Mossberg Seduced -- Will He Be Abandoned?

David Card | June 13, 2006, 10:11 PM

I met the MusicGremlin guys a year ago or so, and was prepared to hate them. Founders from McKinsey (and involved in SDMI - run, run away as fast as you can). You know the type: Great SATS, never shipped a product. I was pleasantly surprised to find them not to be the total @ssholes I expected.

But my question then, and now, was: how do you find songs on a wireless download device? (I was also concerned that they were a "computerless computer company," a classic bad academic idea that was a fad, but failed oh, so many times -- no companies with real skin in the game. Purely a way to raise VC.)

Apparently Mossberg agrees with my prime concern:

To pick a song out of a list, you have to laboriously enter letters of the alphabet using the down arrow, and many functions require lots of arrow clicks and navigating fly-out submenus. Again, the company promises to improve some of this navigation.

Jeezum Crow, I can "promise to improve some of this navigation." This is the core freaking problem, Walt.

Yet he gives them -- for a non-Apple product -- a blow- very positive review. Pray tell, Walt, why on earth do you think normal human beings should be even remotely interested in this "product"? It's a concept, at best.