Like out of the blue I receive a friendly email from the Chinese COO himself, Ying Zheng, supposedly soliciting a response from me as to why I am hesitating to get on board and to order a Crystal. Just wow… I feel so special as he referred to me as a “Pimaxian”…yep, I hate being labelled in a presumed group although i know he was just trying to make a generic flattering association. Yes, I was an original Kickstarter supporter. Yes I currently own the 5K+ and 8Kx. I have to ask, are Pimax sales of their latest HMD so weak that they are now relying on a COO to directly involve himself in sales? A well written and articulate email true, that I admit caught me off guard as to it’s perceived direct sincerity…from senior Pimax Chinese management. Oh the irony of the many communications threads regarding language barriers. This email was succinct and well suited to “Western” eyes I can tell you.
I’m “flattered” and yet feel no urge or obligation to respond to this oddly timed (for me) email. I feel no impending need to respond knowing that I have firmly moved on from Pimax-jank and having a friggin brick on my head (with a wire attached to it). I refuse to also wait for their standalone mode to someday become available (and reliably working?) on the Crystal to sweeten the deal. Over the last 3 years I have enjoyed the wireless freedom (virtual desktop to pcvr) of a Quest2, and now, having owned the quest3 for a month…I know that wireless room-scale is as important as clarity in VR. The clarity of the Q3 pancake lenses at this price point are more than enough to have me forget/forgive a crazy-wide FOV, for now. So… 1500.00 US for the Crystal?..mmm no. I’ll hold out for a few years more and reap the benefits that development-time always has on the consumer side.
Got the same email. All he really needs to do is google Pimax Crystal (or any other hmd) reviews to see none of them is for everyone and they make videos about why:grinning:
Got a similar kind of thing a while back from their Global Marketing which at least falls within what would be their area,
Thing is a Chief Operations Officer would be better off speeding up in service OPERATIONS or the QA on the production line or such, than the emails in sales.
Yeah, got it too. It obviously is a marketing pitch. But I nevertheless responded with some observations on why I chose to not by the Crystal. They asked, I answered even if they in truth may not be interested in my answer…
The tone of the email is that their HMD solution is the best that VR can offer in todays market, so how could I possibly be hesitating to purchase? After all, I’m a “loyal pimaxian” so what could possibly be holding me back?
Huge Form factor
wired
battery issues
usual setup-jank in hardware/software
What appeals to me is the Big Screen Beyond model of design , pancake lenses, and cost. I’m quite impressed, for now, with the compromise of the Quest3 and it should carry me through a few years more. The passthrough, lense clarity, and quality of the standalone pcvr experience are liberating.
Not that uncommon to attempt to entice previous customers with a direct email.
Imagine I have one… The problem is pimax often imho borderline spams weak advertising. They really need to hire a professional marketing director.
As for COO? well I don’t think the titles mean much as they have many it seems and often with little to no real power that a COO would typically have. It was ashame Mozi left the company as an original core pimax team member(aka Bacon).
As much as Kevin & I have had our issues; from what I have seen often positive things he was pressing for were often ignored or given only a short time; showed promise and discontinued not long after. ie US support Center. And like me had been pressing them for actual release notes.
Just an angle to make it seem “special” but as the upper management has often changed it would maybe have some weight if it came from Robin or Nordic likely. A lor of the original core team has moved on.
I would wait for a v2. The pancake lenses used are not great compared to other pancake lenses being used.
And the limitations the Micro Oleds used…
Q3 does seem to be doing quite well and selling it at a loss makes it more affordable.
Pimax often fails at learning from feedback on design issues. Poor foam included. Still using the vp knockoff MAS design. And they must have had someone new without much vr xp come up using the elastic band for a top strap.
And of course the endless release of products without having features ready to use while previous updates implied it wss ready. And with the likelihood it might not work as advertised or scrapped entirely.
ie
8kX released with advertising 120hz upscaled mode. It only ever reached 114hz 6 months later
Sold pre orders for 2 types of controllers which changed several times and none of the 3 or 4 variation changes ever released. All we got was a vive wand in an index like form factor. Dead sense as hardware is said to be there but pimax does not have the confidence to get it working even at a basic level. And instead of fixing the reported defective trigger(reported by bets testers). They released it any way. (New Crystal Controllers are said to have dead sense as well)
This is why they have more new users then long time owners jumping a board… Ppl want vr to move forward and in some areas only pimax seems to be doing it. However pimax could be in trouble if others get their heads out of the sand.
Well.they are not alone on Formfactor. Arpara just failed to get things moving out of china and have other issues we will likely see cime up with bsb current model as they share a lot of hardware in common ie screens but might be one version higher that might support increased brightness.
Pancake lenses are good for formfactor but are not as good overal to Aspherical.
No were just not at odds and have found a balance. I have seen though he is not as active publically and even Marcin in his Portal sub seems less active.
At a guess their both tired and taking some kind of break. I was surprised Kevin was not present with the unveiling of the new attempt at a US support facility as he headed the first successful US support center.
Pimax of course shut it down after it was proving positive value with the ridiculous idea to pull support back to Chins and has been mostly a mess(Still only 4 CS ppl). Just like they killed Marcin & Armin’s Pimax Experience project after it was showing a lot of promise. To do their own which still never has happened.
The title of a COO seems to be quite popular within Pimax.
Btw, I haven seen any reaction towards my response yet. Not even a simple acknowledgement if receipt (which would be professional but I don‘t mind if it is missing as long as they get back to me in a manner showing they at least read my email somewhat).
Probably they only scan the responses for signs of an intent of purchase so they can follow up on.
The earlier email I got was from a person named Dragon iirc claiming to be Global Marketing Director was basically the same flavor of spam. It was worded in a manor that was more like “have you heard of Pimax?”… I suggested as COO he should know the source of the person he was contacting as it was obviously from Pimax’s records and as a KS backer the question’s answer should already be self-evident.
I did find the GMD introducing himself as Dragon rather amateuristic.
My name is Ying and I am the COO of Pimax. Nice to meet you!
I hope you are not too surprised to get an email from a member of the upper management at Pimax The reason I am writing to you today is because you are Pimaxian. And Pimax appreciates all of your support for Pimax always.
I am a very hands-on COO, so I truly want to understand how our prospective customers feel about our offers.
We believe that the Pimax Crystal is the best option now. With enough product goodness, best clarity VR , perfect Auto IPD /Eye tracking, Big FOV lens, free shipping, trade-in with 12K, 72Hz performance .etc. And especially we release the Pimaxian referral program to you. But we need to find out what YOU think!
So I am writing to you today to get into a conversation with you. What are your thoughts about the Pimax Crystal? What keeps you from buying it? What could we do to sweeten the deal?
Any feedback to Ying.zheng@pimax.com would just be highly appreciated! And yes, we understand, that making it cheaper would be the easiest way, but unfortunately for that part, we already have reached our best offer.
The reason I am writing to you today is because you are Pimaxian. And Pimax appreciates all of your support for Pimax always.