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Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

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Re: Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

#41

Post by sundvor »

SommaRaikkonen wrote: post #5

Here's a video that brings more perspective from My Deep Guide who reviews quite a whole lot of e-ink devices (timestamped for relevant part): https://youtu.be/K79MPnPq4_M?t=508 The thing that stood out for me is the way they push for a subscription as you purchase your device. The Marker Plus used to be $99, but they inflated the price to be $129 so that if you choose the Connect plan, it "slashes" the price back to…

IANAL but have been through the material in compliance training: I'm reasonably sure that this would be illegal according to Australian consumer laws.

You can't advertise a price as having a discount if it was never sold at the higher price.

Since you can technically buy it at the higher price now without the sub, perhaps they could argue that they increased the price of the pen, and introduced the discount in the same stroke, and maybe ACCC would let it slide - but they certainly wouldn't be amused.

The pen pricing is even better in AUD, btw.. and that's WITH the "discounts". AUD170 for the eraser one.

Re: Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

#42

Post by JonathonW »

eugeniub wrote: post #25

I'm not opposed to subscriptions but the terms here feel draconian. If you lose your reMarkable, your cloud backups give you access only to the files you used in the last 50 days? Am I reading this right?

If I'm reading it right, if you subscribe, you get unlimited storage for cloud backups of your content.

If you don't subscribe, you still get cloud backup, but it's limited to files you've used in the last 50 days (files will no longer sync if left unopened for 50 days).

Re: Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

#43

Post by nemothekid »

vunTofHueaFFrea wrote: post #31
dexterdog wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And misplaced identification of this system as capitalism.

What would you call it?

There is nothing stopping a company from both selling you a subscription and selling your data under a socialist organization of society. It only means the profits of said product would be more evenly distributed.

Re: Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

#44

Post by phrz »

This is extremely disappointing. I've just left a complaint on this issue. They've clearly taken steps to avoid pulling the rug out from under preexisting users, but this practice is overall so scummy for such an expensive, single-purpose product that it is converting me from an evangelist of the product to a protester. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend this product to anyone anymore. I should've listened to my instincts about lock-in when I saw that everything passed through a proprietary cloud.

Re: Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

#45

Post by m-p-3 »

Jedd wrote: post #8

I've been entertaining either a Remarkable2 or a Boox Note Air, but with remote-work over the last year it's been much less compelling. Plus here in Australia we pay a significant premium for these types of devices - f.e. they're advertising the remarkable2 with Connect for USD$299 - but for Australians it's AU$499 (~ US$366). On top of the death by a thousand cuts that is yet another subscription service, the AU ver…

Just in case you're unaware, Onyx is well-known for violating the GPL license and not releasing their source code. Something to consider.

Re: Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

#46

Post by russh »

rvz wrote: post #21

Not even the 'Google Drive and Dropbox integration' is free, but instead is on the highest plan. So to make up for the under powering and non-upgradeable storage space on that tiny 8 GB reMarkable 2 tablet, they cleverly introduce a subscription plan only for you to get more storage space. I had high hopes about Remarkable and hoped it will improve its shortfalls after criticising them [0], but a subscription for eve…

It’s an interesting device and I am fond of e-paper so I was considering one as well. The expensive pen with an eraser was a strike against it. Requiring a subscription to use someone else’s cloud service and only in the top tier plan, that turns a strike into a complete pass.

Re: Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

#47

Post by chrismorgan »

sundvor wrote: post #41
SommaRaikkonen wrote: post #5

Here's a video that brings more perspective from My Deep Guide who reviews quite a whole lot of e-ink devices (timestamped for relevant part): https://youtu.be/K79MPnPq4_M?t=508 The thing that stood out for me is the way they push for a subscription as you purchase your device. The Marker Plus used to be $99, but they inflated the price to be $129 so that if you choose the Connect plan, it "slashes" the price back to…

IANAL but have been through the material in compliance training: I'm reasonably sure that this would be illegal according to Australian consumer laws. You can't advertise a price as having a discount if it was never sold at the higher price. Since you can technically buy it at the higher price now without the sub, perhaps they could argue that they increased the price of the pen, and introduced the discount in the sa…

For reference: https://www.accc.gov.au/business/pricing-surcharging/display...

Mind you, those rules don’t stop such things from happening, even from purely Australian companies. I’ve tracked a Clevo-ODM laptop seller for years that’s perpetually at 25–40% discounts across all of their products (though they cycle through some of the specific components that are discounted), and I’ve been tracking one manufacturer’s only-sold-by-them 12V/100Ah LiFePO₄ battery for 15 months when they’ve had a $1,299 RRP marked down to $489–$469, with the alleged RRP recently reduced to $899. I’ve never complained to these companies or to the ACCC, but from other vaguely similar things that I have reported a couple of times I don’t expect much to happen.

Re: Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

#48

Post by nickstinemates »

nemothekid wrote: post #43
vunTofHueaFFrea wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you call it?

There is nothing stopping a company from both selling you a subscription and selling your data under a socialist organization of society. It only means the profits of said product would be more evenly distributed.

> would be more evenly distributed.

riiiiiiiight.

Re: Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

#49

Post by nemothekid »

nickstinemates wrote: post #48
nemothekid wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing stopping a company from both selling you a subscription and selling your data under a socialist organization of society. It only means the profits of said product would be more evenly distributed.

> would be more evenly distributed. riiiiiiiight.

Not sure the need for the sarcasm. If you have a criticism of what I'm saying, you can use words to address it. If you are insufficiently equipped to counter what I've said, it's far better etiquette to not post at all. Sweden is far more socialized than the rest of the world - and even employees rank and file Swedish employees of H&M enjoy a far greater share of the profits of H&M. That doesn't stop H&M from committing and profiting off of human rights abuses in Indonesia.

Under a socialist structure if all workers decided to poison the ocean in order to increase profits, that's completely possible. The main distinction is that more "shareholders" would be the people who actually do labor for the company, but I personally believe that they wouldn't act completely differently from shareholders of today if the negative externalities of their decisions were sufficiently outsourced.

Re: Remarkable starts implementing subscription plans for its cloud features

#50

Post by captn3m0 »

minaguib wrote: post #13

I was days away from ordering a Remarkable 2, despite the high price. I could see it being amazing, with screen-share, in diagraming and sharing visually with webex/zoom colleagues. Now it looks like I'll need to pay them $7.99/month for the privilege ? Instant hell-no.

I bought one a few days ago (yet to be shipped). One of the reasons for buying was their announcements for subscriptions and their promise to keep old accounts under the old plan forever.
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