Gen3 When will Bookeen post a new firmware update?

[EowynCarter]

nelsonescorcio why would you be surprised when a company... acts like a company ?

Last time they tried to give a date, someting whent wrong and the update was pushed back. So, no surprise they're carefull with info now.

[brudigia]

Originally Posted by nelsonescorcio

Getting tired of this.
Can't understand the economy of words of this guys... Nor the permanent use of corporate "clichés" when dealing with their costumers, without real dialogue ou substantial information about anything!

I believe there are two ways of looking at this : in another thread somebody has said, and I approve of this, that the current machine is by no means a bad machine. It works, it may have some problems, but it does what I ask it to do, very little to complain about, and I am happy about it. So praise to the company who has given such a product.
Problem is that the selfsame company is very secretive about everything else. Maybe some others behave the same, while others (see Bebook, Astak for the future, even iRex) are much more open to customer, at least apparently.
I believe they could have a very good PR if they used something like Calibre is using (I understand it is different, but if the Calibre team can do it, maybe a professional company can accomplish the same result, if not use the same means). That is a good example for me of a flourishing community.
The net result is that people may be happy with the machine they have, but probably are not sure they will ever buy anything else from this company.
How is that for a confused mind ?

[nelsonescorcio]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

nelsonescorcio why would you be surprised when a company... acts like a company ?

Last time they tried to give a date, someting whent wrong and the update was pushed back. So, no surprise they're carefull with info now.

I am sorry, I did not make myself clear: I am NOT surprised they do not give a precise date (I quite understand them, really); I fell However frustrated because they are do NOT seem able to explain the reasons beyond the delay (even without details), the reason why folder support is not implemented for months now; the reason why recent builds are not available for download; give us some hints of what to expect from the upgrade; explain why they expected to implement the EPUB/PDF support in a few weeks (when they couldn't implment the folder support in a year), and so on...

After all, they do have a blog! But, as someone there noticed, it seems a one way channel...

Bookeen is a small company. And small companys do usually have a less "corporate" attitude; they are more open and encourage direct dialogue with their costumers.

Nothing of this happens with Bookeen. They put a wall of silence and expect we fell satisfied with something like "It will be soon", "We hear you"...

In the end, I am not really surprised. Just unhappy with the way they chose to do things.

[nelsonescorcio]

Originally Posted by brudigia

the current machine is by no means a bad machine. It works, it may have some problems, but it does what I ask it to do, very little to complain about, and I am happy about it.

No question about it!

(still, it is human nature to want more; and more was promised too long ago now...)

[EowynCarter]

I am sorry, I did not make myself clear: I am NOT surprised they do not give a precise date (I quite understand them, really); I fell However frustrated because they are do NOT seem able to explain the reasons beyond the delay (even without details), the reason why folder support is not implemented for months now; the reason why recent builds are not available for download; give us some hints of what to expect from the upgrade; explain why they expected to implement the EPUB/PDF support in a few weeks (when they couldn't implment the folder support in a year), and so on...

Trully they could.
But does us knowing will make the update comes faster ? Maybe just make the waiting less frustrating

[Abelturd]

You hit the mark, Bruno. In a nutshell: I'm happy with my cybook, though it took a little workaround to get to this spot, I seriously doubt I will ever buy anything from bookeen again, they're secretive and their PR is inadequate. I'm with you on this.

[K-Thom]

I seriously doubt I will ever buy anything from bookeen again, they're secretive and their PR is inadequate

That's exactly the point. The Cybook itself is a working device. Some flaws, but nothing critical. BUT with Bookeen's attitude towards customer relations I also doubt I will buy a product from this company again.

An active communication with the customers is one of the most crucial aspect especially for smaller companies to stay ahead of the big ones. Bookeen surely goofed that one.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Jellby

By the way, Cybook is the device, the company is Bookeen.

Cybook is Bookeen's line of eBook readers. Gen3 is the device.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Abelturd

You hit the mark, Bruno. In a nutshell: I'm happy with my cybook, though it took a little workaround to get to this spot, I seriously doubt I will ever buy anything from bookeen again, they're secretive and their PR is inadequate. I'm with you on this.

Having spoken in person with peaple from bookeen, tjhat's not true.
Had they been secretive, the answer would have been "soon" rather than "next week".
Name me a company that tell, weeks earliers "hey, we're going to publish an update at date X". Oh, wait, bookeen did, and that's why evryone is so furious after them, because it got delayed for some reason.

[brudigia]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Having spoken in person with peaple from bookeen, tjhat's not true.
Had they been secretive, the answer would have been "soon" rather than "next week".
Name me a company that tell, weeks earliers "hey, we're going to publish an update at date X". Oh, wait, bookeen did, and that's why evryone is so furious after them, because it got delayed for some reason.

They may have their reasons and they may be good, no one will dispute that. From the human point of view I am sure they are very good people. But from the commercial point of view, this does not work well. I believe that the best way to push a product is to heavily sponsor it, wherever you can, however you can, within the financial means you have and all the other constraints you may have. You have to create a community and nurture it, so that the customer shall have more and more support than the company in itself might be able to deliver. I believe that this works even better if you are a small company which cannot compete with the likes of Sony and Amazon.
(It would probably be even better if they really posted all the sources and worked for plugin support. I am pretty sure that somebody would try to port some other application, ebook reader and I do not see that as bad. Think on having the Calibre lit reader availabe, wouldn' t it be nice ? But this is still in future.)
Having said that, I do not understand what is stopping them from writing "we are working on this and that, and we got some problems in this and that". It' s like the progress bar in some Windows application, it may not be useful to understand the completion rate, but it lets you feel that something is happening. It is like a psychological Linus quilt that will let them appear open to the customers and gain more widespread access. I do not believe it will hurt them; the machine is already good enough!
Some of these failures to communicate is fast becoming apparent; there is an email in some forum of a customer with a Cybook with a newer firmware release, who has a problem, but he/she cannot reflash his firmware, because it is not available as a reflashable download, and will have to send it back to Booken. This will not create a happy customer, also if they send the item back the next day, totaly repaired and full of bonuses. Human nature is such that you remember best the worst thigs and not the good things. That is way I believe you should try to avoid the bad publicity.

[Abelturd]

Sorry Eowyn but you seem to be missing the point. Under "not secretive" I certainly wouldn't file bookeen's employee giving away dubious info on the release date, which he maybe wasn't even authorized to reveal, assuming from bookeen's hitherto customs when it comes to information disclosure. Under not secretive I imagine bookeen giving users more insight on what they're cooking for us. Discussing new features and their implementation in fora or if nothing else, more frequent updates of their blog.

[Abelturd]

Bruno, you're on a roll tonight. I couldn't have said it better. I especially like the part about opening code, need to be more creative and closer to the customer if the company is small.

[EowynCarter]

Mmm, what more info would you like from bookeen they havn't already told us ?

[K-Thom]

For example all the features acutally provided for the new Firmware update. Since they are on bug fixing they already know what and how much they implemented.

So where's the deal not to tell that to the customers? It's not supposed to be a secret, after all.

[nelsonescorcio]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Mmm, what more info would you like from bookeen they havn't already told us ?

Please read my reply above. Quoting myself: "explain the reasons beyond the delay (even without details), the reason why folder support is not implemented for months now; the reason why recent builds are not available for download; give us some hints of what to expect from the upgrade; explain why they expected to implement the EPUB/PDF support in a few weeks (when they couldn't implment the folder support in a year), and so on..."

Would I expect this kind of information from companies like Sony or Amazon? Off course not!
But THIS is where a small company could make a difference!