5 ms·

Solving the wrong problem. Moleskine is losing market share to companies like Leuchtterm because the quality of their products (especially the paper) has been i

by ajarmst 11y ago

Solving the wrong problem. Moleskine is losing market share to companies like Leuchtterm because the quality of their products (especially the paper) has been in steady decline. People who care about writing in journals care a lot. They buy bottles of imported fountain pen ink. They have long conversations about paper acidity and copperplate vs. roundhand. They will not buy your cludgy pen or limit themselves to an expensive journal that doesn't care about any of that. The "new feature" you're advertising is already available to anyone with a camera-equipped smartphone. Your only potential customers have already tried the dozens of cheap high-quality software solutions for digitizing, analyzing, cleaning up, and distributing photographs and other digital representations of what they write or draw in their own journals with their own pens. And they're definitely saavy enough not to tie themselves to an expensive low-quality replacement that'll be discontinued in two years when Moleskin decides they're going to try to compete in the presentation whiteboard space instead.

bane 11y ago
tbh, I went from using nice little notebooks like Moleskines and such to just using a decent notes app on my Galaxy Note 3. It's about the same height/width, thinner, can email me pdfs of all my notes once I'm done and oh, btw, I have it on me all the time anyway (and it happens to be a phone and can run apps and do other things). The only thing this shows me is that it makes me carry around another couple things (an expensive notebook and pen) and offers worse performance for the things I use the Note 3 for anyway.
rayiner 11y ago
The electronic pen solutions are all kludgy, but calling a smartphone a viable alternative is ridiculous. I might take a dozen pages of notes in a sitting; I'm not going to sit there and use a finicky smartphone camera to take a picture of each page one at a time. Also, the camera method loses important about strokes. Livescribe, Moleskin, and Wacom all use that information to improve handwriting recognition.
- ajarmst 11y ago
  I should have been more clear: I call it a viable alternative because the workflow and quality is certainly no worse, and it is far less expensive. I agree that it's not ideal, and I only use it perhaps a dozen times a year. When I need a good digital format I do what everyone else does: use a computer or tablet. 95-99% of the stuff in my journal is already in its appropriate target medium: my journal. That's why it's in my journal.
keithpeter 11y ago
I tend not to digitise other than scanning the occasional opening for future reference and I agree with the sentiments expressed in the parent post. However I must disagree about specific brands... "Moleskine is losing market share to companies like Leuchtterm because the quality of their products (especially the paper) has been in steady decline." UK: Leuchtterm notebooks cost an arm and a leg here as do Rhodia. Generic A5 sketch books in arts supply shops cost around £5 for 80 sheets of acid free 100 g/m^2 paper signature bound in boards or £2 for stapled 20 sheet booklets with cardboard covers. Not as trendy as Moleskines but very serviceable and pen-proof - you can even paint in them (by design).
- ajarmst 11y ago
  Yep. I don't need rules or grids for a lot of tasks, so I often just buy bound sketchbooks. But I was talking about market-share, and a significant chunk of the share Moleskine has been losing are the former "vrai moleskine" customers who care not only about actual quality but conspicuous consumption.
rlonstein 11y ago
> Moleskine is losing market share to companies like Leuchtterm because the quality of their products (especially the paper) has been in steady decline. Truly. I can't wait until I fill up my last of two moleskine notebooks that were given to me a few years ago. The paper is barely better than Mead or Staples-brand writing pads though the binding and covers look nice. Leuchtterm, Rhodia, and even Black and Red are all better paper and have more durable bindings.
- teh_klev 11y ago
  Back n' Red's are my go to note taking pads (specifically the hard back spiral bound A4 books [0]). These work really well with my cheapo Parker Vector fountain pen [1] which I bought to replace my (sadly lost) Waterman Carene :( [0]: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000N3WR96 http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000N3WR96 [1]: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000RGHIVQ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000RGHIVQ
dpfu 11y ago
Just a small nitpick, it's called 'Leuchtturm' (lighthouse), 'turm' beeing 'tower' in German. Their solution for digitizing notes is called "whitelines" [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXiZgVaRkSM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXiZgVaRkSM
- ajarmst 11y ago
  Edited. Thanks. I want points for remembering the two 't's though.
  - dpfu 11y ago
    Just remember "leucht-turm" as "lighT-Tower".
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
ajarmst 11y ago
Too late to edit. Note that I misspelled <Long German (Dutch?) Word>. 'Leuchtturm'. I think.

by ajarmst 11y ago

bane 11y ago

tbh, I went from using nice little notebooks like Moleskines and such to just using a decent notes app on my Galaxy Note 3. It's about the same height/width, thinner, can email me pdfs of all my notes once I'm done and oh, btw, I have it on me all the time anyway (and it happens to be a phone and can run apps and do other things). The only thing this shows me is that it makes me carry around another couple things (an expensive notebook and pen) and offers worse performance for the things I use the Note 3 for anyway.

rayiner 11y ago

The electronic pen solutions are all kludgy, but calling a smartphone a viable alternative is ridiculous. I might take a dozen pages of notes in a sitting; I'm not going to sit there and use a finicky smartphone camera to take a picture of each page one at a time. Also, the camera method loses important about strokes. Livescribe, Moleskin, and Wacom all use that information to improve handwriting recognition.

ajarmst 11y ago
I should have been more clear: I call it a viable alternative because the workflow and quality is certainly no worse, and it is far less expensive. I agree that it's not ideal, and I only use it perhaps a dozen times a year. When I need a good digital format I do what everyone else does: use a computer or tablet. 95-99% of the stuff in my journal is already in its appropriate target medium: my journal. That's why it's in my journal.

keithpeter 11y ago

I tend not to digitise other than scanning the occasional opening for future reference and I agree with the sentiments expressed in the parent post. However I must disagree about specific brands... "Moleskine is losing market share to companies like Leuchtterm because the quality of their products (especially the paper) has been in steady decline." UK: Leuchtterm notebooks cost an arm and a leg here as do Rhodia. Generic A5 sketch books in arts supply shops cost around £5 for 80 sheets of acid free 100 g/m^2 paper signature bound in boards or £2 for stapled 20 sheet booklets with cardboard covers. Not as trendy as Moleskines but very serviceable and pen-proof - you can even paint in them (by design).

ajarmst 11y ago
Yep. I don't need rules or grids for a lot of tasks, so I often just buy bound sketchbooks. But I was talking about market-share, and a significant chunk of the share Moleskine has been losing are the former "vrai moleskine" customers who care not only about actual quality but conspicuous consumption.

rlonstein 11y ago

> Moleskine is losing market share to companies like Leuchtterm because the quality of their products (especially the paper) has been in steady decline. Truly. I can't wait until I fill up my last of two moleskine notebooks that were given to me a few years ago. The paper is barely better than Mead or Staples-brand writing pads though the binding and covers look nice. Leuchtterm, Rhodia, and even Black and Red are all better paper and have more durable bindings.

teh_klev 11y ago
Back n' Red's are my go to note taking pads (specifically the hard back spiral bound A4 books [0]). These work really well with my cheapo Parker Vector fountain pen [1] which I bought to replace my (sadly lost) Waterman Carene :( [0]: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000N3WR96 http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000N3WR96 [1]: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000RGHIVQ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000RGHIVQ

dpfu 11y ago

Just a small nitpick, it's called 'Leuchtturm' (lighthouse), 'turm' beeing 'tower' in German. Their solution for digitizing notes is called "whitelines" [1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXiZgVaRkSM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXiZgVaRkSM

ajarmst 11y ago
Edited. Thanks. I want points for remembering the two 't's though.
- dpfu 11y ago
  Just remember "leucht-turm" as "lighT-Tower".

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

ajarmst 11y ago

Too late to edit. Note that I misspelled <Long German (Dutch?) Word>. 'Leuchtturm'. I think.