Resellers that put up pre-order pages for prototype devices based on images and specs that have filtered through the blog channels might need to re-think their strategy. Its obvious why they do it as it attracts early links (as I did a few stories ago with the ECS G10) which often put them high on the Google search results. It also allows them to build a database of customers that they can do direct marketing to at a later date but as far as I’m concerned, it stalls the whole process of buying a device. Customers get distracted by new devices while they wait for prices and end up going on hold. It’s also totally clear that when a company puts up a device with no price and no dates and the information is nothing more than an info-scrape from the Internet, it’s obvious they don’t have good links to the manufacturer or the distributor.
Now I’ve got that off my chest, I’m off to edit a video of the ABit UMPC that I used at CeBIT. Later!
