Although we pursued these questions for quite some time, hoping to be able to give our readers some reassurances, the only answer we got back came from Byron Connell, Founder and Senior Marketing VP of Tapwave:

We are a startup trying to push the boundaries, leverage the Palm OS in new and creative ways and establish a new category of products...this is no easy undertaking and this type of Q&A certainly does not help the cause.

Unfortunately, our questions proved prescient. Tapwave was plagued with reliability problems. Our own Senior Editor, James Booth, had to have his unit replaced five times before he finally got one that ran. He was fortunate, in that he was able to go to Tapwave's senior management for support.

Regular purchasers of this device were far less fortunate. We've had report after report of similar reliability problems. Those purchasers, though, were forced to speak with poorly trained support representatives, working outside the U.S., with an almost non-existent grasp of the English language.

Here's where Tapwave's woes began to catch up with them. First, they had a product priced at double their most obvious competitor: the PlayStation Portable. If they were selling the device as a gaming machine (and when it comes with an analog joystick, you know that's the intent), then there was no way they'd be able to hold their own against the assault that's Sony's marketing machine.

Then, they had poor quality control and even worse customer service. So while their product originally attracted a cult following, word of mouth served to drive buyers away, rather than toward the product.

This approach to customer support is symptomatic of a very 1990s style of technology business. During the so-called "boom years," we saw arrogant venture-funded company after arrogant venture-funded company, each of them collapsing once the cash ran out. Back in those heady times, customers didn't really matter. The suckers had cash and they'd buy the product anyway, whether or not there was good support.

But in a time when discretionary spending is up to the customers' discretion, and when spare cash is short enough that a real, considered decision must be made before spending half-a-grand on a gaming handheld, disregard of customers is a death sentence.

And that brings us back to the original question, "So, is Tapwave dead, or not?"

The reason we ask this question is that Tapwave's Web site is particularly unclear. If you go to their site, the following statement is displayed:

We are sorry to inform you that the Zodiac business was discontinued and service and support are no longer available as of July 25th 2005.

We thank you for your past interest and support and apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. If you have an outstanding claim with the company, Ueker and Associates will be contacting you shortly.

You'll notice that the company does not explicitly say that Tapwave is closed, but rather the "Zodiac business was discontinued." If this is the case and the company does continue to operate but is simply abandoning support for its customer base, we'd be very disturbed.