping service, but I don’t like nasty surprises.

    I think this expectation was self generated by most of us(I too at one point of time thought so).Notion Ink never said so anywhere on their blog or on their website about their catering such type of service to their Indian consumers.They always shown International price(USD). I am not here to judge whether it was correct or wrong from NI side to neglect their domestic consumers but they *did not promise* it anywhere(their blog or their website or in his interviews) what you were expecting them(in terms of custom duty and all). Though I still believe once they hit mass production,street prices in India will be much cheaper but that was not an option during pre-order

    > So the charge in INR reflected in your statement would not be a direct conversion using the exchange rate. One can expect a difference of about INR 2500

    I think here you point of view is totally Correct. I have already sent you link of CCavenue transaction costs and their explanation about it and their Q n A, which does not fit with NI reply.

    I too have ordered internationally(My timbuk2 messenger bag) and also during filling application fees for different college while applying for MS and while taking dates for GRE and Toefl and never ever i have been charged so extravagantly which has amounted to 2500 Rs. Moreover If they say so, why have they changed the amount again to USD, without adding this 2500 again?? I think you have a very valid and legal point here.

  2534. @Dear Rohan,
    From your message we know there are things you are keeping to open on 18th of December. If you have something to share with your adam family, go ahead. We are waiting for 18th Dec, and at the mean time we can read your message.It is just one week, but the waiting is going to be years long!

  2535. extremely well written
    ’emperor’s new clothes’ has been THE phase to sum it up ..

    The cultist nature of adam’s family has been slightly disturbing .. and I wonder what makes rational human beings turn into irrational fiends ..

    The cracks were showing since a million years .. but as you rightly pit, it only reaffirmed the faith in the online armchair entrepreneurs (read family members) and drove them to the limits of irrationality .. Some were apparently in tears reading some of the unkind comments ..

    tears? seriously?
    no matter how many baby-metaphors u use, its a cold hard tech product !

  2536. extremely well written
    ’emperor’s new clothes’ has been THE phase to sum it up ..

    The cultist nature of adam’s family has been slightly disturbing .. and I wonder what makes rational human beings turn into irrational fiends ..

    The cracks were showing since a million years .. but as you rightly put it, it only reaffirmed the faith in the online armchair entrepreneurs (read family members) and drove them to the limits of irrationality .. Some were apparently in tears reading some of the unkind comments ..

    tears? seriously?
    no matter how many baby-metaphors u use, its a cold hard tech product !

  2537. To add to the “Emperors New Clothes” statement earlier:

    First, I didn’t think it would create quite such an extreme reaction, but I do not find it altogether surprising

    FWIW, I have been a long time follower of Adam (9 months*+) as one of only 2 tablets of any real promise for my needs – the other being the PlasticLogic Que which has already, sadly, proven to be vaporware. I still believe that the overall spec (form factor, screen, battery life, internals, camera design) is by far the most mature and “complete” design of any tablet to date. I have been generally appreciative of the quirky, rough around the edges style of Rohan’s communication and understand how engaging it has been and how it has helped to build an exceptionally (TOO?) strong brand loyalty for a product which does not even exist in the market yet (and which some people have good reason for worndering whether it will ever mae it to market). I am an engineer & project manager by background and now work as Programmes Director for a global defence company. I have very real interest in this device to underpin a major drive into the Contractorised Logistics Support business with warious Ministries of Defence, and had started to develop projects around the timings and expectations for Adam. I, until 2 days ago, genuinely believed that NI had the potential to really shake up the IT world and to potentially take on the “big boys”. The ambition & basic technology looked promising. I had signed up for the EAP, have a number of Android programmers awaiting the devices, and we already have maturing plans on how we will build a new business stream on the back of Adam. I have personally invested heavily – real money, real business resources and personal credibility – in Notion Ink, albeit knowing there was a degree of risk in doing so with an unknown new start. But until 2 days ago, I felt this level of faith was appropriate.

    Then came 2 days ago. The fiasco. The unmitigated disaster. And I realised how misplaced my faith had been.

    Don’t get me wrong – I had not expected a smooth ride. I always expected technical glitches – servers struggling, the odd dodgy link, mass e-mail/spam problems, a bit of confusion – and was making BIG allowances for that. But the reality was that even by comparison to my wildest nightmares, the pre-launch was a train wreck. A total, utter carnage of a train wreck. And primarily NOT because of the expected IT issues outlined above.

    The biggest problems for me were as follows:

    1) Countdown & timings. The general confusion associated with the specific timings of the rollout (picture reveals and eventually opening of pre-pre-order and pre-order) was a totally avoidable schoolboy error. NI should have used a well known time zone; made the timings clear on the splash page; made the date clear; NEVER use 00:00hrs as a time – it is ambiguous – use 00:01 and everyone is clear; use a simple countdown timer FFS!

    2)The (lack of) specs – even at a pre-order, you HAVE to give clarity on the basic specs. To still have confusion on the amount of storage is, quite frankly, unforgiveable. Whether I can use Android Marketplace is for me a minor detail, though I agree that an answer is required – even if it is still “We are working on it and hope to offer this, though perhaps not yet”.

    3) The delivery costs – not a major consideration for me, but still a shock that a better deal had not been done. I support my sister’s small web-based retail business which has, I reckon, a tiny fraction of the volume NI expects to have, and her worldwide delivery costs as negotiated with one of our UK providers make these seem laughable. While I applaud the aspiration for “One World” pricing, this patently does not stack up as a business model. OK, someone in downtown Kabul might be quids in – but the reality is that customers there or in the arse end of tibet will be few and far between. The volumes to go to SE Asia, Europe & the US should mean that it is here that the effort should be placed to cut costs to the bone. Even if you have 2 or 3 “tiers” of delivery pricing. And as an Indian company, which has made much of its Indian roots, I think more should have been done to get good pricing for the home market. The chatter & disappointment/incredulity on the blog would bear this out

    4) One World Pricing: well, again I applaud the sentiment. BUT the reality is that this has created a HUGE amount of problems. All it has done has been to shift much of the cost from NI straight onto the buyer. And the sad thing is, I don’t think most of the cult-following pre-ordering students and the like have the first idea of the ADDITIONAL costs that are about to hit them when a DHL man turns up on the doorstep demanding an extra 20 – 100% of the price to get the box he has in his hands. For me, at least this is a cost I understand, though it did take an hour or 2 to be sure how much it would be for me. A simple table on the website (or 20 lines of coding) would help customers interested in purchasing to know just how much the final bill will be. For some it won’t be pretty. And if you think there is bad feeling on the blog today, just wait til the start of Jan when people start paying nasty inexpected bills.

    5) Ts &Cs. This for me was the biggest problem. As someone primarily looking at Adam for business purposes, this is by far the most important thing to me. And what I saw truly appalled me. Where do I start?

    Firstly the quality of the English. This was of such poor quality, it was unintelligeble at points. It was certainly not written by even the poorest of lawyers. Or of it was, the Rohan, you need to sack those lawyers asap not to mention any legal advisors and your Legal Director. I am assuming you have a Legal Director. Though I am starting to have serious doubts.

    Secondly the inconsistencies. The Ts & Cs are so inconsistent that you begin to wonder which are the REAL ones. As a contract-wrigting/-signing businessman, I know that this only means BIG legal costs in due course if I try to resolve a problem down the line. Because it WILL end up in the courts to try and unpick the mess of Ts & Cs.

    Thirdly, the content of the Ts & Cs. I do not know whether they are consistent with current custom & practice in India (if they are, then I am shocked at the appalling level of consumer protection in India and pity its residents, because they are getting a shocking deal). What I do know as that these Ts & Cs are quite frankly illegal in Europe, and probably the US (they are certainly far worse than can be customarily expected in the US). Rohan, these Ts & Cs, far from “protecting” your business, actually damage it. Twofold. First, because a very high proportion of potential customers in Europe and the US will just walk away and not buy. Secondly because as unreasonable Ts & Cs, many will buy and, if things go wrong (and some things inevitably will), will immediately take you to court in their own countries. And bacause the Ts & Cs are so badly written and/or illegal, the customers will win. Your reputation will fall even further and legal costs will be high. By then it will be too late.

    It is all very well to dream of and aspire to having a single set of global Ts & Cs, warranties etc. Do you not think the Apples and Microsofts of this world have not thought about this, even tried it and invested heavily in trying to make it work? There are reasons why they do not do so!! And the biggest reason is that if you ARE going to put in a global set of Ts and Cs/Warranty conditions etc, then far from being at the lowest common denominator, it must be at the HIGHEST common denominator. And the aggregation of all the most customer-friendly terms in the world soon becomes prohibitively expensive for the company. So, Rohan, much as I do not want to burst your bubble and shatter your dreams, for the sake of NI, its employees, its (hopeful) customers and your own credibility and sanity, please learn this lesson quickly and get decent, legally sound, local Ts & Cs for each market.

    Going still further on the content, many terms fall into the category of “unreasonable terms in contracts of adhesion”. If you think that I as an individual, never mind on behalf of a business to which I owe a dity of due dilligence, am going to sign to say that you (NI) has the right to vary terms at any time for any reason at will and to anything you choose, then think again. OK, I know that these Ts & Cs will never stand up in court, but I have better things to do with my time than ever get into court, and it is far easier for me to give my money to almost any other company than yours safe in the knowledge I am far less likely to have to take you to court. And why the hell should I sign up to oaying you extra to sort a problem such as DOA??? If you do not send me a working product, then that is YOUR problem & YOUR cost to resolve. And if your warranty & general Ts & Cs do not reflect this, then I have to wonder why. Have you not done your homework and factored the costs of a small %age of duff items into your overall pricing structure? Is your quality so poor that you think this is the only chance for you to survive? Do you even have a proper customer support department set up to resolve problems? The more I read and re-read these Ts & Cs, the more suspicious I am that this is a group of (admittedly competent and innovative) engineers with absolutely no business sense, insufficient funding, no credible business structure and insufficient investment in the support side of the business to be a company I should trade with.

    And furthermore with regard to the Ts & Cs, I have certainly seen some unreasonable/illegal similar terms to the one “we have the right to vary out terms at will”. But I have NEVER before witnessed those Ts & Cs being rewritten, rereleased, moved and the like THREE TIMES in the first 24 hours. How can I in all conscience trust my company’s many to invest in a company which behaves like that?? I cannot!

    And so, Rohan, I am very disappointed. Though perhaps I am also slightly grateful to have been brought to my senses now, before I have invested money in your products, not to mention 1000s of man hours in developping software & solutions based on your products. I will now be rewriting my project plans and watching with interest to see which of the 50+ tablets at CES have sufficient credibility to align with. Who knows – NI may still be a strong contender. Though your competitors will soon be snapping at your heels. And you can be sure that you have now a huge amount of remedial work to do to get me to buy your products after what I have now witnessed. It will take at least 6 and probably 12 months. And if something better comes along in the meantime, I will buy that instead.

    So Rohan, I wish you well, I really do. I hope you learn a lot from the failure of the last few days. If you are to survive in business, you will need to! But I for one have to sadly surmise that the chances of your business surviving 12 months are very low. Your product may be good – from what I have seen, it probably is – but as a business, you clearly do not have the infrastructure, funding, legal and business advice and competence to survive against the big boys.

    And so I stand by my “Emperors New Clothes” statement. I know that this will not please the “caught-up-in-the-cult-of-Adam” fanbois for whom every minor setback just reinforces their blind and mis-placed faith that it is a “sign” that NI and their dreams will one day conquer the world despite all rational evidence to the contrary. This is the stuff of which doomsday cults are made. I almost fell for it myself. But for those of you only slightly caught up in the euphoria and hype, I hope that this will be a wake-up call. It is only a tablet. It is only another underfunded, poorly run tech startup with huge dreams and bugger all chance of realising them. There have been many before. There will be many to follow. A few will succeed. The world will keep turning. And I’m off to walk the dog.

  2539. Well said! I am sure Rohan heeds this and follows this ASAP! Real leadership is to ensure Mr Murphy doesn’t wreck havoc.

  2540. @Himanshu Jain

    The trust factor is that as the company is Indian, you can verify its credentials easily, if the need present itself. So there is an innate sense of trust as compared to say, a company from Belize. It is not at all about patriotism, because I personally find that notion silly. However, Rohan Shravan has become personally identifiable for all of us, and I have been following this blog since April 2010. It definitely did help that he was Indian, as you would be able to understand.

    The second point is about being a responsible business. Here are a large set of people who are willing to take a risk on your product and your future service, and not with play money. We did not ask for a discount, though the talk of a cheaper retail price is actually a shocker.

    A responsible business, which according to their own admission thinks India will generate good demand, should have taken care of logistics and pricing. A clear pricing that does not present the threat of yet another surprise, over and above the product risk that we were willing to take on as loyal fans.

    I have waited for the Adam, and rejected all other options for a lightweight mobile device or an e-reader. However, I too have a limited budget and a limited ability to take risk.

    I do not have any option now but to cancel my order and then buy it in retail, if it is any good and any longer relevant.

  2541. Nishit,

    I read many comments by you on this blog. You have come to the correct conclusion (cancelling your order). I think this pre-ordering thing is not for you. You please wait for ADAM to appear in retail stores, so that you can pay exactly the display price. All the best!

  2542. I agree 100% with you!Before this “Pre-Order” case, i wanted to buy the Adam, but i didn´t like the process of it!!! I´m a IT and have 12 years of experience and made me think twice!
    I will wait for CES 2011, and see what will happend!.

    Best of Luck NI!

  2543. Since the Adam is a fabulous device, lots of people seem to behave as if Notion Ink was a big, well established corporation, making comparison with Apple, Microsoft or Dell. Well, it’s not (yet), it’s a start-up, although an ambitious one, and Adam is only their first device. So no decentralized warehouse and marketing. I can see that some American customers, used to be extra-pampered, are a bit dismayed. I’m sure all this will clear when the first orders will be delivered. Personnally I’m glad they choose to go worldwide, and have a One Global Price and Shipping policy at this stage.

    For user manual and FAQ in many languages, I would suggest to follow the OLPC XO way (wiki.laptop.org): NI could start a wiki and let the community do the rest.

    And if somebody regrets having ordered an Adam Pixel QI 3G (900), please get in touch via my blog! 🙂

  2546. Surely it will still have ‘Made in China’, like any other device? 😉 But I understand and share the feeling and I loved when Rohan wrote: “We believe in Globalization and World being our market, not countries”.

  2547. I had once bought the Neo Freerunner open hardware/software phone from Openmoko, being the freedom supporter and tinkerer I am. The phone, touted as an iPhone killer promised big, but unfortunately had two bigger problems. Firstly, it had some hardware defects that made calling and talking nearly impossible. Secondly, the manufacturer had dumbly signed NDAs for some core components, thus being constrained from openly releasing specs and technical details that would have helped the community make it a better product.

    Honestly, I had some good time playing with the phone and ‘hacking’ it to the best of my limited knowledge of Linux. However, I could not use it as a real-life phone.

    I had bought it from IDA Systems, a reseller based in India. When the phone was shipped to me by them, I had to pay Octroi additionally to the courier, but they refunded it with an apology when I told them about it.

    Later, I was so frustrated with the phone that I started to complain openly about it on the official forum. This was when IDA Systems made me an offer to return the phone, although they had NEVER PROMISED IT when I bought the phone. I returned it after two months of use, and got about a 90% refund.

    This was three years ago. To this date, I am on good terms with the IDA Systems folks, and even respond favourably to their potential customers referred to me. I am thinking of buying a Beagleboard from them, and may try marrying it to a DIY Pixel Qi display in the future.

    The point of this parable? Even if you are a startup, don’t know the intricacies of business, do not have enough experience with product engineering or development or support, it pays to respect your customers and supporters.

  2548. This is the second time u r posting his article.
    Well it took me 5 mins to read ur first one, well literally 5 min.. as i was walking from one corridor to the other which is at the other end..As i copy pasted it in word it comes to 2 full pages.
    Sure appreciate your patience first !
    hmmm a lot of interesting things said , and a well elaborate one
    …i do have some questions on DHL which i dint sure understand in your post

  2550. “There have been many before. There will be many to follow. A few will succeed. The world will keep turning.”

    This is very true. You should read it again. And again.
    And also, if you are quite the businessman you say you are, you know there are always risks in making money. You said it yourself, you didn’t invest heavily. I don’t get then why all your bitter rant. Let me guess… you couldn’t order a Pixel Qi variant. If you really would have wanted to give NI nothing but and uninterested advice, you would have written an email to them, not a series of public bitter messages.
    Let me guess again… you are worried about all the Adam fanboys’ money, that’s all this is about. How sweet of you.

  2553. BTW Rohan has never mentioned 8GB himself. Never.

    Plus the previous iteration of his website quoted ADAM as having 32 Gb internal memory and hence the confusion.

    And simply cannot understand if the ADAM has only 8GB why does the Tech Specs Sheet have to say 8+ and create confusion for buyers like me.

  2555. I think the product is great but i feel so let down not getting an email to preorder the QI version.
    All said and done i don’t think Rohan has not let himself down this was a preorder for his followers but everybody else wanted it also.
    I am sure come the offical launch the product will do very well,I will still be ordering one

  2558. Great!!!!!!!! Now they have put some kind of check in the Preorder Link for the Phone Number… Its asks for Country/Area/Local If i enter a cell phone number its not accepting…

    If i enter a bangalore landline as 0091 80 22222222 its not working either.. Everytime it says enter correct area code… Not able to prebook one 😦

  2560. Ah, trying be snarky, are we?

    I would have paid additional custom duty and VAT gladly, had I known what the final purchase price would be. I was willing to take a risk on the product, but on nothing else.

    It would have been OK if NI had made any effort at reconciliation, but all they are interested in seems to be excuses, and lame ones at that.

    That is where I had to draw the line.

    Now go back to your basement.

  2561. Why 2 separate 3G models – one for Us, the other for Asia/ Europe? Why not one Quad band 3G model, that can be used across the globe. The tablet, being of a portable dimension is the perfect companion while travelling. Being in foreign location, but no way of getting online, other than using your Quad band 3G phone to provide connectivity is counter productive.

    How about a 3G model that workss throughout?

  2562. I will not start a debate again here.I had made my points clear last time too.
    But as you have also pointed out that being an Indian will bring a part of trust backed by substantial credential and *not just * by nationality of company. It’s one of the factor and not *the* factor.

    Regarding being a responsible business I do feel the same as expressed by you and NI will suffer in Indian market financially if there decision was wrong.
    But NotionINk never promised officially what you are asking (in terms of custom duty etc).Otherwise if they have, you have a very valid legal point for your grievance redressal in any consumer court.

    And my friend It’s a hard fact that pre-order are many times a bit expensive than retail prices.There will be hundred of examples for it- Nokia N8 being one of them coming to my memory.It’s only that you have learnt it a hard way-ordering a one in India(may be because of lack of info provided by NotionInk)

    I will just suggest don’t take any action in haste.Give it a day or two with cool head(i think legally you have around a month to decide), calculate it’s pros and cons and then only go for a well thought final decision over your cancellation step.

    over 2500 rs extra fee:: Ask NI with the links that I have provided from CCavenue site and the the sudden U turn taken by them over prices(now asking in USD and without adding extra $50 or so). You have a very solid legal point here and they can’t duck it without providing you proper facts and written rules.

    Somehow I have this feeling (more aggravated after reading arcticfox comment-a well written piece i reckon) that NI will have to hire lots of legal guys, after the way legal terms and money transaction have been handled till now.

    P.S. Nishit, Sri has posted a comment providing a link :: covering a experience of an Indian customer who had ordered Amazon kindle from USA couriered through DHL. for $295 kindle, I think he had to pay $95 in customs duty. So please incorporate customs duty too in your total expense and read that link for a better understanding of Form 39(specially if you happen to reside in Uttar Pradesh) and other intricacies regarding international shipment from DHL.

  2564. is there going to be a weekend special?

    lets cut ni some slack, those who have pre-ordered have done so largely on faith. now i’m understanding that ni taken the pre-order prior to actual launch, at ces. maybe they need to sew up some patents and other ip..

    i was also ready to order but have mastercard and got no email hardly matters though, i can wait since i’m not that desperate for a tablet, just wanted to play with a cutting edge device. i’m not even considering any other device.

    its been real fun to be a spectator of this blog and to participate in the comments and polls. the regular commentators have made this a real fun ride so thanks to gecko, greg (who posted once right after surgery!!), and all the others..

    rohan my warm regards to you and your team. i’m really rooting for you guys and have 100% faith in you. all is well!!!! the futures so bright you’re going to need sunglasses..

  2565. Its not the time to be be bitter anymore.
    We have to give NI time to sort out stuff.
    Rohan has been patient enough to respond to a lot of queries, and yes big mistakes have been made by NI, but let them try and correct the mistakes. Patience!

    Most of us here are sure they will make things work in a better way soon.

    And people looking for more info (like me) please be patient and wait till you see the video on 18th Dec.

    A small request to NI, while you are working this out, just take care that while communication is good, you have to be very clear, because as you said there are a lot of people from a lot of different places and time zones, hence there will be confusion.

    Please remove all ambiguity…
    For example…the website says 8+ gb internal memory, now if its 8, why not just say 8 GB. Why create so much confusion!

    Teasing is good, excessive teasing and ambiguity on a platform like this, Not good.

    I hope Rohan and NI take note of this, because i love the ADAM as many people here and would like to see it rock soon!!

  2566. Sowmya, Sri has posted a comment where he has provided a link ::which contains the experience of an Indian customer of ordering Kindle from US through DHL. For $295 kindle, i think he had to pay $95 in customs to DHL and also had to resist many illegal demand of money from that bluedart courier guy. Do give it a read to know all the intricacies of an international shipment.

  2567. hmmm! shlipi true.. “how many baby-metaphors u use, its a cold hard tech product”

    It is a nomenclature we are talking about. and so anything would be fine rite..

    but as how fair it is to allow people to ask raw questions (or so called unkind questions and display stark facts) and get their doubts clarified/not clarified

    it also fair to allow people to assume that ADAM is indeed a baby.

    Let’s not get into whether it is right or wrong !
    (attacking a group, labeling them is not gonna solve the purpose)

    cos it is an individual’s perception.perceptions vary….and lets not turn judgmental… there are always two sides to the coin, and lets allow both the sides to exist, esp coexist in harmony

  2568. @Himanshu Jain

    Their nationality is not the point, but their location very much is it. I am not saying that they did not disclose the customs duty, but that they should have made it clear and upfront. Even the worst of ’em put in an asterisk over the price and give a disclaimer beforehand.

    Further, my point about their location was that by shipping domestically they would have provided price transparency to the Indian customers. They probably might need to do that with other locations as well, if they manage to survive and grow.

    In any case, this was preordering, but expecting transparency is not too much. And yeah, it sucks that you have to pay more for being an enthusiast, and I am very much aware of it.

    You should also read the post I made about my experience with another tech retailer, which I have made further down the line.

    I do not plan to post around here much longer, once I get confirmation of my refund. I tried my best to support and be helpful, and I am glad for it.

  2569. @Arcticfox: A well written piece. I do feel that you have very solid point here and it will help NI in their future course of action.

  2570. really 95 $ !!! hmmm lemme check difficult to search now.. so actually what is the most economical way to purchase now?????

  2571. @Ruben

    I know only too well the risks in making money – I await the outcome of a large bid to a European defence minstry where we have invested over €1million of private money on a one in three chance of winning an “all or nothing” contract worth over a hundered million. We sure as hell did not leave anything to chance and would never have got past “Expressions of Interest” if we had demonstrated the level of (in)competence that NI has shown in the last few days. As I stated earlier, the experience of the last few days would prevent me from investing anything further at present even if 100 Pixel Qi variants were being given to me for a dollar apeice. In business I have only limited resources (financial, staff, time) which I must invest wisely. I think this is another lesson Rohan must learn – where & when to invest his own resources. The technical side (as far as we have REALLY seen, discounting nice photoshops and animations) seems promising. The business side seems to have been all but forgotten. And a company in this day and age ahs a very short life expectancy if it forgets to do the basics competently.

    I really do hope Rohan succeeds. He has a powerful vision, has captured the imagination of many and has already taken a tiny start up far further than most. Of those achievements he should be justifiably proud. But they will be for nothing if he does not now knuckle down, get out of his dreams and dilligently and ruthlessly attend to the basic details of developing some basic business competence.

    You state I am bitter. I am not – I am genuinely disappointed for NI and want to help them understand their mistakes so they can learn from them. I too am only human. I too have made many mistakes in business. Where possible I try to eat my pride and learn from them. And I will also e-mail my previous post to NI, though my attempts to contact them previously by e-mail (several times and to multiple e-mail addresses) suggested there is more chance of something being seen here.

    You question my motives. Well, yes I do actually care about the fanboy’s money. As a fairly senior exec in a well-paid job, I could afford to “take a punt” and lose some money on this. I choose not to. But I’ve been around the block a few times and have seen people get burned in similar circumstances. For the clearly many young, inexperienced students and the like for whom this purchase would represent a lot of money that they could less afford to lose, I am trying to inject a little sanity into what has otherwise become a craze – hysterical, bordering on the cult-like. It is clear from many posts that many people are blinded by the hype, the euphoria and being caught up in the excitement of it all. These people are not making rational decisions. They are ignoring clear evidence which indicates the business is not as sound or as well run as they wish it were. They ignore any valid concerns raised by clear-thinking posters and “rationalise” it away as teething problems. The server/email stuff – that was teething problems. The Ts & Cs and chopping & changing – that points to more serious deficiencies.

    If my posts make just a few over-excited Adam fans stop and think before blindly passing over there money at this stage, then I hope in some small way I have helped someone avoid unneccessarily losing money they can ill-afford to. For those of you who refuse to at least accept there are some causes for concern and remain trapped in your private delusion, good luck to you. I hope it works out for you. And if it doesn’t I hope the waking up isn’t too painful. And if this dream does eventually become a reality, I may yet join you as an Adam owner. Bur for now, my CC stays in my pocket.

  2572. I wrote Notion Ink two hours ago and got an answer for my questions about my concern that my bill did not say anything about what I have been buying but “only” the amount of money I´ve spent – here is a teaser:

    “Greetings from the Notion Ink Support Team!

    An original sales receipt would be included in your shipment of the Adam. I am afraid we cannot provide any other bill or receipt at the moment.

    As for the specifications, all variants have similar specifications in terms of memory etc. The Adam has 8GB internal memory expandable by upto 128GB using a microSD card. Also, USB hard drives and flash drives can be connected to the Adam through the USB ports.

    I hope this answers your questions.

    Thank you for your continued support to Notion Ink!”

    From my point of view, Notion Ink is alive and still kicking ass! in its’ own unique way.
    ;-D I would say it´s a trademark.

    From ‘About Notion Ink’: “We’re out to challenge the norm, question existing ideologies of function and form, to change the curve of our conversation with technology, be it by redefining the species or creating a new breed of intelligent, intuitive devices to reckon with[…]”.

    They sure challenges us! and I welcome it…:)

  2573. this is what i have been asking for long time what is the price of adam in INR. why cant we pay money in indian money and if so why are we charged extra , i can understand if iam ordering a product from a usa or european based company . but since this is a indian money people staying in india must have a indian price ,since the company is based in india right ? iam still confussed about all this . and no 1 from india on this blog is ready even to answer this questions or from notionink. i have seen many indian companies which charge indians in INR and people ordering products from usa in us$ and eurrs for people from europe .
    why cant notionink just keep the global price of adam intact and just charge indians in indian ruppes, americans in us$ and europeans in euros.

    for example 600us$=27000inr
    so a price for adam 27000inr must be listed on the site when we order. this will save all indians the money which we are paying extra for no reason atall.
    i think this must be sorted out as soon as possible .

    and i still feel the best thing is to have global patners keep the price same but distribute the product through a chanell like amazon in usa , and eqvivalent one in europe and india, (indiatimes.com for example) or some store like croma or next.

    so notionink can be rest assured that distribution is going smooth and perfect. and they can work and concentrate more on other things .

    i think notionink must not do everything by their own , and if they have some plans ahead of doing like this they can allways let us know in adavnce it will be helpfull for many many people here.

  2574. $95 for a $250 device – nearly 40%, and it is almost impossible to find out the correct rate of duty from the internet. I have even tried the documents on the Finance Ministry’s website, but computers are not mentioned directly anywhere except in case of baggage rules.

    If you read Chirag’s blog, he does mention that $37 was refunded by Amazon, so it is not clear how much duty you are actually required to pay.

    The best bet, for devices available off the shelf, would be to get it yourself on your overseas trip or to ask someone to bring for you.

  2575. Tried all permutations and combinations.. Yesterday it was fine.. I guess today they added some checks… 😦

  2577. This is the link http://chirag.patnaiks.in/2010/07/prices-in-india-of-new-kindles-3gwifi.html

    Well after reading all this :: Much better option would be to buy once it’s available in India. I hope Rohan must be in talk with different retail chains to distribute adam. So once it hits mass production, prices will be less expensive and the product will come with more clarity.

    Right now it seems a very heavy investment(custom duty of around $190 for adam) for my little pockets .
    Or Better ask some friend of yours to buy it from China itself if NI allows to buy one from factory itself:).

  2578. dear Rohan,
    I am sure that you will be set with individuals trying to get food short at your new Adam.
    The stock of the Qi Wi-Fi, has been sold out.
    I am going on a long 72 day cruise in April 2011, and wish to get one before then, is this a possibility please. I was on your pre-order list
    thank you Anthony Jones

  2579. @Sowmya my last comment has gone for moderation. Please replace dot with . in the link .(3 in total)
    This is the link
    chiragdotpatnaiksdotin/2010/07/prices-in-india-of-new-kindles-3gwifidothtml

    Well after reading all this :: Much better option would be to buy once it’s available in India. I hope Rohan must be in talk with different retail chains to distribute adam. So once it hits mass production, prices will be less expensive and the product will come with more clarity.

    Right now it seems a very heavy investment(custom duty of around $190 for adam) for my little pockets .
    Or Better ask some friend of yours to buy it from China itself if NI allows to buy one from factory itself:).

  2580. I am as deeply disappointed over the way things have gone as any of us but after reading articfox’s post I am now convinced that his criticisms are right on the money.

    There have been a LOT of good suggestions on the blog detailing what NI should do to rectify and move on but those suggestions have to be implemented quickly.

    Despite the few of you on the blog that are willing to forgive and forget everything tha has happened over the past few days you are not nearly enough in number to keep NI financially viable. The rest of the buying public will never tolerate this and then it won’t matter how groundbreaking a product the Adam is or how revolutionary a CEO Rohan is, it will all have been for naught.

    If you want to make it into the big leagues and be revolutionary and change the world you have to at least survive long enough to make an impact.
    These early missteps will by now have generated a lot of negative buzz online where before with the exception of a tech blog or two there was generally high levels of anticipation and good will towards the imminent release of the Adam.

    Now it may be to the point where there isn’t even as a big a fan base as there was a few days ago. I notice that there are nowhere near as many comments to this post as there were to the posts leading up to it.

    I hope I’m wrong but as articfox pointed out, there will be many, many new tablets on display within a few short weeks at CES and Adam may no longer appear quite as cutting edge as it appeared next to the iPad,Tab,Viewsonic..etc.

    I want the best for NI and want them to succeed but as much planning as went into the Adam there should have been a good amount that went into their first big step into the larger commercial world. It’s going to be an uphill struggle now.

    If they can partner with a large online seller like Amazon and the Adam of course blow everyone away with positive online reviews then it won’t be too late but they shouldn’t wait any longer for pictures/videos/review units at all the major tech blogs/etc…

    Act now!

  2581. true there are concerns that are being overlooked with the froth(emotions) floating over which might die down in due course. Though i do not know much about the legal issues, your article helped me understand a few..

    Let them run their own race… clamoring around will also suffocate them i guess; as emotions run high on this blog.

  2582. @Francois though your comment has been posted by this buggy WordPress at a wrong place , i suppose you were asking that how come i got the info about 96 countries. Well it was posted by Rohan himself. I am in-lining the comment posted by him.
    Dear Alexus,
    ***************************************
    Thanks for your comment. We have taken our notes from the events and comments like yours. But looking back we can say, things could have been better. We dont know we should be happy or sad for all the PQs being sold out. The requests came from 96 different countries and there was a serious mismatch on our understanding of how many devices were required.

    Extremely hard lesson learnt here. Thanks for yous support, your words at this moment, matters a lot for us.

    Warm Regards

    Rohan Shravan
    ****************************

  2585. Seems like a very straight forward question to me.
    Is the Adam only using the 32GB limited MicroSD or is it using the newer SDXC technology?
    There are at least two other technologies beyond those that offer more then 32GB. Why not use one of those? Why use the limited one?
    One of the Adam’s features is that it plays 1080 HD video’s. Well these files are huge.
    And to be honest I think the niche for Adam is closer to the side of replacing your laptop vs your phone.

  2587. After the first real video of Adam, this debacle will be long forgotten. I hope NI learned from their mistake. Being in the spotlights for a small startup has to be difficult, especially when you try to be as transparant as possible.

    Still hope for a new weekend special though 😉

  2588. mhasija and himanshu jain thanx a lot and also nishit. i also dint pre-order because ordering it now i think will cost me somewhere 35000rs it seems . infact its better to wait or go in usa and order it. but once again thanx a lot ur comments and suggestions have atleast helped to remove some lingering questions from my head.

  2589. @Nishit. The fastest way to find customs duty is to call DHL India and inquire about the customs duty if an electronic item is shipped from China. They will surely have a definitive amount to quote for.

  2591. I seems like this is going to be a hangover feeling for everyone: now for the ones who were not able to pre-order and a postponed one when the Adam arrives with unexpected extra costs.

    Arcticfox is totally right I think and this must be a learning experience for everyone. And I would like to add he is not just right about the mistakes of NI, also about the backfire on his comments. The Adam followers are just like Apple fanboys. Shame on you.

  2592. Great tips. Thank you. Could you or @Joshua please expand on the carriers having rules against tethering? I mean, is this easy, or would I need some hack to make it work?

  2593. This is what DHL India says about it it(though it does not contain any definitive amounts)

    dhl .co .in/en/express/shipping/customs_support/duties_taxes. html

  2594. Flipkart model is a local one currency model with simpler logistics. Notion Inks market is a huge difference in scale and service requirements.

  2595. @himanshu
    On a different note, is it profitable for NI to have a one price shipping rule., i mean in terms of do they/can they make money out of it

  2598. dear sowmya ..

    as I once earlier mentioned .. I have worked for years as a product manager .. and I have felt very emotionally about my products …
    some of them succeeded .. and some flopped .. and each of them were very dear to me ..
    The production team (active OR passive) always feels emotionally about their product and I understand that !
    I am sorry if my comments sounded harsh… but its only the production team that is privy to details and facts that the harsh harsh public is not

    emotion is great while designing a product ..objectivity and detachment essential to make it a succesful launch
    these are hard lessons I learnt when I was young .. I hope NI and the adam’s family learn them too ..

    Introspection has to be honest …. The public (like me) will continue to be naysayers .. lets face it ..
    you can ask the public to go away .. but it won’t ! that is it’s nature .. and NI understood that (i hope!) when they decided to go the ‘collaborative’ way ..

    I wish you and the NI team all the best …

  2599. Even i have one of those phones.. Lying around somewhere in the room.. The worst part was if the battery was fully drained i could not recharge it because the drivers for charging were in the phone and it wouldnt charge until the phone was up .. I had to connect the battery to a external source and charge it.. I could never use it as a regular phone.. Was more like a toy to me.. It was awesome.. I could load multiple OS on it and it had dual boot and all.. Was Fun.. But did not last for long..

  2600. ahhhh damn! sold out on the pixel qi 3g and wifi! looks like il have to wait a little longer 😥

  2601. Unfortunately my transaction failed (becoz of CCavenue) and I could not secure a Pixelqi version for myself.

    Although I was not satisfied with the customer service response I appreciate atleast they did respond to me twice.

    Atleast for family memebrs having failed transaction NI should have blocked the unit and given me a chance to retry on the payment.

    Gratz to all who secured a preorder.

  2602. hey, i dint meant to say u were wrong, i am as well a part of the public and i am also a consumer. … and i have as far as possible been honest with my comments both for and against the perceived practices of NI.. i believe emotions shouldn’t be brought into decision making.. . at the same time allow people to be the way they are and make their own decisions.

    i just felt that since we already have polarized groups, its better to stay as balanced as possible with not polarizing them further.
    just my 2 cents

  2603. Yes people forget of import duries and purchase taxes that are their in each country.
    Thats the 1st thing I checked and it comes to 15.5% VAT , no purchase tax luckily.

  2604. Hi Rohan big fan and can’t wait for a chance to purchase.

    My recommendation is you now close the blog to comment, and post information on the main website only about the product release and product details, It was great following the blog but I feel most people out there have lost the plot to be honest and it is no longer serving a purpose. I imagine it will be very stressful following the comments particularly some of them. Most of the people have no business sense and there advice is not not noteworthy

    I would also just scrap on-line purchases offer refunds to all those pre ordered with an apology. (if people have their money back there is not much to complain about).

    Redirect the product to the likes of amazon etc, giving links on the website to these partners, managing your own payment gateway should be an option after maybe a couple of years in the business as you know its a logistical nightmare and you also have to deal with complaints. If you hand over to other retailers that’s their problem as long as your product is solid. You should be able to draw in the partners with the healthy pre order stats.

    I am really looking forward to the video, but keep it short and stick to your original revealing at CES.

    I really cant recommend enough to close the blog to comment it is descending into chaos, If people want to offer advice give them an specific email to do so. There are just a lot of negative people and the internet is everyones favorite place to complain 🙂 Thank everyone on the blog for their posts but explain its time for that stage of Notion ink to end being so close to launch.

    Basically you want a nice website( already there),
    clear product information about each variant (I’ll not list these again)
    pictures and a very short video
    and “coming soon”.
    then just sit back and wait for CES and release your product

    No more blog posts just time to focus on notionink.

    Good luck Rohan your product looks fantastic and by next year you will have big smile on your face.

  2605. @Himanshu, Rohan should reply to Nishit’s very valid concern. This kind of financial impropriety is expected from Reliance but not NI. I am sure this is a mistake and will be rectified.

  2606. Hello Nishit,

    As you said, you have written to them, Have you waited for a response? Perhaps a mistake was made or there is some other explanation. In a previous blog Rohan had written about Notion Ink wanting to contact Indian authorities about Indian customs regulations as they would apply.

    They know they will not succeed by “fleecing” you.

  2607. you are right .. MUCH has been said already ..
    now everyone is repeating everything …

    sigh .. the vagaries of the internet age ..

  2608. @Kambiz – I am not sure if your comment was directed at me (this wordpress blog clearly wasn’t designed for the volume of posts or number of concurrent “conversations” as exist on this NI thread – another “mistake” NI has made while trying to cut corners! If it was adressed at me, I am flattered – I do still mentor a number of high potentials in a company I previously worked for. Always happy to support/mentor folk who are genuinely interested in learning about business.

    If the post was for someone else, please accept my over-inflated ego’s apologies and I hope you attract the attention of the person you want as a mentor! try starting your post with “@[name]” – it is about the only way to carry on a conversation with all the other noise on here!

  2611. Oh well at least when Eve comes out you will have a better understanding of how to distributes units through out the world instead of targeting only one country… big question now is when can i get my hands on a pixel qi! look forward to your stock update!

  2612. Interesting. Thanks. Yes, I am in the US with verizon. Unfortunately, I already ordered the 3g version. So, is there any benefit to having the 3g version? Is there a different/easier/cheaper way to connect? Or is it essentially a waste of money for me?
    Thanks again.

  2613. @Rohan, Please Hang tough. I”m saddened by all the negative things people have to contribute to the break through you and your team have made. Yes I bought your top end product sight unseen, but perhaps I was also making a statement like many others where we need to see inspirational thinkers and leaders that can build the support for something very unique in our lives.
    I’m with you as are many others, whether willing to say it in here, on other “gadget sites” or in their minds..

  2614. Salut Adam,
    Un grand merci pour m’avoir autorisé à passer une précommande de cette merveilleuse tablette. Mais je crois que je vais attendre la sortie du modèle QI avec 3G. Alors là, Adam et moi, nous serons au Paradis…

  2615. @jai
    if it was directed at me.. mr.articfox post caught my attention and was very interesting..and a lot of doubts on shipping and extra charges.. pretty interesting read.. yes, need to take a break, and it is saturday today… but someone in the blog expressed their concern of sowmya missing and i got a msg thro’ my blog as well, so tot why not leave some footprints 😉 !!!

  2616. @Sowmya
    Honestly I don’t have any idea about it. What i feel,they did it innocuously to make it a point that they are doing justice globally, but to a certain point it can be wrong for some reasons::

    lets suppose there are two places for whom shipping charges are $50(for A) $ 200(for B)and the company decides to ask $125(I am taking a very general central tendency::mean) from every customer irrespective of region just to make it a fair game(Mind you they are subsidizing people of region B by taking money from people of other region(A)). It’s type of cross subsidization which Indian government used to do for petrol ,diesel and kerosene before it signed WTO.
    Now suppose there are 1000 orders :950 from region A and 50 from B. Who will be at profit, the customers or the manufacturing company??

    Saying that I am not at all blaming NI.
    I think they did not foreseen such case scenario(as a matter of fact they were surprised to know that citizens of 96 countries participated.). But rationally many guys will have objection that why their money are being used to reduce shipment of far fletched countries.
    I think that’s why established companies have different shipping rate for different countries and even if they are cross-subsidizing they never speak publicly.( and I hope without doing so shipping form China to India would be lesser than $50 otherwise i will not make sense for DHL too to charge $50 even for Russia)

  2617. WordPress has become buggy again so my comment has been posted else where. I am inlinig again here for correct reference. Apologies for posting it again
    @Sowmya
    Honestly I don’t have any idea about it. What i feel,they did it innocuously to make it a point that they are doing justice globally, but to a certain point it can be wrong for some reasons::

    lets suppose there are two places for whom shipping charges are $50(for A) $ 200(for B)and the company decides to ask $125(I am taking a very general central tendency::mean) from every customer irrespective of region just to make it a fair game(Mind you they are subsidizing people of region B by taking money from people of other region(A)). It’s type of cross subsidization which Indian government used to do for petrol ,diesel and kerosene before it signed WTO.
    Now suppose there are 1000 orders :950 from region A and 50 from B. Who will be at profit, the customers or the manufacturing company??

    Saying that I am not at all blaming NI.
    I think they did not foreseen such case scenario(as a matter of fact they were surprised to know that citizens of 96 countries participated.). But rationally many guys will have objection that why their money are being used to reduce shipment of far fletched countries.
    I think that’s why established companies have different shipping rate for different countries and even if they are cross-subsidizing they never speak publicly.( and I hope without doing so shipping form China to India would be lesser than $50 otherwise i will not make sense for DHL too to charge $50 even for Russia)

  2619. @Greg, Thanks for sharing the discussion.

    Many old time followers/posters including me would feel the same way. I know I do. I was asking questions, continuing to ask and will continue to ask.

    Rohan and NI team are young and being based in India they’ve much to learn about US and Europe market/people. When the CES launch is successful and the products are in reviewer’s hands and end-users hands, then the world will know what the old time followers were believing in.

    Keep up the good work Rohan and NI that you’ve been so far doing in building a better designed hardware/software for the tablet. Hope you carry the same into other areas like pre-ordering, marketing etc. 😉

    It would help Rohan if he can delegate IT stuff to appropriate persons.

    One question to you Greg, how would you’ve felt if you had not received the email invite?

    How would you’ve felt if you couldn’t place an order and the variant you were interested in was sold out?

  2621. Looking back on the comments it seems the majority of people who still have faith are the ones who where able to pre order, i cant help but feel left the side a little bit, and its not that i dont have faith in Rohan and Co.

    Its a real shame that i cannot at least pre order and get in a que for the Pixel Qi version, even if there are non left for this version i think that if people where able to join an orderly que it would make people feel better and at least it would be more fair in that stock can fulfil the next people in the que.

    Like right now i am left in limbo waiting to try and grab a chance when they finally put pre orders back up, but if i had already joined i que i would feel much better that my position is secure and i would receive a tablet when they are available. i really do think this is a very fair way of doing it instead of leaving people to fight at the point of release.

    Anyone else agree?

    Rohan i hope you take notice of this!

  2622. I did pre-order one and do support NI. This is for them to act on.

    The cause of the problems as per my experience and understanding:

    1) Half baked policy pages left in one spot on the site by mistake: They were dug up by an Indian(I think it was Shiv) and promptly latched on to by Android police as the final policy even though there were blanks (literally) all over. The policy page seemed like a placeholder. Mistake to leave it there.

    2) Sending pre-order emails out using their own server without trying out a mass email to the fanbase first. Such a test would have reassured fans that NI was trying to test it’s emailing system. I did not recieve the order confirmation email from NI too( The confirmation email from CCAvenue was recieved and I had taken a screenshot of the final transaction confirmation message displayed on the NI site)

    3) SERVICE PROVIDERS CHOSEN:

    3a) Web Hosting: The service providers or the level of service chosen for web hosting left a left a lot to be desired as the servers failed to cope up and kept crashing. Though I do agree that I have similar problems on Black Friday on major retailers sites.

    3b) Payment Gateway: CCAvenue was not the right choice as the payment gateway. Although technically everything was in working, but it does not seem to have the trust of credit card issuers in the west. Also, their Form was extremely quirky. It might be good enough for Indian railways or as an organization’s internal database query Form, but not at the same level as the interface standards people in the west are used to.

    3c) Logistics: I foresee a problem with DHL. I have shipped via DHL from and within North America before was never able to properly track my shipment as it went from one sorting site to another in it’s journey. I got order acceptance and delivery notifications, but not tracking which people take for granted now. Also, we do not know how DHL will handle import duty.

    3d) Law Firm: The law firm hired by NI does not seem to have prior experience with selling a consumer electonic product in the US and Europe.

    4) Fanbase Maturity Assumption: very little percentage of the fan base has the patience and maturity of the level of Greg and Phillip. Most are students with extreme reactions, both in appreciation and criticism.

    5) Lack of Forum: There is no other channel other than the CEO’s wordpress blog for company announcements. If a forum had existed, then someone else from the company could have left a message in an Announcements thread that problems were being worked on while the CEO was travelling.

    6) Final price chart: There was no final price(landed cost) chart by country. Single origin price for the World sounds nice, but the consumer is more interested in the landed cost and most do not know how to calculate it.

    7) 8GB+: Seems either to have been left there to be able to use the lowest cost memory at the time of production. (Sometimes higher memory can be cheaper than lower depending on availability.) Or ADAM shall ship with 8GB with an option to upgrade it later to as high as 128 GB.

    8) Lack of PR manager to handle a PR problem as it unfolds.

    9) No problem FAQ: There is no problem FAQ page on the website or on a Forum as a separate thread. What does one do when faced with a certain kind of problem???

    10) No contact for pre-order woes: There is no email or live-chat contact for pre-order woes on the contact page. (Whom do I ask whether the shipping address transmitted to NI by CCAvenue is correct or not? Or was my order put through even though I had credit card issues?)

  2623. @Raj Even I have already said in my comments that for some of the concerns of Nishit(like discrepancy of 2500 rs), Ni can’t duck the question and they have to answer him substantially backed by legal facts. In this particular case of discrepancy in price, Nishit has a very solid point.

  2624. @himanshu
    yes i was wondering the same, and good u worded it clearly…
    so actually people in India or any country close to china might be at some loss with this kinda policy in place… hope this doesn’t create the reverse effect…
    So the best thing for now is to purchase a factory piece thro’ a friend in china or wait for it to hit retail space.

  2625. @ Somya
    As someone who attends two tradeshows a year in Las Vegas, I can tell you that you cannot just walk up and register as an exhibitor. The price of a small booth at the CES will set you back 10,000. I went through the entire exhibitor list and nothing came up. I’m interested to see how they spin this one.

  2626. @Sowmya,

    Do you mean that NI won’t lose money? NI isn’t out to make money on shipping. They’re just trying to break even and spread the cost of shipping among the buyers.

  2627. Nothing to add regarding anything! .. hence one small suggestion only…please start the forum asap… the posts will be much more manageable… 🙂

  2629. Hi Rohan big fan and can’t wait for a chance to purchase.

    My recommendation is you now close the blog to comment, and post information on the main website only about the product release and product details, It was great following the blog but I feel most people out there have lost the plot to be honest and it is no longer serving a purpose. I imagine it will be very stressful following the comments particularly some of them. Most of the people have no business sense and there advice is not not noteworthy

    I would also just scrap online purchases offer refunds to all those pre ordered with an apology. (if people have their money back there is not much to complain about).

    Redirect the product to the likes of amazon etc, giving links on the website to these partners, managing your own payment gateway should be an option after maybe a couple of years in the business as you know its a logistical nightmare and you also have to deal with complaints. If you hand over to other retailers that’s their problem as long as your product is solid. You should be able to draw in the partners with the healthy pre order stats.

    I am really looking forward to the video, but keep it short and stick to your original revealing at CES.

    I really cant recommend enough to close the blog to comment it is descending into chaos, If people want to offer advice give them an specific email to do so. There are just a lot of negative people and the internet is everyones favorite place to give out 🙂 Thank everyone on the blog for their posts but explain its time for that stage of Notion ink to end being so close to launch.

    Basically you want a nice website( already there),
    clear product information about each variant (I’ll not list these again)
    pictures and a very short video
    and “coming soon to a retailer near you”.
    then just sit back and wait for CES and release your product

    No more blog posts just time to focus on notionink. Good luck Rohan your product looks fantastic and by next year you will have big smile on your face.

  2630. Again there is no need to be offensive. Here in EU, the buyer is responsible to know (read) all the details before pressing the “BUY” button. If you thought some of the details are correct/missing/not as per your requirement, then you should have contacted NI before purchasing. Please take it as a lesson and be careful next time.

  2631. @Himanshu & others.. lots of valid points and though processes.. along with technology feedbacks, if these too were discussed, much of the confusion could have been avoided.

  2633. I looked at all the pages and see you Rohan replying to some and apologzing. IT would’ve been better to post the apologies as a n update to the main blog post. that would’ve caught the attention of many.

    Anyways thanks for taking the time to reply to some, if not to mine and many others. Hope all your hard work pays off and your apologies too. 😉

  2634. customs duty allready calculated for india, uk , us i beleive over on the notion addict forum

  2635. really dont recommend you close it, how would people vent? at least Rohan and co can ignore the comment as opposed to people having no input whatsoever

  2636. @Sowyma yes indeed. I will wait for the time being for adam to hit retail chains 🙂

  2637. @jrgong

    NI does not need a booth to be present at CES. Last year they shared a booth with NVIDIA. Maybe this year too. Maybe they will present the product alongside Pixel Qi who do not have a booth, but will still be present in a meeting room off the floor. See Pixel Qi’s blog entry:

    “Please come and see us in Las Vegas at CES this year, we won’t be on the floor, but in a meeting room just off the floor. Please contact us to arrange an appointment. We will have some new exhibits at CES, and will have some big customer news even before that. “

  2638. i felt this coming!
    the product had been overhyped!
    the best thing would have been to present the product to some known people for review, so their was some credible information, support etc.
    Made a vote for number of people willing to buy the product and type/ model on the blog.
    Now we find that while Pixel-qi got sold out within a matter of few hours , LCD is still out there.
    I was eagerly waiting for Pixel-qi, but by the time i got up in Algeria (temporary here) it was SOLD OUT.
    Hope to buy it when its available and best if it available in stores where i can save exhorbitant shipping charge. (at least high for india).
    Same price for everyone is really not understood as it is not technically possible without subsiding for few people.
    However my best wishes to you. I understand that you are young and want to run fast, but young people tend to fall because of this enthusiasm and i don’t want a indian premiere company to fall. you have done quite a lot. BEST WISHES .

  2641. Guys we already done with pre order and we have more faith in this product then NI. Adam will show us a path for next genaration technology.
    I am haapy that a new company is showing the way with new ideas and vision.
    We all questioned Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Bill gates, Thomas John Watson, dhirubhai ambani and many for their vision but they belived in them and conquered the world.

  2642. @Michael

    Closing the blog would only give credence to “Scam” rumors. “Now even the blog has disappeared!!!”. But comments can surely be closed.

  2644. easy on the caps there. and they weren’t last year either, yet they still had an exhibit.. don’t worry, if they say they will be there, they will

  2645. Thanks Jai. Well If you have not read arcticfox comment:please do read it. it contains many useful info for NotionInk to learn and become strong in future.

  2647. I have a feeling that Rohan concentrated too much on fine tuning the product , UI and apps etc..rather than focusing on the logistics of preordering.. I guess, most of this is outsourced but some amount of control needs to be there to monitor it . And this definitely needs experience.

    However, as I have said earlier , I am very sure that he will come out of this stronger and prove himself worthy of all the good work he has done till now.

  2648. Agreed. I pre-ordered and I think you raise a good point vis-a-vis the business execution aspect of what we’ve seen so far. The T&C being a case in point. Typically, a start-up can outsource these functions and need not have to customize it to such an extent (that may be the root of the issue here). I wonder what the involvement of the venture backers is. Typically, VCs would put in a COO when it comes close to launch date, moving away from the early stage to ensure a smooth launch. It looks like Rohan may have resisted this and asked for complete control.
    Having said that, this is a reality check and course can be shifted.
    I know, I’ve already spent my money, but I had a bad experience with a major laptop manufacturer recently, who shipped from China, clearly misrepresented the shipping date and time it took for shipping, by a month. I have no recourse for a refund (unless someone educates me to a different course of action) but to wait till I receive it (well after X-mas, which is when I want to gift it). So, I’m not going to fret about a startup’s growing pains, except that they should now focus on the business aspects for a while and enter the land of corporate-dom and begin to compartmentalize (oh, the dreaded SILO word :-)) their functions. Play-time is over guys, it’s time to make some big money!!

  2649. ok well
    this is in notionaddicts forum
    Cost of Importing ADAM to India with Import Duties

    Initial Price for the Pixed Qi Version: 27000 Rupees

    Custom Duty – 15 % – 4050 Rupees

    VAT (Bangalore) – 4 % – 1080 Rupees

    Education Cess – 4 % of Total Tax – 4050 + 1080 X 0. 02 = 105 Rupees

    Total – 27000 + 4050 + 1080 + 105 = 32235 Rupees..

    Plus or Minus some amount.. But will be around 32-33 K Here

    i dunno how far this is true in terms of break up of charges…

  2650. All those complaining about conversion rates or Rs.3000 extra, the charge was in US dollars and the conversion rate used by credit card companies is always different from the one you are offered by a bank or currency converter or online published rate. If you make an online another currency purchase or travel to another country, the conversion rate used by credit card companies is appalling. So, chill out.

  2652. so this is quite close to the samsung tab’s price…but ofcourse spec wise ADAM is far better

  2653. @Sowmya I suppose it is for the high end model.
    In that case,just to add that Indian customers have paid 29,999 and not 27,000 for the said model. So the eventual cost will hover around 35-36K.(In case custom duty remains 15% and not more)

  2654. @Shyam

    The price of the Pixel Qi screen itself is quite high as it is not mass-produced at the scale of normal LCD’s. This is also the reason for Pixel Qi version being sold out. Is is in short supply.

  2655. ++ This is unique. While there is a need for professionalism in customer relations and care in organizing online sales, these are preceded by the technical soundness of the product, at least in its first iteration. Is the hardware and UI and basic apps relatively bug free? How is the EAP working out? The SDK? These are the main unknowns. The concepts sound great. So whatever resources the NI team has now should be focused on product based efforts. Anything else is a huge distraction (like hiring a PR professional: the first advice would be to shut down this blog), given the time lines. If they can survive 1-2 years on the market (and given their product and limited production capacities it seems that marketing will take care of itself) then they can think more long term. The main unknown right now is if they can survive in the marketplace long enough to be a viable concern. Not whether they are handling customer relations right.

    If the hardware, software, SDK etc. have big holes/flaws in them, then there is really no way NI is going to be around as an independent entity (most likely absorbed into something bigger.. very common for startups). Such absorption may even happen if the product does well.

  2657. I am following this blog for almost a year now, but have more been a passive member, because I felt that my opinion was pretty good represented already by the old fellows. I had nothing new to add…

    All I want to say is that I fully agree with you Greg.

  2658. Thank you Notion Ink for your excessive 13 confirmation order emails spaced 1 minute apart. o_0

    …compensating for something?

  2661. Guys enough with this shipping cribbing…..

    Ipod Nano costs apple 20$ to make (courtesy iSuppli) – what do you think the remaining 50$ constitutes along with profit? Also it doesn’t ship free because of the clever pricing – 49.99$

    So well…i think with Adam 2 (assuming it costs NI about the same) if I were Rohan I’d just add another 100$ to all the SKUs and give buyers the wonderful wonderful mirage of “Free Shipping”..

    To Rohan,

    Public memory is short (very short) and fickle too..so this would work both ways. Right now it is working against us, but by the time you set all things right it should be in your favor. That said I think what the Adam might be lacking right now is some kind of Retail tie-up. That one move would really FIX everything….that is all people need. It might require a lot of effort but if you tieup with Retailers in every geographic region that should and will help NI a lot…so say –

    Best Buy in US
    Something(s) in Europe
    Croma in IN

    But not Walmart please….. they buy insurance for their employees and make themselves the beneficiaries!! ….filarious!

  2662. articfox, man your brave putting that up, you could soon find yourself overwhelmed with people wanting to be your pupil! sing me up my friend!!

  2665. @Himanshu Jain

    If I can do it, why can’t NI, when they’re supposed to have struck such a good deal with DHL? They could put up a chart, with a disclaimer.

  2666. No Saturday update with Adam info? 😦 I know we had some updates during the week but those just related to the preordering itself .. well I guess we have to wait for next week

  2667. @ Greek you lucky ones, I am unfortunately not one among those which are able to order .. I need to be patient and wait for the next batches ..

  2668. @arcticfox
    I too agree, your posts were extremely well written and you’re evidently someone well versed in these subjects, but most of all, despite wanting to believe otherwise, they are all points I can agree with, and I hope Rohan comes along, reads these (especiallly your comments) and instead of, like many Indians I’ve seen (:P Im an Indian), trying to think of a way to dodge your accusation, actually take some of your well thought-out advice and improve. I wish Notion Ink the best, and await the next Weekend special, but think they have lost my pings on this site. I’ve almost given up…

  2669. Yeah, and I got the reply that I have mentioned elsewhere. I don’t want to repeat it, but they mentioned ‘taxes and charges’ because they are an Indian company charging Indian customers in foreign currency or something like that.

  2671. Despite pre-order woes, how many organizations really stay 1-1 connected with their customers ? It took Apple months to admit the antenna problem and, they are known to have a loyal following with close customer contact.

    Atleast, Rohan and group responds quickly. As for getting all the answers, we will never get all the answers. Sometime patience and wait is the key. 🙂

    I had my disappointment with the pre-order but it was mostly with the payment processing and the consequences. But, I am sure Rohan and Co. took note of all comments and will fix what needed fix. On a side note, I ordered a little late but was never hit with any site delays.

    For anyone still trying to understand the product, here is a real video posted earlier this year. The tablet look mature compared to many current models in market and surely, it has already been refined, we will see on December 18.

    http://tv.slashgear.com/notion-ink-adam-tablet-full-demo-hands-on-835/

  2673. I see nokia/google needs a good tablet UI, why not team up with them, u make good money and sock it to apple at teh same time.

    looks like you may have bitten more than you can chew

  2674. Will there be a Weekend special this weekend? Have been waiting all day. Haven’t seen Rohan answer on any post since yesterday.
    I hope this is because they are working really really hard 🙂

  2676. I just now received an email from preordersupport@notionink.com, confirming my order (surprising, given that I got another confirmation immediately upon preordering, plus all the correspondence I have had with them today). It says this:

    “Greetings from Notion Ink Support Team!
    We heartily congratulate you for being one among the first owners of ADAM. Kindly take a note of your order details. ”

    Did others receive it too?

  2677. Dammit, my faith in this thing is just dissolving now. Earlier every comment was positive (and more in number, thousands in a matter of hours). It is clear that NI has lost a bunch of followers and have been recieving alot of, albeit well-placed, criticism.
    Contrary to my previous mindset, I’m actually thankful I didn’t get the chance to preorder and think that I would have regreted it if I had,…
    Very disappointed, not only in, but for Rohan… For a while I shared his dreams, his visions of revolutionizing the Tech market, but our, and I emphasize the “OUR”, dreams have been shattered. If Notion Ink did not have a legal team, now’s the time to get one. Same goes for a Public Relations and Marketing Team…
    Adam is a fantastic device, but I now wonder wheather there is ANY support derpartment for it. They did not expect-
    1. The volume of discussion on the Blog (They used wordpress which, evidently, cannot handle the current amount of discussion)
    2. The volume of Preorders (Ran out of the Pixel Qi variants in hours…)
    I bet, therefore, that they don’t have a sufficient and competent support team either, which is my main concern.
    The legalities, Terms and Conditoins are very vague and probably illegal. They changed it 3 times in the first few hours, how can they expect me to Accept such terms and conditions which say that the right to change terms and conditions remains with them!?
    The expensive shipping, even for their home market, is a HUGE turn off, it promised to be cheaper alternative to the iPad, just another broken promise.
    Now I see they aren’t even registered in the CES?

    I honestly don’t know what to say, but best of luck Rohan… I await your weekend special, and if it disappoints (skeptcial if it even arrives) then this goes of my Bookmarks

  2678. +1000000
    somewhere in my post i did mention there are blind folllowers and some are rational.

    @ruben he just expressed his views and his thoughts , the way u feel that everything will be great and fine with adam the same way he feels it might go wrong. so no need to be harsh infact we wrote perfect and notionink if really wants to be the 1 what u have percived already in your mind they must carefully listen to this honest and practical advice. this blog i think is for people who love technology and not just for cult and blind followers only.

  2679. Reposting this since I can’t find it, in the hope the Rohan reads it —–>
    Dammit, my faith in this thing is just dissolving now. Earlier every comment was positive (and more in number, thousands in a matter of hours). It is clear that NI has lost a bunch of followers and have been recieving alot of, albeit well-placed, criticism.
    Contrary to my previous mindset, I’m actually thankful I didn’t get the chance to preorder and think that I would have regreted it if I had,…
    Very disappointed, not only in, but for Rohan… For a while I shared his dreams, his visions of revolutionizing the Tech market, but our, and I emphasize the “OUR”, dreams have been shattered. If Notion Ink did not have a legal team, now’s the time to get one. Same goes for a Public Relations and Marketing Team…
    Adam is a fantastic device, but I now wonder wheather there is ANY support derpartment for it. They did not expect-
    1. The volume of discussion on the Blog (They used wordpress which, evidently, cannot handle the current amount of discussion)
    2. The volume of Preorders (Ran out of the Pixel Qi variants in hours…)
    I bet, therefore, that they don’t have a sufficient and competent support team either, which is my main concern.
    The legalities, Terms and Conditoins are very vague and probably illegal. They changed it 3 times in the first few hours, how can they expect me to Accept such terms and conditions which say that the right to change terms and conditions remains with them!?
    The expensive shipping, even for their home market, is a HUGE turn off, it promised to be cheaper alternative to the iPad, just another broken promise.
    Now I see they aren’t even registered in the CES?

    I honestly don’t know what to say, but best of luck Rohan… I await your weekend special, and if it disappoints (skeptcial if it even arrives) then this goes of my Bookmarks

  2680. Wow!!!

    I just emailed NI with a question regarding my order and the reply was nearly instantaneous!!!
    I am impressed!!! This bodes well for future after sales support.

    cheers!

  2681. Maybe they are, I’ve just received my NI pre order confirmation mail (where they specify about the 3G and the charger) 🙂

  2682. Karthikeyan, will all due respect and fairness, nobody has used a commercial version of Adam, so Adam is more of a spec, right now, until it is commercially available for people to use it. iPad, on the other hand, is a real product that is already available, so your comparison is inappropriate. Now I am not saying that Adam may not deliver, but please let us wait for a fair comparison – it is too early to compare them as of now.

  2684. I’m not Greg, but I want to share my experience. I followed the blogs for some month, didn’t wrote on anything on it, so did not get an invite by mail. I in Holland and went to their site in the early morning Friday the 10th. Pushed the re-order button made the choice (Qi+3G) pushed buy, filled in the form, did the credit card details and had the confirmation mail, all within 10 minutes. No delays, no hick-up’s went very smoothly.

    Can’t wait now to get my own Adam

  2685. all the old faces are back, it seems the hype died down. this is good for you guys ( the poster) but i suppose it is not so good for NI.

  2687. Rohan

    i’m sorry for your set back. i truly wish you luck in the future, i was one of the unlucky ones who stayed up 40 hours trying to get my order in. i tried 30+ times on multiple computers, i even called my cc company to pre-approve you, but i missed out. this only goes show how much NI and your adam is loved. so as i said before good luck. i hope one day your adam will available at my local bestbuy and it becomes there best selling item ever.

  2689. @ruben
    You were able to pre order? Congrats 🙂 I never got the family e-mail even though i was promised one (just like alot more like me).
    I guess I Have to wait until they are able to produce more PixelQi. :/

  2693. agree 100%.
    Best buy or Radio Shack in US..(definitely not Walmart 🙂 )

    Google Nexus One failed in US because of no retail availability(they fixed it with Nexus S). Most customers here want to feel the device before they buy them. So get a retail partner ASAP

  2694. I totally agree with Greg! However, I prefer to wait after CES and some reviews. Mostly because I can’t miss the money right now.

    People forget it’s a startup. Would you buy a apple I pc from a guy named steve who sold them from his garage…. and you even had to put it together yourself?

  2695. Guys,

    I think Rohan did not deny that there is room for improvement. I am sure that NotionInk will have a look at the different issues mentioned in this blog: T&C’s, shipping, taxes etc.

    There is a lot of noise here regarding the pricing (OneGlobal Price), shipping costs (globally $50) and surprising additional costs (taxes).

    Let me share my thoughts:

    I live in Switzerland and because we are seen as “rich” country, we ALWAYS pay prime. I give you some examples: Apple iPad (64GB, WiFi/3G) costs in the US $829.- (incl. shipping). The same products costs in my country US$ 1’068.- (incl. shipping) These are the prices from the official Apple store. This is an uplift of 30%!!!

    Other example: Bose Lifestyle V35 US price = $2’969.- In Switzerland they are still selling the older and smaller model V35 for $6’597.- a gap of 220%!!!

    And NO: We don’t have a luxury tax here run by the country.

    Shipping costs: Yes, there might be room for improvement. Maybe by using a global acting reseller like Amazon??? But this could then also have an impact on the OneGlobal Price strategy. They might ask for more margin to cover the shipping costs, because such things are never free. Stop dreaming. They have to make money. So it’s normally calculated into the product price. So for me: the current model is transparent. I know what the product costs globally for everybody and I know exactly what are the shipping costs. Maybe NotionInk could have a multi-tier contract for shipping with DHL? So they could negotiate better pricing for the main markets?

    Taxes: I ordered many items through Amazon already. But because Amazon is operating the Swiss market out of Germany, I always have to pay extra taxes on delivery. So what’s the advantage here? For me, the taxes are not a bad surprise, I already calculated this in my budget.

  2696. good logic! and such detail analysis is a such a welcome respite.

    I agree with all your observations. And the gist I get is that : NI is RAW and unpolished. AND your EXPECTATION from them was HUGE (credit goes to their passion and vision).

    What I want to add here is that: they never intend to topple anyone. Its just bloggers/ naive tech medias who put forward the suggestion of “Ipad Killer” and “world dominance”. They wanted to start with an achievable target and then expand – their market and their implementation of vision.

    IMHO my diagnosis is : Too much overzealous expectation from NI. A cry from all for an impossible level of professionalism. Everyone here felt an exaggeration that from the fantastic specs, NI is a BIG BOY with vision of global dominance and IT has to be TRUE.

    Lets go through the sequence of events:
    1. we shouted website —- NI had to put up one (oh yes its was a frenzy from fans/addicts). All signs of a hurried job were there. Instead of looking from that angle, the analysis went to lack of text editors etc.

    2. we shouted availability time—— NI had to come up with a new timeline (Rohan was waiting for the FCC clearance, at the same time wanted to maintain the BUZZ). So took a safe calculation and put up codes for countdown. (it could have meant info, preorders, launch date announcement…. many possibilties)

    3. Such was the frenzy for preorders, NI and Rohan also got into it. countdown for pre-orders. (were they ready? They thought the commonly done “arrangement” will suffice).

    4.we shouted Special treat for family: —- Rohan had to agree, since declining will result into disappointments. Again sign of hurried jobs. Reality- the list was BIG but manageable. But problem was “exclusion” (there were lift from very early Facebook, notionaddicts, blog viewers). difficult logistics.

    5. Our demand caught them unaware. They were not expecting this much. And they had no experience to handle this, and neither the manpower.

    6. last minute problem about card logistics. Now cannot change the timeline because it will result into HYSTERIA.

    7. NI got burned – learning a huge mistake. “EXTERNAL factors not in their hands play a big role”

    8. All this time we tend to forget — that their for-most concentration of efforts was on the software, update, bug fixes, beta test, gingerbread to name a few)

    10. We also FORGET THAT THESE PEOPLE were working with few hours of sleep. The built up stress may have played a factor for the various errors, misjudement , assessment.

    11. We tend to forget, among us, posing as fans, are people ready to steal their efforts. A leak of SDK , or elements now…. may pose some obstacles (@dev had spoken of intellectual property). But the frenzy of more info, UI, Video fed exponentially.

    I feel we should let go “our” expectation from NI and ourselves, so that NI can be saved. Otherwise we will kill their innocence, effort, vision to do something different and fresh. Let them start small at their pace and build up their reputation. Lets stop expecting services of “BIG BOYS” from them.

    At the brighter side : NI should be happy that the demand is phenomenal. So IF they improve, the world will still be theirs!!! My advice to them : DONT run when you dont know how to walk. Dont feed the expectations of people. Let the device speak for itself. Be very wary about the implementation of ecosystem. And off course brush up the management now (since it will be the make/break factor as implied above 🙂 … remind me of firing of Steve from apple :-))

  2697. Cannot help but think Arcticfox is abandoning ship on a maiden pre-order run – not knowing where he/she is going to land.

    Hopefully Arcticfox has/will find investors with deep pockets.

  2698. @articfox your post was full of wisdom and infact i think NI must seriously consider the points u have raised and alos by many others.

    after reading you post, nishit, prema, sri, himanshu and sowmya (who has been a following this blog since its inception if iam correct) and being a indian staying in india i will wait till adam hits the retail shelf , orelse iam worried adam might cost me somewhere around 1200us$ and maybe more if it arrives dod. thanx for your contribution on this blog

  2699. If any body interested in Japan, since i have ordered from Japan, the tax scheme is like this

    Duty: 5%, if the item cost is less than 100, 000 JPY (100 U.S. dollars = 8400 Japanese yen)

    and consumption tax- 5%

    So at least looks like 10%. which means for example the basic version cost will be 375+50 DHL+37.5=462.5 USD

    i dont know DHL will charge anything extra or not.

    i used this site h##p: //www.customs.go.jp/english/summary/tariff.htm

  2700. Hi Rohan
    When can we book Pixel Qi LCD again?
    I did not get a per-order mail so I had no opportunity to per-order, although I have participated in the blog.
    It is sad that it went wrong with as many as it appears here on the blog.
    What do you call an ADAM? … a computer? a GPS or? It is very important because there are very different customs and taxes to pay?

    Aside from these small mistakes, I think it’s been very exciting to follow Notion Ink in the development of Adam since I heard / saw the new thing called ADAM on youtube in 2009.

    Hope you choose to produce more with Pixel Qi in the future so they do not get sold out so fast 😉

    Regards
    Henrik (Denmark)

  2702. I did have issue first time around and I am sure its not NI or CCAvenue issue but my Bank/Card issue as its an AMEX from a non-AMEX institution. I have faced that problem before and I believed that it wouldn’t occur. But I was wrong.

    Finally I tried with a regular VISA card an yes I didn’t use my privilege email and did exactly @Ben did and yes I got mine.

    What NI needs to do for Launch is simple

    1. Server Capacity Planning – extremely important
    1a. Investigate why emails diddn’t go to yahoo/hotmai/in.com etc folks. Someone mentioned about RBL. It could also be pro/anti-weakleaks actions that might prevent mass emailing.
    2. Improve Order page and site in general (I agree that a good English always attract attention and respect naturally)
    3. MasterCard and if possible PayPal payment option should be in place.
    4. Release SDK so that developers have something ready for ADAM (I am sure EAP work will be in some shape by then)
    5. Open developer forum on the website.
    (4 and 5 will further boost the credibility which is important for general public)
    6. Have payment option on their own website rather then on CCAvenue (I am sure ccavenue provides that integration. This will need HTTPS also)
    7. Post videos, photos and precise specs (esp. specs should be passed to GSM Arena like sites can be provided with these so that it puts their product on regular customer research site)
    (I am looking forward to 18th)

    Personally, Nothing that Rohan post would be sufficient for me. I can never get enough of ADAM until I have it my hands.

  2703. I also have received my pre order email confirmation from Notion Ink. It said if you ordered 3 g they would send the proper 3 g equipped device and charger based on the country you ordered from….

  2704. I think it’s more from the “texting shorthand” than from improper English. Texting is changing how we spell & eventually it will probably become the new English. IMO

  2705. @ sowmya ,and himanshu.
    you and himanshu are following this blog maybe longer then me but since himanshu has pointed so nicely how we indians could actually pay more . like you all iam waiting for adam to hit retail chains that way i think warranty and all such issues if they arise would be taken care off , what do yiu and also himanshu think of this ?????

  2706. I did not receive the the so called family email, but was fortunate enough to get an order successfully placed during the open for all time period.

  2707. For those that think this is vaporware a quick look at the pixelqi.com page should alleviate your concerns. Unless of course you think pixelqi is also vapor in which case you are too far gone in paranoia to help.

  2708. Unfortunately I can’t wait for 3 months more (most probably the PixelQi versions will become available in January or Feb, with delivery in March.
    As for the LCD version, are many other alternatives on market, even cheaper.
    As I am so disappointed with what append here (as i applie for EAP I got promise to get a 2 weeks advance pre-order option which did not came, and also the family email not) I started now to look for alternatives devices, which are already on market, and with a bit of luck I might have one before Christmas (as initial expected availability of ADAM), but not in March!

  2710. Notion Ink, for the love of money, don’t you think it is high time you put a FAQ page on your website?

  2711. Unfortunately I can’t wait for 3 months more (most probably the PixelQi versions will become available in January or Feb, with delivery in March.
    As for the LCD version, are many other alternatives on market, even cheaper.
    As I am so disappointed with what append here (as i applied for EAP I got promise to get a 2 weeks advance pre-order option which did not came, and also the family email not) I started now to look for alternatives devices, which are already on market, and with a bit of luck I might have one before Christmas (as initial expected availability of ADAM), but not in March!

  2713. A quick update on this. I received an email today confirming that the 3G variant would be based purely on country it is being shipped to. While I do not 100% agree with this automatic assignment of frequency to the country (someone in the US might be buying a gift for someone in Europe), at least I know I will be getting the US variant.

  2714. @Soumya,

    I gleaned through your blog and it was very interesting. You are into Game theory, Creative and technical writing, Poetry and lot of other things. I am impressed. Your English seems very polished and on occasions better than the native speakers/writers. Keep up the good work lady!

  2715. I would like to thank everyone who has posted well thought out counter arguments to all the negative hype and people shouting “Scam!” I have been following NI for about 8 months now and was and am very excited now that the pre-orders are up. I had my doubts when everything fell apart on the pre-order day. I ordered mine the next day anyway, I would like to ignore all the “bad press” that has show up in the last few days. It is hard however to have it not get to you. That is why I am very grateful to all of you who are posting in support of NI. Lets stand together and continue supporting the NI team, it will all be worth it when we get our Adams and the company takes off and gets to make its global foot print.

  2716. @Jak3

    Thanks for yor kind comments. I too hope Rohan can learn from the many good comments many people have made which provide sensible advice on how to recover the situation. Regarding no longer “pinging” the site – I would urge that you keep looking at it, if only because this is proving to be one of the best “learn how to/how not to do business” experiences you could ever hope to get! For all I know I now have no intention of purchasing anything from NI for the forseeable future, I am intrigued to see how this all pans out. I hope I too will learn some more good lessons from this ongoing saga. I hope, even, to witness the transformation of Rohan from passionate, eloquent dreamer to gifted business leader. Here’s hoping!

  2717. @Paritosh

    +1000
    Nice breakups.

    However why do I get the feeling these IIT guys are not low in IQs? And we had a play in their disastrous event(s)?

  2718. http
    ://pixelqi.com/blog1/2010/12/11/notion-ink-tablet-with-pixel-qi-screen-sells-out/

    Notion Ink Tablet with Pixel Qi screen sells out
    by mary_lou_jepsen on December 11th, 2010

    Notion Ink started pre-orders of its tablet with the Pixel Qi screen yesterday and sold out or the version with our screen within an hour. see here and here.

    Rest assured Notion Ink is ordering a lot more screens from us!

    Thank you all for your interest and support of both Notion Ink and Pixel Qi.

    – Mary Lou

  2720. Nvidias Tesla products are a completely different set of products than what goes into Adam and other tablets. They are heavy duty graphics cards made for doing massive calculations in a server/business environment and weigh several pounds each.

  2721. Rohan,
    I think you have now learned (through practical experience) something I’ve known for a long time.

    “Technical solutions are easy. It’s everything else that’s hard.”

  2724. Just the one? I ended up with 15 and assumed it was just a glitch.

    Rohan, did I get 15? Is that why it sold out so fast?

  2725. @rohan: waiting for your weekly post .. 🙂

    ..some people are just frustrated and thats why those angry reactions, because they cant be able to order their adam for various reasons…but that doesn’t mean they don’t trust adam .. all this is part of product development and distribution cycle…so NI team don’t loose your heart,take all these reactions and harsh comments with good spirit and move to right direction….
    if your product and intentions are good nothing can stop you..

    we still love you and trust you..

  2726. @bruce

    The IIT guys are new techies with a vision. Which is good. But it helps to have a little help from someone experienced in handling non-techie issues.

    cheers!

  2728. Why not integrate a cost calculator in the online shop that shows all the costs? Would help to give full transparency.

    Products: XXX
    Shipping: XXX
    Taxes: XXX
    ——————-
    Total XXX
    =========

    You simply need a tax calculator with the values for all the countries. I am sure this community can help you.

    I am still convinced that the GlobalPricing has overall advantages. I believe, that local retailers will just hide the administrative costs (such as shipping and taxes) in the product costs and just put some extra margin on top of that. Also, through multiple currency conversions, the end customer will pay more.

    You just need to make sure, everybody understands what are the total costs.

  2729. @Cameron and others with multiple confirmation emails,
    It is just the NI email server acting up again. It just keeps retrying to send an email if a receipt confirmation is not received. It’s OK. just quirky.

  2730. @arcticfox very succinct post. I’m surprised though that the Adam is the only tablet that will fit your requirements. I know its the most interesting one out there at least for me but for most people I would think that the standout items are the PQ screen + software.

    Just out of interest I calculated what I expected the final cost of an imported Adam would be to the UK. Assuming a duty rate of 5%, VAT at 20% and a DHL import charge of 2.5% the total cost came of PQi Wifi tablet came to £450 which is about $715 nearly 50% more than the price shown at checkout. The basic iPad is £420 here so it’s not a cheap option by any means!

  2732. @artictfox
    Interesting way of looking at it, and cheers to that..
    Here’s hoping
    PS: Sorry for the double post. I forgot that the “reply” was acting up and didn’t really address my previous post to anyone.

  2734. @bruce
    >And we had a play in their disastrous event(s)?

    Self pity> that’s the last thing u can think of. in fact the blog has been suggesting.. asking them to hire a native speaker, make their Website smooth, make more videos etc which were legitimate queries and suggestions.. infact as some suggested here, none in the blog asked for ‘advancement’ of preorder, i guess all of us were pretty sure of CES… infact we were surprised and we were speculating on what the binary counter was and what it could indicate….

    They are smart people, they know what they are doing, i dont think so they got carried away ( i suppose not)… Its time for them to introspect and they will find out the answers … as always said Speculations can kill !

  2735. @Cameron, I sent an email to their support team and got 14 copies of their reply.

    @arcticfox. very true, this is proving to be an invaluable real-time lesson in how to take (or how not to) a once in a blue moon highly anticipated product and to launch (or something like that); fascinating actually, irrespective of the outcome. You’re not going to get this with an Apple launch and nothing from any other start-up has generated this sort of buzz and following to my knowledge.
    I think this could be a great case study for business schools dealing in entrepreneurship.

  2736. u might want to search the posts.. there is some cost that DHL will charge during delivery..
    kindly check for the post by Himanshu or sri…

  2737. I haven’t read the replies on your post, I also don’t know how to make smiley faces with big eyes.
    But imagine big eyed smiley faces when I read :
    “One being the Indian customs which can easily charge up to 58% of import duties.”.

    Really? That is terrible.
    Even Dutch customs aren’t that bad.

    I feel for you man.

    Greetz.

    Daryl.

  2738. @Himanshu

    In the scenario you have proposed A and B are either individual transactions at specific individual pricing ($50 and $200) or they are part of a majority that conceivably are getting a discounted price as well (for example $40 for the majority of customers). That possibility could exist in this case and would serve as a convenience for all customers of this product in evaluating their landed cost.

    DHL benefits from a standard price for this volume transaction in that their pickup personnel and terminal staff will not need additional verification of pricing, as daily shipments are picked up from the source.

    Just my opinion.

  2739. My entire purchasing process was smooth. When dealing with a highly-specialized group of professionals whose passion is their trade (e.g. technology, medicine, etc.) and they truly seem to enjoy sharing that passion with people, you should expect that the one area that may be incompletely addressed is how they plan to exchange money with their customers. I get the impression that Rohan would probably enjoy giving away his products for free, but that’s just not how things work.
    You guys who are upset with the preorder process SHOULD continue to wait so that the rest of us, some of whom understand how hard it is to start and run your own major company, can have our tablets sooner. Everyone wins there. Soon enough, we will all be on the same page that we can invest in this company that has a tremendous future. Keep up the good work, NI, and thanks for paying attention to your critics.

  2740. @articfox – While your points are valid and I agree with many of them, I am afraid I must call BS on on your pedigree and ethos. Someone as experienced and in such a high position, as you claim, would never invest your “limited resources” in an unknown entity; not when their product isn’t truly revolutionary.

    You speak of the Adam transforming IT, but we all know it is just a high spec’d tablet. Seriously, the only differentiating feature is the Pixel Qi screen. The rest of the spec’s are already out there; albeit not all combined, yet.

    Perhaps you are awed at the skinning ability and Android apps that Notion Ink has demonstrated via Photoshop mock-ups. I don’t know. Regardless, neither of these are themselves revolutionary or new. Maybe you should head over to XDA and see what developers have ALREADY been doing to Android.

    If you are who you say, then you would have cultivated contacts with more established providers such as, Samsung, HP, even Apple to work with. I know, because I too was in business. Even at the small cap size of +/- 100 employees, we would NEVER source components via retail! It was always done B2B and never B2C. The only time we ran to a retailer, like Staples, was if the Office Manager forgot to place the order for ink and toner. We certainly would never have stepped into a Best Buy, Target or ordered our systems from Newegg.com; let alone an unknown and unproven entity in another country. THAT is business.

    The same goes for whoever it was claiming earlier that they were prepping a roll-out of Adam’s to 10,000 employees.

    I may be behind a monitor, but I can smell BS coming through my back-lighting!

  2741. Im sure there is a reason for everything they do and we have to have some trust in these people. I not only pre-ordered the device but I believe in this company enough to take the time to start up a full blown online community for it. Give me a week and the community will be up and running for everyone.

    http://www.notioninkhacks.com/

  2742. PRE-ORDER EMAIL
    More elegant solution would have been – asking people register for an account on Notion Ink web site. And based on the email address that the users registered with they could have allowed only the “members” to pre-order in the first 6 hours. applied discounts to logo creators’ accounts, etc. The other benefit with this method is the ability to collect a lot of customer information that would be very important for marketing purposes.

    COMMUNICATION
    As I suggested earlier, twitter is the ideal choice for sending quick real time updates, not blog posts. Also Disqus or Livefyre plug in for comments on the blog would have made it much easier to follow comments.

    PAYMENT
    I did not have any problem. I agree that google checkout and paypal would have made things easier for some users. I am not happy that they charge the credit card immediately after you place the order – at least a month before they start the shipping process.

    ABOUT VIDEOS, SPECS, etc
    Actually I think withholding some information about the device is okay (and they don’t have to provide a video that everyone is asking for) However they should have communicated it properly. I also assumed that there will be some sort of press conference where they would announce the details before taking the pre-orders. However I would have be satisfied if they had announced some thing like this – “We will be formally launching Adam at CES and will be revealing all the details only at that time…in the meantime, we would like to offer the Notion Ink “family” the option to book the device early by pre-ordering…”

    EAP
    Not sending EAP developers the first batch of tablets as promised is a major red flag…hope they clarify this immediately .

  2743. @VV

    Very true. I am an ocassional guest speaker/lecturer at a UK university’s Engineering Busines Management course – I reckon there is a lot of interesting material here!! Note to self – capture some of the best bits onto Evernote for a later date….

  2746. can you please confirm if this retail presence is only for India or for US / Europe as well?

  2747. I’ve decided to hold out till CES to see the feedback (and what other OEMs are offering). At least then there will be at least one video from Rohan (next week) and the possibilty of blogs to review it.

    But then I don’t want to wait so long. With no news on when the pixel qi is available again, I feel like jumping boats to the galaxy tab 😦 I think its the only good android tablet out there from a major brand

    Please make me want an adam again by giving us solid dates of when the pixel qi will be back, more videos/pics and reviews from external sources (yes, send them one to gain some traffic)

  2748. well i have to make a decision based on several parameters that concerns me

    I would kindly ask you to look at your own parameters and make your decisions based on the information you have,..

    My needs, my use case scenarios, my present and near future financial conditions…(my grad school starts only next sem; i need to save up some money for the next 2 yrs; and i know ADAM will be the best choice)
    Based on this and the information i have obtained on the costs incurred ordering online and the fact that i have to anyways wait for the next 6 to 8 weeks to expect another shipment – i am going to wait till it hits the retail stores.

  2749. Finally, it seems the emotions have calmed down! Looking forward to NI learning from their mistakes.

  2750. (sorry i am posting it again, WordPress has started to mess up)

    @raviraaj

    well i have to make a decision based on several parameters that concerns me

    I would kindly ask you to look at your own parameters and make your decisions based on the information you have,..

    My needs, my use case scenarios, my present and near future financial conditions…(my grad school starts only next sem; i need to save up some money for the next 2 yrs; and i know ADAM will be the best choice)
    Based on this and the information i have obtained on the costs incurred ordering online and the fact that i h

  2751. I did notice this as well and looked up the exhibitors list and didnt see them listed. Sometimes however i have seen companys will not register to be on the list of attendees and instead meet the press at hotels and such. For some companies its not worth the expense to pay for a booth, especially if they can get the press to come to their hotel.

  2752. With all the discussions about impression going on around, I though I would share my own opinions.

    Iron only gets harder when treated in a fire. It is through these mistakes and obstacles that NI is going to learn its way to the top. For me, it was a very smooth process of ordering it, unlike many other fellow followers of the blog. Having had an experience in the CC business for sometime, I know how the ‘fraudulent activity’ works. A large transaction from a foreign country all of a sudden can easily raise that flag.

    It takes time to iron out problems and we should not expect magic from NI. It is led by people like us who work day in and day out to get a product out that we can be proud of. And that is commendable. It is human nature to make mistakes and so is to complain when they happen. I think we should try to reduce both and keep moving, together.

    Hope the ADAM gets shipped soon and I can play with the device that I have waited for more than a year now.

  2753. Customs duty calculation for India using the DHL website:

    Shipment Value: 499.45
    Transportation Charges: 45.00 (assumption)
    Insurance Charges: 5.00 (assumption)
    Total Estimated Fees: 89.08 (INR 4454 @Rs.50, INR 4008.6 @Rs.45)
    Total Estimated Landed Cost: 638.53 (USD)
    The above considers the Adam to be an laptop (portable automatic data processing machine with weight less than 10kg and containing a CPU, keyboard and display) under HS codes 8471.30.10 (IN) and 8471.30.00 (CN), importing and exporting, respectively.

    Of course, the assessment of the Adam as a laptop would be incorrect as it does not have a keyboard, but the duties turned out to be the same for other sub-codes as well.

    So now my Adam would cost me Rs.27,472 + Rs.4,250 + VAT + Octroi, and I don’t think it would sum up to less than Rs.36,000 ($720 @ Rs.50, $800 @ Rs.45 – the same price as a decent, lightweight LED-backlit laptop and much more expensive than the lower-end iPads.

    It would be just slightly cheaper than the Galaxy Tab and slightly more expensive than the Dell Streak at current street prices.

    Of course, it gives me the Tegra 2 chip and the Pixel Qi display, which is a combination that is not available anywhere else. However, at such a price, it will not remain such a sweet deal, especially in early 2011.

  2754. Hope that Rohans recent absence is a sign that he’s hard at work, but I hope he’s atleast reading through the comments. Some very valuable words have been put up

  2755. PRE ORDER EMAIL
    I think it was done this way to push the blog into the top 5

    EAP
    Did the phase-I EAP guys get the tablets? I thought only phase-II people have not.

  2756. Details:

    ADDITIONAL_CUSTOMS_DUTY 24.56
    EDUCATION_CESS 1.88
    CESS_ON_CVD 1.66
    LANDING_CHARGES 5.49
    COUNTERVAILING_DUTY 55.49
    DUTY 0
    Total

    From the DHL website.

  2757. Any news on a the next possible date to order a PixelQ version (with Mastercard in place this time)??

  2758. ok wanted to have a look at the T&Cs so i went on to order the lcd version and it looks like they have been tweaking the input fields but my postcode for UK is not accepted…. more bugs

  2759. @Raviraj Well Sowmya is following this blog for long and contributing much significantly than me.

    My decision has come out of plain economics. Considering the estimated final price that I have to pay for PixelQi, I don’t have such deep pockets right now to afford one. I will wait till adam hits retail stores in India where I believe that prices will be cheaper than what they are now(including all costs).

    Saying that I still have the firm belief in NI and adam and I still feel that Rohan will deliver a world class product rectifying all the business side problems that are existing currently. I will patiently wait for adam as it’s because of adam that I have somehow find a excuse to fabricate a need of tablet in my life.

  2761. I am also in this category – participated but no preorder email. I’ve had a n800 for the last 3 or 4 years and one thing I would really like is to be able to use it outside… So no Pixel Qi is a deal breaker here.

  2763. I wrote to the preorder support email address regarding a mistake I had made in the shipping address and I got a response within 4 hours. This is great. I also got a confirmation email on the order from Notion Ink. Great job NI.

  2764. Excellent news – I had this “feeling” that service will ramp up.

    Keep it up Notion Ink.

  2765. Does anyone know what kind of LCD screen NI use? Viewing angles? etc.
    I am interested in the Pixel Qi screen but can’t justify the 30% added cost.
    Thanks.

  2766. Nice to know people are getting responses for their emails. Will help in a long way to win the trust back!

  2768. It seems the Countervailing Duty (CVD) of USD 55.49 is being levied just because the import is from China. I don’t know if the world imports any significant quantity of consumer electronics from other geographies any longer.

  2769. I am really disappointed that I could not order one though I wanted the first Indian piece for myself!!! I have not received any emails but I went to the site and tried.

    System did not accept my card and my NetBank; by the time I realized I can use other options, it ran out of stock!!!

    I am looking at responses in various places (Androidpolice et….) and I am trying my best to make people understand NI will deliver as promissed.

    People lamenting about perfect pre-order launch from an Indian based young techie organization without much support (in terms of investment and business strategy) is really amazing! They probably may not know difficulties in envisaging product ideas in one place, getting manufactured in another country, distributed worldwide and funded by someone. It is really insane some of them start comparing with well established, cash rich 20 years old organizations.

    I am sure NI also quietly benefited from bad-press one way or the other but that does not mean NI shall not take feedback in a positive stride, especially on TCs and shipping policies and amend them appropriately.

  2770. That should put to rest, I hope, the moronic speculation that’s been rife on this blog that Rohan is a scam-artist and Adam is just photoshop renders with nothing behind it. Steve Jobs may have had his early trials, but Rohan & Co. are going thru the trials of Job, to continue the biblical theme. Chin up, Notion Ink. Eyes on the prize!

  2771. Yes, a meeting room just off the floor is a quick way to be escorted off the premises. It happened to many potential exhibitors in 2010 who who thought they could get away with not paying for the booth. CES has gotten very aggressive and booting people from official hotels who are not exhibitors. The meeting rooms at official hotels are only for exhibitors, and the hotels sign contracts with CES before becoming an official hotel. The people who come to CES don’t gamble as much, and so, are compensated for being an official hotel. But, those private rooms don’t bring any money to CEA (organizer). Search for CES evict dailytech for some information about what happened this year.

  2774. I don’t see why any Indian should be surprised at what happened. Businesses in India rarely take customers seriously. Somehow there seems to be a belief that hype and advertising (Indian advertising industry is pretty good) is a substitute for a product or service. Harassing customers is quite normal in India. NI hasn’t done anything different.

    I was a keen follower of NI till the communication from the company became almost frivolous. The CEO playing cutesy games of ‘guess the feature’ and writing poetry?? A haphazard website that did not inform (the usual answer was: ‘Oh I mentioned it four times on the blog’ … No sir, blogs are not places for product specifications). And a bunch of fanatic sycophants ready to pounce on anyone who ever dared to question what NI was doing. The whole mood became similar to that of a cult where anyone who differed was made to feel unwanted (sorry, I want to be a customer of NI, not family. I have one of my own.).

    In the end, Rohan and NI need to decide what they want to be. A cult or a business who want to be taken seriously. And Rohan, more than others needs to decide if he wants to become a Messiah or Guru or a real tech visionary. If flattery is what he likes and encourage, sycophants will be run and eventually ruin his company.

    I just feel sad. I had so much hope. I had persuaded so many to wait for Adam. Now, I am more inclined to wait for a real business to build something similar.

  2775. @ Little al Well I am not able to understand what you meant to convey by the last two lines in the first paragraph.

    And If you happen to see the whole conversation, I presented a hypothetical case scenario where many customers can be at loss. And if such is the case there will be many customers(which in this case are charged more than usual) who want to know a solid reason why their money is being used to subsidize others.

    And if you read Rohan’s post, I think it’s a decision made by NotionInk to charge a universal fee from customers and DHL will charge usual price from NI (in this case the real shipping price). I cannot expect DHL to sign a deal to go for a universal price all over the world before knowing the the actual amount of order from different countries in advance.That’s doesn’t make business sense to me(if chunk of order happens to be from Russia then??).
    Even NI was not aware of actual demand before this pre-order) .

    Saying that I have already mentioned in my earlier posts too that It seems an innocuous decision made by Notionink(without any biased motives at all) based on their business logic which will make some of the customers happy and some sad.

  2776. NI Investors and Board Members,
    This is a time to back your CEO Rohan. Please don’t play any blame game instead do a root cause analysis and come out with the solution. I have worked in Indian company in India and Indian owned company in USA and both time I see a lack of management trust for people who are not following a set ways of working and extreme politics to kill any revolutionary initiatives. Where in the world you see so much anguish for a company’s single misstep. See it is much more a sign of how beloved the whole process of open communication has been. I agree that Rohan & co need some course correction but please don’t kill this open dialogue. If you see negative comments in this blog and even sarcastic comments take them in your stride and make adjustments. I don’t know about others but I love you guys with my all heart. World is not as unforgiving as it may seem at the moment. Now Rohan do your magic and come out on top.

    With all the love, luck and best wishes,
    An ardent supporter

  2777. For a lot of people worried about that the fact that they did not receive a order confirmation from NotionInk directly – here is the email i received today..

    Dear XXXX

    Greetings from Notion Ink Support Team!
    We heartily congratulate you for being one among the first owners of ADAM. Kindly take a note of your order details.

    Shipping Address:-
    XXXXXXXXX

    Amount Transacted: 549.00
    Order Number: XXXXXXX
    Registered Email Id: XXXXXX@gmail.com
    We have successfully received your order, your adam will be shipped as per the timelines indicated at the time of order. If you ordered for 3G models, we will send the one as per the country specified in your shipping address along with the compatible charger.

    Please quote your Order Number & use your registered email address for all communications. For any assistance write to preordersupport@notionink.com

    Regards,

    Notion Ink Support Team

  2779. I got my pre-order confirmation just recently (besides the one from ccavenue).. It was well worded and had the details right (slight formatting problem with the address. they tagged part of my phone number to the end).. I see this as a positive step.

    @arcticfox I doubt that it is advisable for an enterprise to invest (as you say you have) in an unproven product.. that sounds strange. I am a hobbyist/researcher/programmer and as long as I get the thing in working order I am happy (i.e not DOA). At the end of the day, if a startup company is not sincere all the legalese isnt going to be of much use to the end user.

  2780. Did anyone ever find out how much internal storage the Adam ships with? Is it 8 GB?

    Thanks,

  2781. I like a number of bloggers have shown my trust in NI and ordered one, but trust is a two thing. With all the adverse publicity I would have thought that today off all days we would have had a weekly update. I have no doubt, that at NI headquarters, there is some debate taking place as to just what should be posted,but leaving us high an dry I do not think is acceptable. Even if all we get is an indication that one will be posted,but delayed is better than nothing at all.

  2782. @rohan
    hope u and co r doing fine……i think u should be happy about all the buzz created around our adam…..u know we have a world class product…..in future everytin will be far better than now…….what ever happened is for the good…..just be happy that all the piqi were sold out…..I also didnt get the pre order mail …still i have no hard feelings……u did more than what u promised ,i really never expected a preorder on 9th just wanted know the complete features along with mystery feature…..e……That too just bcoz of curiosity….want to see a huge release od adam…….and u explained what happened exactly ..for me and many others that is the most important thing……adam will be a great product ,I am sure…….

    truly speaking I have never read a book completely but i find time to go through all the comments, i like it

    warm regards,
    Ajesh

  2784. I hope NI takes your hard, but essentially fair, criticism to heart even as they, especially those around Rohan, do not get disheartened by your dire prognosis. My only quibble is with your use of ‘Emperor’. They are not Emperors yet. When Alexander of Macedon invaded India, he was 30 years old. Rohan and his band are in the mid twenties. I give them 5 years. I hope their investors at least give them 6 months.

  2785. @James

    Sorry, only just spotted your post (wordpress is doing a great job of shuffling things around!)

    Consider yourself signed up, my friend!! Now would you like to buy my spare money-tree seeds, or can we take it as read that you are beyond that particular lesson ??!!

  2786. Where’s the Saturday post? Have been waiting all day !!!
    Come on Rohan, get out of the funk and post !!!

  2787. Hey Greg
    I am still a little disappointed I never received an email invite and have posted for quite a while. I wasn’t able to preorder the Pixel Qi that I wanted and so now hope that I can get an order in when they are restocked. I was wondering if you will do a big post in Jan when you get your adam and use it for a while about the ups and downs of it.

    Thanks
    Derek

  2788. @Arcticfox Well Even I will love to have your email id. If in future I happen to embark on any self-started stuff(may be of any minuscule level :)), I would love to take some words of wisdom from you.And as requested earlier, if you happen to think loud(via blog,website etc) let me know.

  2790. NI,

    I would like to suggest you create a waiting queue/list of all the folks who would like to buy the PixelQ version of adam when it is available. You can communicate via an eamil a day or two prior to them being available so that we get the chance to order it.

    That will help people like me who missed the window to order adam with Pixel Q and 3G.

    Thanks

    Srini

  2791. Hey guys, do I have news for you!

    I received a call just now from someone at a decision making level from Notion Ink, who was very kind to explain that for customers based in India, all local taxes would be absorbed by them, and we would be asked to pay only the customs duty and related handling expenses as charged.

    This means that the effective exchange rate is not Rs.50 as feared earlier. Notion Ink has kept up to its promise of giving us a very competitive product, and I can also tell you that they love to hear our voice.

    Now after all this vituperative, we find that it was mostly unnecessary, and I no longer wish to cancel my purchase. I wish NI had all statutory matters fully wrapped up and tied, so that they could tell us clearly about such things, but I guess we will have to wait till the full launch.

    All of this could have been avoided with a little bit more care, but then what is past is past.

  2794. @nishit
    happy to know that !
    so what does your final figures look like

    >I can also tell you that they love to hear our voice.

    u made me laugh 😉

  2796. Wow I did not know a phone call can make such a drastic change in one’s opinion in a minute time :). Congrats Nishit. It’s good you did not take any decision in haste.I hope you will not cancel your order and I hope you will be one of the first guys to post a hands on review here in this blog.Will wait for one from your side.

  2797. @Sowmya – pull up a chair!!

    And the first lesson is …..

    …. when your stomach says it is time for dinner, it probably is!! I’m off to trudge through the snow and grab a quick bite – will be back to see how it is all panning out later!

  2798. Has it been said how long it will take before we see the Adam in common retail stores or even at places like Amazon?

  2799. @arcticfox, excellent, i think i will go ahead and buy the 30 day course (standard here in the UK) using my mastercard!

  2800. Customs has its own logic. I think NI could take an advance ruling, but then who knows what that would turn out to be.

    I can also tell you that they are working overnight to reply to everybody’s emails, which doesn’t mean that we can request our favourite colour again.

  2802. @Nishit
    i quite didn’t understand….but i just wanna know so much would you be spending from your pocket

    more than that u seem to be on excited over receiving a call 😉

  2804. No, but even now I wouldn’t buy an Apple PC :p

    But on the other end, people bought iPods, iPhones and iPads without even knowing what it was, what it could do and why they should have one.
    In this case I know what the Adam is, I know what it can do and I know I really want one 😉

  2806. It is obvious there is no video because there is no Adam!
    Probably he said December 18th because he is hoping to have an unit in that date.

  2807. Anyone else thinking of trading the “Cult of Adam” for a “Cult of Arcticfox”?

    Don’t you have a hundred million dollar defense project to be preparing for? LOL

  2808. A minor disagreement: nothing “Indian” about the disgust for management; it’s a very geek thing, all geeks hate management or process, it breaks their creative flow. I’m fine with that actually; it’s hard to contain creativity in a strait-jacket.

    There’s obviously some deft deal-making going on behind the scenes; the deal with DHL, for instance, is a clear coup that needs to be commended. Really, shipping directly from Guanzhou is a process-innovation that betters what the established players, Dell excepting perhaps, have; even Apple doesn’t do that, it stocks iPad’s for 2-3 months in its warehouses before letting them out. So there are obvious good ideas in process as well; they clearly have thought about this as well.

    My problem is with attitude more than anything else, in converting good ideas into winning moments. My lecturer used to take this metaphor in college; used to say, assume you’ve prepared this awesome biryani and curry. Except that, before you eat this awesome smelling curry, a bird flies past and drops one teeny drop of its excrement. Just one small drop. Would you have that curry anymore, despite all the effort that went into its preparation? That is the danger that NI faces now, Mr Murphy’s single drop of bird goo on its appetizing curry. You don’t have to be non-Indian or non-geek to appreciate that.

  2809. @Sowmya

    What is not clear to anyone is how much the Customs would decide to charge to each shipment. There are rules related to personal imports of computers and confusing classifications of devices. People’s experience has been that it is usually arbitrary.

    NI could approach the Customs Dept. for an advance ruling for the applicable duty if they were importing and then distributing, but I don’t know if they are planning it at this stage.

    Therefore, for all purposes, my final bill would look like Rs.27,472 + customs duty, CVD, SAD and C&F charges = Rs.30,000-Rs.32,000. This is my estimation.

  2811. Hi Notion Ink Team,

    Bravo to all of you for your terrific work.

    Nothing and no one is perfect, so having some problems in anything as complex as the launch of ADAM is fairly normal to me.

    We all learn as we all make mistakes and errors. And no life path is without troubles. BUT I salut the Notion Ink Team and their amazing hard work to bring us all what I hope to have in my hands in a few weeks: a new way of communicating with ADAM.

    Cheers to all,

    Mary Margaret aka Bajamary
    Chicago, IL
    USA

  2813. Not really appropriate for me to reply to that, and I don’t want to fuel any speculation either. It is just that they are taking our comments, criticism and support seriously enough to make amends where misunderstanding has arisen.

    I did not like their earlier emailed reply, but now that they’ve settled it, I don’t have much to complain about.

  2814. @jim
    words of wisdom carry respect.. no one’s trading anything for the other… A rational mind will always appreciate irrespective of the source.

  2816. He might have taken the flight back from wherever he was posting earlier. I believe he would me making the trips to China to check up on the production setup. I wish he is, in any case.

  2817. @Andrew,

    Great job. Notion Ink will certainly feel that they have not been left on their own and they do have support of people like you to make this venture a success. Your effort is appreciated. I hope in the coming weeks, you will be able to post real videos from reviewers of the newest adam, when they eventually get their adam to hand.

    Until NI gets the FCC/CE certification, they will not be able to ship to the States/Europe. People will have to just wait until they get to hear the good news from Rohan.

    I tried to order but the transaction was declined. When I tried to re-order the one I wanted went off stock.

  2822. Any guesses on when Adam hits the retail stores? (in India)
    I think it might be March/April.

  2823. SO for a PixelQi+wifi +3g it will be around 32-34k as per your calculation.(I thing same has been calculated by Notionaddicts.com too).Thanks

  2824. @Sowmya – Do you really believe the words of wisdom coming from him? He says he was going to use Adam to underpin a $100,000,000.00 defense contract? He preaches about how high the bar is set just to have their bid even considered, YET he was placing such faith in Notion Ink… which is completely against his own advice.

    Either he is an idiot, lying about his job, or lying about using the Adam to “underpin a major drive into the Contractorised Logistics Support business with warious Ministries of Defence.” The truth is it doesn’t matter which one, because all point to BULLSHIT!

    Oh yea, and what is with articfox flaming someone for a spelling mistake, yet he himself doesn’t know the difference between a W and a V. “Warious”??? LOL. Try “Various.” The two keys are not even close to each other. Too funny!

    He is an idiot trolling on the internet and the lot of you are bowing at his feet like he is a business guru. Wake up.

  2825. arcticfox: How much did you say Apple pays you for that executive position?
    You certainly have a good grip on the Queens English my friend, but there are a couple of problems in your diatribe.
    First would be that anyone who has ever done business in the real world should know that you could not get close to the front door of a courtroom economically over a $600.00 item, so the text of the conditions does not really matter. In a real world sense I mean.
    Second, would be the fact that no one but a fool would plan to use a first generation tech device in an enterprise application. Good luck with that.
    I for one wish you would have gotten in on the pre-order so you would not have had such a bad weekend!

  2826. @himanshu and sowmya thanx a lot for your reply . i do have the extra money to pay , but i feel i will wait till the warrnaty, dod issue and support get fine tuned. and will surely wait till it come on retail shelf.

    and me too iam sure that the product will be awesome no matter what . people from many countries are calling rohan and notionink scam and fraud and i dont belive in all this atall .
    i have seen rohan and his patner on tv,.and- iam preety sure they are a group of higly talented people with huge potential .

    last 2 days i was asking for vids, pics and some basic info which i do ask even now it will make me satisfied and also so many others and also people who are calling notionink scam. i mean see is simple just blog 1 small article just say why u cant post a video at this mommnet thats abt it this is my only issue so people will atleast know , orelse they just speculate which is very very bad for the image of the company.
    hope like you all super egare to see the product in india where we can buy and enjoy it to the fullest thanx again for replying and your contributions to the post.

  2827. Theoretically, since 2.2 is on the device, the Adam itself should be able to act as a Wifi Access point.

    It’s actually better suited to be as such, since the battery is so much larger… and if it goes down due to battery, you still have have a phone. =P

  2828. +1 arcticfox = idiot bullshit artist mad because he didn’t get to order his new toy.

    He is going to employ a first generation tech device in an enterprise application for a defense department? Oh, I get it. He is a plant for the CIA working a psyops to mess up the enemy. Only rational explaination.

  2829. yep, I got the same email today (but did not earlier).. they are trying to send to all those who ordered as theres no way to know which emails succeeded and which did not.

  2830. @mcswain and jim… I’m looking beyond those inconsistencies (are they really, since he plans on developing for an andriod platform, so worst case, can’t they be ported to another functioning device? This is probably my lack of knowledge so pardon my ignorance).
    In general, and articfox does point them out, there were deficiencies in the lead-up to the launch. The lack of information, not buttoning down product details, FCC related information missing, T&C, pre-ordering email flubs etc. etc (which may or may not be NI’s fault). They’re all minor in isolation but add up to a lot more.

    All in all, this is probably water under the bridge for a large number of early adopters concerned and in the long run, if successful, the mainstream won’t know or care about these opening day incidents. My 2 cents…

  2831. well jim with due respect
    for a moment do not consider his credentials or his position
    but
    there were some genuine points that he had raised which were true enuf for a company to consider…

  2832. Of course that is true. Even I have said as much. I don’t have anything wrong with that.

    This pre-order launch was a disaster. It is as if it was an afterthought. As if the wait for information and ordering was because it was being done on the run by NI. Nobody, not even Rohan, is disputing the errors.

    However, don’t fooled and think articfox as the wise sage. He is just saying what everybody already knows and many had said prior to him. If he peppers the repackaged advice with ego boosting lies and he just might try to sell you his “Product Launch for Dummies” ebook for $9.99.

  2835. @jim… true. However, and this is not connected with arcticfox, for all the knowledge (and knowledgeable people) in the world, there’s very few instances like NI where we’re all caught up in the build-up (the CES last year, the interim issues, the blogs blah blah blah), and the launch. It’s like a Harry Potter movie for geeky adults.
    Instead of a book, maybe all we need is a simple checklist?

    Anyway, enough said about this topic, onto the next phase of my irrational obsession with this product.

  2837. This post from articfox and most of all his older one is indeed the most funny I have ever read. Multiple defense contracts all falling down because the retired engineer coulnd´t preorder and has never read other T&C´s in his life.

    He applied for EAP, but apparently was dismissed with his multiple million business and line of ready programmers. The whole multi million dollar fell through when one old man couldn´t get a prelaunch order through for his team of programmers.

    A dangerous company policy he has. I would have made certain I got a few through the normal EAP program instead of the poor high ranking executive waiting the whole night to push a button to get his mega deal sorted. I can assure you there is very professional team wating for you at Notion Ink for proper business deals.

    I won´t comment on the rest of the rubbish as he is only right on one thing ´our Emperor was sitting in his new pajamas´ before he let out his dog. I do business on a global scale and there is nothing of value in his arguments and no exec would be using his time bothering other people with made up stories.

    I wish you well with your now major bid on one European Defence ministry with a million of private investment. I´m also happy I am not one of his investors! In his earlier posts there were more ministries of Defence involved so he already lost a few thanks to this failure of the logistics of NI. He is a dangerous operator to work with apparently.

    Next blog he is admitting that he´s just disappointed he couldn´t one himself and that will be the point where I sympathize with him.

  2838. Only my third post. Long one.

    No. I was not part of the family, so no email for pre-order. Was a bit upset (as I had registered at NotionAddict web site and decided to hold off on ordering and did not bother to check the order page after the family booking time was up. Don’t know if I would still have gotten the Pixel QI/Wifi model had I checked.

    Does anyone know if the Pixel QI versions were still available when the pre-order opened for non-family members?

    In the morning went to the order site, had a change of heart and ordered the LCD/Wifi model. Transaction went smoothly. Got an confirmation email from CCAvenue right away with the Order #.
    Got an email confirmation from Notion Ink a day later.

    I was not happy with the fact that I could not get the Pixel QI/Wifi model. My rational for getting the LCD/Wifi was two fold. First I wanted to support Notion Ink in this endeavor (as a Non-Family entity) and still want them to succeed. The second being that I could at least test out Adam before committing to the purchase of a second tablet. If I really like it, I would let my son/daughter share it and get the Pixel QI/Wifi version for myself (or maybe the Pixel QI/LCD/Wifi/3G when the dust settles on how AT&T would react with pricing on the 3G data service). This is only after making a direct comparison with the Google/Motorola Android 3.0 Tablet (hopefully it will be released by then (or some formal testing done by Engadget, Slashgear, etc.)

    If not, I will have plenty of choices as substitutes with the one mentioned below as the front runner.

    One being the Google/Motorola Android 3.0 tablet that Google’s Andy Rubin demoed recently. The specs are truly impressive.

    7-inch and 10-inch versions
    32GB storage
    NVIDIA Tegra 2 T20 dual-core processor
    Gyroscope
    1280×800 resolution
    5MP camera on the back, 2MP on the front.
    microSD
    HDMI out
    Versions for UMTS, CDMA and LTE (all bases covered!)

    http: // www dot androidcentral dot .com/motorola-tablet-specs-reportedly-leaked-couple-versions-coming

    It seems that quite a few tablets based on the nVidia Tegra 2 SoC are available currently. Don’t have a good feel for the difference between the Tegra 250 and the Tegra 2 T20 SoCs. Did a rudimentary search and did not find it. Adam with only 8 GB Memory seems to be a bit behind the curve. iPad has 16, 32 and 64 GB, Galaxy Tab 16 and 32 GB, Viewsonic G Tablet has 16 GB, Interpad has 16 GB, etc.

    The only spec that truly distinguishes Adam is the Pixel QI display and the vision of Rohan. Hope Notion Ink is not a one trick pony, with everyone relying on Rohan to provide the solutions to all the problems plaguing the company. Unfortunately, they were not able to correctly forecast the demand for these displays and left a lot of consumers dissatisfied. I am one of them as I was not part of the pre-order family and but then made a conscious decision to not try and order when the time arrived for pre-ordering. Irrespective of what I did or did not do, whoever let this, along with the other snafus occur should be held accountable.

    I really feel for those that were part of the family, got their emails on time and tried to order and could not order because of the numerous problems on the part of CCAvenue server/Hosting company/US banks detecting fraud etc. The one that could have easily been avoided was the one where a family member had not finished his/her order and something went wrong and was told that he had already ordered and was prevented from placing the order. Of all the problems this was the most saddening to read about and (probably the most frustrating for the family member) as it is not very difficult to implement (not one but numerous) features that could have prevent this. There were numerous folks that this happened to and you could feel their pain in reading the blog right after their pre-order started.

    I will hold of on passing judgment on Adam till I have played with the LCD\Wifi version I ordered and if it lives up to my expectations, I might consider the Pixel QI version. In the meanwhile, I will be following the Google/Motorola Android 3.0 tablet release and base my final decision after its release. The specs are a bit scant for the Google’s tablet for now, but the specs on the amount of storage and resolution stand out. Also the option for a 7” tablet is quite appealing.

    By the way, can someone make sense of this statement on the order confirmation from Notion Ink

    “We have successfully received your order, your adam will be shipped as per the timelines indicated at the time of order. If you ordered for 3G models, we will send the one as per the country specified in your shipping address along with the compatible charger”

    Does that mean that if I ordered the LDC/Wifi (not the 3G) version, I will not get a charger that is compatible with US standards? Are there different chargers for the same country depending on whether it is a Wifi or 3G version?

    Thanks in advance to those that reply with answers to my questions about the difference between the Tegra 250 and Tegra 2 T20 SoCs and the Notion Ink email confirmation question on the charger.

  2839. @Jayachandran
    I am surprised that Jayachandran does not see the well-articulated, practical, words of business wisdom by arcticfox. I guess most people who have been following this blog are earnestly hoping to lay their hands on Adam and so, obviously, wish NI well.
    BTW, why am I policing? I am not. I think arcticfox’s comments are to the point, and unlike many other comments (mostly for Adam) are not an emotional outburst.
    Everyone, especially Rohan, should think about it.

  2840. @Jim

    Well, you go away for a bite to eat and look at the flames burning when you return! Oh well, at the risk of feeding a troll, here goes…

    If you read my posts carefully, you will see I never indicated that I intended to use any Adams to underpin a €100m contract – I may take the odd risk in business, but that would be plain stupid! The €100m contract and the Adam purchase are completely separate. I used the investment of €1m to win a €100m defence contract to indicate that I understand that business carries financial risk, the need to take risks (financial and otherwise) but also the need to do a through job and ensure that you ensure that the basic, dull bits of business process are competently & thoroughly done. It may sound like common sense, but as I have found too often in business “common sense” is anything but common.

    The work I had planned on the back of the NI Adam is nothing like as high value – yet. It would be for us a competely new business stream moving into areas of support and service where traditionally my business has been weak and fairly conventional. For various technical reasons I have no intention of explaining here, the Android platform and the combination of technologies in NI looked to fit well with the area of business we hope to open up. We know from the outset that going with products from a new start and small, unproven company represented a risk (it sits at number 4 on my risk register), the potential of the product offered advantages that we felt outweighed the risk. That assumed, however, a degree of business competence which the last 2 days has rather disproven.

    We have not invested heavily in financial terms in NI – a few hundred man hours of planning, some ring-fencing of resources which can now be redeployed – but in terms of “backing” this risk in front of a normally conservative board, we have expended some of our “credibility capital” with the board which will take time and effort to recover. But no worries – you win some, you lose some, and we had at least prepared the board’s expectations in this regard.

    When my company develops products and services for the military, they can have service lives (admittedly with mid-life-improvements, upgrades and the like) of anything between 10 and 40 years. When considering the use of any supplier, their long term survival, stability, obsolesence, customer support and credibility are important. When building new business streams in areas where the technology is maturing, we can take some risks. But this would have been a risk too far.

    Regarding my spelling mistake – hey, shit happens!! I am working from my German laptop today which has no English spell check and where some of the charaters are different to an English keyboard. I apologise for the few spelling/grammar mistakes. But I am writing an unimportant blog post, not a set of apparently global terms and conditions for the very first product of a new start company with aspirations to redefine the tablet marketplace. If I were the latter, I would certainly have used spell check, never mind checking the consistency and legality of those Ts & Cs.

    I make no pretence to be any sort of “guru” (and certainly not from the CIA or any sort of Psyops), though I do act as a corporate mentor for a number of fast-trackers in Airbus & BAE Systems. The first thing I tell them when I have my first meeting with them is NOT to treat me as a guru, but to critically question & challenge any view I express before deciding if it has any value for them. I try not to mentor just to bolster my ego (though the feeling is pleasant), but because I find I probably learn more from my interactions with these young, intelligent and challenging folk than they are ever likely to from me.

    I do not seek to produce any credentials here, because I like my anonymity as an ordinary poster just like everyone else. My credentials are for those with whom I have a business relationship or interested parties searching LinkedIn.

    So do get off your high horse. And if I ever do write “Product Launch for Dummies”, you’ll be the first to receive a free signed copy!

  2841. @ Biswajit saha
    Hi! I would like to get in touch with you. I already mailed you to your company email id, but I havent received a response yet. Please mail me: abhirup_basak at yahoo.co.in

  2842. @Jim

    To briefly answer a couple of your comments (at the risk of once again feeding this troll)…

    You are perfectly right that Adam is not “transforming” IT – I fully realise that, but get iritated by NI’s dreamy statements which make out that they are doing just that. Adam is indeed a high spec’d tablet that uses components that are already out there – as you almost allude to yourself, Adam interests me because it is the FIRST to combine these, and that might give me a couple of months head start in a new development.

    You state that in your business comonents were always sourced B2B not B2C. In most cases, we do the same. But in the exploratory R&D side of things we often do things differently.

    When I previously worked in a large (100,000 employee) aerospace & defence company while still early in my career, I was a PM looking after a couple of “Blue Sky” technology demonstrators. One was a stupidly complex synthetic environment with over 40 people working on it from several business units looking to develop a real “wow-factor” ISTAR demonstrator integrating “virtual” assets from UAVs to fuzzy-logic-programmed virtual “troops on the ground” running around a detailed “terrain map” of Salisbury Plain. The other was a “sensor to shooter” demonstrator which was cobbled together by one systems engineer and a couple of technicians. The latter made use of software off the covers of your average PC mags, simple components bought out of the back pages of the same mags, a couple of standard commercial satellite phones and a few hundred dollars worth of satellite broadband calls. The first, expensive demonstrator burnt through money at a hell of a rate and, in 12 months, delivered very little of any worth. With some well-written code and those simple elements, the second demonstrator linked an employee in the Australian outback (well, 20 miles out of Sydney!) back to the “HQ” in the UK and delivered a demonstrator to some senior brass which impressed them enough to fund a further programme. It may have been extremely rough around the edges, but using just low cost COTS technology it proved what COULD be done with some proper investment. I have never forgotton those 2 demonstrators or the lessons from them, and to this day continue to apply a similar approach where I want a minimal cost, exploratory programme (and where it seems appropriate to do so), I continue to use the same approach. To waste significant amounts of time, effort & money going through a full B2B supplier assessment, agreeing NDAs, Ts & Cs, support agreements and the like at this early stage is just not appropriate. If the early programme delivers promising results, we can move on to that – if not, little time & money has been lost.

    So continue to think it is BS if you wish – it is of little concern to me. But just because you have done it differently yourself does not mean it is the only possible way.

  2843. @articfox –

    “If you read my posts carefully, you will see I never indicated that I intended to use any Adams to underpin a €100m contract – I may take the odd risk in business, but that would be plain stupid! The €100m contract and the Adam purchase are completely separate.”

    You either are too stupid to remember your own word or think we are too stupid to remember them!

    “I have very real interest in this device to underpin a major drive into the Contractorised Logistics Support business with warious Ministries of Defence, and had started to develop projects around the timings and expectations for Adam.”

    http ://notionink . wordpress . com/2010/12/10/introspection/comment-page-6/#comment-53566

    (note I placed spaces in the link so as not be moderated into oblivion)

    Enjoy your crow. You have been outed and I am not the only one who sees through your transparent bullshit. Go sell your snake oil resume somewhere else.

    Now that I think of it, I AM THE ONE who is feeding the troll. Consider this matter closed. I have no inclination to entertain Mr. Bojangles and his pretend hundred million euro defense contracts.

  2845. I was hesitant to say that it was triple the resolution in BW, I knew that Mary Jepson had said it when she explained the production process to Charbax, but i could not find the vid where she did. Thanks for pointing that one out.

  2848. What a mess. I thought that the Adam looked like a good product, and it still may be one. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is obfuscated by this amateurish pre-order event. The whole situation is not helped by the fact that Mr. Shravan clearly is not a native English speaker. Being imperfect with the language is not a problem, but it adds to the amateurish vibe. I recommend that he focus on engineering his product and that he hire a competent professional spokesman. That will have to happen before he gets my $500. I am just thankful that my pre-order link never arrived.

  2849. I haven’t read all the comments, so I’m sure it’s been said before, but keep going Rohan, you’ll keep getting better.

    1.6180339887

  2850. So if the variation that I want to pre-order has already sold out. Can I still get it at the discounted price (since I’ve been posting on here since early October)? And since I’m now in a bind (Christmas, Disabled, my son’s birthday is immediately after the 1st of January, and other current hardships), will I be able to have the discount price held in reserve for me?

    Each of my questions could also apply to a large portion of your followers that have met your qualifications for discounts (when you first stated we would be able to do so). I don’t expect you to just say yes to me. Then turn the next person down.

    Thank you,
    -Casey Anderson

  2851. Just ignore the scam rumors and get on with revealing the product at CES, Speak to the official press only, even invite someone from slashgear etc. to see the product but deny them taking any pictures, but at least they can report that the product exist and that it is being kept confidential till CES. The Blog is simple self indulgent nonsense for a lot of people it makes them feel important that a CEO is speaking to them

  2852. Nishit said, on December 11, 2010 at 16:47

    “…

    Now just consider this reply I got from them:

    “As per Government of India rules, all foreign currency transactions on an Indian card by an Indian company are subject to further taxes and charges. So the charge in INR reflected in your statement would not be a direct conversion using the exchange rate. One can expect a difference of about INR 2500. Please understand that this is not under our control and is handled by the bank and payment partners internally. ”

    …”

    I used an international credit card and an Indian shipping address and was also charged the 29999 INR…???

    Rohan?

  2853. When can I order this NI?
    The day we were able to pre-order I had tot work the whole day.
    The moment I wanted to order they where allready sold out :S
    So when is the next shift?
    At ths moment I’m very sad I’ve to wait so long.

  2854. Dear Rohan,
    I agree in particular with one point you made above. Contracts are always nicer when they are short, provided they are as well-written legally as their longer counterparts. A contract that is three pages and clearly states everything in binding but legible language is infinitely superiour to a 200-page thesis. Every sentence may bring more “binding” statements, but every sentence is also another opportunity for loopholes, hidden catches and clauses, and weaknesses in the relationship that can be exploited by either party.

    In short, good legalese is like good computer code: Short, efficient, and bound to within the function for which it is intended.

    So there we are in agreement. However, legalese should also be fully ready before deployment. And legalese that includes “Can be amended without notice or permission from both parties” is just abusive. An agreement is an agreement, and you can’t ignore that a great deal of customer dissatisfaction has arisen from dodgy legal documents and uncertainty about what product exactly is to be delivered.

    Right now, your company has two key priorities in no particular order. Firstly, to ship tablets to customers who have ordered them, because that is the core function of a company; to deliver on its trade agreements and conduct a fair trade. Secondly, to restore customer confidence completely and thoroughly, before ill will spreads through social media and word-of-mouth.

    A video is completely forthcoming, but I have further suggestions that I cannot share on the blog. NI has my email/phone number if you are interested. I’d be happy to help in whatever way I can, since I’m already committed to your success. It will, however, require bending a few rules that I think you have previously been pretty firm on. It may come down to a choice between customer trust and satisfaction and the comfort of your investors; perhaps weighing them and playing them against one another can bring you to a more comfortable place before CES.

    All the best, hoping to hear from you soon. I’ll keep paying attention here regardless!
    -Cathal

  2855. There were many (including me) who were sent emails but the link didn’t work. we kept getting a message telling us that we couldn’t order yet even though it was at the correct time.

    I kept trying the link until I eventually gave up and went to bed and in the morning I found the Qi models had sold out!

    So please don’t assume that everyone who had an email in the first batch has now been satisfied.

    Despite the initial setbacks, I’m sure everything will come good in the end. 😉

    Cheers

  2857. Hi Rohan,

    My exeperience with CCAvenue is not that good. On other sites too we have to duplicate data. Checkout BillDesk too.

  2858. Why the videos are released on 18th Dec ?? and not before as it takes a max of 2-3 hrs and why wait 10 days for it ???

    Answer:
    Its the first aniversary of the proto released
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notion_Ink

    “Notion Ink is an Indian company that designs tablets and other computing products.[1] The company announced their prototype Adam tablet on December 18th 2009.[2][3]“

  2859. I put an online poll today, 2 simple questions each with a black and white choice.
    When closing the poll, 160 people had voted. Out of which I have good reason to believe atleast one voted more than once (well >>>1)

    Question 1:On trusting NI or thinking of it as SCAM
    Question 2: On thinking that ADAM is the best there is. (Or will be in the near future)

    Initially most votes went in favour of NI. Then between 4:35 P.M. and 4:39 P.M. (IST), a slew of votes numbering around 46 went against NI continuously taking the percentage in favour to around the 50% mark. Obviously the work of 1 demented soul. But then the reasonable lot started voting again bringing the ratio up again. But alas! the demented soul comes back to haunt us (or maybe this is some other dimwit), this time a flurry of 17 continuous votes against NI are cast in less than 2 minutes. This guy sure is fast! and he is furious! (with NI).

    So well, coming up with the right poll results was not difficult at all. Lets give the idiot 2 votes (in case he is not alone), that leaves us with 84 in favour, 13 against for Question 1 and 95 in favour and 2 against in question 2.

    How I interpret it: 87% people still trust NI and a whopping 98% think ADAM is best there is or will be once it is released with the specs and looks as promised. So a few people who have lost trust in NI will regain it when ADAM is released and is according to what has been promised. For the 87%, they know that ADAM is going to be as promised.
    2% dont trust NI and think that ADAM is worthless even on paper (or website) – here I am obviously talking about the idiot (or two) as he is the only one left who would have casted those 2 votes that make up the 2%. You sure are hopeless man!

    This poll was a personal attempt by me to check what people really think about NI now after all that has transpired in the last 2 weeks. I am happy to say that the majority (myself included) trust NI and simply love ADAM.
    Also I wanted to check whether this mudslinging on NI was because of a few dimwits. The idiot (or two) proved me right.

    I congratulate NI on their awesome product. I hope Rohan too reads the same thing as I have from this poll which is that he is surrounded by reasonable fans who won’t let a-not-so-perfect launch of ADAM to make up their minds against NI or Adam. I believe most of your fans have realized Startup is a difficult phase of a business and that NI might face more hiccups in the near future. But this time NI will be better prepared to deal with it.

  2860. Rohan
    Dont know if you are still reading the comments. If you are, I just have a few suggestions on making the video showing the capabilities of the Adam that you stated would be released on the 18th (all based on my learning in the US). I am a supporter of NI and have pre-ordered one already. Just want to ensure that the videos that will undoubtedly be seen by a LOT of people dont end up in further compromising NI’s already dicey position (esp after the pre-order troubles we had). If anyone else can add on, it would be great.

    1. Please shoot the videos using a high def still or video camera. DO NOT publish blurred, shaky videos that we see online (for leaks) – this will only serve to demonstrate that you guys are serious about this entire affair.
    2. Have the videos reviewed by someone close (family or friends) – does it make sense to them? were they impressed by the quality of the recording?
    3. Ideal length of the video – around 8 – 10 mins..
    4. Please try and cover the device from all angles showing the build quality and the ports.
    5. play around on the device – open up apps – mail, music, photos – show that the navigation is fast and smooth.
    6. Talk about flash, hdmi etc – these are unique to Adam – play it out.
    7. Please do a mock run of the 10 min demo before you shoot the actual video. This will ensure that the actual video is professional and smooth.

    All the best – hope to play with my Adam soon.

    Cheers
    Pramod

  2861. Can anyone confirm if their credit card got charged (or not) for the pre-order already? I am trying to understand if NI is charging before shipping. If that is the case, this is a big No No.

  2862. We’ve already tried some windows tablets before the iPad came out (Motion F5, Samsung Q1, later a netbook convertible tablet). They are more expensive and the windows set-up did not cater as nicely to our touchscreen needs. Our goal is really to stay OS neutral, giving our audience the ability to choose whatever product they felt met their needs and price range. However, we wanted to be able to make recommendations on different tablets that we’ve personally tested. I was most excited about testing and recommending the adam, based on both price and functionality. I still hope to recommend it at some point, but I will need my confidence re-boosted at CES. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll have enough access to the adam by February, which is when we will first introduce the site and make product recommendations. Sadly, the only one I feel confident in recommending right now is the iPad. This has made things more difficult on the development side (no flash), but I haven’t come across another tablet with a comparable or better user experience. Like I said, I’m still hoping the adam can potentially be added to the list, but I can’t say with 100% confidence until I see more.

  2863. I am actually firmly against the way that Apple controls their products. I did not really want to recommend the iPad as one of the tablets to my audience because we have to work within the no-flash, Apple barriers. Unfortunately, the what the iPad can do, it does really well, and I have been unable to find another tablet within a similar price range that functions as smoothly and predictably. I was counting on the adam to be our #1 recommendation on a list of 3-5 tablets with various operating systems. We are creating the site to be device neutral, so actually, we are giving our audience more choices by not excluding anything instead of going with only andriod. I don’t mind taking a personal risk and I love being an early adopter. However, I’m building something for smart, entreprenuers who focus on running restaurants, not IT folks. So I don’t have the luxury of asking them to take risks. They just need it to work consistently. Based on this blog, I had confidence the adam could offer that, and was eager to test one and then recommend it. Based on the past couple days, I need something else to restore that confidence that the adam is reliable, and that Notion Ink could get the logistics down to meet the orders.

  2864. Bumping this…

    I also put together a survey to determine if you ordered, and if so, which model. If you did not order, the reason why. Please answer only once…remove spaces.

    http : / / www . surveymonkey . com /s/ RQPTBSH

  2865. know what!!!! i misseed the notion ink preorder mail!!! it was in my spam!!! UNLUCKY ME!!!
    and now the higher versions ve been sold out!!
    curses on my spam!!!
    HEY ROHAN!! ANY HELP/MERCY!!??????

  2866. Complex Event,

    C’mon .. climb down from the complex thinking 🙂 If NI has a corpus of $5.5m, that’s a worry for us (the ones who ordered) and Rohan .. you are entitled to your happiness in not having paid up. Relax!

  2869. Rohan

    Please change time display on home page- its char sau bees…
    I hope you know, what does it mean..

  2870. “This poll was a personal attempt by me to check what people really think about NI now after all that has transpired in the last 2 weeks. I am happy to say that the majority (myself included) trust NI and simply love ADAM.”

    So, 4 out of 5 fanboys agree, Adam is the shiz. Wow, that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve read in quite some time. So, you just throw out any dissenting opinions and claim victory? I would say that a 50/50 split would be pretty generous, and accurate, after all the launch problems.

  2871. Forgive me, I guess I mispoke. When I said it was ‘not the case’, I was referring to the other 20K not having a chance purely because of not having the family link, as the family link really didn’t do anything in terms of a 6 hour window. Really, there were thousands of orders that were not related to the ‘family’, nobody knows how many for sure. I feel sorry for you and Sowmya because of the problems you had. Of all the people on this forum, I would have liked the both of you (and a few others) to have been able to order considering you contributions to the blog and future contributions with adams in hand. I was lucky as I did have major Visa issues, but was able to switch to an Amex and took the plunge despite all the negative issues and risks.

  2874. I saw the poll, and although I am a huge fan of NI, I have never seen anything more biased in my life.

    The poll was a total joke. If you really want to ‘check what people really think’ why don’t you give them more than one positive option and one negative option. There ARE gradations of trust you know. If you believe the world is black and white you are in for a surprise when you grow up a bit.

    What can you conclude from the poll: Absolutely nothing.
    This doesn’t mean I believe NI is not a nice company, or Rohan is not a nice guy. It just means I believe you are not able to conduct a proper survey.

  2875. You know what? 20000+ people never got the link at all and are waiting for the same.

  2876. An idea to turn this around is to have the server ask a person for their email address and THEN have another server send an email to that person with the pre-order confirmation code, which must be used during ordering. This would prevent RBL blacklisting, because not all emails are going out at the same time.

    You would need (at least) 3 physical webservers on different hosts/locations to pull this off correctly though.
    One to act as the portal, where ‘family’ could request an pre-order code using the email address they used to post here. Use a presorted list to run through and optimize the searching algorithm. (!)
    One server to actually send the emails, every time one is requested. Emails have to be generated with a lot of detail in them, so that they are not all the same.
    One (or a farm) to process the actual orders. (Already in place)

    Just my 2cts as network engineer.

  2878. Hi E. de Klerk,

    Prashant Rai has clearly not followed (or understood) the blog comments these last 3 days 😉

  2879. So I gather we should see another mid-week update tomorrow, from the previous twice per week from now on comments?

    Since we’re not at December 18 yet, I wonder what it will cover? 😛 This last post, although addressing some of the people’s concerns, didn’t really give any content to get excited about. 😛

  2880. Thanks Rohan,

    This will reassure many people. We were afraid that the pre-order on PQ was completed and that we would not have another chance of getting one for a long, long time.

    Now at least we know that we can still get one as soon as you can provide (@ next shipment).

    Success with the hundreds of final steps that have to be made the next 3 weeks.

  2881. My latest compilation of questions for Rohan and NI…
    —
    1. When will the first review units arrive at Anandtech, Slashgear, and other reputable reviewers?
    2. Does the final version of the Adam have a rear touchpad?
    3. What max resolution does the camera record?
    4. How much memory comes pre-installed on the Adam?
    5. What is your estimated production schedule (Adams/month) during H1 2011? When will additional Qi-equipped Adams be available for ordering?
    6. Will the full Android Market be available on the Adam at launch?
    7. Does NI have a trouble-ticket and technical support system in place?
    8. Will you be opening a standard discussion forum for the NI Adam where we can interact with, and receive direct support from, the engineers at NI?
    9. Are you partnered with any retailers or distributors outside of India? Or, will the NI facilities in India be the only location and POC for all sales and support?
    10. What are the actual warranty details for the Adam?
    11. How/where will repairs, replacements, and returns be handled by NI? Will NI cover shipping to/from the NI facilities for WARRANTIED repair services?
    12. Who has NI officially partnered with for peripherals (ie. cases, adapters, screen protectors, keyboards, docks, etc)?
    13. What are the exact contents of the box that will ship with the Adam?
    14. Will the original Adam definitely be 100% compatible with Honeycomb (Android 3.0), or is that still an unknown?
    15. Is NI still planning to charge customers to replace units that arrive DOA?
    16. Is NI still planning to charge customers for cancellations that occur BEFORE their Adams even ship?
    —
    Inquiring minds want to know… 🙂

  2883. I can understand how it suspenseful and monumental information releases can be good for awaiting fans but this has been taken too far. There is a lot of bad press. The Adam has been seen as vaporware for a long time. So now we see pre-orders for a still vaporware product. I would bought the product immediately when it opened for pre-order but i didn’t have any faith that i was actually going to receive a product, unless i at least saw some actual pictures of a functionality video from Notion Ink. The fun and games are too much and i know alot of us are loosing faith in Notion Ink. First i was at a point where i needed a video to convince me. Now i am waiting until a 3rd party gets a hold of the product, before i make my purchase. Luckily the PQi models are out of stock and i have to wait anyways.

  2884. No problems, understand the issue you faced have been confronted with this in the past. 🙂 keep the good fight going. Many of us are still here for what you have built. Hickups are part and parcel of any new idea. 🙂

  2885. I ordered my Adam Tablet on the evening of the 10th. No problems ordering whatsoever. Ordered the Pixel Qi LCD, Wifi with no problem. Have checked the pre-order status and each time gives me the same date of shipment, which is January 9th. So far I’m very pleased with the whole ordering experience.

  2886. @Rayph777 That’s great!! I hope you will be one of the first users who will upload hands on video of Adam 🙂

  2893. For people who think this is just a high spec product and don’t under stand us dream lot. May I suggest you do a Google search and try and find out about Blue Ocean Strategy. I believe that NI is an example on a company that typify this type of company. Plus I am a technology dreamer as well. Looking at NI from this perspective might give you a better understanding of us dreamers and that we don’t just see this as a high spec producr.

  2894. Where is the pre-order status link? I would like to check my status, too, I just don’t know how…

  2897. Published: Thursday, Dec 16, 2010, 2:00 IST
    By Praveena Sharma | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

    What’s on the sixth floor of Subramanya Arcade, Bannerghatta Road in Bangalore?

    Two men taking the lift to the seventh floor looked surprised.

    “There’s nothing there, no office on that floor,” said one.

    There’s no signboard to announce this is the office of the start-up that’s taking on the Apple iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, no less.

    Open a smoky glass door and eerie silence greets.

    Suddenly a guard jumps out of the shadows.

    “Is this the Notion Ink office?”

    A flurry of nods.

    Aha! Finally!

    “Who do you want to meet?”

    “Rohan Shravan.”

    The guard nods again, ready to escort yours truly in.

    The secrecy ambience is par for the course for Notion Ink, a little-known company that’s creating a mild storm in the tablet space with its just-launched Adam.

    And some launch, it has been.

    Notion Ink started taking pre-orders for the first lot last Friday, which are sold out, Shravan said.

    The gizmo, with a 10.1 inch display, is quite nifty in terms of dimensions: it weighs just 725 grams, is 1.4 cm thick, 26.9 cm long and 19.1 cm wide.

    “We will put the next lot for sale in a couple of weeks,” the young entrepreneur said, but did not share the numbers.

    Nor is it clear where the product is manufactured.

    Shravan said most of the orders were from US and Europe. “It’s ratio of 60:40 between US (40%) and Europe (60%).”

    Scuttlebutt has it that the company is funded by Mukesh Ambani, but Shravan did not confirm or deny.

    “We will open all communications within a few weeks,” he said.
    Secrecy around a new technology product is not unusual — but companies usually generate a lot of hype closer to launch.

    Not so Notion Ink — barring the viral that Shravan’s blogs (www.notionink.com) generated.

    Interestingly, the company will sell Adam only on the internet.
    It is available in two variants. One with a backlit LCD and Wifi is priced at $375.33, while a 3G-enabled version costs $425.

    There is also an additional shipping charge of $50 from India to anywhere in the US and Europe.

    Delivery will take 6-8 weeks so consumers can lay their hands on the thingamajig only in late Jan.

    Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst with Gartner Research, said it is not surprising that the initial orders for the Adam are from US and Europe.

    “These two markets are mature and technology adoption is higher compared to emerging market. Another reason is that people in these markets are used to buying online. In India and other markets, we still want to feel the product before placing an order,” he said

  2899. It seems 18th Dec will be Rohan’s next post.

    Well from his latest interview to androidheadlines it seems that rohan might limit the blog posts or the information he gives to us a bit now. Fair enough, once the adam is released i think it will talk for itself but its always nice to hear from the creator.

    also a few things that have been cleared recently:

    Trackpad is present but might not be enabled?! If you are going to give it anyway, then why not just enable it also, its no use just sitting there.

    No android market support as of now, but all google apps will work. Market would have been nice but i do understand the limitations for tablets currently.
    A question to Rohan then when honeycomb arrives and with it the market for tablets
    also, will we be able to upgrade? or the ADAM will not be compatible?

    the “+” in (8+) GB meant more variants, common there were a lot of ways to say that before. Well what capacity ranges? I think i will hold out till then as 8 is not close to enough. 32 is a must now.
    well then two other questions for Rohan, one, will current adams be upgradable to higher capacity internal memory? Second, any info on the other variants cost and expected availability (even in the range of a quarter like Q1 2011)???

    Is the moderation and wordpress account necessity all part of Rohan’s rethinking of the blog??

  2900. @Arhant are the comments being moderated? In what way? Are comments are being deleted or not being published? I did not experience it at my end till now.

  2901. You welcome mate. Dont know if you guys had a look at recent techspecs of adam? some reason to be sad those who pre order like me and some good reason to be happy those who didnt yet. Adam is coming up with more variants in storage space.
    A request to ROHAN, is it possible for those who pre order to upgrade? please do say some thing.

  2902. I dont think anything is being deleted as yet, but there was a huge delay in my comment actually appearing in the blog and the new rule of actually having a wordpress account made me feel this was part of rohan’s rethinking.

    i am not complaining, its fair, he needs to do whats best for NI and his investor.

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