Why is IB still marketing the mobile suite? What should it be doing?

[hqarrse]

Edit: everything working for me now with 1.1.3 (11/2/12) apart from a message oddity and the apps are excellent. The mobile style problem was sorted a few weeks ago. The post is therefore obsolete, although I still think was valid at the time posted. If anyone reading is thinking of buying the suite, I would now recommend it. A bargain.

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I was surprised to see the mobile suite still has pride of place on the front of vbulletin.com even though neither the mobile style nor the android app work well on vbulletin.com. They are in fact borderline unusable. This seems like a major own-goal and in no-one's interests.

So why is IB still selling it? Each suite sale must inevitably reflect extremely badly on IB and VB. Surely IB would be better ensuring a good reputation than securing an arguably illegitimate $200?

Most people on here accept that software is complex stuff and things can at times go badly wrong, but when they do the same people expect the problems to be handled in a reasonable way. In my opinion IB should take the following action:

- remove the marketing for the mobile suite
- put a freeze on mobile subscriptions
- send an apology email to customers and a promise of regular updates on progress

Heh presto, troubled waters calmed, fewer support requests, a big reduction in complaint threads (these simply cannot be good for business) and a reduced number of customers giving thoughtful looks at IPB powered sites.

[Mitzy]

Sound advice.

[lgpaul]

subscribe to that...

[Alfa1]

I wonder if reputation is of importance for a company that gets its income from sites that are competing with vbulletin customers.

[Reeve of Shinra]

It's all part of the EXTREME! marketing transformation

Good point though..

[Loco.M]

God the attachment configuration here is a dinosaur...

[Huskermax]

Sure the amout of app crashes are frustrating. Big time when my users pay to post on my board (app is free). Still if people don't use the app we won't know what is wrong with it. I have worked as a computer software tester. All I did was sit in front of a computer and play with the software (very boring but paid well). As I and the other testers found bugs they were fixed and new versions of the software were released. It is impossible to find all bugs before a release.

Sure to keep people happy maybe vBulletin can give all current mobile suite license a free year or something but then you loose a lot of $$$ to pay the people to fix the apps. Don't have an answer but I have been patient and have found that in the long run Vbulletin has got things fixed. Sure, there are still issues I have related over all with the company but name me one company that does everything right everytime.....

[Wayne Luke]

They are working on it. We have a new project manager for the Mobile Suite as well as developers hired to work on the issues. If I had more news for you, then I would give it. Hopefully there will be a more formal announcement soon so you know exactly where we stand. Unfortunately, I don't have a specific timeline for either an update or an announcement.

[hqarrse]

Sure the amout of app crashes are frustrating.

My point is really about the continued sale of a severely defective product rather than the fact that there are problems.

In this case though there's an app that regularly crashes (as well as minor stuff like PMs not working) and a mobile style that is unusable. If you already use the app and have had good service from it, and some happy users who will suffer it that's kind of OK - we all accept that software breaks. What is astounding though is that you can still buy this as a suite of 3 products of which two simply don't work to a production standard.

VBulletin are continuing to sell a product to people who cannot even start using it, but have to wait on the very vague 'we're working on it'.

As for the license suggestion - you're right it's minor, but taking $200 from someone for a product that you know doesn't work and that they won't be able to start using (except the iphone app?) is very very poor practice. Actually it's very close to a straight rip-off, even though that is clearly not the intention.

All VB need to do is take the app off sale for a while and send out a few apologies to those, like me, who bought a product that they cannot use.

[punchbowl]

They aren't going to stop selling something that people are willing to buy.

[Mitzy]

Where is the marketing man these days?

[hqarrse]

They aren't going to stop selling something that people are willing to buy.

Perhaps and actually not selling it at all is a step to far. VBulletin should though be warning customers that only the iphone app is currently working to a reasonable standard. Most people would still buy it and then there would be gripes only and not outrage at being ripped off.

[MikesSite]

Why wouldn't they market it? It's their product and they need to sell it.

[Alfa1]

Smart Phones. By the year 2014, mobile phones are predicted to overtake computers as the #1 form of internet access. Simply put, any forum community that does not have a mobile strategy is already behind. Tools like the vBulletin Mobile Suite help community owners to expand the reach of their forums into the mobile internet universe that people across nearly all demographic groups are accessing more and more as a part of their daily routines.

The email is pretty ridiculous coming from a company that offers bad mobile apps and thereby being "already behind".

[acwatts]

I keep getting emails about Jara updates that say fixed in 1.1.5 so some thing is happening.