It’s very hard to take something like how the device “feels” to draw on and convert that into something engineers can use. I ended up describing it in terms of speaking. I said drawing on the Pro 2 was like having a conversation with someone. With the Surface Pro 3 I feel like I need to either whisper or yell to have the same conversation. I had to press very lightly or very hard, and it changes the way I draw. I was also able to show them some of the lag I was noticing. They could all see me draw a line and watch it pop in a split second later.
There is a reason why Wacom dominated its niche for so long, even in the face of inexpensive asian knock-offs. (1) They had this stuff right. (2) Hackers who are perceptive enough that they don't underestimate the difficulty of getting this stuff right are a very small minority.
The benefit to the consumer is that some other company didn't just copy their technology down to the silk screening on the PCB, eliminating their ability to get any return on their R&D. Wacom is a terrible example for an anti-patent rant. Digitizing pen input is really hard to get right. N-trig has been working to come up with their own independent technology for years now. This is exactly the sort of R&D-heavy product development that's most endangered by copying. Without patents we'd be stuck at Wacom 1.0, and N-trig wouldn't have any incentive to come up with independent technology with different characteristics.
The case for a monopoly has been put - and it's one I agree with - but I' with camperbob here, patent monopolies are too long. They don't respect the change in product lifecycles that's come about in the last century or so.
If it took 10 years to produce the next line of products and if products were manufactured to last that long then 15-20 years seems fine.
But the patent term is far too long compared to the product lifecycle (in computing/electronics fields at least); patented tech is too often redundant by the time it enters the public domain.
I'd like to see maybe 5-8 year terms and possibly with a cap that looks something like "if global revenue is 100 times the number of inventors times 50 years times the 90th percentile pay in the country where patented the patent lapses" (the idea being selling at a 1% patent premium that returns enough to reward the inventors with never having to work again means the patent should lapse) [but admit that would be a very hard law to draft without leaving loopholes; there's probably major flaws too, one really would rather look at profit but it's too easily manipulated I feel].
Anyway, can someone justify the 15-20 years over a 5-8 year term (for electronics, say)?
I don't disagree with any of this. What's a sensible patent term in aerospace, where a single design might take a decade to bring to market, and what's sensible in consumer electronics isn't the same.
"asian knock-offs" seems odd in this context. Wacom is a Japanese company. Also, some inexpensive competitors like the monoprice-sold UC-Logic tablets are generally well-received despite having to shove a battery into the pen to avoid wacom's patented inductive coupling.
Programmers who tell themselves, "A stylus? Implementing that would be a piece of cake!" (I have to admit I'm guilty of this exact thing myself.)
"asian knock-offs" seems odd in this context. Wacom is a Japanese company.
And I'm of Korean extraction. From what I've seen, the majority of the knock-offs happen to be from asia. Those are the facts as I understand them. Your "oddness" seems to be supposition.
Which knock-off tablet and digitizers have you used?
The oddness is that Wacom is itself a Japanese company so even the 'original' products are Asian from soup-to-nuts. I'm unclear on the relevancy of your Korean extraction or what you believe I am supposing.
The oddness is that Wacom is itself a Japanese company so even the 'original' products are Asian from soup-to-nuts.
So, why is that odd? Is this some kind of racist pseudo logic that claims asians can't knock off products of other asians?
I'm unclear on the relevancy of your Korean extraction or what you believe I am supposing.
I'm kind of unclear on the relevancy of this whole subthread. Currently, China and other asian countries are doing what the US did in the 19th century: engaging in rapidly expanding economic activity around manufacturing, much of which plays fast and loose with IP laws and also disregards or abandons certain aesthetic, design, and otherwise traditional concerns. "Asian knockoff" is shorthand for countries playing the above economic role in the early 21st century. As far as I can tell, you're sniffing around motivated by the possibility of some kind of racially-based knee-jerk reaction to the term, in a way that reminds me of certain people who are motivated by racially based knee-jerks.
The relevancy is that the knock-offs aren't bad, considering the patent situation, and [geographic region] knock-off doesn't make sense to specify when the original is from that region and the competing products are largely not made by companies based in Asia (Nokia, Logitech, Livescribe, etc). Incidentally, the competing digitizers are quite the value if you can get over the extra battery weight in the pen. Which, again is a result of abiding by wacom's patent. In this case "Asian knockoff" is shorthand for you having no idea what you're talking about.
I have used wacom products for over 10 years, my first being a graphire2 and my most recent is the surface pro 2. The Microsoft default calibration is better than the halfassed 4 point calibration offered with the wacom feel drivers. The 273 point calibration to address the significant corner distortion requires dropping to command line and 15 minutes of tapping in hopes to get at all the tiny UI elements on the high res screen. Wacom is imperfect and competent competitors benefit us all. And they are competent.
You probably hear this frequently, but your ethnicity has nothing to do with this. If you actively declare your ethnicity while throwing around accusations of race-baiting whenever someone highlights your baseless brand affinity, I'd wager that you go through agonizing retail experiences.
Someone reading this who has a brain can easily figure out that you got it out in the first place. I was only talking about geographic and economic circumstances.
If you actively declare your ethnicity while throwing around accusations of race-baiting whenever someone highlights your baseless brand affinity,
Whatever. I was giving you a chance to "put the card back" but you blundered ahead anyhow. Anyone reading this thread can see you open up with the race-baiting question. Now you are upset because you were called out for it, and it's there to read.
Exercise: Where do you try to use set-like precision where it's not appropriate and wind up with racist pseudo logic, and what should one learn from that?
Also, if this is really about "brand loyalty" from the beginning, why does it take you so long in the thread to come out with brand-related evidence? Come on now.
Since you're interested in "anyone reading this thread" and you're doggedly attached to leaving the race card at play, logout and take a gander at the color of your replies. If anything, it's clear that "asian knock-off" is 6 additional keypresses to "knock-off", so the only shorthand opportunities I see is to indicate that you have no idea what you're talking about.
Set-precision is unnecessary when the core issue is with reading comprehension and ghost-chasing. You completely missed my point that knock-offs, Asian and otherwise aren't bad; this was in the original reply and subsequent replies. By brand related evidence do you mean my anecdotes about having used wacoms? I figured additional context would help since I had previous addressed the quality of competing products, which you decided to ignore in favor of declaring your ethnicity and assorted other warblgarbl.
I don't believe "anyone reading this thread" would find race-baiting in my questions: "who are the hackers?" and "which knock-off tablet and digitizers have you used?"
Do you really consider announcing your ethnicity as an argument of authority to legitimize your blanket use of "asian knock-off" as calling me out for a race-baiting question? ha.
What you're interpreting as being upset is responding to your nonsense with due diligence to clarify my points (a) the inexpensive knock-offs aren't bad (b) the knock-offs aren't all Asian (c) however, wacom products are indeed Asian.
And let's all just forget your bizarro use of the word hackers for wacom or Microsoft employees. Guess that's what's cool these days; inform recruiting!
It seems like Microsoft could really benefit from having conversations (or hiring) experts in the (ahem) "UI" design of aircraft. The ergonomics, feedback and force required for action on controls, button placement.... all the sorts of things a pilot has to do to interact with the machine are very well studied and, more importantly, quantified by excellent engineers. That engineering expertise could surely be translated to the physical interface of a tablet in a way that is much less possible or relevant for a keyboard and mouse interface.
There is a reason why Wacom dominated its niche for so long, even in the face of inexpensive asian knock-offs. (1) They had this stuff right. (2) Hackers who are perceptive enough that they don't underestimate the difficulty of getting this stuff right are a very small minority.