Notion Ink’s Adam hands-on (well almost), launches Q3

Having traveled to Hyderabad last week for the HeadStart – ITsAP startup showcase, we happened to run into Hyderabad based Notion Ink who were one of the startups selected for an onstage demo and exhibition at the event. We met two of the company founders Sachin Ralhan and Rajat Sahni and also saw a dummy build of the Adam (no prototype :(. )

During the Notion Ink presentation we didn’t have too much new to listen to, but we had a long conversation with the founders on how they started (the story should come up on the HeadStart blog soon). A few things that we learnt were:

  • Adam would be the first device and would go on sale on Q3 2010
  • Notion Ink has 2 patents related to the swivel camera and the back side trackpad (check this Apple patent)
  • the SDK would launch soon, and they expect to have 1000 apps live on launch
  • Questions regarding possible patent disputes were dodged with confidence
  • As many as 90 people are working with Notion Ink
  • Talks with leading US carriers on for a tie up
  • Final version of the product should be out in 2 months (price might be revealed)
  • Not expecting to give everything in the first version and further developed 2nd gen can be expected
  • Company focus is not just tablets, but convergence
  • Adam would launch in Q3 2010
  • The tieups with Inventec, Foxconn and Compalcomm last year were for development of the product and a significant achievement

[image source]

 

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25 comments

  • having been at that presentation… here’s another perspective.

    the guy was an absolute tool… he (despite claiming he is one of the founders) had NO technical knowledge… he often confused multi-tasking for multi-touch… did not know exactly which patents they are going for… as was obvious when he claimed they had the “backside trackpad patent”, and upon being queried… said “its not in version 1, we are saving it for version 2”! not even the question stupid!

    when asked about multi-tasking, and why multi-tasking is not on the device despite it using android which is multi-tasking, his response was “do apple release everything in the 1st version”… stupid stupid stupid… its already there in android you moron, whereas the OS of apple for the phone/ipad do not have it!

    price.. he did not know… or did not “want to reveal”… amazing how much he did not “want to reveal”… in fact, absolutely nothing of significant was revealed… makes you wonder if there is any substance or its just fluff…

    i think he’s riding on a song and a prayer having hit it lucky with some “advertorials” probably… but seriously guys, lets call a spade a spade… and this was a spade if i’ve ever seen one!

    mark it in the deadpool immediately for me… as for actuality… i rekon, give it a year before the founders themselves mark it in the deadpool…

  • Simran,

    I would agree that the presentation was nothing new in terms of what we know, but look at it this way:

    this was no CES, it was an entrepreneurship event and the guy spoke nothing about the Startup Story in Notion Ink. Since we are gadget lovers we have well researched the technicals of the device and the presenter perhaps tried too hard to keep development related talk under wraps.

    Nevertheless, I am scheduled to get a hands on with the Notion Ink via Nvidia in Mumbai on 18th. Hope a technical person arrives this time (i am assured a working prototype).

    btw the $5 million comment was kiddish / immature.

  • hey annkur,

    what i knew was nothing, and i walked away knowing nothing… so in that sense, the presentation was nothing new 🙂

    will eagerly await your review…

    i am amazing at how easily people can buy their fluffy presentations though… i mean, a patent on swivel cameras…. do a search on “swivel cameras” on google images, and you come up with thousands of variations that have been in existence for over a decade… they might have a “patent pending” – but that means NOTHING, as the patent might/will get rejected!

    i can’t remember the $5mil comment… what was it?

    personally, i think its just a laptop running android (which by the way he said wasn’t final anyway… he said they might change to ChromeOS… what they???!!!??? – they haven’t even finalised what OS they want to run??????????)

  • @ringlerun:: I’m not sure what your issue is Al – you don’t like how the article was written? Email onlygizmos and give ’em a piece of your mind 🙂

    NI is looking at the convergence of the User experience – developing a range of devices and functionality that allows the user to go about their everyday lives with technology that doesn’t hamper but facilitates. Not such a bad aim is it?

    An App that will be available for the Adam at launch: Rosebud – based on a concept by Matthew McColm.

    There is some info – it currently is vague in many areas. They will be publishing more information when they have; (1) finished their negotiations, (2) it’s been signed off by the legal team & (3) it’s complete.
    With (1) there are negotiations that require a company to stop all public communication. If you’ve ever worked in an investment bank – then you’ll know what I mean. They can however reproduce other media publications.

  • hey @kkarthik my issue is that i think they are nothing but marketing fluff… selling something they don’t have and in most cases, “cannot have”! (due to patents)

    also, nothing wrong in having the aim you say, its just that they are promising it without any substance! that in any person’s terms is just downright lies! they are NOTHING but marketing fluff! absolutely no substance!

    as for why they can’t tell us everything because of the reasons you have mentioned in (1), (2) and (3)… i have dealt plenty with investment banks, and agree that sometimes you have periods when you have to produce radio silence… but then why come to presentations and present when you can’t actually say anything! why replicate media reports that you know have misunderstood what you actually have! its all to generate hype about something that isn’t there!

    also, my issue is with the absolutely ignorance of the person that gave the talk at headstart… (read my first comment)…

    i don’t expect you to understand it… being a fanboy! do tell me something though… your comment was like a copy/paste from their marketing material… how are you associated with them?

  • I understand ur intention ringlerun.,
    I was just curious y you want to know / see all live at once.
    You must have seen the videos at technoholik .
    NI must be absolutely on track to achieve all its milestones, y cant we watch out for a big surprise.. 🙂

  • I apologize for stepping here in the conversation, just to say:

    “lets put what happened behind us and wish good luck to NI. At the end of the day, I would like to see any co (Indian or not) doing good innovation get it right and do well.”

  • I agree fully with Annkur. All the best to NI. They’ve come out with an eye-catching product and a vision thats pretty impressive.Convergence of the user experience-works for me. Waiting for Adam to hit the market with the same Bang it caught the spotlight with.

  • @hiya … i’m fine with surprises, its a great marketing ploy to have surprises… so sure, go for it… but hey, please:
    1) not *everything* needs to be a surprise… if you can’t say *anything* about your product, then talking around it is a waste of everyone’s time
    2) if what you do is is utter rubbish and blatently wrong… then don’t broadcast!

    @annkur … hey, you drive emotion through your blogs… what can i say… 🙂 good coverage 🙂

    @kali what eye catching product? a laptop with android on it? what vision… their founder did not know what reality was (did not know which patents they were filing, after claiming that they were filing like about 70 of them, then ones he fumbled with, he would not answer questions about the fact that apple already has those patents!)

    are we so desperate to see an indian product succeed that we will self promote a dud! beware, because when it falls flat on its face, the only thing india and indian’s will loose is their reputation!

  • @annkur hahaha… wonder if its notion ink’s marketing team at work 🙂 so, who owns the IP? (that that that will be definitive 🙂

  • @Annkur
    “Nevertheless, I am scheduled to get a hands on with the Notion Ink via Nvidia in Mumbai on 18th. Hope a technical person arrives this time (i am assured a working prototype).”
    Any news about that “hands on” with the NI ?

  • c’mon guys..they are all IITians..and i’m sure they won’t just be working their asses off on a fluff..
    I’m sure u realise what wud it feel like when its ur first time and ur working on a product that is expected to be competing against biggies like the ipad and courier..I really think its ok if he fumbled with a few words..
    I have faith in notion ink and i am sure that they won’t let us down!

  • and how does being an IITian guarantee success?… i know a few duffers from over there… case in point being the guy from notion ink 🙂 as for “fumbling” with a few words… its “fumbling” is substantially different form “having no ******* idea” 🙂 (the guy didn’t even know if it was going to be android or chromeOS on the device… i mean… come on… OS not yet finalised???!!! then what do you have other than a camera sticky taped to a laptop!

  • well even though being an IITian doesn’t guarantee success but it sure does mean that he’s got more brains and can sure think out of the box and different from the ordinary..
    and i wud really not want to argue on it with you because ur arguments against the adam show that u are not open to realizing that it sure does have the potential to compete with the biggies like apple and microsoft ! and i dun think the other half of the population is that dumb to fall in a love with a tab and be waiting for it so eagerly as the adam if they feel that the ‘creators’ don’t know about the product.
    ur views and arguments and their implicatins are solely based on the fact that the person who made the presentation or who was interviewed was just another marketing person..he could not be having enough technical knowledge..
    just in case u have ur mind open to all the loads of arguments that can be given against ur point then only wud u realize the amount of fun ur missing by being stubborn and staying on the other side..!
    Stay hungry !! Stay Foolish !!Be ambitious, be audacious!!
    i still am waiting fr it to arrive..cheers 😉

  • @sakuiz, on the contrary my friend… i’m more than willing to change my mind… but its comments and followers like you that keep me from doing so 🙂

    the founder in the presentation (and since then till now, even though they have commented this post under disguise – in fact you are probably one of them):

    * not given any tech specs
    * have no idea which OS is going to be the final version
    * have no demo machines to show to people at conferences! (but you have this plastic model to give people a distance glimpse off… and people subsequently find that it looks *nothing* like the actual prototype!!!) – i smell a rat!
    * founder has no idea about difference between multi-tasking and multi-touch… he fluffed on about it long enough for all to know he did not “misspeak” (has hiliary clinton would have put it) but that he actually had no ******* idea what he was talking about!
    * he had not idea about their own patents, and could not answer any questions about so called “competitors” patents (although putting yourself in the same league as apple yourself is a big call!!!) – its like me claiming i know obama because of 6 degrees of separation!

    now, you tell me… whose the idiot and getting pulled into the marketing hype…

    the world’s not laughing with you my friend… its laughing at you!

    being from IIT does not make you automatically smarter (and these guys have no history of repeated innovation or success to get excited about)… monkeys beat humans to space you know… but classifying them as better astronauts as a result is a big call!

    “stay foolish”… you can if you choose! but i suspect you are not soo foolish… you have either been paid a 100 bucks by them to put the comment in, or you work for them or he is your friend in some way and you are blind to actual substance…

  • Wow, that’s aggressive. I am not justifying the lack of knowledge of the presenter but I would like to point out some things: He is one of the founders but the one in charge of marketing and doesn’t work on the technical side of things.
    It has been mentioned before (if I remember correctly) that they were looking to offer the options of Chrome OS and Ubuntu as possible OSes but that it would initially ship with Android. Saying that they will offer choices in OS is not the same as saying that they don’t know which one they’ll use (maybe he misspoke).
    As for some of the patent comments… unless we know the details of the patents it is hard to judge. Sure, there are many swivel cameras but maybe they have a different implementation or design which they are patenting. Remember that some patents are very specific and others are incredibly vague.
    I am not a fanboy. I do like the potential and hope it comes to fruition as it is the device which most attracts me, but I will wait for the device to be released and reviewed before I buy (I like to make informed decisions and specs aren’t everything). But I DO hope they manage to complete things relatively on time (remember that delays are not uncommon in the industry).

  • Interesting debate in these comments. I’ve been lusting after the Adam since reading its specs a couple months ago and and am disappointed to hear that NI’s recent appearances have been uninspiring. I know that a device /like/ the Adam: open platform, pixel qi, and power-efficient nvidia tegra checks most of the boxes for what I’d like in a tablet. If NI doesn’t do it right, hopefully someone else will soon. I suspect this market will become crowded quickly.

    @ringlerun – your post is the first mention I’ve seen implying a possible lack of multi-processing. I agree that it would be hard to imagine that being the case (it’s an Android device, after all). However, NI has harped on their UX efforts so maybe they’ve decided that the ipod/ipad single-program model is the right trade-off. I’m not sure what you mean when you suggest the Adam will be just “a laptop with android on it” – clearly the device is a tablet through and through.

    While the trackpad on the back and the rotatable camera both seem useful, NI talking up their patent applications doesn’t impress me much as a potential consumer – neither feature seems revolutionary. @ringlerun: so the presenter seemed to claim that the trackpad wouldn’t appear on the first version of the Adam? I wonder why? Perhaps he was talking about delaying multi-touch support until the Apple/HTC lawsuit runs its course.

    @Tarwin – I had also heard mention of the device giving you a choice of their custom Android UI, ChromeOS, and Ubuntu. Hopefully the problem was just that the presenter failed to articulate this.

  • dear ringlerun,

    the dedication and perseverance you are presenting to reply to everyone seems like you are working very hard to justify your negativity.. it feels as though you are being paid for it.

  • @kamal … so here i am responding to your thread… like a moth to a flame i tell ya 🙂 i suspect you noticed that i did not respond to the two comments before you as i considered enuff had been said… 🙂 the fact remains… i see no retorts with stuff notion ink is doing… only preheprial commentary, from their staff! of whom i suspect, you are a paid part 🙂 as for if i’m paid to ask hard questions… well, no… i do it for the love of it 🙂 come see me at the bangalore null meets sometime… i think you’ll find i am real, as opposed to some of the fictional characters made up by NI staff on this thread (read it carefully 🙂

  • I think the recent updates on the NI Blog show that it’s not vapourware – just a NDA period they were in while talking to the VC’s.

    Generally it looks as if things are progressing well with the Adam

  • I just hope they don’t end up like Simputer (remember that thing from 2002-3?) and Spicebird…

Comments are closed.