Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: Should CBM pre-announce? (WAS Re: Super Chip Set) Message-ID: <1990Sep24.083115.1924@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 24 Sep 90 08:31:15 GMT References: <4427@crash.cts.com> <1990Sep18.014227.381@darwin.ntu.edu.au> <1053@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au> Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 17 There's one _excellent_ reason not only not to preannounce release dates, but, frankly, not even to preannounce product development efforts: the great chance to gain a reputation for vaporware. Look at NEWTEK, and think back to all the flames they've taken over the years over the Toaster. _Any_ product can run into unexpected delays, sometimes very long ones, and it just isn't worth the risk to CBM's reputation to state a delivery date and not be able to meet it. It isn't worth the risk to announce a product development and find that you can't make it at a competitive price, and therefore never produce it. In addition, at least one company (IBM) has gotten accused of making product announcements for far future products just to discourage purchase of competitors' existing comparable products. There's nothing less fun than being the defendent in an unfair business practices lawsuit. Kent, the man from xanth.