Explaining The Pandora

[craigix]

See this page:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/organic/

I think the Pandora needs a new user friendly page like that.

Can we throw about some ideas?

Things like 'organic hardware', 'not assembled in a sweatshop', ideas behind the project.

And so on.

Opinions/designs/suggestions?

 

[SomeGuy99]

I refer to my Pandora as 'The Talented Mutant'. It kind of sums it up for me.

 

[Vitel]

ideas behind the project.

Opinions/designs/suggestions?

Freedom and openness are the most important ideas IMHO.

 

[SomeGuy99]

I think philosophically speaking, the Pandora is about giving power back to the users.

It's kind of an exciting frontier, like when computers first became popular. It's about chasing dreams...? Being active.

The Pandora also feels very personal, like computers were supposed to be. It feels like it's yours.

Buzzword: Active Computing? Active Computer?

 

[Prometheus]

I'm not entirely sure if these would be suitable for such a page, but I recently had to explain a few things about my Pandora to an older fellow (a friend of my parents).

The twin descriptions of "I can play all of my old computer games on this one device." (he knew of my collection, just to give some context to that one), and "Right now I'm doing the same web-browsing that you can do on your desktop computer." certainly resonated.

 

[SomeGuy99]

How about something along the lines of:

The Pandora is all about giving power back to you - the user. We won't ever tell you what you can and cannot do with your machine. Your Pandora belongs to you, and the Pandora experience belongs to everyone. The more people that own one of these machines, the more people that redefine what a Pandora is, the better it becomes for everyone.

We don't decide what the Pandora is, or what it can do. The Pandora is the dream you chase, and your dreams are in your hands.

Marketing speak. LOL.

Edit: more

We wanted to make computers exciting again. We took the best features from handheld games consoles and netbook laptops and put them together into a device that would stimulate the imagination of everyone. We gave the Pandora potential, and the result is infinite possibility. With the Pandora, you can explore these possibilities without limitations or walls.

 

[craigix]

Yes, I really want to show the difference between us and closed source systems, so when people say the usual 'just get a iphone lol' we can say 'well no, look at this page and understand why that isn't the best solution for everyone'.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Are you assigning someone to write this? I don't think writing by committee will work for a company/device statement like this.

 

[Prometheus]

Az longg az wee alll rite propper kreck Inglish, wood righting buy kommittee bee a problumm?

(Oh god, that made my brain hurt.)

 

[SomeGuy99]

Az longg az wee alll rite propper kreck Inglish, wood righting buy kommittee bee a problumm?

(Oh god, that made my brain hurt.)

Nah, I just mean it would lack focus and coherency of message (I reckon). See: anything in a Wiki.

I guess Craig will be writing it, and we're doing the brainstorming wot.

Was that cockney?

 

[rainking720]

Yes, I really want to show the difference between us and closed source systems, so when people say the usual 'just get a iphone lol' we can say 'well no, look at this page and understand why that isn't the best solution for everyone'.

With an IPhone, you just get it right away and and the excitement just fades. With Pandora's Patented 2 Month Wait Loop Cycle(tm), you never get bored with it because you never actually get it! You should go with that .

 

[mali]

The question is, what message do you want to get across?
Is it meant for marketing? If so, I see no use as it won't be possible to buy a Pandora off the shelf in a long while anyway and you will be able to fill a batch of another 4000 without further marketing. Don't do the third step before the second, imo
Trying to focus on exclusivity will hurt more than it will do good, imo. Get that thing out to the masses, asap.

edit:
Currently the Pandora is that cool underdog handheld and speaks for itself. A slick site would just hurt and look dumb anyway.

 

[craigix]

The question is, what message do you want to get across?
Is it meant for marketing? If so, I see no use as it won't be possible to buy a Pandora off the shelf in a long while anyway and you will be able to fill a batch of another 4000 without further marketing. Don't do the third step before the second, imo
Trying to focus on exclusivity will hurt more than it will do good, imo. Get that thing out to the masses, asap.

edit:
Currently the Pandora is that cool underdog handheld and speaks for itself. A slick site would just hurt and look dumb anyway.

Well I don't agree with any of that.

 

[mali]

^ I'm just trying to help. If you just disagree without going into detail, I can't help.

 

[Trip]

Sex sell so I think it should be something along the lines of..

PANDORA!.. It spanks the competition.



EDIT: Just to say something more helpful; I think that you should go with something that points out the continuing improvements and support that's part of the whole Pandora experience

 

[devhace]

If you like the parts about it being open then just go with that... I mean it's a pretty big deal for anyone to develop anything on this and never, ever have it "rejected" or unable to run if you can code it right

 

[noisome]

If you like the parts about it being open then just go with that... I mean it's a pretty big deal for anyone to develop anything on this and never, ever have it "rejected" or unable to run if you can code it right

In the world of doesn't, the Pandora does.

Oh wait....NM

Pandora, the hacker's choice.

or

Open for explorers.

or

When do you ride with top down? When YOU want to.

or

Chaotic Conformity.

 

[Grench]

The question is, what message do you want to get across?
Is it meant for marketing? If so, I see no use as it won't be possible to buy a Pandora off the shelf in a long while anyway and you will be able to fill a batch of another 4000 without further marketing. Don't do the third step before the second, imo
Trying to focus on exclusivity will hurt more than it will do good, imo. Get that thing out to the masses, asap.

edit:
Currently the Pandora is that cool underdog handheld and speaks for itself. A slick site would just hurt and look dumb anyway.

Well I don't agree with any of that.

/humor
OK... Confirmed:
Craig doesn't want to get a message across.
There is no intention of using a flowery site for marketing.
It will bee possible to buy a Pandora off the shelf very soon.
The Pandora will not be able to fill another batch of 4,000 without further marketing.
The third step always comes before the second.
Exclusivity is good.
We will never get this to the masses.
/humor

Dang that sounded negative when I got done with it.

Anyway - a little 'what if'. What if you opened up the 2nd batch pre-orders without a cap and got 25,000. Clearly the existing method of production is going to be hard pressed at that point. Are you ready for it?

If not, it will have to be capped. If you're capping at 4K or 5.7K (remaining cases + extra parts) then how much marketing do you really need to do? At that point, will you care if the world knows? Taking this full circle - what are the plans? How many OpenPandora consoles do you foresee being able to make in the product life cycle? The marketing effort should match what you're able to supply - otherwise you'll just be feeding the Ebay trolls while your marketing creates a demand that badly outstrips supply.

So, how big do you want to go in the next 6-12 months? If there is demand for it, can you pop out 25K of these inside of 3 months? (3 months used as a -reasonable- wait time.)

 

[theehman]

"In a world where many devices are chained by their manufacturers, the Pandora is unleashed to the full potential you deserve. You bought it, you decide what it can or can't do."

 

[limetang]

The question is, what message do you want to get across?
Is it meant for marketing? If so, I see no use as it won't be possible to buy a Pandora off the shelf in a long while anyway and you will be able to fill a batch of another 4000 without further marketing. Don't do the third step before the second, imo
Trying to focus on exclusivity will hurt more than it will do good, imo. Get that thing out to the masses, asap.

edit:
Currently the Pandora is that cool underdog handheld and speaks for itself. A slick site would just hurt and look dumb anyway.

Well I don't agree with any of that.

In that case, what you want is lots of mindless rhetoric and very little actual information. You don't want to weigh down the main page with specs like you are at the moment - 99.9% of people don't know or care what a "430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core" is and some might believe that because they don't understand what it is, you need to be a developer/complete genius to use the Pandora.

I'm not in marketing or anything, but good things to emphasise would be the multitude of uses for the Pandora - it can be a handheld console, a UMPC (describing it as having almost all the features of a netbook, but only being a quarter of the size would be a better description, probably), an MP3/4 player and a hell of a lot more - and the fact that you can do what you want with your Pandora without incurring OP Ltd.'s wrath. It might be a good idea to separate the consumer and developer pages if you're attempting to reach a wider audience, too.

A catchy slogan wouldn't go amiss either - claiming that "it's the most powerful gaming handheld there is", which is the closest thing there is to a slogan at the moment, could be interpreted as not exactly true.

Edit: I wouldn't focus too much on the freedom aspect though - developers care about that; consumers don't.