Warner Crocker has penned a Dear Toshiba letter to the company's president about issues the enthusiast community is having with the company's Tablet PCs. What's fascinating is this passage...
He writes:
In essence what I am trying to call your attention to is quite simple. You have a burgeoning public relations problem that stems from inadequate attention to customer service and technical support that if left unchecked will seriously hinder your sales and, I fear, consequently hamper Toshiba's further development of the Tablet platform.
Why, if I am a satisfied customer, do I write this letter and raise these concerns? Because I find it difficult to continue to advocate the use of Toshiba Tablets while this inadequate conduct on Toshiba's part continues.
I would strongly encourage you and your representatives to visit TabletPCBuzz.com and read through the Toshiba forum, as well as the other forums. You will find that the advocacy there is strong, but also fair and balanced. You will also find that this is not the usual rant and whine that you find in many such online resources. The users of these TabletPCBuzz forums are by far more sincere and mature in their response to issues. Consequently, this has made them, their advice and their recommendations very influential. This is why I am concerned. Bottom line, if you lose this constituency due to the problems stated in this letter, you will lose the game. I have already sensed a decline in interest in the M200/05 product line through this website. You have an opportunity to reverse that decline with clear and decisive action.
Not only do I encourage you to visit TabletPCBuzz.com, I also urge you to have a representative register and create a presence there as well. Other manufacturers of hardware and software (including Motion, Wacom and Microsoft among others) have seen the wisdom in this and I can not but believe that this would prove beneficial to both Toshiba and its customers. You should know that I will be posting this letter in the Toshiba forum on TabletPCBuzz.com for users there to see and comment upon.
I hope Toshiba doesn't think enthusiast blogs and forums are unimportant somehow. Robert Scoble and Buzz Bruggeman talked about this extensively yesterday when I met with them. Their message: work your enthusiasts or they will run you over.
