NVIDIA SHIELD Delayed Until Next Month
posted Sunday Jun 30, 2013 by Scott Ertz
NVIDIA announced this week that their gaming handheld, SHIELD, has been delayed. Now, this is significant for a few reasons. First, this will be NVIDIA's debut into the handheld market, with a device that showcases a unique usage of Android and, of course, showcasing the company's own Tegra 4 processor. Because of this, the company has said that the delay is to ensure the launch is perfect. With such an important debut, it makes sense to want it to be perfect.
A NVIDIA spokesperson said,
During our final QA process, we discovered a mechanical issue that relates to a 3rd party component. We want every SHIELD to be perfect, so we have elected to shift the launch date to July. We'll update you as soon as we have an exact date.
It is definitely difficult to have a perfect launch under those conditions.
It is also significant in that the delay came within hours of the original launch date. Moving the date so last minute suggests to me that they either thought they could fix the problem quicker than reality, or that they considered ignoring the problem and launching anyway. I will continue to hope that the company tried to resolve the problem and didn't hit their mark and not that there was a discussion about releasing with a known defect.
Hopefully for NVIDIA the late July timeframe will not damage the sales of the device. The recent price drop from $349 to the sweet spot of $299 might help, but any product release delay can hurt. If you need evidence, ask Ouya how it is working for them.
