What we can learn from the delay of Apple’s Push Notification Service

When Scott Forstall announced the Apple Push Notification Service (APNS) for the iPhone at WWDC  2008, it was regarded as a very creative method to get around the battery-drain of background processes.  While the APNS does not solve all background process problems (try using the APNS to stream Pandora while browsing the web!), it certainly is an interesting solution.  As time went on and the APNS wasn’t to be seen, I wondered what’s taken Apple so long to release it and whether Apple just forgot about it outright.  The anticipation ended only a few weeks ago when we learned the reason as to why the service was noticeably absent: Apple needed to restructure the entire service to make it more scalable.  This was taken as a big “oh, I see now” by the industry.  But underneath it all, delaying the APNS was a decision that came as a result of previous experience Apple has had, namely, with MobileMe.Apple’s decision to hold back the release of the APNS and rebuild the service from the ground up – before releasing it to developers, to the dismay of many a developer that was planning on using it in an app, is a decision from which we can all learn.  In launching another brand-new product that lived and breathed on the web (MobileMe), Apple had a very poor track record.  So not wanting to take any more unnecessary risk and get a black eye for having an unreliable service as it did with MobileMe, Apple decided to nail the APNS and make it right from the get-go.

It’s quite rare that we see companies push back deadlines in order to perfect a product or service, and kudos to Apple for having done just that.  I can only hope that we can all learn from this and realize that a product that works is much better than a product that doesn’t, or one that works yet is inconsistent in its performance (as MobileMe was).  It takes considereable guts to come out publicly – whether for a company or a perosn – and delay the launch of a product or service – and this is something that is more often than not – frounded upon in the media and by the public

Of course, another glaring example of this is Microsoft delaying the shipping dates for Windows Vista in March of 2006.  For some reason, the results of those announcements were not as positively accepted as the announcement by Apple regarding the APNS.  Yet just like Apple, Microsoft learned from Vista as well, and has since then not set any concrete public announcements regarding the release date of the successor to Vista, Windows 7.  And that brings us to a completely new question: is it better to announce release dates and plans publicly or just release products when they are ready?  Cast your vote below for what you think!

-Image courtesy of iPhonefreak.com