Re: Behringer line array
I have spent way too much time in those exact trenches (new product roll-outs) and have scars on my ass from heated battles about when to show a new product. Anyone with even a few years experience in this industry can recall at least one major new product release from a major manufacturer, that had problems.
Just like it is very expense to build a product wrong and repair it, it is orders of magnitude more expensive to ship it wrong then repair it.
This is an old topic (for me) but I recall decades ago how at least one small computer company that put themselves out of business by announcing a new product too soon, that killed sales of their current product disastrously. We all should be able to recall at least one flawed major new product releases. You never get a second chance to make a first impressions and some models still suffer a poor reputation from a less than wonderful roll-out.
No company in their right mind would ever ship a product that isn't right. Software intensive products are arguably never finished***, so at some point a decision is made that it is "finished enough", but this can be very irritating, if that doesn't match up with the markets idea of finished enough.
The regular cycle of industry trade shows (NAMM, Musik Messe, etc), are supposed to be the opportunity to have a confidential conversation with dealers and distributors about future products and plans, but every year this turns more and more into a showcase for new product roll-outs to the consumer press. Consumer buying behavior is altered by this visibility into future product so this is a double edged sword for manufacturers.
Consumers are getting a little better at understanding the months long supply chain between cost effective factories and western markets, but not very understanding.
Internally the decisions about when to show new products involve a cost-benefit calculation. The expectation is that showing will shift some current sales into the future. Perhaps OK if it is shifting mostly competitor's sales. (IBM got in trouble with gov't anti-trust regulators for predatory new product releases of Vapor-ware). I am proud of the fact that I once shipped a new generation of an established product to dealers, almost a month before showing it at NAMM. Of course to many in upper management, I showed it 6 months or a year too late. Go figure.
This is not chess, more like checkers, but it is easy for some to find themselves off the playing board.
JR
PS: re: communications. I have found myself in the very difficult position of trying to explain to dealers, and the occasional customer (when some dealer sand-bagged me) why it can take so long to finish a design or implement changes discovered late in the development process. The marketplace is not very patient. Manufacturers don't often lie to dealers, but they can be wrong about actual shipping dates. I don't think I even saw a product come in sooner than promised, delays are not uncommon for a number of valid reasons.
*** I can think of one popular product, where the software was apparently contracted out to an outside consultant. After release that relationship with the consultant did not support upgrades to the software, so it was frozen, without taking full advantage of the platform with later enhancements.
