Transformers 2: Revenge of the Bad Software Release
You'd have to be under a rock to know that the latest Transformers movie was just released 2 weeks ago and has made a ton of money to date (before being smashed by Harry Potter last weekend). At around the same time, some of the actors, writers and directors part of TF2 have all been panning it as a horrible film - it sucked, we knew it when we were making it, but we did it anyway, etc. But at the time, none of this criticism was out there and that movie went on to make a ton of cash (mainly because we thought it would rival the first one and improve on some missed points - yeah I'm a huge Transformers fan).
So here's my question, if everyone working on the movie thought it was bad, why release it?
Take the above scenario and apply it to any software release you are working on - your last release has a ton of bugs and loads of incomplete features, if it was your money you would have never bought it. What? You did a release that you are now panning AND you are doing this after I (your faithful customer) put down my money to purchase said software (which we all know software costs a lot more than a movie ticket). Taking that kind of response in our field is quite the kick in the gut to your customer base and will woefully hurt the trust account you have established with your customer - "Why should I believe you now?", "Can you really tell me that this is the piece of software that it going to make me happy?"
Time, resources and market demand are always going to be the key drivers pushing you to releasing early to get your product out the door - build that buzz, get that first sale, get feedback on that new feature, deliver on a customer promise - it all has a purpose and you will never release a piece of software that does not have something missing and does not have bugs in it. But the one thing you must, at all costs avoid doing is shipping a piece of software that you are not proud of. If you do not believe that the work you and your team has done is the best to your and their abilities, then it shouldn't be released, if you want your customers to believe in you, and remember the only they are going to be able to do that is through your software, then you better believe in what you are pushing out the door. Otherwise you're going to have a "Revenge of the Fallen Customer" on your hands where your own team criticizes it, your customers don't like it enough to not come back and renew their warranties and in your next release you're desperately trying to bring them back saying that is the what is should have been.
The clearest case of this happening in our industry was the release of Windows Vista and later Windows 7, critically panned since Day 1 Vista was a black eye to Microsoft, I don't know the numbers, but I definitely know a lot of work was done to win customers back with Windows 7 and there have been many a report of Win7 being what Vista should have been when it first went Beta before being released.