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Pulse Update from CEO Jim Marggraff
Dear Livescribe supporters,
On behalf of all of us here at Livescribe, we understand your frustration and hear your concerns about the shipping date for the Pulse smartpen.
For the past couple years, we’ve encountered numerous challenges to achieve the light weight and size of our smartpen, excellent fidelity in audio for far-field recording, immediate responsiveness to the touch, a $149 price point, and a Java-based platform that will support a broad range of future applications. If you’ve ever been part of starting a new company, you understand the moments of exhilaration stacked against the moments of exhaustion requiring sheer, dogged perseverance to overcome the incredible odds facing a new venture.
We were told by many people — potential investors, technologists, and others that what we were attempting to do was impossible: You can’t make a pen that small with that functionality…You’ll never be able to hit a $149 price point…You can’t record audio at a distance; the best consumer digital recorders in the world don’t even do this…
We are very close to finishing the product; we’re completing our testing, planning to start shipping by March 31st, and ramping up our production as rapidly as possible.
So please bear with us. We’re a small, passionate team of committed individuals, working 100+ hours per week, for many months now, to bring something great to you. My family and I are among the heaviest trial users and live through the ups and downs of code advancement, bugs, and breakthroughs hour by hour.
I can attest to the fact that we’re bringing Pulse and the Livescribe platform as quickly to market as possible without compromising quality. We hope to bring a major advancement in learning, problem solving, communicating and thinking to the world with Pulse.
Thanks for your patience, support and belief in Livescribe and our vision!
Jim Marggraff
Founder and CEO
February 26th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Thanks for your candor. I am very much looking forward to this product but it would be nice to see something for those who have been waiting….and waiting…and waiting…maybe one of those nifty $50 gift certificates you issued at the demo.
Either way, imho, it was not the best thing to “unveil” the product in January without being ready to ship shortly thereafter; I understand the concept of building anticipation, however frustration sets in as well and that, as you know, is a balancing act performed at many a peril.
Thanks again for your candor and update. It’s good to hear from the head-honcho; if I may suggest, a weekly update (it’s only 4 or less) would be very, very welcome… People can forgive delays in product, but delays in updates are more difficult…
My IO2 can stay in service another month…it’s been faithful so I will feel good putting it to use until the LiveScribe begins shipping…
Thanks for your time!
February 26th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I am very excited about this pen! I am actually kind of glad for the late release, as I am a starving college student and need more time to save money for the 2GB model. Misery loves company =)
This pen would be SO perfect for my archaeology class right now; writing down notes as we walk through historical sites, then playing it back later, mmmm…
I just want to thank you guys and gals at livescribe for being dedicated and following through with your goals. There is a definite market for this pen. By the time I have it I will have begun the more difficult courses required for my major, and I am excited to be able to utilize another great tool towards my educational success.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:36 am
It’s so nice of you to drop by and tell us where everything is going. It’s always refreshing to see a CEO so excited about a product and mostly about communicating with customers and readers, tells a lot about the company spirit.
The Livescribe pen should be invaluable for a student like me, who loves to listen in courses and take as little notes as possible, then find myself at home with not much notes and relying on my pea-sized memory to complete the rest. I end up following my colleagues trying to get note copies from them!
Btw, where are you planning to release the Livescribe pen? I hope it gets to Lebanon without the 1.5 price multiplication that all electronics get, compared to other countries.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:41 am
As being someone who has been on the receiving end of tech products that were released too soon, I’m fine with waiting for them to shake the bugs out. It’s better to wait get something that works, then to get it sooner and find that it’s plagued with bugs.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:00 am
Congratulation Jim and to the Livescribe team for your awards at DEMO !
You can see the videos awards here :
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1127798146/bclid1407927274/bctid1399217111
It is obvious that this award is the first in a long list to come.
Rewrite the history of technology has never been easy. But your hard work will be rewarded again !
February 27th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Thanks so much for your note. Like many others, I have been following closely the information that Livescribe has released. It has been frustrating at times, but it is the frustration of someone hoping for an incredible, innovative tool. The focus is on that latter: the tool, the instrument that many of us believe will change the way we work for the better.
I appreciate hearing from you and look forward to being an early adopter. I also value the goals that you have set for the product, which seem laudable, almost quixotic.
I think what I most appreciate is a date: March 31. Knowing that makes it easier to wait.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Thanks for the update. Startups are truly the carrot and the stick, embodied.
Looking forward to the release and your future success.
February 28th, 2008 at 4:09 am
“planning to start shipping” is not the same as “will ship”, so I guess it means that it is unlikely that the pen will be ready by the end of March… Is it some sort of a marketing trend - to announce an unrealistic deadline at tradeshows, so people get excited an then keep delaying the release of the product?
Anyway, I (kinda) can understand the delays, but what I don’t understand is why there is such a poor (potential) customer support here in the blog? It seems that there are quite a few people here who are really excited about the product (at least about the features this product claims) and instead of trying to communicate with those people and offer them something (somebody mentioned gift certifivates, somebody asked for a beta-testing of the online part of the service) we see some lame replies like “planning to start”- it’s been said several times already last year so it’s difficult to believe that it will be true…
February 28th, 2008 at 11:55 am
I agree with previous poster, no way it ships in March. Shocking that “shipping in March” = the very last day of the month so they don’t have to postpone sooner rather than later. If the product isn’t baked by now, I predict several months of delays.
Set the expectations LiveScribe and live by them. Perception is reality, and my reality is that you are annoucing release dates knowing full well you will miss them. Now it is your choice to either educate me why it is wrong, or loose me as a customer.
February 28th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Jim,
I appreciate your updates and more importantly your commitment to quality. Many of us remain patient and supportive.
February 28th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Mike, I think there are a lot of very supportive livescribe fans out here who are just much less vocal than the upset and frustrated ones.
Also, I just found this demo on written translation that Jim did for Popular Science. Just IMAGINE how big of a help it will be when traveling!
http://www.popsci.com/gear-gadgets/article/2008-02/livescribe-hands-translating-written-text-fly
February 28th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Mike, I think Maria seriously underestimates the silent majority…who are becoming less and less silent by the day. We are tired of delays, bottom line. Shipping in March is nonsense. Just be straight with us…say “June” if it’s June and be done with it. Those who are loyal will stay, those who aren’t may get frustrated and leave anyway but may actually stay if it’s understood that it’s a REAL ship date.
Bad Moves:
1) Announce your big release (complete with PEN COUNTDOWN TIMER) in January when the product was NOWHERE NEAR being ready to ship
2) Announce a MARCH ship date when you mean April or May or June
Like the others, I predict we won’t see actual shipping until May or later; your competition: Mobile Digital Scribe, IO2 (under new support from Destiny), Nokia, heck, even the FLY FUSION will continue to take market share before you even get to market.
Please be straight with us and give us a REAL ship date….even if it is months out
February 29th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I also appreciate the updates. Activity on this blog is very exciting, and even if the post isn’t “Shipping now!”, hearing that there is progress going on is important to keep the energy going.
Which is really what the problem is… whether it ships in March, July or next year, I know I’m going to immediately pick up the product. It’s just staying excited about it, sharing my knowledge and passing on the updates to friends, throwing energy into supporting the product gets harder and harder every time I’m disappointed (because of a delay). If it doesn’t ship in March, I’ll probably just stop telling people about it all together until it’s in my hands.
And I’m saying this because I’m sure Livescribe understands that this is a risk of early announcements and delays in shipping, but it’s the marketing take they decided to go with anyway.
That said, I’d rather wait for a completely polished, quality product.. because if it’s in my hands and it doesn’t work perfectly, I might return it and never try again, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that.
As a software developer, I understand the phenomenon of overly optimistic deadlines.
So my feedback on the whole situation: I expect delays (in general), I expect a quality product, I want updates, but I lose a bit of steam every time there is a delay, and goooo Livescribe!, you have my support on this product no matter what.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:15 am
I like the update suggestion it would help keep down frustration levels and we may even be able to make useful suggestions for the launch. I can’t not only for a quality product but also the SDK kit to see some of the things we can create.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:02 am
Rick, I also think that Maria underestimates the problem. I am also a software developer and don’t have any problem with delays, but I do have a problem with the way they handle them. I am loosing confidence in the Livescribe ability to achive what they have promised already (and they promised a lot) and I feel that I am not alone…
I personally now doubt that the software they announce will work as smooth as they claim - i.e. one thing to show some carefully orchestrated demo, another thing is to see and try it for yourself (e.g. I’ve seen superb demos of Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software, but when I tried it - it sucked).
The reason I have doubts now is mainly due to the way they handle the delays. i.e. if they say to us one thing, probably knowing that they can’t meet the deadline, so there is a great chance that what they claim regarding the features and software is also just their ‘wishful thinking’ rather than a reality… I do want to believe that the pen will be exactly what they want it to be, but sadly the way they handle PR makes me think otherewise…
I asked here already about whether it is posible to test the on-line software before they ship the pen - and there was no response to that from Livescribe - so I am assuming that software is not working properly at the moment (maybe I am wrong, but that’s just a common sense)…
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:42 am
Come on, one week earlier or later won’t really matter, for noone!!! They work as hard as they are able to! I prefer a delay of a couple of weeks (also month!!), and being offered an optimized product rather than getting the pen as soon as possible with bugs an so on…
You need to think about the interests of the company… selling the product with bugs could have the result that the first customers are unhappy, telling this to all their friends, and they do the same… Noone will buy the pen anymore, and the company might end up in depts… Won’t be a great end for the livescribe group, failing just a few inches before the finish - after years of endless work…
On the other hand YOU. The customer… oh yeah, you will pay 149$, sooooo much money - therefore you can request a perfect product, just in time, working without any problems… Of course the company needs US, but we GET something too (for a really fair price)! And we have nothing to loose (not mentioning some words in the next lessons…
I live in Germany and just heard about the pen and its idea. And i must say i am excited too, and would like to have it on my own better yesterday than tomorrow. But i know too that it won’t be as perfect as in the advertisment promises… (but thats the problem of advertisment in general, isn’t it???)
Audio quality won’t be as perfect as if you are there “live” (because our mind is excellent in noise cancelling - when you concentrate and see someone speaking you hear only him, but on an audio record you hear your neighbors speaking with their best friends and so on…) - BUT i belive the pen would still be a BIG BIG present for all who are studying.
Hope there will be a possibility to get the puls here to germany, as soon as it is released… i will surely buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!
And always think about it: the people of livescribe could loose their jobs (probably more… a dream of their life), you only a few weeks without this great gadget!! Take your good old pen and paper a few weeks more (our parents succeded with them too…) and dream of the possibilities of the future
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:33 am
Thanks for the update. Given that shipment is starting in less than 30 days, it seems like a good time to go ahead and take the real orders, so you’re not flooded there at the end. I assume that the pre-orders back in the Fall will take precedence over pre-orders made now, and I would guess it’s going to take some time to get all of this going. Why wait for the last minute?
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:04 am
Livescribe got their funding and now the “heat is off” for a while. It is clear they do not NEED a product to pay their salaries since they got the funding.
Maybe a letter to the investors would help? LS is really losing customers on a daily basis especially with the number of competitors as some previous poster mentioned.
Also, no replies since the thread was started? No “he good idea” etc? L-A-M-E
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hi Jim -
I’ll add my thanks to the chorus: I appreciate you sending a personal update. Like James, I think the return in customer loyalty for a weekly pre-ship posting would far outweigh the energy invested.
I love your product. I want it. Badly. My clients will get much more value from me if I use it in my practice. Plus it’s just plain cool. I check your site for blog updates daily, and until this update, I checked my email each day eagerly searching for the “we’d like to take your credit card info” email. I think I am your ideal business customer.
If I could come out there and help you ship a quality product sooner, I would consider it. I’d beta test. I’ll do focus groups. Hell, I bet I could get you some corporate contracts. I really want to see you guys succeed.
Because I’m overly trusting and optimistic (as I imagine many of us are), every move you make that leads me to question your candor is a very risky one. So I strongly echo Rick’s posting about giving us the straight scoop. I have clients that are curious about when I’ll be able to start bringing my Smartpen to our sessions, and I don’t want to tell them “early April” unless that’s really true. So what’s the deal? Is it “planning to start shipping” or “will be shipping”?
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you think I can do anything to help you all out. Best regards and best of luck.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:29 am
We read all your blog comments and want to thank you for your patience and support. We also understand your frustration and hear your concerns about the shipping date for Pulse.
We are still planning to start shipping by March 31st. Anyone who has preordered the Pulse smartpen will be sent an email with instructions to complete your purchase in the coming weeks.
Thanks again for your comments, suggestions and ideas.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Klee…You’ve served to do nothing except state the equivalent of “let them eat cake”
We read your blog comments….but we don’t care
We hear your concerns….but are doing nothing about them
We are still planning to start shipping by March 31st….but won’t offer any details on progress
Thanks again for your comments…but we’ve ignored them and not replied to a single suggestion
Goodbye LiveScribe…maybe when you mature
March 4th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I eagerly await the Livescribe, and while I’ve not placed a preorder, I’m anticipating reading the first round of reviews when it’s public. I understand from personal experience about the whens, whys, and hows behind shipping delays.
I just hope that the Livescribe Team isn’t going to burn out, and here’s why: 100+ hr. workweeks doesn’t sound healthy, unless you’re counting casual family “beta testing” time in that too.
In any case, goshspeed and all the best in this journey!
March 6th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Wow - from a PR perspective, you have a goldmine here. There are THIS MANY people who are so invested in the release of this pen? Already? Sheesh - this is great news for you guys. And I agree - regular communication with your ‘loyal subjects’ will go far… It adds another 15 min to your 100 hour weeks.
As someone who does nothing but launch new companies for a living, let me back these guys up: OF COURSE they demonstrated at DEMO when the product wasn’t ready to ship! We have a client that announced at DEMO and won’t be out until Q2… it’s the way it’s done… all because we have to use opptys like this to get people testing the product so we don’t have bugs when we ship - and so the press have time to figure out where we fit in the grand scheme of technology leaders. DEMO is only 2x/yr, and if you don’t announce in January, you have to wait on your product for 6 more months to get a platform that impressive.
I agree with the guy from Germany: get it right the first time. We’ll live a few more weeks. But… do keep us in the loop! We’re invested in your success…
(now hurry up ’cause we just can’t wait! just kidding…)
March 7th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I am very interested in this product and potential applications in higher education. I work in Graduate Medical Education at a major university and I’d love to see how this might be a useful tool not only in the classroom and meeting settings, but also in day-to-day note taking and for larger scale projects like portfolios and perhaps even a nice hybrid electronic/paper evaluation system.
March 8th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Please don’t make my pen with 100+ hour weeks. I’ve been there, and it is not sustainable over the long period you suggest. So, if you truly are working this hard, stop. This level of sleep deprivation would mean that employees would be driving as though they were drunk. I am not kidding. I would rather my pen not fail because employees aren’t thinking clearly.
March 9th, 2008 at 5:38 am
Annrp, people are not complaining about the fact that the product is delayed etc - I think many people (me including) are frustrated with the way the Livescribe is interracting with those who would be their early adopters, those who are willing to gamble with their money to try a totally new product - which can be a total flop and the company can go down in a few month after (if) the pen is released.
I personally have doubts about the software which will be bundled with the smartpen (e.g. with the desktop software) - and I would really like to see how it works before I buy the pen. It’s not difficult to set up a test site for those who want to try it - you don’t need a pen for that, just a login and password to the site and some demos there - but this is not done and it gives me some doubts about the quality and reliability of that software.
Another problem which I would like to sort out before ordering the pen are the restrictions on the self-printed paper: i.e. can I print any sizes or not, can I use my own layouts etc. I now do not believe that Livescribe will not impose some restrictions which will make use of the pen difficult for us and will eventually force us to buy expensive supplies from Livescribe…
Because of the way they handle the delays make me believe that many other things that they have promised are not true and the more they keep avoiding our questions here make me (and I think many other readers of this blog) think that we won’t be getting what we have been told…
March 9th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Thank you for the update! It’s refreshing to see that sort of personal communication from a company. I remain tremendously excited for your product to ship and I can’t wait to see the applications that is has in my personal and professional life. My colleagues share my anticipation in seeing how useful this will be for law-enforcement purposes. I have high hopes!
I am keeping my fingers crossed that it ships in March.
March 9th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Brillant idea! I read about the pen in Popular Mechanics, and after watching the demo, I will be buying one.
March 11th, 2008 at 6:35 am
I cannot wait for this product. Its a perfect fit for both my work-life and school-life. I remember hearing about this back in the Fall. Well time flies and here we are in March hoping it will be shipped when they say. If they fail to meet this date, I think it will be a PR disaster considering the plethora of comments asking them for honesty, not marketing. I really hope they make the right decision or make the date, I really do.
Also - to almost everyone above me (with one or two exceptions), the word is L-O-S-E or L-O-S-I-N-G. Two O’s means something entirely different, and loosing is not a word.
Thanks.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I second what Mike says above… The first poster asked if it would be too much trouble for weekly updates and how many have we received? ZERO
Don’t look for this anytime soon, folks. If they have this much trouble RELEASING their product, how much trouble do you think they will have SUPPORTING their product?
March 11th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I think the issue of legality of taping conversations has been brought up before on this and other blogs, and I thought of providing this excellent source of information on state and federal laws by the The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:
http://www.rcfp.org/taping/
Not sure how much it applies to recording face-to-face conversations / meetings / lectures vs. telephone calls but at least it might get an informed debate going on the legality of when and where we can use the Livescribe pen.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Until they change the tag from “Shipping in March” to “Shipping in April” which really means April 30th (which really, really, means June)
HOW ABOUT AN UPDATE JIMBO?
March 11th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
http://gizmodo.com/363022/iogear-mobile-digital-scribe-writes-anywhere
Iogear’s mobile digital scribe!
NO SPECIAL PAPER REQUIRED!
Just ordered via Amazon…
Livescribe team…please cancel my preorder!
March 12th, 2008 at 6:47 am
With regard to the comments above: no one likes to wait for something they really want, right? But does that thwarted desire have to translating into criticisms of the very people who are going to be providing that object for which so many of us have longed?
Livescribe and its management are being cast in the dual roles of benefactor and blocking figure in this drama that some people are creating. That story, though, is not of Livescribe’s making but of the people commenting above. It is the unfortunate side-effect of bottom-up power: the mob mentality.
I hope that people read Jim Marggraff’s post and take it and any other Livescribe posts at face value, rather than second-guessing the motivations of the company and its management. They obviously read their own blog and emails, which prompted his post in the first place.
I’ve got my GoogleAlerts set to livescribe and eagerly await the pen’s release. I scour the web for anything Google hasn’t picked up. Obsessed? Yeah, a little. But I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Sorry for the long finger-wagging post, but I just wanted to bring a little balance back to the Force. (OK, I’m a dork.)
March 13th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Why are you waiting for the last minute to take orders? As of now we’re about half-way through the month where you will ship, yet you haven’t taken any payment, made shipping labels, etc. Not everyone will be able to place an order within moments of your system going live for ordering and it would be a shame for that to be a bottleneck.
March 16th, 2008 at 9:10 am
@Check this out: Thx for the headsup, looks like the Iogear Mobile Scribe doesn’t have any audio recording capability or much in the way of interacting with paper, but it looks slimmer. I’m gonna dig further in… and see what meets my needs best.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
They can’t take your credit card info because they can’t store it forever. If they are not charging yet, it probably means that the pen is still at least a month or two away. The headline should obviously be changed.
March 17th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Two weeks to the promised ship date. No e-mails formally announcing the shipment and/or requesting payment for the product.
Any status update?
March 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
No Feb/No March….ahh…the excitement of a new technology.
I have the famed “lugable” Apple laptop of the late 80’s, along with Rolodex, Newton, Rocket E-Reader, oh yes and the “Cross Digital” pen.
I am looking forward to add to my collection of firsts….but more in the ipod venue versus the aforementioned. So take your time…all the time you need….
March 20th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
11 days until it’s shipping according to all the communications and Livescribe still doesn’t have our payment information. It sure sounds like Livescribe is going to have a heck of a time collecting this information and shipping them.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
10 days or less until shipment! Operators are standing by at my email service waiting for payment instructions!
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
9 days or less until shipment! Operators are standing by at my email service waiting for payment instructions!
March 24th, 2008 at 5:04 am
To those on this list, only one more week until they HAVE to announce a delay.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:05 am
The shipment delays are an embarrassment to those of us who gave the pen as a holiday gift, thinking that the “countdown” was to a shipment date.
Meanwhile the recipient of our “gifts” got a piece of paper with a picture of a pen. Yay.
From my view, it is irresponsible for the company to maintain such a silence — or worse, to mislead.
So how about an honest update, Livescribe people…
I need to know if I should send another gift and tell them to keep the certificate for next Chanukah.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
We’re still waiting to pay, 5 days until the ship date noted on the Website.
March 27th, 2008 at 4:34 am
Dear Mr. Marggraff,
Thank you for the update and I know it will be worth the wait. BUT, please sir do not forget the millions of Mac users out there. I am waiting so patiently my son goes off to college next year with a Mac and hopefully one of your pens!
Marilyn Glisci
March 27th, 2008 at 5:42 am
While I agree that some people are getting a bit doom and gloom on here, it cannot be denied that there has been NO REAL communication regarding product status since this post. That’s not enough. I understand everyone at Livescribe must be very busy. I just think that small, informal updates (isn’t that the point of a blog?) would go a long, long way towards calming people down. I think you would find that people would be much more accepting of delays so long as they are “in” on the process. What people don’t want is to feel they are being strung along and kept in the dark. Currently, that’s how I feel. I want to see some ACTIVITY on this site and be in tune with where the product is. My enthusiasm is really starting to wear thin and I am a huge early adopter of all technology so I’m used to ups and downs, what I’m not used to is being totally alienated by the company I’m ready to send money to. Somebody needs to right this ship.