Excite Me
The Excite Write... ok, let's get that name out of the way first: the name "Excite Write" is the kind of branding you get when you rely on in-house consensus and coordination. It's a little weird, a little awkward, and probably works well everywhere else but not in North America. Grammatically, it's strange-sounding, it almost reads like pidgin English. The Toshiba "Excite" range of tablets is Toshiba's top-of-the-line Android tablet. The "Excite Pro", is apparently the most exciting (and professional) one, and the "Excite Write"... um, allows you to write on it, with a pen, but the Write is still a Pro model... presumably the "Excite Run" is the faster one and the "Excite Engage" you give to your significant other on your wedding day (I made those last two up). Whatever the reasoning, it's not easy to remember, doesn't roll off the tongue, and isn't the kind of name you'd be proud of blurting out loud ("yeah, I bought the 'Excite Write' tablet!"). It's like ever since apple dominated the whole "i-" thing, there have been no good ideas left. I've been through branding exercises myself and I know it's not easy to make great new stuff up these days, but that's why we hire special companies to do the work for us... companies who have brand experts on hand who one day, while mounting a flight of stairs to their French class, cry out "Escalade!" Of course! Bien oui!
But branding doesn't just end at the product name, no siree. You see, there's the little matter of logo, colors, tone, industrial design, etc. The Excite Write needs to be projected as something! And here's where Toshiba seems to be experiencing the classical problem of having a solution without truly understanding what the problem was. Who, exactly, is the Toshiba Excite Write right for? For that matter, what, exactly is a "Toshiba"? Is it just another Panasonic/Sony/LG/Samsung competitor? Is there more to Toshiba than just another electronics brand?
Perhaps we should turn to the busy and buggy Toshiba web site for more information. It's pretty clear, for example, what apple is trying to achieve from going to their web site, and SONY makes it pretty clear what they're all about, too... how hard could it be to just emulate their example?
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| "Over To The Right" |
It's not a great start... disregarding the dated font treatment and use of gradated chevrons, we'll assume by "Innovation" Toshiba is claiming to be a leader in all aspects of innovation: form design, usability, materials and manufacture, packaging, features, you name it. We obviously won't find a clear answer here.
So let's skip right to the Excite Write page, it's a well-defined product, they must have something relevant to say about it. Unfortunately, this page just adds to our confusion.
For example, here are the subheadings that define what the Write is all about, complete with hilariously miss-matched and generic images/graphics:
"Take note: This Tablet rocks."
(get it? take "note"? It's just like the Galaxy Note! No, seriously now, I'll just write that down...)
"A seamless writing experience."
(nobody writes any more, they type or use the perfectly functional vocal dictation function that comes with Android 4.2 Jellybean, didn't anyone tell them this?)
"Totally productive."
("like fer sher")
"Picture Perfect."
(ok, I'll accept that... except nobody really cares too much about the camera on a tablet, and when you start boasting about your tablet's camera capabilities, you open yourself up to real critical inspection, and frankly, no tablet's camera is worth boasting about.)
"Primetime entertainment."
(OK, now I'm beginning to think that Toshiba is leading innovation in defrosting frozen marketing executives from the 1990's; anybody under the age of 30, please feel free to google what "Primetime" means, we'll wait)
"A full Android™ experience."
(I'm not sure that that's really something unique or sales-worthy; how about mentioning some of the reasons why it's such a great OS instead?)
"Perfectly portable."
(it's not a table, it's a tablet; were customers complaining about how big and bulky their portable, hand-held tablets were?)
The page is pretty sparse, reasons-to-buy-wise, so Toshiba also interspersed it with bullets and factoids such as:
- TruPen™ and Digitizer for Ultimate Feel and Precision
- Ultra High-Res 10.1-inch (2560x1600) PixelPure™ Display
- NVIDIA® Tegra® 4 Mobile Processor with Quad-Core CPU
You know, in marketing, there's a term for researching technical details before making a purchasing decision: it's called "extended problem solving". You want to make a bet that 90% of the iPad Retinas in customers' hands didn't involve being told (several times) that the tablet boasts a WQXGA screen? OK, "PixelPure" doesn't have the same sexiness as "Retina" but NOBODY but NOBODY cares to EVER see the letters "WQXGA" in sequence unless it's when filling out one of those heuristic thingies in an online form that gets them a free ice cream cone. When you introduce a game-changing technology that grants you the ability to use a precise instrument to draw and write on your tablet, phrases such as "Ultimate Feel and Precision" means squat without some context. It means that you can draw pictures on the screen as if with a real pen or pencil, you can do real sketches, and you can be as creative as with traditional drawing media. According to Toshiba, however, being able to write your notes more legibly in a meeting is the #1 reason they added 25% to the normal Excite Pro's price...and your cruddy penmanship? Cruddy is now captured in high fidelity, baby.
Oh, they're very clear about appealing to either not-artistic business people or people at home who want a high-end all-in-one tablet (but why they wouldn't just purchase a normal Excite for $100 less is not explained). No, they completely and bafflingly make the conscious decision NOT to pitch this to the very people it's most assuredly designed for: artistic types.
And then, at the bottom of the online data sheet are these 4 beauties:
Android 4.2, Jelly Bean This tablet comes pre-loaded with Android™ 4.2 Jelly Bean, the fastest, smoothest version of Android™ yet.
TruCapture™ App This Toshiba exclusive app allows you to easily capture and convert whiteboard contents into digital files.
TruNote™ App This Toshiba exclusive app allows you to easily capture and convert whiteboard contents into digital files.
Micro SD Card Slot Share photos, video clips, and other files with other devices, or simply expand your storage capabilities.
Please note that I did NOT alter that text, it's exactly as I found it on the official Toshiba US web page for the Toshiba Excite Write: Toshiba's high-end Android tablet. They already told us all about everything we needed to know about the tablet coming pre-loaded with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the fastest, smoothest... you know what? You already said that same statement literally right above this. And yes, TruCapture and TruNote are so amazing at apparently doing literally the exact same thing, that they both require valuable real estate to tout this fact. Either Toshiba had nothing better to put there or their web QA/marketing team has just given the hell up. Finally, the fact that in the day and age of Dropbox and cloud storage a Micro SD card slot gets top billing is pretty unimpressive (don't get me wrong, I'm stoked it has the slot but it's kind of expected for an Android device, isn't it?).
Again, there's no real indication of who this tablet is actually for, and it's not really positioned against any other tablet ("iPad plus more", "Wacom Cintiq lite") so we're kind of left with what little is put here; trade shows and exhibits where it's been launched/displayed before sale; the language of what little positioning info there is; and the applications that are pre-installed on the tablet. From that evidence, it's clear that Toshiba is mostly positioning this as a powerful business product. I know that Toshiba's approach isn't working because web sites such as C|NET completely missed the point as to why anyone would pay $100 premium on the Excite Pro tablet just to get pressure pen support. Let me give you a hint: it's not to business people who merely want to take notes with it. C|NET gave a pretty scathing review, kind of like how a automotive writer living in downtown Tokyo might give a Ford Raptor pickup truck a scathing review because he couldn't understand why anyone would pay so much money to drive a pickup truck in downtown Tokyo. It's not C|NET's fault, Toshiba just sent them in the wrong direction. Imagine if the $3,000 Wacom Cintiq was given to C|NET with marketing information declaring that it was for business people to take meeting notes with. C|NET would probably declare it the world's most ridiculous tablet, if that.
Ah, what's the point, Toshiba's one big advantage over the Samsung Galaxy Note - the high resolution screen - was squandered because nobody who really needs and wants this tablet even knew of its existence (I only found it by accident on the Costco site while looking for the Note...) and now Samsung has successfully scrambled to catch up. Thankfully, the Galaxy Note's pen - while stowable - is nowhere near as ergonomic nor as functional as the one that the Excite Write comes with.
Oh, and in order to prove that it takes a team to ruin a web site, at the bottom of the US Toshiba Excite Write tablet product page is this prominent icon:
| You get a bloody 404. |
"We are sorry, but we are unable to complete your request at this time. Please select from the menu items at the top of this page."Damn straight. [Note: it's been like this since at least January 13, and the Toshiba Tablet Accessories page/link is STILL broken...] |
