Toshiba seems like a good test case for “Cluetrain” scrutiny; a lesson on “what NOT to do”.

It is obvious to anybody who can use “Google” to look up PDA topics and “Toshiba e740” that Toshiba blew it on this one. I have one, and have been having fun with it, but I see frustration ahead in the continuing insensitivity Toshiba exhibits toward this issue of Windows Mobile 2003 upgrades.

Toshiba is clueless on the Customer support front, particularly in this “Weblog era” when all one can find about the Toshiba e740 is how cheated people feel, and how they will never buy another Toshiba product. Clueless attitude number 2: they think that by just not covering the issue at all on their site, they will escape the problem, or that keeping the issue away will enable them to do absolutely nothing. Guess what, Toshiba? Nobody is fooled.

I have little doubt that as soon as the economic situation in this household is on the mend, and as development in Web and tech things begin to spawn new developments and new projects (and with them, additional compensation), then my Toshiba will become a hand-me-down, outdated, and a reminder to steer clear. I wonder if all of the stories like this will ever reach their awareness (“awareness” as in “Clued in” awareness that results in reform and a recognition that they will pay dearly in the pocketbook when they stiff a crowd who is a prime target market for “Connected lifestyle” — ie. People who bought one of the earliest WiFi enabled PocketPCs — and a crowd who will not hesitate to “spread the word”.

Nowhere in all the Google searches is there any response from Toshiba other than the quotations of the response from Toshiba that basically said “No”. Even if there are legitimate technical reasons (Toshiba’s response makes this seem less plausible), there should be, at minimum, some attempt to “incentive” the e740 owners to upgrade. Toshiba apparently thinks this will just go away. Anyway, I gotta go. Just my two cents. I’ll still look around for some possibility of a solution — maybe somebody will “hack out” something. Then again, maybe the ones with such “hack skills” already use something else.