Respect The Power of the Early Adopter

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance is here at WinHEC, touting its upcoming '200 Mbps' HomePlug AV technology. Technology developer Intellon's latest news release trumpets HomePlug AV's compatibility with the Rally network management technologies built into the upcoming Vista O/S. And Intellon is still promising me HomePlug AV samples for testing 'soon'….then again they said the same thing back in early March.

But in this rush to get the next-generation technology to market, the HomePlug implementers seem to be forgetting about the need to establish a solid foundation using their current-generation technology. Last fall, I reported my underwhelming experiences trying to get, and keep, HomePlug 1.0 Turbo adapters running in my home office network. In spite of repeated requests for on-site assistance to resolve my issues, which I'd then be happy to then communicate to you all, there's been no solid interest shown….even though Intellon's San Jose office is less than a 2 hour one-way drive from Sacramento (with Sierra skiing only about an hour further down the highway).

In early February, I alerted you to equally underwhelming HomePlug 1.0 Turbo results obtained by the review team at Tom's Hardware. And now, Maximum PC chimes in with more gloomy HomePlug 1.0 Turbo conclusions. Their experiences echo both mine and those of Tom's Networking; slower-than-promised bandwidth and inconsistent connectivity, even with adapters on the same circuit and in close proximity, along with an inability to pass common packet types such as UPnP discovery and communication data. How many data points does it take before you can draw a fairly accurate conclusion line?

In striving for the finish-line prize of high-volume market success, technology companies ignore the early-adopter customers that got them off the starting line at their peril; analogies to my coverage earlier this week on whether or not piracy-paranoid movie content owners should downscale video sent to early-adopters' (such as myself) expensive displays with only analog inputs, or whose digital inputs aren't DRM-inclusive, are apt. These early adopters tend to be technically astute, and can provide valuable feedback that a company can 'bake' into subsequent revs of hardware, software and documentation.

They also tend to be strong advocates to, and purchase influencers of, a wide swath of friends and family members. But this advocation, as the HomePlug Powerline Alliance is in danger of finding out, is a two-sided coin. Do right with an early adopter, and you're likely to reach the finish line in solid shape. Discard your early adopters along the side of the road, on the other hand, and you'll crash and burn before you reach your goal.

Followup: Ironically, last night Slashdot hosted a discussion thread on the topic 'Do You Still Find Amateur Radio Interesting?'….amateur radio, of course, being the stalwart communications technology that's impaired by the radiated RFI of powerline networking in the absence of precise notch filtering.