Quote:
Originally Posted by zerospinboson
Yeah, it's a shame that they went bankrupt thanks to an attempted American Adventure that went awry thanks to delayed FDA approval..
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Anybody would go under waiting for FDA approval for an ebook reader. The FOOD and DRUG ADMINISTRATION never signs off on those.
The FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISION does, though.
But submitting in november a product meant to sell in December is a guaranteed disaster. The ILIAD approval was delayed because the submission for testing was delayed. (Of course, having a history of non-compliant products didn't help grease the process any.)
The rule of thumb is that any product intended for holiday season sale needs to be submitted in august in case testing reveals any issues which is why the first hints of new Sony readers usually came in July.
And ILIAD's problem was they had a deal with BEST BUY where the volume of units depended on getting them to stores for the holidays, not february.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74428
Even back then it was understood that mainstream ereader sales are seasonal. That was one aspect of the market Sony got right. Unlike Nook, that kept doing spring ereader releases, just in time for the slowest sales quarter of the year.
Lots of ways to fail in the consumer electronics business, few ways to win...