A story of business change gone wrong:
I’ve recently started using a Google/Verizon Droid SmartPhone. Running the Google Android operating system, it is one slick toy, and having waited as long as I could to make the jump I believe I’ve made the right choice.
Part of getting the device to work the way I need it to has involved finding the right software to install on it. One of my needs is a password manager, and for me SplashID from SplashData is the best choice out there. I’ve used it for almost ten years, first on a Palm Pilot, and then on a WindowsMobile PDA. So I was really happy to find it available on Android.
The software consists of both a phone-based component and software you run on your computer, and under both Palm and WindowsMobile they spoke to each other automatically; any changes you made on one appeared on the other almost by magic. And to their credit, the folks at SplashData didn’t make me pay for a new version of the desktop software. I only had to spend $9.95 on the Android software.
And now, the story gets very, very bad.
With Android, the synchronization process doesn’t happen over a wire as it did with the other versions. Sounds great. But then it turns out that I have to use Wi-Fi instead of the phone network to make the two pieces of software talk to each other. It’s a bit annoying and could have been avoided, but I can live with this requirement. Wait . . . and I have to have both pieces of software connected to the same Wi-Fi network to make them sync. And it’s a manual process, not automatic as in the other versions. And I can only initiate the process from the Android side, but it won’t work unless the software is also active on the computer. Oh, and one more problem: I have to know and type the IP address of the computer into my Droid for the two devices to talk.
If you don’t quite understand the issues I’ve just listed, or how easy it would have been to address them, that’s OK. The point is that Splashdata has taken a great piece of software and turned it into something I wish I hadn’t bought from them for a third time.
So strike that “great customer service” comment, because just being nice isn’t good enough. They’ve chased off a loyal customer. Oh, and by the way, I pointed out the issues I had experienced to them and their response was basically “yeah, software development is hard”.
Business change is a complicated thing; had Splashdata come to The Answer Guy, we would have steered them through this before it became a mess. Instead, they’ve ruined their software, and alienated a loyal customer who regularly sold their software for them.
So file it under “don’t let this happen to you”.
UPDATE 4 June 2010 : OK . . . so . . . SplashData has just upgraded The SplashID software to a 5.x version that “Works with Android”. Stay tuned . . .
Update #2 for 4 June 2010: The folks at SplashData sent me a key to upgrade to Version 5 desktop. I’ve done it. Here’s what I’ve found.
UPDATE, August 2013: And now, with the newly-released SplashID 7 becoming a “you will pay us an annual fee or you can’t sync your SmartPhone with your desktop and there’s no ‘Option B’ tool”, they’ve lost me forever.
Similar experience. Very frustrating. I have spent an ungodly amount of hours to upgrade my very old version 2.56 (which served me great for the past 5 years) to 3.32 (figuring out I had to do this was a long process) then exporting the ViD file. Then getting a registration number for the new desktop version, installing that, importing the ViD file (Alleluha it did show up) Ack, I still can’t get the data on my handset, at least not where I am, in my office. Why? I don’t have a secure WIFI in my office. Surely I can still beat this problem. Export the file to a new back up ViD, mount the Droid for file transfer, transfer the file to the SD card, then I’ll be able to restore it or import it or sync it… Nope. I now have the ViD on my SD card, but the restore function on the handset does not recognize it. When I restore just restores the dumb demo database, no choice to select what ViD to restore. Hmm, how ’bout I check out what that demo file is named on the drive and rename my ViD by it’s name? Nope, can’t see that file. How bout save the ViD as the default name for back up Vid files, surely that’ll work… Nope. Oh well, when I get home I can tackle configuing my handset to get on the wifi so that I can finally sync this thing. OMFingG this is friggin redigulous!
Thanks, Charles. It’s frightening how badly SplashData has handled this. And I accept that developing software is harder in a world with so many choices to be contended with as opposed to the “sync over the attached wire” model that was in place when they started out. But please . . . everything about this is a mess, and now a couple weeks later having used it in the real world and become no less frustrated I’m just about ready to drop SplashID altogether and go with a web-based solution a la Roboforms.
A real shame.
I’m having the same issue running Mac OS Snow Leopard and Moto Droid.
It recognized it and synced, but no data showed up on the Droid.
I’ve had Splash since the early Palm days and I was also disappointed that I couldn’t upgrade but had to pay the whole $30 to get SplashID on desktop and device. Checked all settings, etc. I don’t run Bonjour.
I trust Splash will fix this. Would someone please post this on the Splash Forum so they know it is also a Mac issue. I don’t want to create another password unless I can carry it around with me!
Same problem here. Motorola Droid. Win XP (have win 7 computer too but need to copy data from Turbopasswords into Splashid for Android. Turbopasswords not run on windows 7 64-bit software). I was finally able to sycn by using the Linksys IP address for my wired Win XP computer. “Syncing is in progress” notice comes up and within a second or two, the notice “Sync operation completed” pops up. So it worked, right? No data on the Droid phone! I agree with Jeff Yablon’s post. Good business model gone bad. If anyone knows of any other password managers that work on the Android system, please post it! Thanks!!
SplashID is a big disappointment on my Motorola Droid. I was a long-time Palm user of SplashID. It just doesn’t seem to be ready for prime time on Android. It seems the developer is not responding, etc.
The U/I on Android is pretty terrible. 2 examples: On Palm I was able to default to the number screen when entering my PIN. Android, I must click on the password line to move to numbers. On Palm, it was possible to unmask password entry. Android, I must do several clicks to see password.
I haven’t even attempted to install the desktop, because of the horror stories I’ve read. I have Windows 7 64-bit
Hi Eileen. Thanks for the post, and also for telling the folks in Android Forum about this.
It’s a huge pity about SplashID for Android, isn’t it? Every time I update it (oops! I have to remember to do that) it ticks me off. And while I don’t actually plug my Droid into the computer all that often I would be happy to tether it to charge there instead of a wall outlet and WOW! . . . also get my data synced. But did the SplashData people bother to give SplashID that ability? No, they did not.
Now to be fair: Android requires that you mount your device in order for it to be part of your computer. But as that doesn’t require any password-y kind of thing, SplashID could have worked as expected if they just took a little more time.
I’m blown away that SplashData is doing well enough to be buying other software companies, as they did with Iambic just a couple of weeks ago. But here we are.
Wow. Christina. I have to agree with Paolo. When are we gonna see the new version you promised back in February?
UPDATE 4 June 2010 : OK . . . so . . . SplashData has just upgraded their software to a 5.x version that “Works with Android”. Stay tuned . . .
Update #2 for 4 June 2010: The folks at SplashData sent me a key to upgrade to Version 5 desktop. I’ve done it. Here’s what I’ve found.
Hi The Answer Guy ( Jeff Yablon ),
SplashID version 4 had a few issues with the sync module, as its a manual setup, where you had to enter the IP address manually. I will not argue with that. But almost all of our customers have been able to sync (some after a few steps of troubleshooting with us).Its best to contact us directly for support. The forums are regulated, however, not as much as we would like to.
SplashID 5 is coming out soon, and the sync is automatic, just like as on iPhone. So the sync issues should disappear!!!
Christina, I’m truly glad to hear that, and I look forward to being able to say nice things about SplashData and SplashID, once again.
I also am one of those SplashID users from Palm, to WM to Blackberry to IPOD Touch and now to the Droid. I was so happy to find the SplashID app on the Market yesterday. I, like many others, did not read all the “problems” before I purchased it again. Last night I went to “update” my droid with all my info, and no dice>>>>>> Can’t wait for 5 so I can get my info into the “currently” useless program.
Thanks, Michelle. As you can see from the previous comment from SplashData, they do believe they have SplashID’s Android issues addressed in v5. I’ll believe it when I see it!
Two months later and still no sign of this wonderful new version 5 of SplashID Android, which will solve all reported bugs (and probably end world famine as well)!
Call me cynical, but if the version really was ready and solved the bugs it would have been on the market already. Note that many developers on the market constantly update their apps fixing bugs reported by users, even for the unpaid apps. For the price of the SplashID app and desktop, this is definitely not a professional behavior.
Christina, with all due respect, stop with the empty marketing promises unless you have a real release date (“soon” means nothing), or better, something material (put the update on the market now).
A disappointed long time SplashID user on Palm.
I’ve been playing with B-Folders for a while and yesterday I got an update allowing to import from SplashID. And guess what – it worked. It imported all my 200+ records in different folders. That’s it – good bye SplashID!
Yeah. It makes me sad. SplashID has gone from the best to . . . well, to something else. It’s . . . well like I said, it makes me sad.