It depends on preference, not ignorance. I've wanted one for a while but can't justify it...but a device dedicated to note taking as well as offering a better experience than a $329 ipad plus a $100 pencil has a market. Its just a niche device.
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E-Ink iPad Rival 'reMarkable' Sells More Than 1 Million Devices
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It isn't. Just like a Kindle isn't an ipad rival.
Had one of the early second gen Remarkable's, and really loved the writing experience. What I didn't love was the fact that you could not search the written text of your notes - at all. There was no tagging concept, and the folder structure could become cumbersome. The lack of search, along with the addition of a subscription, unfortunately killed it for me.
Still, the device itself was quite wonderful, and the handwriting experience on it was wonderful.
Still, the device itself was quite wonderful, and the handwriting experience on it was wonderful.
It's not. Pretty sure that's just a headline editor putting out comment-bait.
It's an iPad rival in the way a Ford F150 is a rival to a Radio Flyer wagon. They both have the same base functionality (flat beds you can use to load/haul stuff) but the F150 can also do a hell of a lot more.
It’s as much of an “iPad rival” as my kids battery operated Power Wheels ride-on is a rival to a Tesla.
My kids have recently got in to chess, something I never discovered on my own. I thought I’d look up apps to see what is out there for them to play and help learn the game. There are apps out there with $100/year subscriptions!
I hate most if not all subscription models, especially when it comes to accessing your own content. We can all thank Apple for creating that atmosphere.
I didn’t buy one but did a lot of research into this, the other e-ink notebooks out there and the conclusion seemed to be this was the best of them but handwriting search at the time was a deal-breaker.
I’ve since got an iPad mini 6 with an esr writing screen protector and GoodNotes, which still frequently amazes me with its ability to search accurately in my scrawl. I’ve kept installed apps to a minimum for work where it’s become a useful workhorse.
Just have them do tactics on chesstempo (it’s free). Then after they’re decent with that, get them a chess.com account. And of course: irl chess club if possible.
A product like this would be great IF they did not require you to be tied to the rest of their products, all of which may or may not be fully working and updated regularly. This is something that Apple does really well (for example Pages and Numbers both import & export to Word/Excel, text/csv etc). Plus that revenue generating subscription model is a telltale of a company in trouble.
I have the Ratta Supernote and I think it's slightly better. No subscription service required for cloud storage. It's free with the device.
It's funny how most here don't understand what it is. It's "lower" technology, but it's suits me more than an iPad. I bought an iPad and I never used it. I use my Supernote every day. If you take notes, it will change your life.
It's funny how most here don't understand what it is. It's "lower" technology, but it's suits me more than an iPad. I bought an iPad and I never used it. I use my Supernote every day. If you take notes, it will change your life.
People buy competitor’s products all the time because they have bugs in their brains about certain brands or products.
Folks buy x over y because being an x man is a big part of their personal identity.
Conversely not being an x man is a big part of a contrarian other’s personality.
In both cases, if the brand, or product is a best seller, some of those folks are following the majority crowd, sometimes to make a statement, whereas contrarians avoid those brands or products to make an overt contrarian statement.
Some folks buy on budget, saving that 30$ but then regretting the missing features or physical quality of a more expensive product (or subsequent appearance of a necessary subscription model.) Some become disenchanted and the product gathers dust not long after. Others jump to the next new gizmo with low price and repeat the same mistake while those with the product the first group avoided enjoy good service and support for extended periods.
First rule of marketing is “you can only sell what you’ve got.”
So selling missing features and functionality as “avoidance of distraction”, depends on the ignorance of users who don’t know that the trivially more expensive device can easily be configured to suppress those “distractions” but as needed have them available in reserve whereas the cheaper device will never become more capable.
Also noteworthy: with the insult of subscription, the lesser device here, surpasses the sunk cost of an iPad after 4 months. That takes an above average amount of ignorance or avoidance to pull off.
What generation iPad? Base or pro with pencil compatibility?
Are you comparing function and feature apples with like apples?
The current or past iPad can't do anything the remarkable or supernote can do. You're angrily comparing apples and oranges.
The loyalty to Apple in this thread...sheesh. What's the opposite of being open minded?
They have a companion app for all devices so you can use it or as far as I know, you can mail directly from the device.
In terms of value, you could say the same things about a Swiss watch or a pair of expensive shoes. All the vendor has to think about is does it solve a problem for the user that they are willing to pay x amount for. Clearly it does. Whether people on here cant see the value to them is besides the point really.
I would advise any startup business nowadays to go after niche experiences that a smaller group of people with disposable income find value in. Rather than going up against these unicorns with infinite cash...
I would advise any startup business nowadays to go after niche experiences that a smaller group of people with disposable income find value in. Rather than going up against these unicorns with infinite cash...
Ew, subscriptions.
I'd love to see those revised number after they switched to a subscription model.
Edit: What a great idea locking basic things like handwriting recognition and being able to send files by email behind a subscription.
I'd love to see those revised number after they switched to a subscription model.
Edit: What a great idea locking basic things like handwriting recognition and being able to send files by email behind a subscription.
I think you missed the part where I said “easily configured to suppress” the undesired features.
I have one. I didn't get the subscription. It does all that I need without it - I don't need the handwriting recognition (at least, not so much that I'd pay a subscription for it). It would have been nice if that worked locally.
I also have (several) iPads. What made me trade in one of these for a Remarkable, is that it's really a different thing which doesn't compete with it in my opinion. What I use it for:
- replacement of my paper notebooks, because this lets me keep all my notes forever, and I can email a sketch to myself or someone else.
- reading outside in the garden, where the direct sunlight makes all LCD screens barely usable.
- reviewing (scientific) documents. It has a nice size for this, because my existing e-readers were all too small for proper scientific PDFs. It's also awesome that I can annotate them - I mainly use it for my own documents this way. I write them on my laptop of course, but I put drafts of them on the Remarkable and review them at my leisure.
I also like the really long battery life of these e-ink devices.
I also have (several) iPads. What made me trade in one of these for a Remarkable, is that it's really a different thing which doesn't compete with it in my opinion. What I use it for:
- replacement of my paper notebooks, because this lets me keep all my notes forever, and I can email a sketch to myself or someone else.
- reading outside in the garden, where the direct sunlight makes all LCD screens barely usable.
- reviewing (scientific) documents. It has a nice size for this, because my existing e-readers were all too small for proper scientific PDFs. It's also awesome that I can annotate them - I mainly use it for my own documents this way. I write them on my laptop of course, but I put drafts of them on the Remarkable and review them at my leisure.
I also like the really long battery life of these e-ink devices.
I'm glad you like it. I bought one and I made it about 2 hours before I returned it. It all comes down to workflow.
I use both Notability (for meeting notes) and GoodNotes (for random notes) on my iPad and I found I really love the speed, the colors, etc - and the sync with Mac apps. Supernote just seemed limited in comparison.
That said, I could see how it would work for many people. Enough people to warrant a standalone business? I don't know, but that's their problem to solve.
You have succinctly identified the bottom line of what I was outlining but not specifically naming: niche exploitation.
One can successfully exploit niches outside the high volume sweet spot of an overall market, at all socioeconomic levels from faberge eggs and oligarchic yachts (low volume) to t-shirts and tennis shoes (relatively high volume) if they can connect and make their target customer resonate with desire for their product.
It’s the art of marketing: to sell what you’ve got to sell, sell the upside, ignore the downside, skew then exploit perception with advertising, i.e. you sell the sizzle before you sell the steak.
It's not intended to be a rival. It's a niche product for those who just want the simplicity of having digital pad and no distractions from other apps or notifications. It's not even a rival for the Kindle even though it can import PDFs. I really like mine and don't mind supporting a small company who didn't expect to catch fire with their product.
Why blame apple? They aren’t exclusively doing this. They were far from the first. Remember even pre cloud when AOL, windows, outlook, office and antivirus subscriptions?
You probably pay a monthly for your house, car, insurance, utilities, streaming TV. How are those subscriptions not illegitimate? How are they not Apple’s fault too?
Besides, very few developers are pro bono.
Unless you were born into a pile of money, somebody is paying you a subscription for your services every time you cash your paycheck.
You might have unreasonable and uneven expectations for certain if the services you use.
There's a music guy (Ryan Leslie I believe) quite a few years back had this thing where he told other artists to:
find 1000 true fans who are willing to pay say, $100 a year or something for your exclusive stuff. And just market to them. You then dont need a record label and all that other expense, trying to sell a million records. A 1000 of your hardcore fans will fill out venues for you, buy all your stuff at premium and make you rich. You also get direct consumer data, understanding of what they want and the ability to engage directly to your most valued customers.
Focussing on who actually cares a lot about what you're doing is the new wave. Its why we have the Etsy's and the YouTubers etc.. Some people just dont get it I suppose.
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