I'm a bit surprised that my comment was so misunderstood and that the point seemed to be missed completely (based on the responses).
I'll try to clarify my comments. First, I want to note that I did not make any comments about (and did not mean to imply anything about) the quality of the Little Reader Touch app or the quality of the v2 curriculum, both of which are irrelevant to the point I was trying to make.
Although Little Reader Touch is sold as an "add-on" to Little Reader, some of your customers are evaluating it as a possible primary mode of using Little Reader because Little Reader is not available on the Mac and that customer lives in a household without a PC. For such customers, they want to know what the differences are between Little Reader and Little Reader Touch so that they can better evaluate their options, which are to either buy a PC, install Windows on their Mac, or use Little Reader Touch. The materials on the BrillKids webpages and the answers given by moderators in the forums never mention that the English curriculum is slightly different between the PC platform and the iPad platform, until someone asks why they cannot get the features of the v3 curriculum on the iPad. I was trying to suggest that it would be nice if BrillKids would disclose upfront the differences so that potential customers can take those differences into consideration when making their choice of platform. Someone new to BrillKids would not know that there has been multiple versions of the English curriculum, so they wouldn't know to ask which version is available on which platform. For many customers the additional features of the PC version (such as the ability to make your own lessons) are not that important. The ability to download new lessons may be important, but the marketing message on this is unclear...it sounds like from the forum that Little Reader Touch cannot do this, but the marketing on the website seems to imply that it can.
I was concerned that BrillKids would not take my request seriously and would instead have an attitude like
Yes I also don't see the big deal. It is a $20 app.
That's why I mentioned my iPad purchase, so that I could illustrate that the availability of Little Reader Touch may be used to justify an associated multi-hundred dollar purchase, which is a big deal in many households.
To help others understand the situation better, imagine that you made an online internet purchase for an item that did not specify a model/version number (maybe a new car or computer or some other educational program) and was sent the old version of the product instead of the newest version that is advertised on the manufacturer's website. How would you feel? Imagine further that the response from the seller was "lots of people purchased that version of the product and it works just fine." How would you feel?
The point is that consumers want to know what they are purchasing in advance of their purchase, not after. Some consumers may feel that an older version will suit their purpose just fine, while others may only want the newest version. But, that decision should be left to the consumer, I think.
With regards to the trial version of Little Reader Touch, the marketing for this could be made clearer as well. Although the app is a "free download", there is never any mention that a trial curriculum is included with the app. The impression is that one much purchase everything before the app will be of any use. Is it possible to try out Little Reader Touch with the trial curriculum without having purchased Little Reader PC? If so, this should be more widely advertised on the website and in moderator responses to forum questions as it could be helpful in households that do not have access to a PC. In addition, it's difficult to try out Little Reader Touch without an iOS device. Regardless, one should not have to try out the app and the PC version in order to find out that the English curriculum is different between the two.
It's good to hear that some households are using both the PC and the Touch version where the PC is the main lesson venue and the Touch is used for reviews. I can see that being of value in the future, but not right now for us, as I can barely manage two sessions a day and we always do them at home (are almost never out). It is not clear to me why I should split my current efforts over the two devices (especially since the journal of what lessons have been done isn't sync'd automatically between the two and the word lists for each day are slightly different between the two as well). My hope had been that I would use Little Reader only on the iPad. Instead, I now run Little Reader through VMWare Fusion on the Mac because I would like to use the v3 curriculum. Again, this is simply a consumer preference, not any comment about the quality of the v2 curriculum or the iPad app.
And, yes, the iPad can be used for other things. At not yet 8 months old, I don't really want to be throwing various apps at the child quite yet. The only computer/TV screen time we are doing is with the BrillKids software right now. It if weren't for the availability of Little Reader Touch, I would have postponed the purchase until the summer time, when I think the iPad would be of more use and there would likely be another version of the iPad then. However, given that I have it now, I am open to suggestions of "must-do" apps for children in this age range. Feel free to add your recommendations in the following thread:
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/%27must-do%27-ipadiphone-app-recommendations-for-6-9-month-olds/Anyways, I hope my comments are more clear this time around.
Digg
