Dear Dr. Inventor,
You do have an interesting concept, and we might be interested in working with you. Keep in mind, however, that I have literally seen 20 innovative hardware input mechanisms invented; most of which have not made it to market.
Indeed, the only one not invented by the manufacturer that I know of is Fastap, a company who started business development for this in 1999. In fact, it was the inventor trying to sell the idea to Sprint’s Usability group, of which I was a member, that introduced it to me. From 1999 to 2008, 10 years, Fastap has only launched on a small number of phones for small operators. LG, for example, has two Telus Mobility Fastap devices.
Why is this? Because the manufacturers will not spend the money on it unless they know they can sell it to the operators. The operators will not buy it if it costs them money, even if it will make them money. And it is very easy for them to justify why your product is not actually as good as you say it is, no matter how good it is.
If it costs more than about 1USD per unit, you have a probable failure. More than about 4USD, and you have a certain failure.
Many alternative keyboard manufacturers, such as FrogPad and Keynetik, are going after smaller markets such as military or industrial workers. You might find some traction there, for much less money. But of course you will not get the GreatNewKeyboard on every phone that way. And you will need to work with someone in business development who knows those markets.
So before investing our time in your product, we would need to know that you had assembled the capital and business development expertise to move forward. You probably need more than two million dollars: some for re-design, some for responding to operators’ requests that will take you nowhere, some to keep you fed, some to do usability tests, some to make prototype units, but most to sustain a business development effort that will leave everybody exhausted.
If you find this money and the right business development team, do come back to us. We can definitely help. But our help would be wasting your money right now.
Sincerely,
Barbara Ballard
President
Little Springs Design
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