Ask HN: Value proposition of a combo plan of online whiteboard with stylus

[teda]

I'm doing some product research for an idea of an online whiteboard.

From what I've learned so far from talking to devs and other technical people is that using a mouse or touch is really undesirable. It's just not close enough to the physical experience of using a real marker and physical whiteboard to feel productive and effective.

There are some high end solutions out there like digital drawing tablets, but I'm thinking about a solution for people not willing to go that route because their usage does not warrant the cost.

The solution I'm thinking of involves a plan where you pay for an initial short term plan that gives you an excellent online whiteboard application AND throws in a stylus as part of it. That way you get as close to the experience of actually writing on a physical whiteboard.

Once the initial plan is up, you keep the stylus, and you can choose to keep using the application with less features without charge, or else, pay for a cheaper subscription for a fuller feature set.

Would that be something of interest to you tablet owners out there? I'd appreciate to hear your thoughts.

PS - It's also worth mentioning that there is software out there like Inklet, that can turn your mac trackpad into a pen tablet, so you could conceivably also use the application with the stylus on your laptop.

[cpncrunch]

So are you looking to do this on a tablet or a laptop?

Have you already developed the online whiteboard software?

[teda → cpncrunch]

Thanks for the reply.

The software is not developed yet.

I'm in exploration phase, looking for a unique value proposition that would distinguish this from all the others out there.

If I can't find that unique value proposition, the idea is not worth pursuing any further.

From doing interviews and surveys, the point that keeps coming up is that people prefer to use a stylus. It makes total sense, it much closer to the actual experience.

Given that, making it an app for tablets first seems like a good bet, with web being second.

The main thing is this, there are tons of apps and web solutions out there already, some of which are already pretty good in terms of features and drawing quality. None of them have any kind of plan that throws in a stylus.

Would offering a stylus with the software be enough of a unique value proposition? My thinking at this time is that it might be, if the pricing was appealing enough to the customer, and the margins reasonable enough for the business.

Curious to hear your opinion.

[cpncrunch → teda]

>The software is not developed yet.

I actually develop an online whiteboard, so if you are interested in licensing it let me know (send an email to the email address in my profile). You can easily run it on your own server, customize it, etc. It's incredibly stable, and is used by a large number of online tutoring companies.

>Would offering a stylus with the software be enough of a unique value proposition?

You really do need some kind of graphics tablet/stylus if you want to do decent freehand drawing. A lot of my customers use Wacom tablets, and they work very well. It's certainly an interesting idea to bundle them together...that isn't something that I've tried.