Development This was it?

I'm still very disappointed about what going on with the company.

The big question is of course: was this it? does nobody go further with the development of the official version Ermine? could it be that there are some programmers who can finish this work?
I mean, at Entourage they performed something what could be finished by others.

Originally Posted by Franky

I'm still very disappointed about what going on with the company.

The big question is of course: was this it? does nobody go further with the development of the official version Ermine? could it be that there are some programmers who can finish this work?
I mean, at Entourage they performed something what could be finished by others.

We all are kind of disappointed. However, I would not completely rule out the possibility of a final Ermine release just yet. If not, Entourage should at least make the beta available as a .zip file for download. Rumor has it that Entourage is developing a slate so there is still a company. Whether they think it's worth maintaining loyal customers (many bought their products on faith even after knowing the road the company was heading down) remains to be seen.

Originally Posted by obsessed2

Whether they think it's worth maintaining loyal customers

This.

I dont get it. Most companies would kill to have a customer base like this. Despite the fact that the company hasnt provided much in terms of development for a while now, the community within the forums is very much 'alive & kicking'...& most of the users here go out of their way to help others...How could a company NOT want to maintain this kind of customer base??

With them closing the Entourage store now, I think (like so many others here) its high time they release the SDK AT LEAST. Would it help if all of us emailed the company individually? Even if there really are not many people to check/answer emails, it might be worth a shot?

Originally Posted by Kewlcat

Most companies would kill to have a customer base like this

Quite, the contrary - most hardware companies die with a customer base like this.

With over a year's sales, I doubt the company cleared even 50,000 units sold of PE's and EE's combined. What about Woot, you ask? 2,000 units? Are you kidding? The 14,000 PE's they sold on HSN last November was a major and never repeated spike. 14,000 units. A joke in terms of the sustained sales enTourage actually needed.

A successful company would have sold 25-50,000 units PER MONTH, with several HUNDRED thousand units in a year.

The truth is that there's practically no customer base at all, which is why the company went under. Loyal, yes, but numerous, no.

I copy that, boris

It's a shame, really, because enTourage had a great idea, had great partnering skills, great staff, and a great customer base, but ultimately the "market" didn't get the concept, and in retrospect enTourage marketted to the wrong group and/or not widely & visibily enough. As a result, there were hardly any sales, the money ran out, and bye-bye enTourage.

While the last two months has seen a tremendous resurgence in customer enthusiasm and sales, still, less than 10 thousand would have sold in 2-3 months (i.e., 2-3000 per month), which is dramatically insufficient.

Oh well, we all (enTourage and the user community) tried

Originally Posted by borisb

Loyal, yes, but numerous, no.

Right, my point was exactly that...even if they did not have a wide enough customer base in the beginning , they did have something....a powerful something, that they could have used to their advantage...

Originally Posted by borisb

"the market" didn't get the concept

Neither did EnTOUrAgE - they tried to do everything in-house. They kept everything as secret as possible within legal limits; there was no SDK released, even though one had been promised, and as a result, there were very few apps. Even Apple doesn't try to develop everything in house. eNTouRAge's pig-headedness here is just flabbergasting.

I would also say the price was part of the problem - at least over here in Europe where all they did was change the $ sign to € and ignored the exchange rate. But then Entourage aren't the only US company that do this.

for a part I see it as miss management. They have a super idea, a reasonable good device with a great potential. Trying what apple does, fantastic PR, is what Entourage missed and didn't had. Trying to promote your product only through internet will not do the trick that's overestimating internet.

I copy all said on this thread. Entourage died because of 3 things:
1. Initial price too high. I paid 200$ for PE and 300$ for EE and will do it again in a heart beat, but not at 360-550$ range MSR. But, we don't know how much it cost to produce either...
2. Wrong sector marketing/not wide enough marketing = small customer database.
3. Semi-closed platform. Used android, but no access to Android market, older OS until recently and no SDK. The online store was a joke anyway. IF they opened up with SDK, a lot of tech people jumped and developed specific apps which increased sales of devices and its exposure...
Well...
The concept is great and it appeals to innovative people who think outside the box (iPad ?), but let's face it, those are minorities. LOL

Originally Posted by larka2006

small tech companies should be as open as possible to grow

Agreed...infact small any company should be as open as possible...more often than not, its the one thing that the 'biggies' do not do...so its the one thing that people expect as an advantage for going with a small company...IMO anyway...

question is now if they, the old crew, are still deliver an official version of Ermine.

Originally Posted by Franky

question is now if they, the old crew, are still deliver an official version of Ermine.

Maybe they just hope we slowly disappear from here, seeing that less people come they'll feel like they accomplished to their duty.

Thanks to the Woot buyers this forum is still well pupulated but...For how long?

Well **** them. I love the eDGe but I will cover their names with dirt every time I can, unless they release the final Ermine at least. There is still hope because the beta is out since the first days of April, and 2 months is still a reasonable amount of time for a beta. I will not stop spamming here in the meanwhile, hope that the same you'll do :-)

I will do. The Ermine update affed a lot of cool features but broke Mobile Broadband, which I miss so much.