[TenTec] The Age of Consumer Beta Testing

[steve moore]

Companies releasing so called beta test flawed models will pay for it with lost customers. Ten Tec is no 
different.

I've seen several other non buyers of the Orion and I'm not done with today's emails.

You can call it a fact of life but it doesn't change the other fact of life of losing customers.

Steve  wd0ct

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <PaulKB8N at aol.com>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 1:25 PM
Subject: [TenTec] The Age of Consumer Beta Testing


> I've watched with interest how this community has bashed Ten-Tec's efforts
> to raise the performance bar with their new radios.  All I can say is take  a
> look around you.
>
> Microsoft releases major operating systems with security flaws so serious
> that they invite hackers to come in.  The Mini-Cooper automobile has such
> serious bugs in it's processor that it doesn't properly shift between  gears.  My
> new Sony Viao notebook computer would crash inexplicably (and  continues to do
> so) and no one could tell me why.
>
> Folks, this is life as we know it.  Few, if any, products with complex
> software instruction sets arrive in the customer's hands bug-free.  We are  in the
> age of consumer beta testing, like it or not.
>
> Compared to the volume of laptops, automobiles, and software  releases, a
> radio like the Orion is almost a "one-off" item.  With a  sample size of just a
> few thousand, of which their use is segmented in niche  activities (such as CW
> only, phone only, contesting, DXing, etc), it may be  impossible to find a
> common cause for a particular bug.  In effect,  some of the patches simply treat
> the individual symptom, not the collective  root cause!
>
> The concerns expressed are certainly legitimate, there are serious issues
> with both radios.  It is particularly disturbing that the code expertise  lies
> in the hands of a very few individuals.  Yet, we have to face the  reality that
> these radios, with all their flaws, still have capabilities beyond  anything
> we've imagined before, and at a cost of less than an 1960 Collins S  Line in
> today's dollars.
>
> This can be a constructive and proactive forum, and recognizing the nature
> of software-based products, I hope we are part of the solution, not the
> problem.
>
> Paul, K5AF
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