Hey, you up there in the ship....
We're very glad you like our work. However, we have never announced a release date for the sonic screwdrivers. Only that we had obtained the license. And we've shown prototypes at various levels of development so we could get your feedback.
Perhaps that was a mistake, to show prototypes so early in the development cycle. But we'd prefer to hear customer feedback as early as possible – while it's still possible to make changes if we've travelled down the wrong path. At the point at which we're inside of six months to the ship date, it's already too late to alter the product in any significant way.
This is a choice we've made as a company – to share progress early and often. It's something very few companies do anymore, precisely because they don't want to be criticized for being "late". However, if the goal is to build something that's really what your customers want, we can't see a better way to do that than to show our work.
As has been discussed before on this page, it typically takes several years to bring a complex product like the sonic screwdriver to market. The fact is, QMx is faster than many of our colleagues in the business. Having said that, speed is not our first consideration. Quality is.
You can rest assured at whatever point we announce availability, we'll hit that date.
Is Purple a member here?
I'm not sure, but I don't think he likes his blog being linked to; it's private now and requires a login to view.
even those die hards on this forum who said 'never ever don't touch "XX's" unlicensed products, EVER!' have now given up the ghost waiting & openly admit they have one/will buy one indirect from the supplier.
So much for QMx saying it takes years, this goes to show if you wanna get a quality product out that is in demand, just get on with it!
No that's a fair enough point Kersosawa, Youre right. I can see that now.
Am still wondering how long you can hold a licence with producing something tho. Don't you have to renew?
I am fairly sure that the licensee pay an up front fee plus a percent of each sale. Unless there is someone knocking down the door that will make them more money than QMX I think they can just pay to renew and sit on the license. Honestly I do not think any one will be able to hold the license AND compete with the prices of the CT pieces so unless some one went for higher price more accurate there is likely no one else competing for the license. I bet QMX will just sit on it until they can put something out (it is all profit for the BBC no matter what they do).
Seems to me the best solution is to offer CT the license.
Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it? Why the BBC would let the license sit with someone who is not producing a product while someone who IS producing a product, at a quality and price unlikely to be touched by anyone else, remains relegated to producing unofficial products whose very existence weakens the market for the nebulous licensed product if it ever does come out.
Seems to me the best solution is to offer CT the license.