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Subject: 
Re: NXT release date.
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Thu, 19 Jan 2006 21:23:28 GMT
Viewed: 
1616 times
  
In lugnet.robotics, Alexander Sack wrote:
In lugnet.robotics, Benton Jackson wrote:
In lugnet.robotics, Steve Hassenplug wrote:

This morning it said June 19th.  Now, it just says "Coming soon".  The release date
is slipping...  :)

Who says? "June" is not "soon", IMHO. So I think it's slipping forward!

Here's one possibility- They were already planning to ship 100 in February. When
they saw the enormous response to that program, they're changing their tune-
they are going to produce as many as they can, and prioritize those who signed
up for the beta program, and start shipping to them ASAP to start building
knowledge in the community. When they are done with that, then they will make it
available "soon" on the shop-at-home store or the education store. When that
starts settling down, then they'll ship to stores.

The August date was probably set to be ready for the school year.

Even though I do wish all of the above conjecture was true, I think it might be
just a slip on the LEGO SHOP website.

I agree that the August date was probably chosen to be inline with the next
school year and that there is a strong possibility they may push the date
forward based on the level of enthusiasm the Developer's Program has generated.
However, I wouldn't make the leap of faith that they are going to ship a set to
everyone who signed up for the Developer's Program.

Though to be honest, I'm not sure why the Developer's Program was limited to a
100 people.  From the Developer's Program explanation, LEGO seemed to have some
kind of agenda for the testers as they were going to be functionally segregated
("Ha, ha, your on doc!").  So 100 may have been the guesstimation of what it
would take to make the August milestone.  But if LEGO could indeed ship to
everyone on the Developer's List, I think they would get:

- A lot more product testing coverage
- More concurrency for milestone items
- New projects and concepts not thought of during the initial onset
- More product marketing coverage before release date
- MOST IMPORTANT. Happy lugnet.robotics posters!

The downside is logistics and managing a large bunch of Beta testers.  There
would need to be a central place for all participants of the program can
contribute and communicate with one another as well as any legal constraints the
program encompasses and needs to enforce (obviously, larger program
participants, harder to enforce).

I suspect that the logistics is a big issue.  I am a debugger for a living, and
know how to report the information that is critical to a bug.

As a developer (of LPub and LSynth for example).  Most of the bugs reported to
me are extremely vague "I tried this and it didn't work.  Any ideas?"

This is pretty tough to work with.  Maybe they are trying not to set themselves
up for input overload.

I just think it is fabulous that LEGO is providing the Mindstorms Development
Program. Never seen such a thing done so publicly.


However, if LEGO is listening (reading!), and if they have the manufacturing
capacity, I do think allowing all the people who want to participate in the
Developer's Program is beneficial all around.  I mean it can't be 10 of
thousands and just because someone signed up, doesn't mean they will actually
commit.

-aps

Kev



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: NXT release date.
 
(...) Yeah, I can understand though I still contend 100 is too small darn it! But your point is well understood (especially by me who has dealt with countless examples of this scenario). (...) Its fantastic no doubt! Very rarely do you find such a (...) (18 years ago, 19-Jan-06, to lugnet.robotics)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: NXT release date.
 
(...) Even though I do wish all of the above conjecture was true, I think it might be just a slip on the LEGO SHOP website. I agree that the August date was probably chosen to be inline with the next school year and that there is a strong (...) (18 years ago, 19-Jan-06, to lugnet.robotics)

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