Depending on when you want to buy a tablet and your needs, the iPad might be what you want. For most people, it will be. But there are many other choices, and perhaps Android tablets, the TouchPad and the PlayBook will be completely ready for prime time.
By the time you're ready to purchase a tablet, you might want to consider others, including the Amazon tablet rumored to be available around October.
I agree -- people know that previews typically are a time for tweaking performances, but they expect their devices work properly when they're paying full price. HP, RIM and others are just using PR spin for justify offering devices that are, in effect, still beta products.
It just seems so counter intuitive to release something before it's ready. But perhaps that's just my own personality. I'm glad that Apple seems to know the importance of releasing products that are fully ready and functional. And for me, as a consumer, when I do eventually get a tablet it'll be an iPad for that reason. All these other companies have lost my business.
That makes sense. I just think that, for the sake of sticking with the comparison, Broadway Previews are part of what's to be expected -- and people go in knowing whether they're seeing a show in previews or a show that has opened; but here HP tried to get away with putting a product out too soon and then came up with some PR nonsense to spin that decision in a positive light. So I think the two are different in that way.
Many consumers don't spend a great deal of time, if any, reading reviews on Engadget, Gizmodo and other specialized technology publications. They'll see some advertisements and read an article or two in a mainstream publication, and then go buy the product.
Also, it seems as if some companies are almost proud (although that's the wrong word) of releasing a product that isn't finished! As I recorded, look at HP and RIM executives who said they were just fine releasing products that weren't up to snuff, but they weren't bothered because they could fix it in software.
This isn't a new strategy. "Fixing it in software" has been around for years, as is the expression "it's a simple matter of programming."
But it appears that competitive pressure is causing more companies to release products before they should. Apple is an exception, and that's one reason why its products have been doing so well.
The point about Google is a good one. If a product is free, you don't lose anything except for your time. Consumers often have a variety of products, free and paid, from which to choose.
Unfortunately, enterprises are sometimes locked into specific products/developers and serve as beta testers for products -- when they are paying v1.0 prices for what is v.07.
Some techies like seeing a product evolve, too, and want to experience the evolution from the beginning. Of course, they hope the product will indeed evolve -- and evolve well.
Most people, though, just want the #@%! thing to work.
And yet it keeps happening? Half baked products and services constantly emerge. How come users keep falling for it? Are we so impatient or are the manufacturers so impatient? Or do the manufacturers count on users' impatience?
I think it's one thing to offer the half-baked stuff for free, but no one should be subjected to paying for something like that full price.
LED lightbulbs will be used not only for home and business lighting automation, but possibly also for locating shoppers inside stores and transmitting data at hundreds of megabits per second.
Businesses helped neighbors with Internet access and mobile device charge-ups during Sandra. Following that example, enterprises should consider preparing Internet disaster plans to help the public during disasters.
As it turns out, Nicole wasn't alone in thinking that TwitterPeek – the $300 single-purpose device just for Tweeting – was the most useless device to ever be released.
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