Monday, August 5, 2002
Getting the new Pocket PCs...
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 11:38 AM
I really appreciated the huge amount of input on the thread about us signing a CDA with HP. Your opinions reflected some of my own, and you gave me a lot to think about.
One of the reasons I wanted to sign it was to get access to the hardware early on and share my thoughts about it with you. I doubt we'll ever write the 5000 word reviews that PocketNow does, but it's important for me to be informed about the new hardware on the market. The biggest obstacle to that is location: Canada doesn't tend to get new Pocket PCs very quickly, nor can I afford to purchase every one that comes out on the market.
My attempts thus far to get review units from the major OEMs have been fairly unsuccessful, and more to the point, by the time I could possibly get one, it's "old news". Most of the OEMs seem unwilling to cooperate with me or this site (although there are some exceptions). I have access to some of the devices directly from Microsoft, but I just got a Toshiba e570 two months ago, so I'm not exactly bleeding edge in that regard.
So, I've come up with an idea - it may be a foolish idea, or it may be a brilliant one. You decide. Here it is: a Pocket PC raffle for reviewed devices. When a new device is announced, I'd start the raffle. Buying a ticket would cost $10 to $20, and the number of tickets sold would be restricted to matching the amount needed to buy the device. The goal here is not for me to make money, it's to cover the cost of me buying a device for review purposes. Once the review is done, the device would be randomly given to one of the people who bought a raffle "ticket". At $10 per ticket, the odds would be 1 in 50 to 1 in 80, depending on the overall cost of the device. Or if the tickets were more expensive, say $20 per ticket, the odds would be 1 in 25 to 1 in 40. Not bad odds, eh?
So there you have it. Please let me know what you think! As always, your input helps to guide this site.
UPDATE: Well, the thing I love about you guys is that you're not shy about your opinion! Any lawyers out there in Canada and the USA willing to give me some advice on how to do this? Whether or not we go ahead with it would depend on how complex it is to accomplish legally.
One of the reasons I wanted to sign it was to get access to the hardware early on and share my thoughts about it with you. I doubt we'll ever write the 5000 word reviews that PocketNow does, but it's important for me to be informed about the new hardware on the market. The biggest obstacle to that is location: Canada doesn't tend to get new Pocket PCs very quickly, nor can I afford to purchase every one that comes out on the market.
My attempts thus far to get review units from the major OEMs have been fairly unsuccessful, and more to the point, by the time I could possibly get one, it's "old news". Most of the OEMs seem unwilling to cooperate with me or this site (although there are some exceptions). I have access to some of the devices directly from Microsoft, but I just got a Toshiba e570 two months ago, so I'm not exactly bleeding edge in that regard.
So, I've come up with an idea - it may be a foolish idea, or it may be a brilliant one. You decide. Here it is: a Pocket PC raffle for reviewed devices. When a new device is announced, I'd start the raffle. Buying a ticket would cost $10 to $20, and the number of tickets sold would be restricted to matching the amount needed to buy the device. The goal here is not for me to make money, it's to cover the cost of me buying a device for review purposes. Once the review is done, the device would be randomly given to one of the people who bought a raffle "ticket". At $10 per ticket, the odds would be 1 in 50 to 1 in 80, depending on the overall cost of the device. Or if the tickets were more expensive, say $20 per ticket, the odds would be 1 in 25 to 1 in 40. Not bad odds, eh?
So there you have it. Please let me know what you think! As always, your input helps to guide this site.
UPDATE: Well, the thing I love about you guys is that you're not shy about your opinion! Any lawyers out there in Canada and the USA willing to give me some advice on how to do this? Whether or not we go ahead with it would depend on how complex it is to accomplish legally.
