xAPPO wrote:I'm not quite so enthused with this approach by O2. I understand why they would want to do it but they were really selling a product based on it's functionality and now once you've bought it they're reneging on that.
While most of the apps can be replaced by others if you're technical their target market for the device was the non technical who wanted this canned inbuilt functionality. These people can not , and should not be required to mess around getting back the functionality they thought they already had.
I'm particularly annoyed about the messenging app as there isn't a replacement for that, and even O2 haven't come up with an alternative suggestion in their 'update' notes, instead just skating around that aspect. Plus there were 50 free texts per month as part of your purchase which are now being removed which in any replacement would be unlikley to be free. Messages is also a background application nicely integrated within the dashboard UI. I feel O2 have just thought it's a hassle to retain this, and it costs us some money in terms of admin and maintenance, we won't get any more sales so let's cease it.
Aside from shafting their customers I would think this is also very dubious legally , effectively deliberately removing / breaking something that was advertised functionality at the time of purchase. Sky also did a similar thing with Tivo when they cancelled their 'lifetime subscriptions' but at least they gave you a long period of notice and ran it for a 10 year period.
I believe O2 have a reasonable stance when they give notice to withdraw their apps when they can replace them with others, as long as it is in a way that a non technical user could migrate e.g. by inclusion of pre loaded apps in the update - but when there is no alternative I think they have an obligation, possible even a legal one, to continue to offer that app / functionality... or perhaps offer refunds
K
Of course, it is a business decision: no matter what has been achieved with it and what can be done with it, from O2's commercial point of view it was an utter flop. There's no point investing time, effort and money in continuing to support a service which is no longer profitable - that's just business unfortunately and if I was making that decision, I'd probably drop it like a ton of bricks too. It's quite commendable of O2 that they didn't just quietly drop the service altogether and completely screw everyone; they might be washing their hands of it, but at least they seem to be doing it in a way which will leave Joggler owners with a unit that is still perfectly functional. I do hope that they will take it that one step further and open source any code they have modified/built for it, but that's probably not likely to happen.
I'm afraid I don't know too much about the stock OpenPeak software - if that is indeed what they are going to be updating to - but from what I can gather it looks like the only functionality that will be effectively removed is the messaging service. That is a bit of a kick in the nuts, but the chances are that if someone (as in, the general public) wants to send/receive text messages then they've already got a mobile phone for that. It is a very crappy decision for those who actually use the Joggler messaging service and I have no idea what it will be replaced with, if a similar service is even offered. Unfortunately this comes back to the "business decision" issue; it's all well and good being benevolent and offering free text messaging for owners of a product that isn't making any money, but the product isn't making any money. That messaging service has to be supported by O2, which means that they have to invest time, money and effort in maintaining the infrastructure which powers that service. If you're not making any money on it, it's just not a cost effective use of resources.
Whatever "update" comes along, it won't be a technical process to install it; it looks like it'll happen automatically just like any other OTA update (Android users should be used to this).
In my book, O2 dropped the ball when they first released the Joggler. It was advertised as basically a glorified calendar and PIM but, as the work here demonstrates, it is capable of so much more than that. I don't necessarily think it was overpriced - it might be by today's standards, but maybe not at the time - but it's clear that O2 had already considered it a failure when they dropped the price drastically - twice. If they had put in even half of the work that the hackers have, they could have easily marketed this as so much more than just a calendar. People pay big money for fully integrated home media systems and fancy touch-screen controllers to run it all, and the Joggler is more than capable of being that controller - in fact it's
overqualified for that job. You're getting a phenomenal little piece of equipment which was basically sold as a calendar - it really boggles the mind!
EDIT: And hello to the fellow noobs!
