Bravo! A great email and many good explanations for what and why they do for all of us. Three cheers for the good guys at humanware!
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 12:55 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: RE: [BrailleNote] KeySoft version 6.2 Hi terry, I'd like to take a few bytes to give you a HumanWare perspective on the issues you raise, because as a blind person myself I know it's something that I've given a lot of thought to. There are two issues we need to balance here. How can we do business in a way that's commercially viable and allows us to keep innovating, and how can we make sure we recognise the unique economical and usability characteristics of this market? the complexities involved in producing quality hardware and software for this market, coupled with the much smaller volume of units produced compared to, say, HP or Dell, mean that the price is going to be higher. There's nothing I want more than to put this empowering technology in the hands of as many people as possible. But we need to make sure that we price the products in such a way that we can continue to innovate, research new and exciting solutions, and produce new versions of our hardware and software. Because the more technology that gets in the hands of our customers, the more they demand greater functionality, and that's as it should be. We're very much driven by our users at HumanWare. When the BrailleNote first came out, people said, wow this is cool, now can you make it browse the web? Then we added synchronisation, rewrote the Planner, got it to play Media files, included the world-leading Duxbury Braille translator, etc etc. With the mPower, we added a whole bunch of very frequently requested user features in one hit, in particular the USB support and the streaming. So it's inevitable that we must release new hardware and software from time to time. The thing to judge us on I think is whether we leave our loyal customers in the dust, or whether we demonstrate through our actions and policies that we try as best we can to give our custoemrs a way to keep current. In the mainstream world, when you buy a PDA and another model comes out, if you want that model you buy it at the same price as anyone else who wants a new PDA, irrespective of whether you're a current customer of that company or not. But the much higher cost of blindness technology coupled with the socioeconomic characteristics of our market mean that such an approach simply isn't appropriate. So we did two things that I think are quite unique and demonstrate that we really do care about doing the right thing by our customers. Firstly, although it's going to take some development effort, we are going to continue to produce software for the unit you have. While I'm not yet in a position to get into specifics because the project is in its early stages and subject to change, KeySoft 7.0 is going to be one of our biggest releases ever in terms of the amount of functionality we add in one hit. And a lot of that functionality will work on the machine you have. Secondly, the transplant offer allows you to update to the next generation much cheaper than it would cost you to buy a machine from scratch. In fact, in the case of a 32-cell unit it's about a third of the cost. You are right, our product is not mainstream and I'm personally proud of it. It was designed with a lot of input by blind people, for blind people, and allows efficient access to your information. And equally, our generous policies in terms of supporting older hardware and allowing you to get new hardware reflect the unique nature of our community as well. Hope this helps in terms of where we're coming from. Jonathan Mosen BrailleNote Product Marketing Manager HumanWare DDI: +1-925-566-9265 http://www.humanware.com "Bray, Terry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/28/2005 07:07 AM Please respond to Braillenote List <[email protected]> To "Braillenote List" <[email protected]> cc Subject RE: [Braillenote] Keysoft version 6.2 In the context of the messages what I was saying was that I paid $8000 for my unit and it was out of date with in a year. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Ring Sent: July 27, 2005 3:59 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Keysoft version 6.2 Could you please clarify this message? I honestly don't quite know what you are saying here. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bray, Terry Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 2:39 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Keysoft version 6.2 You would true they didn't 8 thousand and it was out of date with in a year. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sarai D. Bucciarelli Sent: July 27, 2005 3:24 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Keysoft version 6.2 You'd think they could drop hints to new custamers to wait to buy the latest one. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bray, Terry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 1:37 PM Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Keysoft version 6.2 O so true I have already been burned by that. When I bought mine it wasn't to long until they had the new mother board it cost nearly 1500 In Canadian dollars and I didn't have it at the time. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sarai D. Bucciarelli Sent: July 27, 2005 2:34 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Keysoft version 6.2 Yeah but not everyone can upgrade it for financial reasons. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bray, Terry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 1:21 PM Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Keysoft version 6.2 Yes but if you upgrade the BN. You end up with the mpower. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sarai D. Bucciarelli Sent: July 27, 2005 2:15 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Keysoft version 6.2 >From Jonathan's demo, he said they'd developed it and the nexre is 6.2, >but that all of the features won't be available because of hard ware constraints. What I don't get is why the hype and big upgrade to the BN if the m power was coming out, especially sense the M power is the next generation so to speak. The regular BN will eventually stop being developed and be outdated. ----- Original Message ----- From: "bob mates" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 12:58 PM Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Keysoft version 6.2 Hi, Kathy and list: The Humanware folks claim that they'll continue to produce upgrades for the older line of BN's. It is interesting that this new upgrade is still using numbers beginning with 6, but the PK # 6.0, and so, I guess a new upgrade for the older BrailleNotes could be something like 6.12 or something along that line. When Matthew was in Pittsburgh, he assured us that there would be future upgrades for our units. Hope this helps. Bob and Maxy-wax ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
