spike wrote:Well let me explain for you why Peter. This is actually a very good move from BMD if they were an evil corp. Not saying they are but please hear me out!
Announce a camera they know they cannot deliver on time, but as they announce the date they have effectively managed to grab a corner of the camera market they don't actually have yet. I mean why buy a 12k F5 when you have a promise of a 4k bmpc only a few months away? By doing this they have made numerous people buy accessories for their imaginary cameras, thus effectively taking away other manufactures clientèle. With the promise of a deadline they cannot keep they have effectively cornered the market with vaporware.
Now effectively people have no choice but to wait for their bmpc & bmpcc as they have spent money on accessories and deposits on a promise.
This is the only reason I can think of why BMD would do this again. I personally wouldn't put it passed them. But thats just my two cents!
I'm not sure I characterize BMD as "evil", or guilty of "FUD", but their tendency to pre-announce products with relatively far-off "expected" ship dates sure is a PITA.
Some companies announce far-looking, over-the-horizon, product/product line "roadmaps". These roadmaps often include approx. target dates (such as "Q3 next year", or "Summer 2014", etc.). Most product roadmaps I've seen have purposefully vague dates and include qualifiers & disclaimers to make it crystal clear that the feature & dates aren't set in stone. The roadmaps give a quasi-specific hint of the general direction a product or product line is headed in, but they aren't product announcements, and they're not cast in stone.
There are also companies who only announce products the same day/week/month in which the product will actually ship. They'll officially, publicly announce a product for the first time, and that the product is "available today", or "available in two weeks", etc. And then, ~90% of the time, actually start shipping the product when they said they would.
But when BMD makes a new product announcement they say they "expect" or "hope" to start shipping it in about 3-4 months or so. Their announcements are typically both very specific (including product specs, etc.) and also bizarrely vague. They imply the product is all but ready to sell, except they don't know for sure when they'll be able to start selling it!
This will cause some naive consumers to believe the announced BMD product is "real" (it's got published specs, right?) and therefore worthy of placing a pre-order with a non-refundable deposit.
It also causes some consumers to think, "Why buy the generally-similar existing Sony/Canon/Panasonic product that costs more?", because the less-expensive BMD product seems so "real".
And some folks will run out and buy expensive accessories/media for use with the newly-announced BMD gear, because, heck, they'll be using it all together very, very soon, right?
I mean, what could possibly go wrong?Well, of course, we now know the answer. BMD's management appear to have learned a lesson from the BMCC shipping (and component supply) debacle, but it's apparently the wrong lesson. They act as if they can "power through" the kind of issues that caused (and continue to cause) BMCC supply to lag far behind demand.
Maybe it's not evil. Maybe it's just some kind of
corporate machismo (bluster?) that caused BMD at NAB last week to announce new cameras 4 months before they're ready to ship?
Alternatively, BMD could have just waited a few months until the new cameras are, in fact, ready.
Then have John Brawley shoot some kick-*ss sample footage, and
then announce them -- "shipping within 30 days!" -- to the world via the internet and any trade show or event that happens to be handy. Doesn't have to be NAB, or IBC, or CES, etc. These days it doesn't matter much, especially given BMD's "low, low price" market niche.
So, when I say I don't understand why BMD did what they did at NAB last week, in a way I wasn't totally surprised. A tiny bit disappointed, and mystified, and excited all at the same time, but not really surprised.
It's going to be a long 3-4 months ...
Cheers.
P.S.: Cue the early pre-release sample footage and dog & pony show -- now!