Hello once again.
Today is the last day of May, it's 9:30 in Germany right now (and should be the same in the Netherlands) and so far the big May-Launch has not happened. All the information we had so far (apart from NatCh who got very disturbing info from iRex in the US) was pointing at this month as a release month.
Henrycat, our dear friend and "informer" fed us hands-on and inside information about the Iliad and also hinted on the release date.

Now here we are, all hyped up and more than a little annoyed, thinking that maybe the pessimists were right after all. Of course the release could happen today or in the next couple of days, especially since irex has been telling people (including me) this over the telephone, but it could just as well be that they decide to stretch the wait even longer to get the device more finished (which isn't too bad actually, but very nerve-racking for us...).

I'm starting this thread, because the others were getting a bit long.
So start using it to speculate, discuss and let off steam.

You said it. They must be aware of this forum especially with Henrycat testing one of the devices, how much effort does it take to release some sort of statement. Even if it is to say it's going to be delayed X monthes at least we know where we stand. I could waffle on but I'm sure those of you who were looking forward to this share my feelings.

blaaah

Of course the release could happen today or in the next couple of days,


Forget it :rolleyes:


especially since irex has been telling people (including me) this over the telephone,


In April and in May they were telling about May - and you still believe? :rolleyes5

Better, lets see how long will stay this phrase about postponing from April to May 2006 at Irex site. :D And what they replace it with... in a couple of weeks :D

@TaKir
If they replace it IN a couple of weeks...I'll lynch them.
Their communications are bad, but they can't be that bad. They'll have to either inform us that there has been another delay today or in the next days or release the device. I think that their popularity will otherwise drop through the bottom of the bin...^^

Ah well, the day is still young.

This is what you get if you put a bunch of labrats with a new toy at the head of a new firm.

I guess they have all their attention firmly fixed on getting things to work, webshop or software:
"Jan, have you got that webshop running yet?"
"What webshop?"
"The shop on our website.."
"We have a website? Cool!!"
:)

*lol*

At least we have someone with some humour left here...^^
nice one High 5!
You're also from the Netherlands...maybe you could cal them and ask if you could pick one up...i'd be interested in hearing their reply...:-)
but you probybly live to far away from eindhoven to make that thread come true...:-)

@TaKir
If they replace it IN a couple of weeks...I'll lynch them.

:D
I've wrote at russian ebook forum (http://www.the-ebook.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=41052#41052), and may be here too, (don't remember), if they begin a test phase in April, + 3 months for test itself + couple of months for correction of a software and maybe hardware + couple of months for finishing the device = end of 2006 - begining of 2007. And it is in case if everything goes ok.

It is an optimistic prognosis indeed!

but you probybly live to far away from eindhoven to make that thread come true...:-)

There is no such thing as too far away in the netherlands ;)

just as there is no such thing as "too high up" you mean?
^^

Well.

What can I say. No update from Irex. No responses to my emails. Anyone else getting dissillusioned (again)?

Let's assume the shop opens today. Would you buy the iRex? I find it highly disconcerting how the company - a Philips spin-off nonetheless - lacks any kind of communication skills.

Imagine you run into problems with your newly purchased $650+ e-book reader device. Will they be ready to quickly provide support? Henrique probably knows more, but considering how little they cared to provide pre-sale support, I am somewhat reluctant to get the iLiad.

Well, i would buy it immediately. The hardware seems fine. Remote updatecapabilities for the OS and software are built in. And the most commen formats are readable quite well.

I guess that iRex is just a handful of people and that they are overwhelmed with interest for their device. I truely belive, that they hoped to get things done by the time they mentioned. Now things went wrong and they are reluctant to pass the information of failure. Wouldnt you be? On the other hand, most customers would really appreciate honest communication these days.

And if something is wrong with my unit, id call em (so far, they have been answering calls ;) ) and hope they can handle it.

Thats just a problem we will have as early adopters.

Just kidding!

You people are obsessed with this thing. So much that it becomes fascinating to watch the discussion. :D

Relax, take a break, come back in a few weeks, then decide whether this "holy" reader is actually worth 650 friggin' euro!

Well, i would buy it immediately. The hardware seems fine. Remote updatecapabilities for the OS and software are built in. And the most commen formats are readable quite well.

I guess that iRex is just a handful of people and that they are overwhelmed with interest for their device. I truely belive, that they hoped to get things done by the time they mentioned. Now things went wrong and they are reluctant to pass the information of failure. Wouldnt you be? On the other hand, most customers would really appreciate honest communication these days.

And if something is wrong with my unit, id call em (so far, they have been answering calls ;) ) and hope they can handle it.

Thats just a problem we will have as early adopters.

On the homepage are no open jobs .

....There are no vacancies at iRex Technologies at this moment. Please contact us at a later stage.

They "not planning" to expand at this time ?
They really plan a big launch ? (with non customer - service ?)
Or they are waiting for the big order´s form a newspaper - groupe ...

Irex* i´m waiting ! ... >F5< ... no shop ... >F5< ...

Let's assume the shop opens today. Would you buy the iRex? I find it highly disconcerting how the company - a Philips spin-off nonetheless - lacks any kind of communication skills.

Exactly the point I tried to make a couple of weeks back. I changed my view after the Channel 4 segment. But I'm rapidly moving back to it.

Btw does anyone know what they mean by spin-off? It's not a normal business term.

Are they a subsiduary of Phillips? or simply a bunch of ex-Phillips employees who have struck out on their own.

I have been assuming that they are owned (at least partially) by Phillips. As such I've not been too worried about support. However if they arn't then I will have to re-think.

@Laurens

No ereader device could ever be worth 650 Euro...

i'd buy the Iliad straight away anyway because it's finally a piece of useful technology and only by buying these early and unrealistically priced devices can we at least give them a chance at success.

The fact that iRex is keeping us in the dark is however making me very very angry. I was really hoping to take it along on my trip.
I thought in April that I had a lot of time to spare, that nothing could possibly go wring. When the delay was announced I thought "still no problem", it'll arrive on time even if they badly misjudged. Then it started getting closwer and closer, but Henrycat told us "not to worry" (not in these words, but basically he said just that) and I had hope again.
Now the point is reached where I have to admit defeat.
And I don't like doing that..call me obsessed if you like...I know I am...^^

The question is, what is still going wrong. Henricat has a device and it seems to work ok apart from the missing software features. iRex never had any chance of getting a complete software by the end of May, so they must have taking that into account. So if the software on Henryca't deivce is the one we're going to get, why is there still adelay?

There are only two parties that could shed some light on this matter, Henrycat (becaseu he has some links to iRex) and iRex themselves.
Unfortunately iRex is apparently not talking to anyone including Henrycat at that moment and the nice lady on the phone still said "a couple of days, but she can't be more precise" on monday...

Oh by the way....has anyone found out more about the chinese iliad yet?

No ereader device could ever be worth 650 Euro...

i'd buy the Iliad straight away anyway because it's finally a piece of useful technology and only by buying these early and unrealistically priced devices can we at least give them a chance at success.

I don't think this would increase their chances of success. Irex is focusing, quite rightly, on businesses as their main customers and it's up to these businesses (newspapers mostly) to market their solutions. Marketing products on your own is enormously expensive.

This is probably the reason you're not getting much info from them: dealing with individuals is not their main focus. I doubt they even have a PR department to handle individual calls.

well they do have Loeki...:-)
she is the telephone lady...^^

I thought "Loeki" was a male's name.

so did I until somebody told me differently...and the lady at the irex europe phone-line says her name is Loeki van der Lee...^^

kinda cute...the name...:-)

We have this mascot called "Loeki de Leeuw (http://www.loeki.nl/over.html)" (Loeki the Lion).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Loeki van der Lee [mailto:loeki.van.der.lee@irextechnologies.com]
Sent: 31 May 2006 11:33
To: Stuart Young
Subject: RE: The iLiad ER0100 Reader


Our Web shop will be open soon. You will receive a notification as soon as our Web shop is open.

Regards,

The iRex Technologies Team

FYI guys I've already started a new thread.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stuart Young [mailto:syoung@xxxxx.com]
Sent: Wednesday 31 May 2006 11:44
To: Loeki van der Lee
Subject: RE: The iLiad ER0100 Reader


Hi Loeki sorry to bother you again.

Any news when the iLiad will be available?

thanks

/stuart

Sorry, but if that isn't a canned response, I don't know what is.

I'm a born Optimist.

I'm going to play some BF2 Demo now...to relax...^^

I'm a born Optimist.

I'm not..
Were all doomed.
Doomed I tells ya!!
[insert maniacal laughter here]

Tell you what guys...somebody (somebody from the Netherlands would be best) should give them another call and ask them when they plan on announcing the delay.

Somehow I think they should have some pressure applied right now. I'm not too bothered about the actual delay anymore, but the lack of communications is starting to make me mad.
I'd call them myself again, but talking to somebody in a language that is not their or my own takes a lot of fire out of the conversation.

The end of may is here and gone and if they don't know a precise date yet they should hurry up and make one up...!!!

Well, I have now ordered a Nokia 770. I'll give the iLiad a few months to have its bugs ironed out by the heroes you all are before I get mine. In the meantime I'll be following this forum avidly on an 800*480 screen... Courage!

The end of may is here and gone and if they don't know a precise date yet they should hurry up and make one up...!!!

Actually IMO thats the very last thing they should do.

I wouldn't mind if they gave a "In the near future" or "Soon" answer but they have already failed (well assuming it's not opened within the next few hours) 3 dates they gave:

April Launch
Look for more info by May 10th
Webshop will be open sometime in May

As I said yesterday it's currently about a month overdue. This isn't a huge delay for new technology. It's annoying yes. But I can think of worse examples (Clio NXT amongst others). But they should give some form of answer.

actually you are probably right...^^

I'm not..
Were all doomed.
Doomed I tells ya!!
[insert maniacal laughter here]

I notice you have a Cybook, which is available. How do you like it?

Irex has a very bad business habit. I was looking at their device for our company since March. Today is indeed the last day of May and it looks like Irex has lied again. Looks like the "Delay due to webshop problems" reason was not true from the beginning.

Since we don't want to do business with them anymore, I'll have to look elsewhere for a ebook device. Very sad, I really liked the technical specs of the Illiad but my boss will never allow us to buy there. Just imagine if there is a problem with the reader and you contact the company and get the same (non-) reactions like now...

hmm...the lady at irex told me that the b2b part is already open...so you should have received positive feedback when asking them as representative of your company...very strange that.

She really said that it has been released for business customers already...I always thought that it was only used in trial runs, but her words seemed to mean something else..but os course there is always room for (mis)interpretation.

I notice you have a Cybook, which is available. How do you like it?

It's big and heavy.
Definitely not a device to carry around with you all day.
Clear and crisp reading but at a price: you need a small powerplant to go with it.
I must leave it plugged in to the power every (!) night.
the device resets if the battery runs out (about 1 to 3 hours).
It is impossible to read the backlit screen outdoors if the sun shines.
Apart from that, it can handle quite a lot of textformats and the after sales service is very, very good.

It has all sorts of nice features that you'll never use.

You'd think a Company the size of Irex would do something to stem the bad press. For all we know one of the posters here may be a CEO or CTO, e.g. someone with some hefty purchasing power. - You'd be mad not to think twice about buying from them. - ok when I say bad press I mean word of mouth generated by forums likes this.

@High 5

would you mind calling irex and trying to get a statement from them (end of May and stuff...)
as I said before, I think somebody who can talk to them in their native language could do the best job of dragging an answer out of them...possibly...

I called them about 20 minutes ago, it was actually Loeki who answered. Standard reply she didnt know when then webshop would be open only saying 'soon'. Oh an that I should leave my email address for a notification.

:-/

great...any reaction on the "end of May" topic or did you forget to ask (like I did last time I phoned)?

I didnt specifically mention end of May.

Ah well, the day is still young.
Well, not anymore. Nearly end of business in Europe now.

Why do ALL of these companies have their head up thier butt?

At least I voted correctly in the poll! <g>

yes...this seems to be an increasing problem...companies not talking to their customers, not replying to service requests or technical questiones...service in general is going downhill.
There are other examples however...like the big Graphics Cards manufactureres that have fianally learned that "paper-launches" can harm their image pretty badly. Both ATI and Nvidia habe managed to get rid of that bad habit for their latest line of Video Cards...so there is hope...at least for some issues and from some companies.

The trouble is that although iRex has done a very bad job so far, the device itself is still interesting and I'd still like to buy it...and in doing so I will indirectly support their outrageous behaviour...dilemma...

On a sidenote...I haven't seen Henrycat around today...I guess he is really clever and decided not to come here on the last day of May because he probybly knew they weren't going to make it and people would have swamped him with questiones he can't answer again...^^

I share the disappointment many here feel on the delay in the release, and the possibility that we may have to wait until fall. However, I think one cannot ascribe it to lack of willingness to launch, or intentional misleading by the company. Sure they got it wrong a couple of times, but they are trying to balance the buzz with the reality.

As has been mentioned many times, we are not Irex's core business. That is the content providers (newspapers, magazines) who will probably pay for the hardware in some way - therefore their main attention has to be on the trials going on, which will be evaluated academically and success there is key. If that fails, the whole company's future may be in doubt.

We represent more of a risk at the moment, IMHO. If they release a device with issues (e.g. power management) to a crowd of vocal, and sometimes critical ;) folks like us, we may create more negative buzz, and customer service headaches than is offset by the income we are likely to provide. They clearly do not have much staff to handle this sort of thing yet, and so holding off is the safer strategy. I think the info coming from LA that there will be a developer prerelease soon sounds right.

I say: "Don't be angry at Irex". I am sure that if they could release, they would. They are not witholding a well functioing Iliad, but are getting it right as quickly as they can.

Sure, they didn't handle the communication with us very well. Companies should realize that raising expectations and then failing to deliver is worse than not raising them in the first place. Apple knows this, which is why they never talk about upcoming things. However, a startup like Irex probably has investor pressure to get to market, and so promised too soon. On the other hand, they cannot take us on every twist and turn in what must be a complex situation with different external vendors delivering/not delivering software etc.

Let us be patient, and give them a chance to wow us with a cool new device when it is ready. I'd rather wait a couple of months, than have something that I dislike because it underdelivers. The battery life is huge for me - I want something that I can treat like a book for a couple of weeks, then plug in. Not something that I need to recharge every 3 days.

Well said.

In fact I think that the urge not to 'dissappoint again' is one of the reasons that Irex is keeping quiet. However their earlier mistakes have pushed them to go too far IMO. They need to make some form of formal comment. Even if it's just a generic "Soon!".

On a sidenote...I haven't seen Henrycat around today...I guess he is really clever and decided not to come here on the last day of May because he probybly knew they weren't going to make it and people would have swamped him with questiones he can't answer again...^^

Actually he was about earlier. But he's been almost silent since his 'hint' (1 post since then I think).

I do hope he hasn't been repremanded in anyway (e.g. told not to comment further) because of it.

I'm with you on almost everything oliver...BUT:

Whatever the trouble is, the one thing they HAVE to do is tell people what's going on. i'm not talking about taking us every step of the way or something...just stating the correct reason for the delay and giving an approx. on how long it might take (make that conservative...)

It is absolutely unexcusable to wait till the alst day of April, telling people that the device is ready and will launch in April and then suddenly delaying, giving a very unconvincing reason, and not only for a couple of days (delays like that can happen easily) ub tby more than 4 weeks.

This is very unporfessional behaviour and not to be tolerated. I can live with delays (even though i don't like to) and am willing to let them finish their device, but they have to at least put up SOME info on their website. They even promised to do that (Angel Ancin actually said that they would start communicationg more with their prospective customers through the website around 10th of May) and still the website hasn't been updated fo ages, it even still contains mention of the April opening of the webshop in the FAQ!
Giving informtaion on the website would even have cut down on the number of mails and phone-calls they receive, so it would have made their work easier instead of harder..at least that's my estimation...

If the rumor is true that iLiad has been issuing and selling these devices to companies and businesses already and have locked the common people out then I am highly disappointed (I could use many other stronger adjectives here but will not denigrate this thread with profanity).

If the latter is the case then this is how I feel iLiad is treating us now:

"You little person, you don't matter. We will cater to the B2B clientele and will string you little people along till we get tired of it. Then we will dump you, and never let you touch our precious device! Well tell you to then go out and get some lesser commerically available reader (insert Sony Reader here) Hah, Hah, Hah! Your all fools!"

On a more serious note;

I am anxious to get one of these devices though at this point I am getting overwhelmingly frustrated with it. I was hoping to use this at work and sell the company on purchasing a number of them. This device - if it works correctly could have a large market in the industry that I am employed in. It was my intention to get one of these and "sell" the company on the idea. There are a lot of small companies that are not going to be willing to spend money on something until they can get an actual demonstration of it's capabilities. Employees that take the initiative may have more of a chance of marketing the company through the back door versus a salesman trying to knock down the front door.

The thing that iLiad does not understand is the myriad of uses that could be applied to with this device. They are limited by their own imagination as to what you can do with this thing. The truth of the matter is that the laity can find more applications then they could ever dream of. This fact has been proven more times than can be counted.

The preponderance of lies and innuendo forwarded by this company is disturbing. Just be truthful about this. If you don't know when it's going to be finally released say so, just don't pick arbitrary dates and then blow off your customer base when the date expires. The character of this company is strongly coming into question. I could take "We don't know exactly when we can sell this", than "It will be ready in two weeks".

The most important thing right now is not to obsess about this thing. Too often we take a want, and turn it into a need. Don't subside to this dilemma. We should turn our backs on it and get on with our lives. If they want to sell this thing to us they have our email addresses. They will contact us.

Good Luck To Us All!

I don't think thats altogether fair.

If memory serves:Capturing the professional market was always Irex's core business plan. It was only later when they realised the interest that they took the decision to sell to the public at large.

I'm with you on almost everything oliver...BUT:

Whatever the trouble is, the one thing they HAVE to do is tell people what's going on. i'm not talking about taking us every step of the way or something...just stating the correct reason for the delay and giving an approx. on how long it might take (make that conservative...)

It is absolutely unexcusable to wait till the alst day of April, telling people that the device is ready and will launch in April and then suddenly delaying, giving a very unconvincing reason, and not only for a couple of days (delays like that can happen easily) ub tby more than 4 weeks.

This is very unporfessional behaviour and not to be tolerated. .....

Yes - I agree. They could have handled the communication much better. I think that unexpected things have happened though, and I wonder how professional it would have appeared to post successive reasons on the site for each delay? For example: the "pdf reader isn't ready" and one week later "the power management software isn't ready" etc etc. Do you see my point? I think that companies now tend towards monolithic silence and this is perhaps why.

However, now that they have created expectations, I totally agree with you that they should post a statement giving us a feel for the reasons and the time frame. This would only make us less upset. In any case, the uncertainty in this community is not working in their favor...

It's big and heavy.
Definitely not a device to carry around with you all day.
Clear and crisp reading but at a price: you need a small powerplant to go with it.
I must leave it plugged in to the power every (!) night.
the device resets if the battery runs out (about 1 to 3 hours).
It is impossible to read the backlit screen outdoors if the sun shines.
Apart from that, it can handle quite a lot of textformats and the after sales service is very, very good.

It has all sorts of nice features that you'll never use.

Yeah, power was the big concern when I saw it. International flights are the norm for me (I travel 3-5 times outside the US every year, maybe 1-2 times in the US by air). SO, my 'minimum' requirement I've defined as acceptable is 14 hours of time with at most 1 battery change. But the pictures look nice and I like Mobipocket (the library uses that format). Sigh...

Yes - I agree. They could have handled the communication much better. I think that unexpected things have happened though, and I wonder how professional it would have appeared to post successive reasons on the site for each delay? For example: the "pdf reader isn't ready" and one week later "the power management software isn't ready" etc etc. Do you see my point? I think that companies now tend towards monolithic silence and this is perhaps why.

However, now that they have created expectations, I totally agree with you that they should post a statement giving us a feel for the reasons and the time frame. This would only make us less upset. In any case, the uncertainty in this community is not working in their favor...

Indeed which is why I have been pushing for a generic response from them.

I don't expect a "this isn't ready yet" or "We will launch at 3:27:43 on the 18th of June" just a "We know you are anxious and we are working on it"

I can understand they are leery of making a definative statement. But I don't think anyone expects them to make one. We just want something.

We could always slip HenryCat a few cans of Stella.. An ask him to find out where their warehouse orstorage facility is.. :bulb2: Just a thought. Charlie Crocker did it in the Italian Job and all it took was a couple of Mini Coopers. I don't anticipate many problems with the Italian Mafia.

Silly me. I postponed replacing my tablet for two months now hoping I could trust a corporate marketing department. I guess I'll have to settle for another lousy (heavy) tablet PC.

@High 5

would you mind calling irex and trying to get a statement from them (end of May and stuff...)
as I said before, I think somebody who can talk to them in their native language could do the best job of dragging an answer out of them...possibly...

Just got home after my last posting.
I'll try and call them tomorrow, CommandeROR.
Wring the truth out of them, grill'em, "where were you on the night of 31th may" kind of stuff.

Mind you, Loeki is very likely telling us the truth that she doesn't know when the Illiad will be ready.
Also, from the point of view of the company, it really, really isn't that important if this device will come on the market today, tomorrow, next week or next month.
Us geeks will probably get one anyway and the general public couldn't care less.

Well, guess their MarComm (Marketing and Communications) department should be sent for training or fired.

This reminds me of a Dilbert strip and also of my time working as a software engineer in R&D.

It goes like this:

Marketing decides that May is a good time to launch a product, possibly because then they can apply for a month long vacation in June/July to enjoy the sun.

Engineering and research requires six more months for production ready. So they inform management that product would be ready only in October, possibly early 2007. But MarCom has trigger-happily sent out press releases to everyone declaring May as release date.

Engineering continues to slog and rush.

Beat.

Marcom plans for holiday ... and forgets to update the website.

Corporate relations get tons of call regarding release. Someone calls up Marcom folks who is basking in the sun somewhere in Hawaii. Marcom folk calls up engineering team to help change website to inform of delays.

Engineering updates website. Mobileread forum users grunt! :p

Us geeks will probably get one anyway and the general public
couldn't care less.

Oi I resemble that remark.

hmm...the lady at irex told me that the b2b part is already open...so you should have received positive feedback when asking them as representative of your company...very strange that.

She really said that it has been released for business customers already...I always thought that it was only used in trial runs, but her words seemed to mean something else..but os course there is always room for (mis)interpretation.

Our email were not answered at all, calling there just gives the usual answer: "Will be released in May". Now they are talking about September or October. Really "great" company.

They've just lost us as potential customers. (> 100 devices).

Marcom plans for holiday ... and forgets to update the website.
....
Engineering updates website. Mobileread forum users grunt! :p

I know of course, many reasons can lead to delays of a product.

BUT...
As we know, Irex is not simple able itself to do something with it's site - they said, their site is served by a third company.

So, they should ask this third company to do last changes at their site at least several days ago.
But at the same time they were telling a barefaced lie about "couple of days web-shop opening". THAT is very bad, but not the delay itself.

I know of course, many reasons can lead to delays of a product.

BUT...
As we know, Irex is not simple able itself to do something with it's site - they said, their site is served by a third company.

So, they should ask this third company to do last changes at their site at least several days ago.
But at the same time they were telling a barefaced lie about "couple of days web-shop opening". THAT is very bad, but not the delay itself.

Yeah, I agree with you. Having a delay is not so good. Lying about it is outright bad! greee :angry: