Sibelius and the meaning of ‘available’

There aren't many good options for Music notation software. Sibelius is in my opinion the best, which as this software goes is not saying all that much. For it's functionality it's quite good, as a piece of elegant and usable software, it gets a "B" at best.

Over a month ago Sibelius announced their Version 6. Like any software company they made a much bigger deal of it than the changes would justify. Still there were a few things in it that I wanted.

They started taking orders over a month ago. They have a not very generous deal for upgraders (I already have version 5) but still I decided to order it.

A month later, Version 6 is still on 'backorder ' whatever that means. I asked the rep I just spoke to what they mean when they say that it 's 'available' (Yes I admit I was being a pain in the ass and that she is in no way at fault.).

She said, it means that you can order it.

I couldn't resist pointing out that for me, available should also mean that once I order, they actually have something to ship.

Makes you wonder what 's going on behind the scenes. Was it pre-announced to freeze out the competition? Was it pre-announced to please their stock holders? Did they experience some late in the game software development crisis?

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