User Guide Online

[GadgetGuy]

I think he meant that you should make a printable version freely available.
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That is exactly what I have meant.

[markm_figlabs]

Here's the challenge

We're trying to make a business from selling the Zaurus. The problem we face is that we start with one hand tied behind our back - namely we can't possibly compete on price with purchasing direct from Japan, so how can we compete with these guys?

Our approach is to improve the product, giving our customers a better user experience. These ehancements are currently:

1. Providing our customers with a good, responsive and helpful service.
2. Providing a good user manual and the best English conversion we possibly can (both of these have taken a lot of time and effort to date and we're still working at them).

We are also in the process of enhancing some elements of the software that we think are not as good as they could be. But today all we have to compete with a cheaper import from Japan is customer service (which you don't know about until you've bought from us) and a better English conversion and manual.

We are devotees of Linux, open source contributors and very sensitive to issues of sharing with the community - it was for these reasons that we made the user manual available on-line in the first instance (we could have chosen not to do this at all, but we felt it was appropriate to).

Over time we'd like to think we would have more differentiators and consequently would be able to share more with the community.

If you can think of a better way to make this a sustainable business then we would be genuinely happy to hear it.

Best regards

Mark

[GadgetGuy]

Here's the challenge

We're trying to make a business from selling the Zaurus. [div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=98607\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Trisoft succeeds ( at least it seems like it)... Maybe you should team up with them?

I would assume, there always will be people, who prefer the (local) service and support: this is your market. And there will be those, who want the lowest price and do not expect support: these will obviously not want to buy from you.

I do not really see the problem. There are two segments - so the issue is to target only the first (and get the support - WOM - of the second)...

I personally would not have been able to buy a C3100 from a reseller like yourself. The only option was for me: get one from Japan directly - or get none. So I got one from Japan (and I take the risk of no support). I seriously considered US resellers (for the service and such) - but my budget did not allow it...

But I am sure, that there are others, who prefer the local support: these are the ones to sell to. How to find them? I could help - feel free to PM me. I have my own consulting business ( just starting up ) and could help to identify how to target your most profitable segment...

[polito]

I second what GadgetGuy says about those who aren't really expecting support. They would generally not buy from you.

I always end up buying some high-end laptop that is never really supported by the vendor when it comes to putting linux on it and so I have to hack around to get things working. But basically I do all that I must in order to get it working. I never expected any support from Sharp (I bought Sharp laptops, namely the Actius MM20 and Actius PC-AL27, very nice... both of them) and never got any. They never said they'd support it so it didn't matter.

Depending on whether you've got the time and/or ability to create very useful applications, y ou may be able to get business simply from providing better software or customized solutions. Either way, Sharp Zaurii won't ever really be an "in" thing like an iPod. I personally don't care for the iPod so much but it just works for most people and it looks cool.

Unfortunately the Zaurus looks cool, really cool in fact, but not everything "just works" and usually do anything neat or what people would expect standard these days (bluetooth support) isn't and doesn't work out of the box.

EmperorLinux has made a nice business for themselves by taking laptops that may not normally work very well (or at all) with Linux and created custom kernels and software sets to make them work perfectly (or very nearly). Things that cause people lots of trouble (suspend/resume, hibernation, etc) on laptops under linux are handled by EmperorLinux so end users don't have to bother with it. Many people buy their laptops just for that reason. The end-user may very well be capable with linux systems but just not want to bother with the headaches of getting a laptop running right.

Might want to check them out. I personally have never bought a laptop from EmperorLinux but I have thought about sending in my MM20 for a depot install. I just never got around to it

[markm_figlabs]

Agreed...

There are two possible markets:

1. those that don't want the support
2. those that do want the support

but maybe there's also a third - people that want the support but don't want to
pay for it - do they belong to group 1 or 2? (This can be a problem with segments - they're
rarely clean cut - they overlap and people swap between them)

Nevertheless let's assume in this instance that the segments behave
themselves  and they fall into the two groups, so we should target the
second, get the first onside...so what's a good way of doing that?

Our thought process at the time was:
- Focus our efforts on usability - like polito, we liked the Zaurus, thought
it looked cool, but felt it needed 'finishing' to grow the market. And (as
we can all appreciate) the finishing work can sometimes be the really
time-consuming stuff...the 20% of the functionality that takes 80% of the
time.
- And we also needed to make the usability emphasis tangible for the people
that are looking for support by providing something on the site - our
initial thought was the user manual which would lead people into looking at
us.
- One of the problems with this is that the people who don't want the
support can still get it ..online. But (so the argument goes with the two
segments) of course they don't need support so what does it matter? So
really we show the guys that do need support that we've added some value to
the box (e.g. user manual) and this helps differentiate us from other
resellers. And if by chance the odd one or two from the 'don't want support
group' use the online manual...great..we'll get the word of mouth support.
- At some point you have to draw a line in terms of how much you make
available for free..the PDF seemed another step (although over time the
value changes, and we can see a point when the PDF gets made available for
free as a new piece of value is added..a timing thing as the market becomes
more sophisticated and we get to support more R&D).

Do you think the thought process is flawed?

At the time - another approach we thought about was to keep the things we're
doing inside the company's 'walled garden' and offer to build a customer's
machine for a fee and provide a hardback user manual as part of that
package. But in this case we're providing little back to the community.

As I understand it, this has some similarities with the EmperorLinux model -
but given the price of the device, our industry positioning and possible
adverse word of mouth...it wasn't appropriate for Fig Labs.

I guess this is a common issue in Open Source (even if the Sharp ROM isn't
quite as open as we'd like): how to cover the costs of upfront R&D effort,
make the code freely available..but not free.


Genuinely interested in your thoughts and thanks for giving your opinion.

Mark

[tyndyll]

Agreed...

There are two possible markets:

1. those that don't want the support
2. those that do want the support

You're forgetting the third market, those that want the device and don't want to pay for it

As someone who is currently considering taking the plunge and getting one of these (and arguing regularly about whether to just get a cheap notebook instead) I've got to say I appreciate both versions of the books. I don't use Linux a great deal and have some concerns about doing so. Not all hackers use Linux and so an Idiots guide is a handy way for me at least to get involved...

By the way if any of the Figlabs chaps want to do me a cheap deal I'm all ears

[The_Poet]

If anyone wants an instructional designer with editing experience, I am more than willing to offer my services. I'm not knocking any of the manuals, and as a linux newbie and zaurus beginner (still) I appreciate ALL of the files, manuals, and upgrades I can get...but if I might point out something that is representative of a clean-up edit:

"We know you'll be itching to start playing with your new toy, sorry device, so we'll be brief. If you do nothing else with this User Guide, we suggest you at least do the following:"

The way the above quote is written, it seems like you are saying that the toy is a sorry device. If you are going to stay with the familiar attempt at humor, try this instead:

"We know you'll be itching to start playing with your new toy - sorry, device - so we'll be brief. If you do nothing else with this User Guide, we suggest you at least do the following:"

Hope that helps a little.

[icruise]

Heh heh. I do sometimes think it's a sorry device when I can't get something to work.

[markm_figlabs]

"We know you'll be itching to start playing with your new toy - sorry, device - so we'll be brief. If you do nothing else with this User Guide, we suggest you at least do the following:"

Hope that helps a little.
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It does, thanks.

Mark