Quote:
Originally Posted by kindlekitten
there is not that much difference in the actual function of the device. all of that should have been resolved weeks before the release was even announced.
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Unfortunately, in today's business world, people just don't share technology with each other. If Sony/Amazon figure out how to put out an eBook reader, they don't share the software (the key component here) with others. So each company gets to hire developers and reinvent the wheel. It isn't an ideal world. The upside is that we have Adobe at least trying to make it easier with their SDK that supports PDF/ePub, and is helping standardize the market on those formats as a result. Still, it isn't like B&N can go somewhere and buy prepackaged software components for the key stuff, even if it has been done before. It's the downside to the concept of Intellectual Property.
That said, you still have a point here. Software should have been 'done' quite a ways back. Software needs to be put on in the factory, which means the firmware likely went final about the time of the announcement if not earlier with the last round of bugfixes (depending on volume, mid-Oct would be the absolute drop-dead, gotta have it finished date). Now, if their testers
missed something huge and found a ship-stopper after that, well, that's where speculation can begin. But odds are the delay would be closer to 2-3 weeks if they found one of these ship-stoppers the week of launch. You don't just fix it, test, and reflash thousands of devices overnight. And even to get it done in 2-3 weeks would be expensive as sin to B&N and lots of late nights for maybe a dozen people.
FCC delays, or lawsuit delays are about the only things that make logical sense so far as to why the shipping delays unless we want to assume B&N is out to steal money from us unsuspecting consumers who haven't even handed it over yet.