[cyberneticcook]

I understand your frustration but I think pre-orders are important for them to understand how many units to manufacture. What if they produce too many, and people don't buy them ? what if too little and they can't cope with the demand ?

[galago]

Another way of looking at it is that the delivery horizon is too long. In six months there will be other similar products announced and probably released. I fell like 2015 so so far out that the value of pre-order as a forecasting tool is minimal.

[Cthulhu_]

Acceptable and calculable business risks. How did new products launch before the internet?

[dools]

I can think of an example of an industry that has been doing pre-sales to fund production for a long time and that's property development.

[derwildemomo]

That's what market research really is good for. And frustrating potential users to minimize your business risks isn't acceptable, in my opinion. There's always risk involved. That's the nature of business.

[angersock]

"That's what market research really is good for."

Pre-orders can be an excellent form of market research.

[jcomis]

Don't think you can consider it research if you are billing people, it's just business/sales.

[tonyarkles]

It seems like getting people to commit to pre-orders is possibly the best form of market research. You've done enough R&D to get a solid outline of what the product will be, and you're testing whether or not people are actually willing to put money on the line to get ahold of it.