Larry Levy wrote:
Pentax has us all on tenterhooks by the way they are introducing the
new version of the D. I'm curious as to why we would expect anything
faster than we are getting from them.
In October 2001, Pentax announced the cancellation of their full frame
DSLR. That announcement mentioned the production of a different DSLR
which wound up being the *ist D.
In October 2002, Pentax alluded to introducing a DSLR in 2003.
In February 2003, Pentax actually announced the *ist D with an
expected launch date of June/July 2003.
They showed a prototype in March 2003.
In May 2003, Pentax announced the delay in availability from June 2003
to August 2003.
In August 2003, they released the specifications.
Digital Photography Review posted its review of the D in October 2003,
fully two years after Pentax first indicated its existence.
If past is prologue, why should we have expected anything faster?
Larry in Dallas
I'm in medical device product development. Consumer gear has different
constraints, but I'll bet the frustrations are the same.
* Marketing changes their product requirements every 3-2 months
* Upper management moves the company in different strategic directions
once a year
* Regulatory hurdles get tighter each year. Europe and China are
currently putting in ROHS and WEEE requirements for recyclable and waste
material
* Software bugs are found requiring big iterations through marketing,
design and testing again
* Hardware bugs are found requiring big iterations through marketing,
design, refabrication, and testing again
* Engineers put off finishing their required documentation until right
at the end
* Suppliers fail to meet delivery schedules
* Finance puts on the brakes because the product doesn't meet the
initial cost of goods estimate
* Service guys get upset because they have been left out of the loop and
haven't been trained and there is no service strategy before product
release.
I love it, and wouldn't want to be in any other job.
D
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