Recent PockeTop events

[Gerard]

There has been the odd flurry of activity in various forums lately regarding the PockeTop company. While not a PockeTop customer myself, I have seen some things which have made me feel compelled to investigate, to get to the bottom of what is happening with this company. They were a Vancouver company, so that perhaps played a role in my curiousity. The keyboard has also attracted my attention at times, being so small and apparently well made. I've only tried one briefly, and felt it was a bit small for me - and anyway, I have a Stowaway.

I have in the past day made telephone contact with the CEO of Cyberhand, which is now the company carrying on the PockeTop products and software development. Patrick Burke was good enough to offer a lot of details regarding the past year of his business. There was some disturbing news there, but it does not bear on the company's behavior. Rather there have been forces at work which have jeopardised the very existence of PockeTop, and while resolution of these issues is underway I am not at liberty to speak to details of this misadventure. The rest of our conversation was devoted to the many questions about driver fees and development, product support, the relationship with Nydidot in the past, other questions related to what I've read in the forums. Follows a blend of Patrick's official response with my own interpretations. I hope that this helps to clear things up for a lot of people.

DIsconnected phones at the Vancouver offices, the closing of the 1-800 number, unanswered emails... these have been obvious problems in recent weeks. The explanations from the CEO are complex, but deserve attention. Among them there have been server problems (they've changed servers just recently to help remedy this), phone complaint volumes which they were not equipped to handle, and email volumes no small company could hope to respond to adequately - usually over 1000 emails per day of late. Much of the communication from the public has been very, very abusive, especially around the issue of charging for drivers.

Who is PockeTop?:
PockeTop is under new management. This began publicly in June of 2003, and was announced in the context of stock exchange notifications and other news releases. Conclusion of this merging was slated for November of 2003, but Patrick stated that it was "just recently" concluded.

The new management has a somewhat different approach to dealings with other parties involved, and will be shifting all hardware production to North American factories, among other changes. New products are under development, with the first of these slated for release this year; a "Shoestring IR Extender/Amplifier keyboard cable". More on this later.

Driver fees:
The bottom line is important in any business. If profitability falls below a critical level, no number of sales will support the company, it will fail, and the product will stop being available, and support for existing customers will disappear. In the case of Cyberhand/PockeTop, they are looking at somewhere in the neighbourhood of $10/unit sold in actual profit. This is not sufficient to fund significant software development for the great abundance of devices now being released by dozens of companies. Mobile phones, Symbian devices, Pocket PCs, Palms, all the many appliances with which a keyboard might be used need software made specifically for them in order to allow keyboard input. Each of these drivers takes a certain amount of time, and therefore money, to develop. My previous feeling was that PockeTop ought to simply provide a serial number or other user ID with each keyboard, and supply drivers for a set number of devices per user. It seems that this is a very difficult thing to administer, and open to piracy of software if just one customer decides to 'share.' PockeTop has decided to offer one free driver per purchased keyboard, an offer good for 30 days from the date of purchase. Beyond that, they have worked out a scheme for selling further drivers for other devices as the customer needs them. While in certain cases this could result in one customer having to buy several drivers, with the cost adding up rather quickly, for most customers this will mean either no extra expense or perhaps one new license purchased per device revision, perhaps once a year. The company does not feel this to be an unreasonable request, and hopes that it will be sufficient to fund development of all the drivers still needed in the near future. Continued support is their aim, not unreasonable profiteering as many have suggested.

The Nydidot question:
PockeTop, the original company, had an arrangement for licensing a portion of their Virtual Display drivers. This was the simple rotational element, making 90° left and right rotation with a soft reset possible, as well as a 180° rotation without reset. Though I do not know the exact details involved in the business agreement between these companies, Patrick insisted that he has been in contact with Nydidot recently regarding payment for the licenses used, and that an agreement is at least being worked out. I concluded from what he said that the previous management might have been negligent in some of their dealings with Nydidot, but that current management desired to have all this straightened out as soon as possible. Statements made in one thread by Nydidot were pretty brutal, basically saying that there was a criminal action involved. If there is anything like this happening, I got no sense of it in my conversation with Patrick, and his statements seemed sound, without taint of any shady-sounding language.

From the CEO:

"We will be concentrating on
drivers for our customers new devices that they need to keep them competitive with their business and lives in general. The original business model for Pocketop never anticipated the growth in the PDA/ Pocket PC / Cell phone market and demand for new software drivers in some cases for every new device and every operating system. We are hoping that our customers realize that our Pocketop keyboard is not a standard Windows device that
requires in most cases one or two drivers. We have asked the makers of the major Operating Systems to provide compatible drivers for a standard IR keyboard and they have declined. In some cases they had developed a driver for our keyboard that they would not release to their customers."

"Like any change in past practice it produces ripples that many find
disturbing. I would like to present the positive advancements that our new plan will bring to our customers. Over the next three months we will be releasing a number of new products and drivers."

a.. Shoestring IR Extender/Amplifier keyboard cable
b.. Shoestring IR Extender/Amplifier PDA to laptop cable
c.. Symbian drivers for the Sony Ericson P800/P900 and Nokia 60 Series
phones.
d.. Palm OS 5 drivers
e.. Toshiba e350, e400, e750, e800 drivers
f.. XDA II drivers and no the XDA drivers do not work with the XDA II.
g.. Tablet PC drivers.
h.. We will be reviewing every new commercially viable device to create drivers in a timely manner.


"In the area of customer service, we will be instituting a one working day response to any of our valued customers that purchase a support ticket. This will pay for the additional technical staff that is required to provide our customers with better customer service. I believe we have fallen down
in this area in the past and must apologize to our customers for this
problem. We have kept silent as we were charting our new direction as we needed time to plan the positive advancements that we hope will alleviate our customers fears in respect our product."


I think that these statements are fair enough. While some may take issue with a per-session support fee, it is hardly an unknown practice. For the most part it seems PockeTop keyboards have just worked, with few complaints cropping up in the boards I've visited. Though my own experience with one is only a few seconds trying one belonging to another local user, my impression has been of a very well-made, strongly designed product. If the company can continue software development on a reasonable schedule, and further intends to offer some gadgets of great utility for reasonable prices, it seems there isn't a lot to complain about.

I would like to see all the information about what's happened come out publicly. It seems usually the best course, as secrets breed rumours which often lead to downfalls. But there are lawyers... so it's best here to let nature take it's course. If there are questions you would like to fire at Patrick, I've offered him the links to each thread I've posted like this, and hope that he'll be available to respond. I'll answer what I can as well. It's been an interesting little ride, seeing how discussion dynamics can affect a company. It'd be nice if further open discussion could foster some better understanding and relations with the buying public, and help to assure the survival of a decent product and company at the same time.


*p.s. I have posted this on Brighthand, PocketPCPassion, pocketnow, CEWindows, PocketpCThoughts, and PPCSG, as I feel that the subject merits broad exposure. I hope that this is not considered a cross-posting. Rather, I think that this company deserves a fair and broad airing in as many locations as possible.

[Dave Potter]

This all seems well and fine and sounds reasonable - at least on the surface. But I am uncomfortable with their pay-for-service direction. I, like most people, feel that a company should support their products (up to a reasonable point) for free without having to puchase drivers or trouble tickets. If the company is unwilling to provide this level of service - it creates the impression that they don't stand behind their product(s). This, in turn, makes me question the quality of the product.

If the product is, in fact, decent quality wise, they they should simply charge more so that they make more then $10 per unit and use this extra profit to fund driver / product development. I know - in the end, we as consumers pay more either way, but a bigger price tag up front is predictable (you know what your getting into when you buy the product) whereas the pay-as-you-go-for-service or 'nickle and dimeing' approach leaves a person wondering if and when the costs are going to end.

If this company continues on this path - I predict that they will fail miserably.

My 2 cents for what they are worth.

[Gerard]

Agreed, in part. My impulse was to suggest a higher pricetag, especially for their direct sales online. Without having to filter a small increase in price through a level or two of distributors, the overall price could stay reasonable while also supporting better development.

Currently they ask USD$79 for the keyboard, supplied with one driver at no extra cost. Adding software for other devices costs extra, no matter when you purchase the keyboard. Perhaps if they upped the price to $85, or even $90 (do those '9's instead of '0's really influence people? are consumers really that dumb?) sales would be hurt a little. But even at $90 it's still competitive with other keyboards out there, in my opinion.

The trouble ticket purchase statement took me a bit by surprise when I got that in my email yesterday. That's something I'll have to think about some more. I've never purchased a trouble ticket for anything yet, and it actually does not sit well with me. I'd rather report bugs as a service to the developer, and would expect that they would amend the software to erase my problems just as a basic of customer support. Having spent a great amount of time in the past few years thus supporting developers, for free, and having seen dozens of developers resonding very positively, I think that's the right way to go. Of course, if someone is utterly clueless and is asking the developer basic stuff like 'how do I connect my PPC to my PC so I can install this software', well, perhaps they should be buying a trouble ticket to make them think a little before making the call. There are, as evidenced in the forums every day, a large number of lazy thinkers out there. Supporting that kind of laziness could get expensive.

[Ripper014]

I think a lot of support could be taken care of if developers provided step by step guides that assume that the consumer has totally no technical skills... I know that most of us probably do not even look at most instructions until an unforseen issue arises... But for the standard consumer... they are totally in the dark and need to be held by the hand through almost every part of the process... though this might seen trivial to some of us... it would help greatly the more technically challenged...

I for one... find that most of the manuals I go through expect a certain level of experience by the consumer and I feel this is a mistake...

I have noted my position with Pocketop over at Brighthand... and will not repeat it here... but I for one would not endorse this practice... and will not be supporting their product lines at this time...

[Gerard]

Holding user's hands is a difficult proposition for developers. Redundancy is the question, really; how many times should the basic instructions for device use be uploaded, wasting untold gigabytes of server storage to say the same things, over and over, with more or less competence? From what I've seen, most people are really not very good at describing even the most basic of procedures in a fashion which most users will understand. While VCR owner's manuals are an extreme case, where incredibly bad translations from Chinese to English dominate the market, most supply-side people seem genuinely interested in getting things to work for the users. But the skills just aren't there.

It's a bit like asking the average woodworker to make a DIY violin building instruction manual (to use an example close to home for me). While they might have the skills to do most basic shop tasks, and may even have pulled a violin apart for themselves out of curiousity, better than 99% of them wouldn't have the first clue where to start. Of the tiny portion willing to do the research and get all the steps right, only a much smaller percentage would have the communications skills needed to make it all sensible to the average person.

There are more than 70 parts in the average violin, varying by about 15% or so depending on one's approach. I consider myself rather better than average at getting procedures understood by other people. I do it all the time in my practice, describing to musicians just what is wrong with their instruments, what needs to be done to fix things, and if they show interest, what I will do to get it all done. That increases both their understanding of the instrument as a whole, and their willingness to pay someone like me to do the work, as it soon becomes apparent that only someone with very specialised skills could possible get the job done correctly. I've read a number of books on violinmaking, and find most of them pathetically lacking in clarity and insight. Maybe one day I'll write my own, but frankly I'd rather let most people work it out for themselves. I learned better that way, and feel that it's a good idea in the PPC field as well. Spoon feeding only helps if it's complemented by pointers towards other resources, like the Search button, or Google, or just reminders to use common sense like running regular backups.

I take a similar approach in Pocket PC forum discussions. People often need things explained, and it is a cherished chore I've adopted to make sure that they actually do understand... provided they are reasonably polite in their request.

Back to PockeTop. In my conversation with Patrick, it was clear that he is a genuine and concerned person, not just for his company's success, but for the user as well. We spoke a little on the subject of PR, and he acknowledged that this has not been their strong suit. They've not really known how to deal with the forums or the hundreds of angry phone calls. The debate within the company was apparently rather contentious as to where the money should come from to fund further development.

Somehow or other this will work out. The company will carry on, showing marked improvement in soundness within the 6 months the chief executive plans for, or failing, or something between. I hope that they don't fail, primarily because we are all better served by a variety of quality choices. As Microsoft has shown, becoming a sales leader at the expense of consumer happiness comes with a price; they are the target of more venom on the web than any other entity. Even the devil gets less abuse, from what I've seen online.

Good intentions only go so far if what is put into practice is not what's really wanted by the consumers. If PockeTop can arrive at a compromise solution on the driver cost issue, their product certainly deserves a chance, as no one questions the quality of the hardware. They are resolving the Nydidot issue privately, and future releases will not have rotation built in. If one wants screen rotation, it'll have to come from some other software, not PockeTop. Of course, the users will have to pay for that software, as there are no free rotational drivers now available for PPC in general - though it seems someone has stolen the code from Deez' RezFix to use as the basis for a freeware rotational software... a rather lame thing to do to a guy who worked really hard to get that software to the Toshiba e800 community.
Developers have the same right to earn a living as everyone else; they are not our slaves, but actual workers who make our lives easier or more fun, or both. Support them, when they make reasonable requests for small fees for work done well. If you don't like how they ask, by all means say so. But there's no need to be cruel about it unless they have deliberately ripped off consumers. That hasn't happened here, in my opinion.

[Ripper014]

I don't think that I said anything about on-line help... I remember a day not so long ago where software came with hardcopy manuals... I know that this is fast becoming a thing of the past as Software/Hardware makers realized they could just supply it in a digital format instead and make more money... well I for one miss having the information available to me in a hardcopy.

What I am asking is that manufacturers supply better documentation for the broader part of their demographics... namely... the average joe and jane... Not the tech geek Gerard... (no offense)....

I also think that Pocketops have taken the absolute worst available tacted in dealing with their problems at hand... not only do I find their new practice of charging to drivers offensive... but for someone that is supposed to be concerned about their PR.... they have stuck their heads in the sand hoping it will all go away... Other than their contact with yourself (initiated by you) they have not issued any sort of statement in their own defense leaving all those that have previously purchased products to wonder about the future status of what they have bought. On top of that they have not been answering e-mails nor is their website in working order...

If this was my company you could be assured that communication with my customers is paramount and I would comfort them in the fact that their purchases have not been a mistake and that I would be there to back up there needs. That any future problems would be taken care of...

The way things have shaken out, there is a desperation I feel for those that have purchased product from Pocketop... and these people will most likey think twice before choosing them in the future if given other choices..