The PearPad: A Cautionary Tale for Founders

I very much agree with this author's assessment. The Edge fits perfectly as an example of a "PearPad" product: manufactured by a startup and lacks a clear "use case" in its marketing. I think Entourage management would be well advised to read this article and consider who they plan to target as buyers of this device. I understand the company wants the education market, but that is Apple's traditional home turf. If Entourage expects to displace (or even just eat a bit) of the Apple, their product will have to meet a use case that the iPad can't hope to achieve.

One such use case is language training, particularly Asian languages with ideographic characters. Pen input in Notes combined with textbook access on the LCD panel actually replaces a textbook and notebook for learning character writing. With A/V support, one can combine pronunciation practice with the device.

Based on this I would recommend Entourage attempt to partner with a firm like RosettaStone to port their software over to the Edge and thus aggressively target that sub-market. Because Entourage cannot beat Apple at the general use game. Apple has many orders of magnitude more money to promote their product, and far more sales connections and leads throughout the general education industry.

JMO...

http://epaley.posterous.com/the-ipad...e-for-founders

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Let’s rewrite this story with a hypothetical startup. Imagine that a product equivalent to the iPad was created by a startup called Pear and no one has ever seen such a device before. Pear has no proven distribution and a very limited marketing budget. Let’s assume that Pear had the extraordinary hardware design, software UX and supply chain expertise to create something as beautiful, low cost and multipurpose as the iPad and was the first in the world to market such a product. Let’s call it the PearPad. Let’s even assume that Pear is reasonably well financed for their launch with $15MM in fresh venture capital. Would anyone buy the PearPad? Besides a small group of fringe early adopters, I think the answer is no. I think PearPad would be lucky to sell 1000 devices in its first month; far from Apple’s 1MM. It would be a stretch to imagine how PearPad would ever recover its enormous R&D investment to create such a high quality product. Put another way, an innovative device marketed at everyone is likely to fail because it doesn’t solve a clear problem for anyone.

What would PearPad have to do to be a success? Pear would need to design the system around a clear use case and market to customers that had the strongest need for that use case. Over time that use case can broaden to target more customer segments. However, at the beginning, a lack of focus makes it unclear what one does with the device, who should buy it, and how to market to the right customers.

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I would have to agree wholeheartedly with borisb. As a student the eDGe fits quite well and as bug fixes and features are sent with updates I expect to find that one I won't understand how I was able to function as a student without it. As it is I rarely carry paper and pen with me to class anymore and all my textbooks remain at home. There is simply no way that the ipad can compete with this.

My point, and I think that of the blog post's author, is that "student use" is too broad a category to be labeled "targeted" or "focused". Further, competition by much larger players, such as Apple and soon Google, serve to disadvantage Entourage in that market. I believe the blog author would argue that to succeed Entourage should focus on a sub-market even smaller than "students", one where their hardware or software gives them a definite advantage over the larger players.

Unfortunately, I must disagree with borisb's and 10tkiz's assessments.

One thing I did find is the iPad has an application for Pearson Education ebooks. I was unable to find any of my textbooks in a format I could use on the edge. Disappointing at best.

Boris,

Apple's, Google's, and Amazon's products don't need to be better than Entourage's. They don't even need to be _functional_ for the student's and academia's purpose. They need only have control over the distribution channel and flood the market with saturation advertising to win. The tech world is littered with dead startups who sold better products than their larger competitors.

Good marketing for bad products beats great technology every time.

I think the IPad is a great entertainment device but it wouldn't serve my purposes at work. I think the Edge does a wonderful job targeting its features at professionals and students. Much of my frustration with the limitations of the device will be solved by future software updates and Google targeting Android at tablets users as well (something I think is in the process of happening.) Once that happens and the SDK is released (can't wait!) I think the sky's the limit for this device. Then let's put the Edge up for review again.

Originally Posted by maynard

"student use" is too broad a category to be labeled "targeted" or "focused".

I don't understand this statement. Are you saying products need to be targeted to "art students" or "math students?" How is "student use" unfocused? When you think students, you think textbooks, notepads, school supplies, e-learning environments... you picture kids learning from books, websites, teacher lesson plans, videos, podcasts. You envision them at home answering questions, doing research, making notes, studying for tests or in the classroom listening to lectures, taking notes, collaborating with other students on projects ...

While I agree with the posters saying marketing is king, I just don't understand this specific assertion that "student use" is somehow unclear. Could you let me know what you mean?

Originally Posted by cheyennedonna

One thing I did find is the iPad has an application for Pearson Education ebooks. I was unable to find any of my textbooks in a format I could use on the edge. Disappointing at best.

I see this as a huge problem. The bottom line is that most students cannot get away from pen input and are still more likely to use a stylus to highlight text than a mouse. While students are typing notes more and more often, so much is still done with a pencil. But, because Apple is a big name, they are going to secure deals with e-textbooks and people will continue to use e-textbooks in a computer-y way and think that that's how they should be used. I tutored high school and university students for almost 20 years, and even towards the end, a very, very small fraction of them used the computer to make/type notes (either in class or at home) or answer homework questions. Looseleaf paper and spiral bound notebooks still rule the average school, though from the number of IM messages I receive from them now in while they're in class, I'm going to guess that post-secondary laptop use in class is stronger.

I could be wrong but I don't see this so much as a problem of focus as one of breaking into the big markets. I think the use case for the average student, something that allows handwritten math equations and marked up pages, is pretty clear. The iPad is nowhere near replacing the need for pens and notebooks, which I think are still alive and kicking in education today. I wrote a bit about my findings of the iAnnotate app on the Mobile Read forums, and it doesn't (yet) look suited to that at all.

I can understand why not every university student has run out and purchased a $2000-$3000 tablet PC (although those that have swear by them), but if this $500 machine continues to improve the user experience, there's no reason why this shouldn't be a reasonable student substitute.

Hi Sarah,

I'm arguing that Entourage would be well advised to target a segment of the student market with a large partner, one that leverages the capabilities _specific_ to this device. One thing the iPad, Kindle DX, and whatever Google slate is forthcoming can't do is open like a book and display two screens. Further, neither the Kindle nor the iPad is really designed for pen input. That means the applications don't natively support and/or aren't designed with pen input in mind. However, the Edge does support these functions.

In my use of the Edge I've noticed that it's particularly well suited to foreign language training. I think Entourage would be well advised to partner with a large language training institute (such as Rosettastone, but not necessarily only that firm) to make a software package specific to the Edge that would make use of its dual screen, A/V, and pen input functions. In doing so, Entourage would have a hardware advantage in that specific sub-market that none of its larger competitors could overcome.

Another way of looking at this: Entourage needs a killer app for the Edge that can _only_ run on the Edge. They then should aggressively market that application and featureset as part of a larger tactic at gaining share in that subset of the educational market. In this case, I'm promoting language training simply because that's what I'm using the Edge for. However, I recognize that there may be other subsets where the dual screen and pen input offer an advantage over the iPad and Kindle as well.

But most importantly, what the blog author said and I agree with is that simply targeting the "educational market" is too broad. Apple, Amazon, and Google can do that because they have multi-billion dollar market caps and cash to spare. Entourage, however, is a small startup. They are a minnow swimming among sharks. Best for the minnow to seek a safe spot that the sharks have ignored until the minnow grows to become a shark itself.

I think we can all agree that the edge buries the ipad, especially when considering its wide range of functionality (...should I say potential functionality?). I don't think that is the issue Maynard is arguing in this thread.

maynard brings up a good point about partnering. The market is harsh out there and Entourage would do well to look at ways they can partner with other market segments like, for example what maynard suggests, foreign langauge learning. I think this is something that should be explored. What other businesses would Entourage do well in partnering with?

Originally Posted by StevenP

maynard brings up a good point about partnering. The market is harsh out there and Entourage would do well to look at ways they can partner with other market segments like, for example what maynard suggests, foreign langauge learning. I think this is something that should be explored. What other businesses would Entourage do well in partnering with?

I'm neither a student nor someone who can use the eDGe professionally. What sold me was the potential I saw in self-study of a foreign language, in my case Japanese. Nothing enTourage has put out has suggested such a use, except in the most broad way. "Student" use. If I hadn't put two and two together myself I might never have discovered how ideal it is for this purpose.

Other possibilities? Bible* study comes to mind. There are software packages out there for $5000 that are less capable than the eDGe would be with the right package, and the eDGe wouldn't be limited to the desktop. Think: a pastor or bible study leader could put it on the podium during meetings with notes and references a touch away.

I'm sure there are many other non-obvious, focused areas that can be explored outside of professional and academic use.

*You can replace "Bible" with Talmud, Koran, or what have you. It's just an example.

The betamax vs. VHS example is excellent as it was not at all about advertising but about content. Beta failed because Sony refused to permit porn to be distributed, thus preventing people from buying what they really wanted on their video recorders. Similarly, all these new computing devices will succeed or fail on content. To date, Apple has been a master of this. For the eDGe to succeed in the student market, student content will have to be plentiful. I surely hope that the etextbook "tab" is soon populated with textbooks.

Originally Posted by alefor

The betamax vs. VHS example is excellent as it was not at all about advertising but about content. Beta failed because Sony refused to permit porn to be distributed, thus preventing people from buying what they really wanted on their video recorders.

Porn had nothing to do with it. It had to do with the fact that VHS was open (other manufacturers could use it) and Beta was proprietary.