Don't use the general public as guinea pigs

[slitchfield]

Year after year, handheld and phone companies make the same mistake, releasing buggy and incomplete products to market and then having to back pedal and fight fires for the next 12 months. Back when I was in industry, our company had a motto: "Right First Time". Now, I know phones are complex devices, but there's still got to be a better way. Read on....

Read on in the full article.

Steve,
Sorry to be off topic .
But where exactly is High Street? :-)
I do understand the connotation, but is it a real place that you are referring to?

[bartmanekul]

Exactly. The N85 has very bad camera noise on almost any low light situation.

I am put off buying another until firmware comes out to fix it (assuming it does).

This is something that really should have been spotted before release.

[malerocks]

I dont mind been a beta tester too..

[malerocks]

Originally Posted by bartmanekul

Exactly. The N85 has very bad camera noise on almost any low light situation.

Surprising, since the camera is the same as in N95, N95 8GB, N82, N96, etc. Right??? One would have thought that Nokia might have perfected this camera by now.

[neilhoskins]

Of course I agree with you entirely, but then we're both seeing it from an engineering point of view, and it's the Marketing droids who are in charge now. They have probably costed the benefits of getting a device to market early, against the badwill caused by it being buggy.

[Bassey]

First off, who is responsible for the testing? There are lots of different versions of the same phone with different firmwares. For example, whilst Windows Mobile devices are notoriously flakey at launch, the O2 XDA versions actually have a very good reputation as O2 take a good couple of months longer to test the devices on their networks before launching them.

Though this takes me to my other point. It's all very well saying that testing saves money but you have to make money first in order to save it. For the networks, making money is all about getting people signed up to contracts and, for that, the latest phone is one of their biggest attractions. If Nokia (or whomever) takes too long testing a device before it is released to the networks it could be old hat.

Just look at SonyEricsson and the Xperia X1. They have spent forever ironing out the performance issues and bugs. It has finally been released to general appathy as the features that were revolutionary when announced 9 months ago are now available on a dozen other devices.

This is a problem O2 also suffer. Due to their testing standards, other networks often get a 2 month head start on them with new devices and so acheive better sales. So, perhaps it isn't the manufacturers fault or the networks fault. Maybe us consumers are just too willing to forgive previous trespasses when we see the latest shiny gadget. If we really DID turn away from handset manufacturers or Networks that had let us down in the past they WOULD learn. I suspect we get what we deserve.

[slitchfield]

By 'High Street' I mean people buying phones in their local towns, usually from network phone shops.

As opposed to AAS geeks buying online or from eBay 8-)

[ILoveGadgets]

This is a hard one that has actually been bugging (see what I did there) the s/w industry for many years on many platforms.

The problem is essentially...money! The not-very-new-but-still-current practice revolves around the 80/20 rule. Every CTO / CFO will know that it would cost too much to fix 100% of bugs and it is generally recognised that 80% is the point where it becomes inefficient to do so. The perception is that if you keep 80% of the people happy then you can spin / fix your way to success. And actually, if we take the n95 as an example, the rule would prove to be right on the basis that the line has become one of the most successful products in mobile history.

Us geeks will always have to go through some pain, but we like that really don't we - I mean, it does actually keep some of us in a job - no? But for the average Joe on the street who will maybe only use 20-30% of the phone's functionality - if it works most of the time and they can put a "cool" theme on it or impress their friends with the interface, then they're largely pretty happy.

Even with extensive marketing, it takes months for a product like a high-end smartphone phone to achieve a decent market penetration. That gives the R&D guys plenty of time to get the fixes out. In the meantime, the sales-force are selling the phone on features that most of the public will not use in 18 months as much as a decent reviewer will use in a few days.

So all-in-all, while it's frustrating, I personally can't see it changing any time soon.

ILG

[Nick17]

Hear.. hear.. If some people in the forum would have gotten the N96 some weeks before the launch, it would instantly launch with a V20.something-firmware ;-)

[surur]

Off topic, but when is AAS going going to address the recent Canalys numbers?

[slitchfield]

@surer and others: I posted on the Canalys numbers just now. Sorry, I'd got behind with my Google Reader feeds..... Too much N96 testing and writing (part 3 coming soon).... 8-)

The Canalys numbers are somewhat skewed by the huge Apple numbers from a few months ago, but things should settle a little for Q4. Doubtless Rafe will chip in with his opinions soon. Or maybe we'll tackle the numbers in the podcast....

Steve

[pennas]

It's a tough one!

Nokia announced the N96 months ago, and now there are several negative comments about how long it has taken to arrive - and how the specs look less impressive now than they did at the start of the year.

If they had taken this time to produce a solid, almost-bug-free product, would these reviewers be less harsh? Let's be honest, it's pretty poor that after all that time it has all these (reported, I haven't used one) problems.

How about taking the N85 route - announcing the product barely a month before release; does this give them enough time to produce a decent firmware?

[Jaggz]

As long as people keep buying these unfinished phones, Nokia (and pretty much everyone else) will keep making and releasing them early. The only way to prevent this in the future is to wait for Steve and Rafe to give us the 'all clear' before purchase.

I was part of the beta testing for both the N95 and N95 8GB. I spotted the red tint (Mars Effect) on the N95 photos before general release, but I think it was about 4 or 5 months before Nokia corrected things in Firmware. Hey, at least they did correct it!

There's a reason why these pesky customer satisfaction surveys keep showing 90% for the iPhone, and it has nothing to do with marketing. There is only one iPhone and practically everybody at Apple has their attention focused on the iPhone like a laser beam, and it shows.

This scattergun approach to product design and product launching is going bite Nokia on the bum in 2009.

[Cjp]

as was said the average joe wouldn't know anything about the workarounds the average geek would know about.seems to me nokia etc have a baseline product which is acceptable by joes standards then developers etc come along to satisfy the geek.seems a pretty fair balance which reminds me of a time when someone mentioned the mobile should come with a are you joe public or are you steve litchfield switch built in.no offence intended mate.looks like nothing will change to me too to be honest as the base product actually does what it says on the tin to start with.