On April 26, 2022 at 23:53, SWFLMike said...
If you have a business that's looking like it's gonna tank, the *last* think you'd want to do is actually announce it, since that would pretty much kill any chance of pulling the nose up.
This is a variation of the Osborne Effect:
The Osborne effect is a social phenomenon of customers canceling or deferring orders for the current, soon-to-be-obsolete product as an unexpected drawback of a company's announcing a future product prematurely. It is an example of cannibalization.
The term alludes to the Osborne Computer Corporation, whose second product did not become available until more than a year after it was announced (which was 1983). The company's subsequent bankruptcy was widely blamed on reduced sales after the announcement.
Yup. Everybody was waiting for the biggerbetter.
I spoke to someone who was able to more or less recover things by using Apple Home Kit to replace the old Hub. I don't know the details, but that does sound like a softer landing than people with Litetouch stuff.
[Link: arstechnica.com]