1 (edited by boards2x 2008-12-17 08:26:19)

Topic: Did I just buy a billboard?

Hi
I recently bought a new Chumby for myself, and I'm quite happy with the product. I was actually thinking about buying couple more as gifts. But there are though few issues which I'm surprised to see are present in a product that has been on the market for such a long time:

1. The Chumby isn't cheap. I've payed for a product which is useless w/o the online service, so making me "pay" again by pushing those "extra widgets" into my device is unfair IMHO, and tasteless. I will never buy anything I've seen advertised on Chumby, so please consider allowing customers to opt-out, if they feel the same. At least make it clear for potential customers that they are paying for a billboard. This really sucks.

2. Music/Radio
You need to click 3-4 times to get in and out of any of the music services, and there's no way to switch them off from the main panel. It's quite unusable, in my opinion, even before we talk about why the streaming stops after a while, for no apparent reason.

3. I see no way to access and install widgets from the device. Even a basic "top widgets" list would be more useful then nothing at all. A Widget Store feature would be nice.

Thanks

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

boards2x wrote:

3. I see no way to access and install widgets from the device. Even a basic "top widgets" list would be more useful then nothing at all. A Widget Store feature would be nice.

Thanks

The "Latest Widgets" widget (look strange typing that...) allows you to add Widgets.  I agree, a control panel button that calls up the 10 most popular widgets in each category would be nice.

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

boards2x wrote:

1. The Chumby isn't cheap. I've payed for a product which is useless w/o the online service, so making me "pay" again by pushing those "extra widgets" into my device is unfair IMHO, and tasteless. I will never buy anything I've seen advertised on Chumby, so please consider allowing customers to opt-out, if they feel the same. At least make it clear for potential customers that they are paying for a billboard. This really sucks.

How are people still surprised by this? It's made quite, quite clear on the website that the service is ad-funded and there must be something like a bazillion threads about it on these forums.

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

#3: you could make a channel with all the widgets that let you add stuff. then it would be kind of like having it in the control panel.
#1: as i said before, there should be an option to pick which ads you get. most of the ones i get i like, and in the 6 months I've had a chumby, I have never gotten the proflowers ad.
#2: that should be a feature too.

5 (edited by boards2x 2008-12-18 11:08:20)

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

tismey wrote:

How are people still surprised by this? It's made quite, quite clear on the website that the service is ad-funded and there must be something like a bazillion threads about it on these forums.

Where? This should be mentioned as part of the features overview, and made clear. I wouldn't have bought it, I can assure you. I think it's invasive and unacceptable for the price Chumby goes for.

An opt-out option should at least be offered to customers at this stage. Did anyone try to petition for such an option?

10x

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

Someone started something but got over it after a few days. Listen boards2x, it is not that intrusive. I got my eyes stuck on this thing 7 to 8 hours a day and I never encountered more than 2 or 3 ad per week. Really... You'll get use to them. At first there was this idea of paying a fee to get rid of the ads... but they are so rare that you'de be frustrated to pay even a buck more. I'm telling you.

There were several discussion over what this wi-fi device should be priced at. 180$ is not that high, I'm telling you.

The only thing I don't understand, is why we have these unsolicited Viral Videos coming up. There is no obvious revenu coming out of these. So why are they lsippering into the timeline. That's one good question.

For the feature request, I think we all agree. There are still room for improvement.

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

boards2x wrote:
tismey wrote:

How are people still surprised by this? It's made quite, quite clear on the website that the service is ad-funded and there must be something like a bazillion threads about it on these forums.

Where? This should be mentioned as part of the features overview, and made clear. I wouldn't have bought it, I can assure you. I think it's invasive and unacceptable for the price Chumby goes for.

An opt-out option should at least be offered to customers at this stage. Did anyone try to petition for such an option?

10x

Well, to start with it's in the 'What is a Chumby?' section
http://www.chumby.com/pages/learn_network
and it's in the FAQ
http://www.chumby.com/help/faq

It's mentioned in reviews
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/02/r … mby-l.html

Then there are forum threads, I really can't be bothered to paste all of them, but just to be going on with...
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2910
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2691
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2470
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2389
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=1594

Seriously, 5 minutes of research...

8 (edited by boards2x 2008-12-20 13:11:26)

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

tismey wrote:

Well, to start with it's in the 'What is a Chumby?' section
http://www.chumby.com/pages/learn_network
and it's in the FAQ
http://www.chumby.com/help/faq

It's mentioned in reviews
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/02/r … mby-l.html

Then there are forum threads, I really can't be bothered to paste all of them, but just to be going on with...
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2910
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2691
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2470
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2389
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=1594

Seriously, 5 minutes of research...

I actually blogged about Chumby when it launched, but never bought it. Recently I came across an old David Pogue review, so I looked again. I thought the new touch interface was kind of fun (it's not that exciting, but that's ok) and got one. Do you honestly expect customers to google "chumby + ad support" prior to buying? If it's conveniently  tucked in a FAQ somewhere, it may be very convenient for them, but not very fair. I can't think of many consumer devices of these type with ad supported services.

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

It is mentioned. I first learned of it, prior to buying (I won't drop 200 dollars on something before reading about it...) -- second page after clicking "Learn more" -- titled "Free Chumby Network"

No subscriptions to pay, no plans to sign up for. It's paid for by Chumby Industries and by sponsor companies who will be sending you widgets such as music, games, movie previews, customized alarm clocks, and special offers for products. Chumby Industries is 100% dedicated to keeping your widget channels new, intriguing, fun and FREE.

Source

I wouldn't mind if there was an option to pay a monthly fee in lieu of ads, I doubt it would have to be very much to offset the difference of one user.  Though such an opt out may concern advertisers, as it's a potential hit on their view base.

The thing is... occasionally an ad pops into your channel. It can be immediately deleted without much hassle and that's the end of it.  Compare that to television -- you pay for the hardware, you pay for the third party service AND while viewing the service see ads frequently, not skippable and much longer.  Compared to other forms of media, I do not see chumby as particularly troublesome and I certainly wouldn't call it simply a billboard. The ads are far from the majority of what you see while using the chumby.

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

When you pay $200, you pay for the device.  However, imagine if people weren't purchasing chumby's anymore.  Your chumby would become a brick unless the company could continue to make money through advertising or the chumby community set up a new server to host the widgets and service.  I personally would rather have a few ads then have the chumby turn into a brick.  The only other option of ensuring that the service will continue after the chumby looses its novelty and marketability is to charge service fees.  I would rather the ads.

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

I have read and followed this thread when it started almost a month ago. Since that time, I have gone through almost every widget on my Chumby DAILY for about an hour and a half each day. During that time, I've not seen one ad. Yes, there are occasional ads that I have seen, but in the past three weeks I've kept track of what I have seen and it is ZERO. I stand by what I said in "yet another thread" on ads...They are there, they must be necessary, they are very infrequent, you rarely even see them, and if you are bothered by them you can delete them in two seconds. Truly, there are not many, at all.

Note to advertisers: Yes, we see your ads all over the place on Chumby and when we do we watch every one and then we buy your products! For sure.

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

I'm not complaining, I've made it clear previously that I am behind Chumby making money from the Network -- but I really wish I knew what triggered ads--because my experience with them is drastically different from yours, artlady.   I've been deleting t-shirt and viral vid ads from my Default channel *multiple* times a day.  Maybe they pop up every n times through a channel? (Mine cycles, rather than sitting on a static clock).  Some days I see more ads than others.  Normally I don't mind, but when I see the same ad 3, 4, 5 times within a few hours it gets old.  Especially the viral vids. I want to see some new advertising already! smile

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

You are right, theprawn, about the tshirt ads. They happened to me a lot right before the big buying opportunity that always happens in December, but now have somewhat disappeared. I forgot about those when saying I didn't see much. I just assumed the "holidays" were the trigger for those, but I haven't seen any others to tie anything into. I haven't seen any since the holiday, like I said, though. Have a great day!

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

The answer: A localized device, independent of Chumby.com.

15 (edited by joltdude 2009-01-15 10:51:58)

Re: Did I just buy a billboard?

Why are we going down this long and windy road again? People.. Take the Search function for a spin
.. this thread has been answered repeatedly.

Let me repeat myself for the new users....it should be a sticky

-Jolt

Heres a list of threads that previously touch on the subject. for your convienence.
(there are more, this is just a starter)

http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2910
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2820
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2628
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2691
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2428

forgot to re-mention
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?id=2604