Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!mdavcr!ewm From: ewm@mdavcr.UUCP (Eric W. Mitchell) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: It's off until first half of '91 Message-ID: <1027@mdavcr.UUCP> Date: 27 Sep 90 19:33:36 GMT References: <0093D408.262D5B40@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu> Organization: MacDonald Dettwiler, 13800 Commerce Parkway, Richmond, BC, Canada V6V 2J3 Lines: 65 In article <0093D408.262D5B40@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu> jprice@uclapp.physics.ucla.edu (John Price) writes: > Bad attitude here. Here Apple is telling us "hey, we're still >having problems with it, so rather than ship a product that's second-rate, >we're gonna work on it a bit more." And you're *flaming* them! > > *FLAME ON* > > Get off their backs about it! Otherwise, maybe they'll stop telling >us about it, and we'll sit around, not having the slightest clue when it'll >come out! > > *FLAME OFF* > I will re-state what I've said before (seems like it was the last >time this subject came up) - announcements of ship dates, be they real or >imaginary, should *always* be taken with a grain of salt (some might want >to use the whole shaker! :) I use them in order to plan purchases of >other software products - for instance, system 7 vs. ATM. Anyone relying >on them as gospel is setting themselves up to be disappointed - they are >*never* on time. *FLAME ON* Back off John. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion/impatience. Considering how bad Apple has been about announcing this product with such confidence, then dropping 2/3 of the features and constantly postponing the release, I think people are entitled to some irritation. I totally disagree with your attitude of excusing unprofessional business practice with this "supplicant" posture of "Oh, No. If I'm not nice they won't talk to me". The software industry is one of the few where a company can get away with announcing a new product, then delivering it several years late and with half the promised features. If people are quiet and submissive, as you suggest, companies will never change this practice. Either these companies need to learn a bit about software engineering and planning, or they should announce such "products" as R&D efforts with a relatively open-ended schedule. A big part of the problem is people's expectations that a release date has some meaning. Software vendors should acknowledge this perception by talking about their development efforts in a way that makes it clear that these are VERY approximate. Of course, vendors don't want to lose business to other, available products, so they try to get you hooked on their "new" package with a wildly optimistic release date, then they string you along forever (cf: Microsoft, Apple, etc). Personally, I think this is a rather offensive practice. If I want to bitch about it, I will go right ahead. If they stop talking to me, maybe I will buy someone else's product. *FLAME OFF* I agree that shipping dates should be taken with a truckload of salt, but I utterly dispute the inference that this is okay/acceptable. Eric disclaimer: All standard disclaimers apply. All non-standard disclaimers apply. All truly bizarre disclaimers apply.