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Originally Posted by design256
However, take a step back and think.... Supposing that they never intended Iliad to be a consumer product. Say they intended it to be 95% sales to businesses with custom software and custom content tailored to the need of large organisations. But they didn't have the staff to ensure that the product was fully beta-tested to the standard needed for business.
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There's nothing to suppose here - that's their business plan.
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We have a Business-to Business focus: supporting organizations in bringing their content (newspapers, books, documents) to their members, customers and employees, wherever they are, whenever they want it.
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Originally Posted by design256
So... they could have announced the product to the world in the hope that some fervent early-adopters would do their beta-testing for them. Such people had to promise that they'd be happy with a beta machine, no sdk and an enormous pricetag.
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That's what they did openly. In press releases and interviews, they stated how "surprised" they were about the interest from book readers. And they also said they sell them mainly to get some feedback, without any affect on their B2B focus.
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Originally Posted by design256
Of course all of the above is wild speculation, and I really really hope that I'm wrong. But this smells badly of the Psion Netbook Pro - and I'm scared that the Iliad will go the same way...
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I guess you are very close to the truth. However, there's one thing: From what I see, their B2B plans didn't work out. Newspaper and book publishers went with Sony. The only appliance I'm aware of is the eFlyBook, and I didn't see too many FlyBook users in the iRex forum or the
eFlyBook forum.
And, if their B2B plans fail, we'll be the ones they're left with. This gives me
hope!
