With the latest developments, Rove Mobile seems to be getting lots of negative attention and I agree with it. First they got rid of their freeware stuff, their screen capture software and the file manager (which became freeware several months ago). The only way to get them is if you have a purchased product from them.
Then they got rid of Mobile SSH and Mobile Desktop products, integrating both into ridiculously priced ($595 plus 18% enforced maintenance fee/yr, total of $681) Mobile Admin. Many applications I have used includes the at least the first year of upgrades free of charge. Rove Mobile decided to charge extra (possibly a marketing trick to allure you to buy, but this is nothing new, it is an ongoing practice since their Idokorro days).
MobileSSH and Mobile Desktop products were priced extremely high as well, $99 each. At least then you had an option, you didn’t have to buy a function packed solution to get what you needed, plus they were quick to start and connect. Now that they are integrated into Mobile Admin, you have to go several more steps before you even get a chance to connect, so it feels like Rove Mobile is trying to rip customers even more. This is especially true, considering their original price in 2006 was $245 and then in 2007 it went to $495 and now $595. The rival Shape Services TSMobiles RDP client costs only $34.95, no maintenance fees, unlimited upgrades. Similarly their VNC+ is only $19.95 (Mobile Desktop supports both RDP and VNC, but still $64.90 is a lot cheaper, considering you don’t pay any yearly maintenance fees). For SSH, unfortunately MobileSSH is the best I have used, the freeware MidpSSH comes nowhere near.
I have used their upgraded Mobile Admin server and client, and to my surprise Vista and Windows 20008 is not supported (kudos goes to their QA department ;))
Considering Mobile Desktop development has stopped, even if you have a maintenance agreement, you will not be able to connect to Vista and Windows 2008, God knows when this will be supported. The weird thing is Vista has been out for sometime, so why it is not supported by Mobile Desktop (or Mobile Admin) is a mystery (TSmobiles supports it fine)
I think the main issue is that they are focusing more on the Enterprise Market, and us end users or SMBs are getting screwed, but wait it does not end there. With what seems to be a company re-structure or at least a corporate clean-up, the resellers are to getting a hammering from them. What’s been experienced is that those resellers that have had good turnovers with the products in their respective regions globally have been given preferential treatment and allowed to hold onto there Reseller Agreement from when it was Idokorro. Here is the screw over, those that have a slower market to contend with and have not had that turnover like the other resellers have simply been told you have to re-apply for your Reseller Agreement and here are the options. Their high-end reseller option has full support and maintenance, higher kickbacks on sales with them but there you have to pay them $10,000…yes…$10,000. The second and third tier options are not much to write home about, limited support, lower to no kickbacks. Rove get with the program, most vendors who break out of their own countries borders have varying options to cater for the multitude of markets out there. Lastly stop messing around with the Customer Portal, when customers cannot access this to attain and update devices and licensing, they scream blue murder.
So what have your experiences with Rove Mobile been? Please share your thoughts…
(Special thanks goes to Gareth, who shared his experiences related to Rove Mobile, especially Resellers portion)
Sems ( View Profile) - Posts: