Recently I read this article quoted on a forum. It’s from someone who was ‘inspired’ by his Adam tablet and wrote the article in a moment of inspiration and posted it on the first draft (I did not make it up. The author himself posted so on the Notion Ink blog comments on May 6th “I wrote this article in exactly 30 mins, in one draft. That’s what inspiration does to a writer”)
That’s why it’s garbage and it’s embarrassing. Let’s dissect it a bit, shall we? And then you decide if I am allowed to be pissed about this article and I’ll end the post with why I’m upset.
1. Sensationalist title – “Tablet wars: India’s Adam takes a bite of Apple’s iPad”
For most of us regular folk, this would mean that Adam is stealing market share from iPad – i.e. Apple is selling less of iPads because people are buying Adam. Let’s put that to perspective – Apple sold nearly 15 million tablets in 2010 and it’s been a few million this year too. If I take the pre-orders as part of 2010 just to be conservative (the overall market will be much bigger in 2011 anyway), then Adam’s market share was, somewhere around, say 0.0125%. Apple? 75%.
Let me repeat that.
Apple: 75%
Adam: 0.0125%, in other words Apple sold about 6000 times more Tablets than Adam did. Therefore, Adam took no ‘bite’ of Apple.
Stop calling it the iPad killer even before the damn Tablet is available for the broader market.
Let’s continue for a few more gems.
2. Poor & pure speculation – “But now comes the hardware hunt led by Indian tablet computer maker Notion Ink and suddenly the likes of Apple are getting nervous.”
Apple’s getting nervous of Adam and the hardware hunt is led my Adam?! It’s OK to speculate, but it needs to have some sense or logic to it.
3. Oh, the irony – “The Adam also suffered at the hands of amateurish tech writer” guess it needed the most amateur one to make amends…
4. Mountain out of a molehill – “who managed a coup of sorts by poaching people from iTunes” Wait! Wait! All Rohan mentioned on the blog was that they hired the support team from iTunes. That’s it. And all you need to do is spend time to do some research to see how good NI’s “support” is. Looks like they hired the wrong bunch. There was no ‘coup’ here, sheesh.
5. Then, the total WTF moment – “Bangalore is not yet the technological epicentre of the known universe, but after the Adam it can legitimately aspire to that title” What?! The Tablet isn’t really available, it’s plagued with problems, disastrous public release, terrible support, and it’s put Bangalore at the technological epicenter of the known universe! I don’t know whether to feel insulted or elated. I’d like a country and a city recognized for something achieved, not for hot air and empty back thumping. At least limit the praise to what has been achieved so far, you know, before the pre-orders (!) and wait before you gorilla beat your chest. Action first, talk later.
My problem isn’t giving praise where it’s due, but it is when such sensationalism clouds judgment and reality and it’s plain insulting. Of course, there’s the lack of fact and wrong data too (cheapest iPad is $800? Huh? I got my iPad2 16GB with 3G for 700..)
I am willing to recognize that Notion Ink did try something new, in a market that isn’t known much for innovation. The young team did capture imagination and showed promise. Let us recognize them for that. But don’t try to project that to something that isn’t true. Adam hasn’t “arrived” except in the minds of some fervent fans. It has many problems to resolve and so far has shown no maturity or inclination to learn from the problems its initial customer faced.
Please, stop calling it iPad killer. Please. You just sound stupid.
Notion Ink Adam - Failure 