Stop telling me about the device, give it to me!
By Ben Robinson on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 4:51 PM PST In Devices, Ideas and rants
The X1 took a little while to come to market... but it was good when it got here!
Mobile Choice has an interesting blog piece about how long people have to wait after handsets are announced, to actually get them! And I say fairplay, they have a point!
In the blog, it’s noted that recent culprits have been the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N96, and Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) Xperia X1, both of which took a good half-year after announcement to make it to sale. But I can think of a number of devices that have been announced with almost hysteria, to then see it’s taken a vendor up to 9 months to get the thing out!
And therein is the eternal worry of the vendor’s PR company – when to put the info out? Want to be ahead of the curve of course, especially if there is new feature or spec that can be played upon. Don’t want to leave it too late, or another vendor might match (or even worse trump) that feature/spec with one of their own! But also need to consider that making a consumer wait 6+ months might mean they go for something else…. hmm how to solve?
Well could I suggest possibly something toward Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s strategy of keeping schtum until you have something that you can sell shortly after! OK Apple is legendary at this, but one thing you’ll notice is that after announcing something, they can usually ship it a few days later – I find that amazing!
Maybe other vendors have to look at getting devices to a point where they can accurately predict it’s ready-date, before making announcements. If you have tens and tens of showstopper issues with your device, perhaps it’s too early to tell the world about it!
What say you, readers? Do ya like to wait, or would you rather have something soon after it’s announced! I know what the answer should be…..!
The original Mobile Choice blog piece is here.
[Via: Mobile Choice]
I hate the long wait, but I’m not sure we in the U.S. can hope for the immediacy Apple gives us. Afterall, a phone maker may announce a phone, but the majors Stateside will want to tweak it to hell before launching domestically. Sure, the announcement may be delayed, but there will be that gap between the European market (for example) and the American one. Although I long sometimes for unlocked phones, I know that U.S. consumers, long addicted to the sweet teat of subsidized phones, is not ready to be weaned.
Jesus Christ, try ending a sentence with something other than an exclamation point. Ten exclamation points in seventeen sentences (including title). That’s weak and much too early for all of the shouting.