Chip shortage issues aside: Is it ethical for companies to announce gear with out a scheduled release date?
I see companies like LZX promise a 1200 dollar module, taking pre orders with no real promised release date, then jump the price to 1600 and continue to not have a proper release date.
What do you think? What are some possible problems this could cause the musicians?
Can you think of other examples like this?
On the other side companies like rossum won’t even admit to you whether something were theoretically possible with one of their modules until the day it’s announced.
This is interesting, I will get back on that later!
Ethical?
Not in my world. But matter of factly a perceivingly large number of companies work exactly like that. Announce products long before they are released and then shift the release date, often while extending the announced feature set. Hearsay has it that some companies use that as a weapon to counter existing products of the competition as in "don't buy with them, wait for our much better product which is just around the corner"
Works impressively well.
You can decide with your money if you approve of that or not. My impression is, the majority of any given market does not give a dime for proper behaviour. But that should not prevent you from doing so. It certainly does not prevent me.
Kind regards,
Michael
If they're not taking money - sure, go ahead, announce 'til you're blue in the face. I've had a preorder in with Sweetwater for the Behringer Solina since the day it was put into their system. No money taken from me so while I'd like it to release, I don't really care. It will come, one day, or it won't.
When money is exchanging hands it comes down to "well, it depends." If a company is forthright about delays and timelines, that's somewhat understandable - LZX is pushing it with the Chromagnon (though they're honoring the initial price, so it's just someone jumping in now who pays more and they haven't waited 2 years) but they're an active company releasing related products so it's unfortunate but at least they're not radio silent like Abstrakt.