Verily I say unto thee, that Tom Shelton spake thusly:
> Microsoft sent two of these gadgets. The first one had been broken
> in shipping, and the FTC didn't test the second unit sent as a
> backup...
That does seem odd, so I did a bit of research.
Of the many reports on the FCC's tests of Microsoft's IPTV prototype,
the only one (that I could find) that claims the damage was a result of
*shipping*, is the Inquirer's. Either they know something nobody else
does, or they've misquoted. Here's a typical sample:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/13/microsoft_says_white_space_prototype_was_broken/
No mention of "damage in transit", in fact the suggestion here is that
the "device tested by the FCC was defective". That's not quite the same
thing. "Defect" implies a manufacturing fault.
Presumably the FCC had no reason to believe that two (apparently
undamaged) identical machines would test differently, so they didn't
even bother trying.
That isn't very professional behaviour from the FCC.
> How is that MS's fault?
To what extent Microsoft are, or will be, responsible for the final
hardware product (i.e. from the perspective of warranties), I don't
know. The means by which shipped products become broken matters little
to those who buy them, and if Microsoft's 30% failure rate with a
certain other hardware product is anything to go by, then consumers
might rightly assume the same probable failure rate for IPTV. This
incident does nothing to allay those fears, even if the FCC's
unprofessional behaviour is partially responsible for the initial
results. At this stage, consumers might tend to expect a 50% failure
rate, although that is unreasonable given the small sample of just 2.
Still, reputation is everything, and when it comes to hardware in
particular (at least anything more complex than a keyboard), Microsoft's
is in the toilet.
--
K.
http://slated.org
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| "[Microsoft] are willing to lose money for years and years just to
| make sure that you don't make any money, either." - Bob Cringely.
| - http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2007/07/cringely-the-un.html
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Fedora release 8 (Werewolf) on sky, running kernel 2.6.23.8-63.fc8
22:14:43 up 31 days, 19:50, 4 users, load average: 0.20, 0.26, 0.26
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