Quote:
Originally Posted by Hrafn
We may never know what actually happened, but I can think of at least a few possible scenarios.
Supply side scenarios: (i) after settling the specs for the (initial) Firefly release, their buyer discovered that there was little price differential between 800MHz & 1GHz, so opted for the latter for their next parts purchase. (ii) (more forward-looking scenario) They always planned to upgrade their CPUs to the fastest available at a reasonable price (basing forecasts on Moore's Law): 800MHz for now, 1GHz for in 6 months time (i.e. currently on the drawing board), and quite possibly 1.25GHz for 12 months time & 2GHz for 24 months time. Such a production-planning cycle would ensure that their products remain at the (moving) price/performance sweet spot.
Demand side scenario: Onyx has a fairly pronounced tendency to customise hardware to distributors requirements (amount of memory, SD/HD, audio/no audio). It's quite possible that a distributor asked them to price a 1GHz i62, they gave a quote, and the distributor accepted it.
Conclusion: given the highly dynamic nature of the computer-based hardware market, it is completely unreasonable to expect product specifications to remain fixed-in-stone for any appreciable amount of time. Expecting a small player like Onyx (whose main competitive advantage is nimbleness) to do so is asking them to compete with one hand tied behind their back. If you want regular product rollouts, then buy a Kindle!  |
Well, my status now equals told. I guess my mentality is this way since I keep reading on here that Onyx frequently releases new m92 models just to quickly discontinue support of previous ones, and continues to revise software without solving key issues. This has left me very cynical.
All things taken into consideration, do you think that if I were to by the firefly now, that my device would be severely behind upon the release of the updated model? This is my main concern since I don't want to buy a product that will essentially become a paperweight prematurely.