Perhaps if the App were a "pay for" item instead of free then Meridian would have an incentive to hurry it up (to gain revenue) and be able to afford to employ extra developers to get it out on time.
How many would object to paying?
No apologies from me - I object completely and vigorously in principle.
By M moving from screen based systems (C10/C15) to extend the range to the MC200 & MC600 then NEED to have a proper app to deliver a better customer GUI than the current app provides. The Sooloos GUI was and remains a key feature of the product offering. It would be like Apple charging for the GUI on an iPod/iPhone/iPad or charging separately for iTunes. Furthermore it has been promised and is part of the sales spiel coming from M's retail partners. There should be no question of having to pay for it - it is integral to the product offering and its acceptance by customers, and as other posts have demonstrated it is the product model. I feel I have pre-funded their development costs as it stands!
M has made a timetable public and they have not delivered - no surprise then that clients who have paid premium prices for what is claimed to be a premium product are disappointed with what remains a sub-standard product and that the disappointment is being publicly voiced.
M is not like your favourite aunty or uncle who is old, a little forgetful and needs a compassionate helping hand from time to time. It is no longer even a "family" affair - as I understand it - it is owned/controlled for the most part by hard nosed investors trying to strip consumers of as much cash as possible while investing the bare minimum to achieve that aim. Although admittedly they have been investing and thankfully the design and technology leadership of the old M is largely in tact.
How much damage has yet another timetable "malfunction" already done to M's consumer profile and how does that dampen sales revenues of new hardware sales across the range? Why cannot an apology be made with a simple statement communicating an accurate correction to the release date and any meaningful reason for that delay?
If they choose to return to shutting down the shutters on effective communications with their customers - all fool them. The SQ product offerings from competitors keep on improving and some of the existing competitor product GUIs are already ahead of the game...
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