You guys remember like, three months ago when this was all going to be settled in a matter of days...
To take a page from Atlas' book: heh...
Why is the lead on devices ordered today the same as when they hadn't even been designed or built?
Because it takes time to get components sent from over seas and assembled. Perhaps you're not familiar with the concept of NON mass produced items.
I just had two completely custom pumps designed and fabricated (at a cost of roughly $2000 each) by Tunze and shipped to me from their factory in Germany, which incidentally takes a 31 day holiday over Christmas and New Years. These are the only two of these pumps in existence, and despite ordering them in November, I received them within a week of the factory reopening. While it isn't computer components, it should serve as a reminder that companies with good customer service and high ticket items hustle to deliver.
Why isn't the money they have collected enough to put stock on their shelves, so to speak? Generally, profit taking doesn't begin in a business until the business becomes profitable. So why aren't their margins on the 'singles' already preordered put back into procuring more units, thus reducing lead time?
So why would you put stock on shelves if you don't know what actual demand is going to be? That would be incredibly stupid from a business standpoint. I would keep barely enough stock to ship a couple units and order the rest as required until I were comfortable with what demand is for the long term. It would be ignorant in the extreme to order 1000 units and then have 700 of them sitting around gathering dust.
Maybe not 1000, but how about fifty...or even one for that matter... You completely missed the point. Why aren't they reinvesting their profit in the business in order to deliver for their customers?
If the money isn't enough, why haven't they sought capital elsewhere? VC funds fly around all day, for far stupider plans than this. The fact that they still don't have machines leads me to believe they haven't successfully sought it out.
Why? Why not? Why be indebted to someone else?
Be indebted to one party versus being indebted to every single person who orders a unit? It's bad business; they are trying to milk an interest free loan that people apparently are foolish enough to provide for them.
Yes, the aforementioned questions that remain unanswered lead me to believe it is unreasonable to still have a 4-6 week (that could turn to 4 months without explanation, apparently) lead time. You are telling me that they are building these as orders come in? Not in batches? Seriously?
I don't know what they are doing... but from my considerable experience, I've already outlines what I would be doing were I in their shoes.
So they are ordering these from an assembly house one at a time, or they are grouping them into lots. If they are accumulating a number of orders to hit some sorts of price break, than their delivery dates are nothing more than wild speculation, since as you elaborated above, they have no real way to gauge interest and order rates.
Why do people want to believe so friggin' hard?
I assume, Inaba, that you are in some sort of tech field. Do you routinely deliver on your clientele's jobs almost half a year late? It is bad business, plain and simple, regardless of however you and their fan club choose to defend them.
The release of this little baby should be interesting. I understand people being sceptical but hey, welcome to the free market. If they are trying to make a business out of this, why do people expect them to release all the info on everything? No one seems to understand R&D when it comes to business.
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