This conversation about the Astak changes is quite interesting to me. I am a professor at a business school and I just talked to my class on Entrepreneurship on this last night. In fact, we talked about the ipod as an example of rolling out a complete product.
Although there can be rumors for weeks on the timing and features of new ipods, the rumors are usually wrong. The first sign of the new product is when the Apple store shuts down for a couple hours. Then comes the announcement and the product is usually immediately available on the web site.
In a well-understood, highly competitive market companies work to surprise their competitors with amazing new offerings. However, if you think about it the various ipod generations are really fairly simple changes. More memory, smaller size, brighter/bigger video screens.
However, when products are new and consumer needs are not well understood companies work in a more open fashion. In these fields the trick is not to surprise the competition -- the trick is to clear up the market uncertainty and understand what the market needs. This means open communications with the market, and it may mean a lot of changes. New features added and subtracted regularly.
I know there have been a lot of ebook attempts, but arguably no one has yet determined the 'right' answer. How important is a keyboard (Kindle)? Touchscreen? Size? WiFi? Memory capacity? Low-light readibility?
If your test market does not understand what is going on, the dialog can be frustrating. However, this is truly an attempt to understand and adapt to market needs. I don't think you should see this as 'under-delivering', but as an attempt to discuss and test various options to receive feedback. Most of the public will never know about these iterations, but as part of the test group we certainly see all the changes.
I recognize(d) the process, and if you will go back in this thread you will see my vote that Astak stick to the basics and introduce a product that gets the basics correct and get it out into the market and then evolve the product over time. A rapid evolution approach such as this is another way of testing and probing the market to settle on a final design.
However, truthfully many people don't like a rapid evolution approach either. They buy the first version and seem to feel cheated when later versions are introduced. I guess you can't please everyone.
Bottom line is that I don't know how personally comfortable you are with this back and forth process. However, the sense I am getting in this thread is that some people see it as a sign of incompetence, of bumbling about, or even of outright fraud. I would offer the thought that this is a very accepted approach for settling on the design of an innovative product, and that many would feel that this approach is a sign of competence not bumbling.
It may or may not be the development style that you personally embrace, but it is an effective approach that does lead to excellent products in many cases. I continue to hold out hopes that this product will ultimately achieve a winning bundle of features and price, and I understand that the exact features/price may change as Astak learns more about the market.
Michael
