Will Axiotron (ModBook People) ever get their you-know-what together?

[iRabbit]

Anyone who knows the story, a lot of people have been waiting FOREVER to get a ModBook. Axiotron seems to have been plagued with problems from the beginning in not being able to get these things into consumer's hands.

They finally announced they were shipping, and made a big deal of it at MacWorld this year... but it seems like only a handful of people have actually received them... and now, they've sent out another email, via Other World Computing (their distributor) saying orders from mid-2007 and later won't get shipping until March 21st, 2008.

Lots of pissed off people out here wondering if they'll EVER get a ModBook... Have you ordered one? Received one? Still waiting? Think Axiotron is doomed?

iRabbit (who's waiting for hers)

 

[blairwillis]

I'm really amazed the ModBook delay continues without considerable rebellion. With the rumors of a tablet Mac at MacWorld last month, I thought perhaps this was the reason, and that Apple was intervening in some way, but no. It's just another delay.

Seems to me the MacBook Air is an even better platform for modding into a tablet, but at this pace it will be 2010 before they talk about shipping something like that.

I can't believe anyone is still waiting for an Axiotron ModBook.

 

[iRabbit]

I can't believe anyone is still waiting for an Axiotron ModBook.

Well, I think the people that ordered last year have renewed hope because there are some people who've actually received them. I only ordered in January of this year, so my wait hasn't been all that long... yet. I can't imagine what it would be like to be waiting a year!

Problem is, they're kinda the only game in town if you want a Tablet Mac... at least at this point. It's actually very frustrating. I've wanted Apple to design a tablet style computer forever, but it just doesn't appear it's a game they want to play.

 

[Counterfit]

I think part of the reason there isn't a HUEG uproar is that they didn't take any payments with pre-orders (or so I've heard).

 

[iRabbit]

I think part of the reason there isn't a HUEG uproar is that they didn't take any payments with pre-orders (or so I've heard).

Even if Axiotron was successful in marketing their product to a lot of people and even if thousands of people have ordered (not just hundreds), I still think it's a relatively small crowd, compared to say people who buy a MacBook. Even if they have 5,000 pre-orders (which I'd be highly skeptical -- mind you, they've released no numbers) that's still NO ONE compared to the computer/laptop market as a whole... and that would be assuming they all hung in there for a year and didn't give up waiting. I'd imagine the cancel rate was pretty high.

There ARE people complaining, and doing so loudly, it's just that there's not a lot of them. They get lost on the great big world wide web.

 

[blairwillis]

During my "time off" I run video projection for a band, and use a VJ app called Modul8. ( garagecube.com )

I'm curious as to how the ModBook might actually work well for this app, and perhaps for Ableton Live which I use for MIDI>DMX control of Lights.

Could I expect to just "push" a clip in Live and have it launch?

There's also an interesting multi-touch control surface called the Lemur that might be preferential to what I do, but it's quite pricy and is only a control surface. The ModBook is perhaps an option I'll reconsider now that it's in production (at least to some degree!)