Subject: Re: Netpliance Iopener booted with NetBSD...
To: Laine Stump <lainestump@rcn.com>
From: Jon Lindgren <jlindgren@espus.com>
List: current-users
Date: 03/13/2000 11:36:48
On Mon, 13 Mar 2000, Laine Stump wrote:

> Did Andrew mention - the keyboards on these things even have a key labelled
> "Pizza". What more could you ask for ;-)

A "beer" key right next to it 8-)

> You can also get them from Circuit City for $99 + tax. none of the CC's
> have them in stock, but they'll let you special order them. The advantage
> of this over ordering from NetPliance is that you don't have the danger of
> getting signed up for the service, and also you don't have to pay the $40
> shipping. On the down side, it may take longer (not sure)

Yeah - I talked in depth with a sales rep regarding this.  He claims that
you do _not_ have to sign up for their service (but it won't work with
anybody else's service).  I guess they're counting on people not having a
clue (good bet, IMHO).

[snip]

> The sad part is that the company is almost surely losing money for every
> one they sell (and that this means the deal will probably be over soon,
> when they realize their mistake and start requiring a signup for service as
> part of the purchase, or alternately when they go belly up because their
> business model is flawed). I wonder how much they'd have to sell them for
> to make money (without their ISP)...

It is a pity.  Even though they're obviously trying to get their main
funds via the ISP charge, it's pretty darn cool that they made the thing
"off the shelf" enough so that we can spend evenings/early mornings
hacking it.  I hope they don't go proprietary in the future...

-Jon
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