“There’s an interesting trend happening in mobile these days. Companies – major companies like Samsung, Motorola, Kyocera, RIM and Microsoft – are launching unfinished, unpolished products and then asking us, the consumers, to buy them based on their “potential,'” Sarah Perez writes for ReadWriteWeb.
“Despite the fact that the new BlackBerry tablet computer has no email client or wide selection of apps, or that Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 can’t even multi-task, or that Android Honeycomb is only a few months old and, frankly, still a little buggy, we’re expected to place our hard-earned dollars, and, in some cases, even sign multi-year mobile contracts for these gadgets, based on ‘what could be,'” Perez writes. “Not biting? Well, you’re not alone.”
Perez writes, “Unlike much of its competition, Apple doesn’t launch prototypes or unfinished products. Not surprisingly, it’s a strategy that seems to work.”
Read more in the full article here.
Jason Perlow reports for ZDNet, “Honeycomb, despite all of Google’s efforts to make it an effective competitor to Apple’s iOS is a failure. All the current indications are that the first device to ship with it, the Motorola XOOM, is a complete sales dud.”
“There’s only one problem. The software on the device as shipped is complete and utter beta-level crap,” Perlow reports. “I don’t want this post to be thought of as picking on Motorola. They clearly tried their best with the hardware. The problem is that even they couldn’t fix an OS that is at best beta quality, and quite frankly, I didn’t feel like spending almost $600 to be one of Google’s beta testers.”
Perlow reports, “So after 24 hours of playing around with the device, I decided to return it to Amazon. It’s one thing for Google to run a service like GMail in beta for close to an eternity. But GMail during its beta cycle was and still is a free product for most consumers. However, Android Honeycomb tablets cost money… You expect there to be a certain level of polish and maturity on the software in a $600.00 consumer device. The problem is, there’s nothing at all polished about a Honeycomb tablet.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dan K.” and “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
