Woooah - Padfone Launches!

This actually made me laugh this morning! 

We sometimes forget that, we have been spoilt in recent years when it comes to the 'great product launch' by Steve Jobs and Apple as well as the 'usually' successful apple esque alternatives like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at the recent Kindle Fire launch, and to some extent Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer (who seems to be getting better).

Then, in a flash of absolute ridiculousness we arrive at this launch from Asus the "Padfone"

A product that is essentially dead at launch and will need a miracle to get it selling or last any longer than any other tablet: See Blackberry playbook, HP TouchPad, etc....and I fear this will not be the end of the failed tablet alternatives. But, I'm not really writing this to condemn the product but more the delivery of the product. As android becomes better controlled (Ice-cream sandwich this week) and the developer product fragmentation gets sorted out, and the hardware becomes as technologically (I don't mean just form, but function too) advanced as the current market leader then I'm sure, and I hope we will start to see some worth while products get released, at appropriate comparable competitor costs.

Apple, spend millions on releasing miss-information prior to their launches, fake products (left in bars, seen on a train) and 'pictures taken' using their products and posted online, PR added to PR added to Hype, added to fanaticism, as well as ensuring that the right people are attending their launches and are sat in the appropriate seats, ensuring they control the video feed in and out of the event, to quietly subsidizing the product launch with free gifts to the attending Journalistic royalty in the tech community.

Then you see this, good work boys, sign me up now!