The Simputer Saga and Adam
The iPhone of its time!
It was common knowledge in the public domain, one would have thought, in an age of instant communication, but in the late nineties early 2000, the breaking news of the Simputer turned out be a damp squib, an unknown hero that fought an honourabe battle only to have lost against the windmills of fantasy (or was it the lack of it?). Such could have been the movie script of many a hero, but this is the story of a fantastic piece of a vision coupled with engineering and design that did not make it to the honour roll.
What gives?
Here was a concept that provided hand-held computing power based on a Linux kernel, with a wide range of applications, simultaneous translation with a voiceover, and this 10 years ago, considering that the first devices are only now entering the market in 2011. It had spreadsheets, voice playback and recording, network connectivity with additional satellite downloads. All this squeezed into a device that was a little bigger than a Palm hand-held, but with a lot more computing power. Addressing a large population and potential customer base, this was the mother of all devices!
The perception
Though the device received a fair share of media attention, from the BBC, which featured this online technology marvel to later feature it in an avatar that put traffic offenders to shame. One of its path-breaking features was an accelerometer that could flip documents from portrait to landscape view with the flip of the wrist. Why wasn’t this piece of ingenuity not out, flooding stores and being overrun with growing customer demand. I recall a reporter in Switzerland writing paeans on the Palm’s capabilities, including its much vaunted accelerometer flipping capabilities.
It was undoubtedly not a piece of art, as far as its external design was concerned, and could have done with a few tweaks here and there. But none of this was at the core of its main issue. It did not pitch itself against the leaders of its time such as Palm and iPAQ and did not get out a brand image that connected with the customer.
It undoubtedly had its following, but that will not suffice. Apple initially had a small core following, but it had to break out of it to touch the larger world of potential consumers.
The trend today points to a shift from netbooks, which have been taking a major share of the market in the lower end of the laptop segment, to tablets. Netbooks are sturdy and provide a certain level of protection, which can be useful in a few customers segments. But the market is moving, as a result netbook customers tend to prefer a tablet that can cover a major portion of their requirements. The tablet manufacturers need to draw a line between the two, or else they will end up trying to be both netbook and tablet only to fail on both counts.
The story of Notionink with its Adam tablet can take a slice from the Simputer story and take that giant leap, if its does not want to remain a niche, a nice niche with an excellent product, but still a niche that could slip away into the dark depths of unsung heroes.
The Bleeding Edge 