The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
Arguments
Monday - December 04, 2006 03:30 PM in
One of the fun things of working with a bunch of bright, opinionated people is the, erm, lively discussions we often have.
Today's was about the HP Printing Mailbox for Presto. Basically it's a color printer which prints out e-mails sent to a special dedicated address. They've though of the obvious problems (i.e. spam), but I just don't see that there's a market.
To me, this isn't all that different from the rest of the parade of failed Internet e-mail appliances (anyone remember the Audrey?). I just don't see that there's any meaningful market: in order to want an e-mail appliance, someone needs to (a) not have a computer or Internet access, (b) want to receive e-mail, and (c) can't or won't use a computer.
I think that most people who aren't currently online but want to be would rather just get a computer and learn how to use it. The e-mail printer costs $150 plus $100/year for the service (plus ink and paper--which will get expensive if you neglect to set up your spam filter), which is cheaper than a PC plus Internet access, but not that much cheaper--but the PC lets you do so much more, like actually reply to e-mail.
David, on the other hand, sees this as a promising service. He things grandkids will buy it for their grandparents as a convenient way to send photos and letters. This could be a way for technophobic or disabled people to at least receive--if not send--e-mail. And as for the cost, it seems a small price to pay to avoid the inconvenience of having to print stuff out and hunt for stamps and envelopes.
David things they've got a 20% or so chance of success. I see it as under 1%.
But if this sounds appealing, you can do the same thing yourself with a cheap fax machine and an e-mail to fax gateway service.
Posted by Peter Leppik
To me, this isn't all that different from the rest of the parade of failed Internet e-mail appliances (anyone remember the Audrey?). I just don't see that there's any meaningful market: in order to want an e-mail appliance, someone needs to (a) not have a computer or Internet access, (b) want to receive e-mail, and (c) can't or won't use a computer.
I think that most people who aren't currently online but want to be would rather just get a computer and learn how to use it. The e-mail printer costs $150 plus $100/year for the service (plus ink and paper--which will get expensive if you neglect to set up your spam filter), which is cheaper than a PC plus Internet access, but not that much cheaper--but the PC lets you do so much more, like actually reply to e-mail.
David, on the other hand, sees this as a promising service. He things grandkids will buy it for their grandparents as a convenient way to send photos and letters. This could be a way for technophobic or disabled people to at least receive--if not send--e-mail. And as for the cost, it seems a small price to pay to avoid the inconvenience of having to print stuff out and hunt for stamps and envelopes.
David things they've got a 20% or so chance of success. I see it as under 1%.
But if this sounds appealing, you can do the same thing yourself with a cheap fax machine and an e-mail to fax gateway service.
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 03:30 PM by | | | |