Customers who have already ordered a Phoebe will be fulfilled from this first batch. Acorn registered developers who have ordered a Phoebe are being sent the critical components of the new operating system, RISC OS 4.0, to enable them to continue critical development work.
Acorn is hoping to make available an extremely limited number of untested Phoebes at the end of September which will be allocated to developers at Acorn's discretion. These machines will not be fully functioning or fully tested and therefore will not be released to the press as review machines. Machines for press review will be allocated from the first full production batch.
Whilst it is unlikely that dealers will receive Phoebe units to exhibit at Acorn World in October, Acorn is intending to have a small number of fully functioning units on its stand to demonstrate. We are working hard to get as many units as possible available for the Show on October 16th.
Phil Smith, VP of Operations at Acorn, said: "We're extremely disappointed about these delays in the silicon which have arisen from unforseen problems in the supply chain in the Far East. These problems have now been resolved and we now have samples of the IOMD2 chip for testing. Unfortunately however, these delays have resulted in slippage on deadlines.
"We've had to work out how we could minimise the effect of this delay on dealers and developers who need the machine and software urgently. We've done our best, and I just hope that these guys understand that this is the sort of thing that happens with new IT product development. It's a pain for all concerned, but we just have to find the best way to work around it. We'll get there in the end though, and it'll be worth it."