Now that Bookeen's Paris Expo attendance is over...

[bookwormfjl]

I bought my Cybook Gen 3 through BooksonBoard and they just sent me an email offering (for a limited time!) accidental damage insurance for the Cybook. They are two and three year plans. 2 yrs for $59.99 and 3 yrs for $99.99..........

See below:

Johnny

Hello,

Please read the following important information regarding your Bookeen Cybook purchased through BooksOnBoard.

BooksOnBoard is now offering 2 and 3 year Accidental Damage Plans for Bookeen Cybook.

For a limited time (10 Days) BooksOnBoard is making the Accidental Damage Plans available retroactively to our customers who have already purchased a Cybook from BooksOnBoard in the past year.

If you have previously purchased a Bookeen Cybook from BooksOnBoard this opportunity to purchase the Accidental Damage Plan is available only until MIDNIGHT CST APRIL 3, 2008.

Please note that for Cybook customers retroactively purchasing the Accidental Damage Plan the effective date of the policy will be the date you received shipment of your Cybook. By purchasing the Accidental Damage Plan you are agreeing to these terms. Full text and terms of the Accidental Damage Plan are available on the BooksOnBoard.com website.

BooksOnBoard Cybook Accidental Damage Plan

BooksOnBoard now offers an Accidental Damage Plan for all Bookeen Cybook Gen 3 eBook Reader Devices sold through BooksOnBoard.

Cybook Two Year Accidental Damage Service and Repair Plan Now Available for $59.99

Cybook Three Year Accidental Damage Service and Repair Plan Now Available for $99.99

The BooksOnBoard Accidental Damage Plan offers peace of mind and additional protection to our customers by addressing situations that may not be covered by the Bookeen Standard Product Warranty for the Cybook Gen 3 eBook Reading Device.

BooksOnBoard Accidental Damage Plan:

-will be in effect for a period of two years from the date of shipment.

-will cover service and repair costs for accidental damage to the Cybook device.*

-will cover shipping costs to return the device for repair to Bookeen France, back to BooksOnBoard and the shipping costs to return the device to the customer.

-a limit of one screen replacement is included with each Accidental Damage Plan purchased.

-$25 dollar deductible per incident, customer is responsible for shipping costs to return unit to BooksOnBoard.

-The BooksOnBoard Accidental Damage Plan is available to purchase for $59.99

Please contact us with any questions you might have regarding the Cybook Accidental Damage Plan.

Thank you for shopping with BooksOnBoard.

Regards,

BooksOnBoard

[ProfJulie]

Originally Posted by tompe

But is it really common not making them available? I have only looked for firmware for my Archos 604 and they made them available to all.

I do not think this is uncommon at all. I spend quite a lot of time on Pocket PC forums and this seems a common practice there, and I'll bet it is also true with computer updates too. Unless I'm having a serious problem with something, I, personally, do not want to install every build of a product on my device. I'd rather wait until a formal upgrade is released that incorporates all the interim builds leadling up to it.

Originally Posted by tompe

The real reason the are not telling people about the update is that the program to update the firmware is not finished.

The program to update the firmware is probably not finished, but Bookeen may also still be incorporating more fixes and enhancements into the formal update.

Originally Posted by tompe

But I find it annoying that I have bought a product that for example cannot read some files. Other people buying the same product does not have these problems. I think that legally I can demand to send the Cybook back and get a replacement since my Cybook is not working as it should. And if laws were logical (which they often are not) the company should legally be forced to tell customers about this option. In this case the option was to get a new firmware.

I really cannot find any excuse for not telling people that actually helped them solve the problem by providing good test cases about the update.

If that's true, contact Bookeen and ask for the latest build, then you should be at the same place with your Cybook as everyone who has gotten a new one.

[Zarkov]

Originally Posted by cmbs

And maybe you should quit finding excuses for them.

I sincerely doubt most people check their dictionaries on their desktop when a word isn't found on their cybook. I thought the dictionary I'd bought was no good, until one day it occurred to me to check on my pc. Turns out the dictionary is good, the cybook isn't. So most people wouldn't even be aware that this is something lacking in the cybook.

It's not fixed, and it's been how many months? Nor are any of the other bugs fixed.

What is your excuse why they sold a bad product to begin with?
What is your excuse why they continue selling without making fixes?
What is your excuse why they don't answer customer emails?
What is your excuse why they'd produce an upgrade and then neglect to tell their customers about it and make it freely available?
Why do you keep making excuses for them?

I don't want to encourage people to buy a product like this, I wouldn't buy another Bookeen product. I think you're doing your fellow readers a disservice by continually defending and excusing this behavior and encouraging people to buy their product. I say spend your money on a better product and a better company.

You, me and everybody else here is an early or very early adopter of a new technology. Thanks to the internet and e-tailers products are being released to the market at a much earlier stage than in the old days. Largely thanks to this effect smaller companies like Bookeen are actually capable of launching their products without support of major corporations.

The net benefit to us is that we can have the goodies earlier and cheaper than ever before. The downside is that we will have to wait for firmware/software updates and that it will take time for all features to work flawlessly. Basically you’ll have to fiddle with it.

If you can’t live with this than you should hold your purchase until the system has been adopted by the masses. At that point the devices will be cheaper, fully developed and hassle free.

It kind of reminds me of my first MP3 player in 1998 or 1999, A Dimond Rio with a staggering 32 mb’s of high speed flash memory, short battery life and horrible sd-card support and heaps of other problems. And all that at the bargain price of 300USD.
It still took roughly three or four years before MP3 player mass adoption and hassle free software eventually became available.

Personally I love this new era of consumer electronics, I’m currently fiddling with three or four pieces of technology which haven’t really been mass adopted. And I wouldn’t want to wait four or five years to see if e-book readers ever get mass support.

I think that a buyer and early adopter of a product that only has web bases sales in 2007 or 2008, you don’t really have an excuses to be unaware of the fact it’s still a work in progress. I’m a big fan of personal responsibility, know what you’re getting into and if you can’t or won’t invest the time to figure that out, stick to brands you know and trust.

I most definitely do want to encourage people to buy products like this, but at the same time I would like to encourage them to figure out what they’re actually buying.

[GeoffC]

Don't forget Bookeen started in 2003 , with ideas from 1998 ; some might argue they've had plenty of time to develop their business and evolve past some of the issues that have been mentioned .

[HarryT]

They could perhaps, though, have been somewhat taken by surprise by the success of the Gen3. Judging by the order numbers, they sold perhaps 1000 "original" CyBooks in a couple of years (I still have mine). They seem to have sold over 10,000 Gen3's in less than 6 months. That kind of very rapid growth leads many companies to have customer support issues - it's something that you see over and over again.

I really don't think that one can have too much to complain about in the Gen3 from the technical viewpoint (although I know that there are a few people who would not agree with the sentiment).

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really don't think that one can have too much to complain about in the Gen3 from the technical viewpoint (although I know that there are a few people who would not agree with the sentiment).

never !!

[HarryT]

Wait until yours arrives, Geoff, and then see if you agree or not . If it's shipping tomorrow you should have it for Saturday, with a bit of luck.

[GeoffC]

If it comes by courier , we'll have to wait until Monday - no weekend deliveries here ...

[Zarkov]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Don't forget Bookeen started in 2003 , with ideas from 1998 ; some might argue they've had plenty of time to develop their business and evolve past some of the issues that have been mentioned .

Well, you have to keep in mind that Bookeen is a tiny company.

Writing and testing firmware updates is fairly labor intensive. For a small company that means either writing a single large firmware and thoroughly tested update or a number of small ones and release them to a smaller/limited group of technically savvy users. Bookeen has chosen the latter, which is in my opinion a good idea.

As for product development they don’t have enough side business needed to support a lengthy research en development cycle. Established companies have a diverse product range in order to generate enough overhead whilst developing new products.

Bookeen is both too small and has started development in a niche market. Bookeen probably has little or no cash coming in whilst they are spending heaps developing a new product. In practice this means finding a investor or borrowing money from a bank at personal risk.
This money eventually runs out at that point it’s usually a case of market it as is or not at all.

But all this is Bookeens problem not yours, but people who buy this product, like you and me have the means to be aware of this state of affairs.

I don’t really think Bookeen will evolve beyond this state of affairs anytime soon unless e-book readers become really popular. As long as it remains an early adopters market, product life cycles will stay short and development cost will remain high. I think bookeen will stay with the gen3 just long enough to get it roughly up and running and profitable. After which they will probably switch over to development of the gen4. But that’s rather dependant on the development of the e-book market.

This however does not excuse the poor customer support Bookeen provides.
The current e-mail support system is pretty unprofessional. But then again this is probably also caused by the relatively small size of the company and the sudden skyrocket in demand that apparently caught them flatfooted. This will probably improve with time. The current support system was probably good enough when they sold a limited number of gen1’s and gen2’s but it’s definitely not sufficient with the current sales and geographical diversity of the gen3.

[HarryT]

gen2's? What was the gen2? AFAIK, all they've ever sold was the original CyBook, and now the Gen3!

[Zarkov]

Originally Posted by HarryT

gen2's? What was the gen2? AFAIK, all they've ever sold was the original CyBook, and now the Gen3!

Sorry, my bad. I assumed there was a gen2 commercially available, but this was bases on the fact that there’s currently a gen3 device. If there was a gen2 device then it probably died during development, probably with the introduction of e-paper. I’ve only started taking e-book readers seriously with the introduction of e-paper.

[HarryT]

No problem - just wondered if I'd missed something .

[tompe]

Originally Posted by ProfJulie

I do not think this is uncommon at all. I spend quite a lot of time on Pocket PC forums and this seems a common practice there, and I'll bet it is also true with computer updates too. Unless I'm having a serious problem with something, I, personally, do not want to install every build of a product on my device. I'd rather wait until a formal upgrade is released that incorporates all the interim builds leadling up to it.

My question was if it was common practice to put a version on the devices you sell (which must be a stable and tested version) but not making that version available to previous customers?

If that's true, contact Bookeen and ask for the latest build, then you should be at the same place with your Cybook as everyone who has gotten a new one.

I have got the latest build but I am annoyed because it took me some months after it was available before I got it because nobody here knew that it included bug fixes and Bookeen did not tell us. I thought it was just very minor fixes in it and the bug fixes was in another branch in their version control system. That is the danger of assuming that they are following sensible development procedures...

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Zarkov

Y
The net benefit to us is that we can have the goodies earlier and cheaper than ever before. The downside is that we will have to wait for firmware/software updates and that it will take time for all features to work flawlessly. Basically you’ll have to fiddle with it.

I like to fiddle with gadgets. But I choose to buy from Bookeen just because they were small and I got the impression they were a company that would provide information and be fiddle friendly.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Zarkov

Writing and testing firmware updates is fairly labor intensive. For a small company that means either writing a single large firmware and thoroughly tested update or a number of small ones and release them to a smaller/limited group of technically savvy users. Bookeen has chosen the latter, which is in my opinion a good idea.

No, they have not. The latest firmware is placed on all new devices they sell.

But all this is Bookeens problem not yours, but people who buy this product, like you and me have the means to be aware of this state of affairs.

It is my problem if the company fails and my Cybook need warranty repair.