RIM's Balsillie says to expect buggy handsets out of the box

You have followed the development of this exciting new cellphone. You scanned the internet everyday, looking for any tidbit of news. Finally, some spy shots of this new device are spotted, a release date is announced and you start planning, working out the logistics involved in exchanging your current phone for this exciting new one. It is all you can talk about, and your friends and loved ones are concerned about your sanity. The day arrives and after waiting in line for hours, you get your trembling hands on this gleaming, new device. You run home, open the box, and...glitches, bugs, confusion. The new phone does not work right. Firmware updates are planned to bring the new model up to speed. Sound familiar? It actually might become a commonplace occurrence if RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie is correct. In an interview, the executive noted how his firm missed an October deadline for releasing the BlackBerry Storm, and that RIM scrambled to get the model out before the critical "Black Friday" deadline. Balsillie said that software glitches out of the box on newly released phones could become commonplace and that the "New Reality" is to release handsets for sale that have bugs that can be repaired with future software updates. Sure, today's handsets are becoming more and more complex, and problems usually do pop up here and there after release. But wouldn't you expect a major cellphone manufacturer to clear out most of the glitches in a device before it is put up for sale?

source:WSJ