Several recent events have shown that while tech companies can excel at desirable manufacturing products, they tend to fail when it comes to selling them in a fast, safe, and efficient manner.
Such conclusions can be surprising, but they are reinforced by hard facts. While smartphone manufacturers like Apple and Samsung are great at managing expectations and selling a product or a pre-order without major woes companies like Microsoft, Sony and Nvidia seem to have a hard time despite years of experience and access to extensive marketing tools.
A week of disasters
Sony’s complicated PS5 pre-orders requirements have baffled sellers and potential customers alike. Microsoft could have learned something from the problems faced by its rivals, but many prospective customers have reported issues as errors and glitches surfaced as soon as pre-order listings went live.
Nvidia faced a different problem as an army of bots rushed to buy the RTX 3080 as soon as pre-orders were available, with the cards being listed at an exorbitant price on websites like Ebay after a few hours. The company offered an official apology to customers and announced that it would explore improved anti-bot solutions.
Lack of transparency
What annoys users the most in the case of Sony and Microsoft is the lack of transparency. As gaming has become quite popular in recent years, and both companies have worked hard to hype the next-gen consoles, it should have been obvious that the demand will be high.
However, it seem that both Sony and Microsoft did not expect that so many people would be willing to pre-order their new consoles. Sony has announced that more consoles will be available for pre-order at a later date, while Microsoft stated that a new pre-order round would start on November 10, but details remain elusive.
Better decisions and strategies should and could be used in the future.