I couldn't stop posting this rant today, after seeing this : http://www.techpowerup.com/145469/Fractal-Design-Announces-Core-1000-Case.html Oh yeah, so cool, Fractal announces another new case. Except... Well, check out their case list : Arc Midi Tower - announced, not on sale yet. Arc Mini - announced, not on sale yet. Array R2 Mini - on sale. Core 1000 - announced, not on sale yet. Core 3000 - announced, not on sale yet. Define Mini - announced, not on sale yet. Define R3 - on sale. Define XL - on sale. In short - 3 of their 8 cases are impossible to buy, because they didn't even left the factory, if they started manufacturing them at all. Why announce new and new products when you can't deliver ? Arc series was announced sometime around christmas. Core 3000 in February. How about delivering instead of announcing. And they are not the only one. Arctic does this exceptionally well (3-4 months delay between product announcement and actual possibility to really buy the product is nothing unusual). Please manufacturers, announce the product when you start selling it with next week or two, not half year before.
It's to try and build up some anticipation. We know about CPU released months and months and perhaps years before they actually come out. It's all to drum up a bit of excitement around the product for launch day and to be honest in this game is probably an important part of sales strategy.
Yes, but we area talking about computer cases... I'm sorry, but if you announce a computer case now, i won't be waiting a half year for it when i have to do a new build. And it's even worse with Arctic, a good example was one of the Accelero Extreme coolers. You got a card, and they release a cooler for it 4 or 5 months after they announce the product ? Especially when we talk about highend product segment, where people usually switch to the latest and greatest - and those cards come most times in half year cycles... Now that is pretty stupid if you ask me, release a product which you won't have use for after 1-2 months.
It's the same with music. By the time a new single is available, it will have been played on the radio so much you're already sick of it.
I agree with the rant. Yes they do it with CPUs but you build a new comp around a new CPU not a case, a case is more of an after thought once you've decided to buy a new CPU board ram and so on.
You speak of Heresy. A case is one of the main parts I think of "Does it have enough fans?" "Do I have enough space to fit my crap in there?" "Do I have space to upgrade in 2 years?" "Do I..." etc... A case shouldn't be announced more than a month, maybe two in advance though, anything more is just... well stupid.
