So you think the new panels are a warranty repair?

No, I'm pretty sure he said nothing of the sort. After reading this entire thread (love that email digest :), it seems to me that the positions can be summed up this way:

Empeg: We're getting new antireflective panels, which were not part of the original product design, and we're offering them at a highly subsidized price to early adopters because we're grateful for their early support of the product, and we realize that they may be having difficulties reading the Empeg display in very sunny areas of the world.

Dredd: It's not good enough to offer them at a highly subsidized price; they should be sent for free to anybody who is experiencing frequent problems reading their displays in sunlight, because not being able to read the display in sunlight is a defect in the product design.

Now, I live in _Southern_ California, and the sun here is even worse than the sun up in Northern California (where Dredd lives). Is my (blue) Mk 1 visible in sunlight? Indeed it is, though it takes a little bit of effort to read it. Is my (red) Mk 2 visible in sunlight? Not in the slightest, and unless you actually cast a shadow over it with your arm or something, you have no chance whatsoever of reading _any_ information off the screen (of course, my Mk 2 is red, and the red screen clearly contributes to the lack of visibility; but I think that if it had AR coating, it'd be a bit better). Am I going to demand that Empeg send me a free AR panel? No, I'm not - though I certainly wouldn't mind if they chose to do so - because I bought one of the first 50 players knowing that it had no AR panel, and that if an AR panel came out later I'd probably have to pay for it.

Empeg's customer service is, quite simply, the best I've ever encountered. I had a problem a number of weeks ago where I had to send back my Mk 2 for screen replacement; I sent it on a Friday (the Friday before Labor Day, as it happened), and got it back on the following Wednesday. That's less than a week, and I know that FedEx had quite a lot to do with it, but it still struck me as remarkable that I could send the player to England, from Southern California, and get it back in 5 days. I also am continually impressed with the responses I get when I send in bug reports, suggestions, and other such messages - usually, they're along the lines of either "we've got that planned for the next version" or "wow, that's a good idea, I'll implement it". Only 2 other software companies - Stalker Software, which makes the email server I use, and Cyrusoft, which makes the email client I use - are similarly responsive to their users, in my experience.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if the Empeg people decide that they will send free AR panels to those of us who live in regions where they're an absolute necessity, I'll be very happy. But if they decide that they can't send free AR panels for economic reasons, I'll respect that decision because I know, from more than a year of prior experience with them, that they're not being "cheap" or making the decision lightly. Moreover, I'll gladly pay for the AR panel. And it won't change my opinion of them, personally or professionally, in the slightest.





-----
Daniel M. Zimmerman
Mk.2 #060000058, 36GB, Red
Mk.1 #00101, 10GB, Blue