Quark to ship next week? Really?


A poster on MacSlash states that his copy of Quark XPress 6 won't ship until the end of July. According to one self-selected reporter named "Vlad:"

"I just received this from Quark's own order desk, (yes, my order number is right here). They are attempting MAJOR fire fighting duties to squelch the "shipping next week" bugaboo. Someone really messed that date up, don't know who messed the date up, or what, but the order desk states that Quark 6 will not be shipping until the end of July!"

Also, Macworld UK reports that although XPress is expected to ship next week here in the land of "milk and honey" (that's lawsuits and litigation to lawyers, and the US of A to rest of us), the international ship date is still unknown:

"UK sources contacted this morning say Quark has mandated July 31 as the ship date for Passport versions of the application and that Quark hasn't yet altered its position."

As to the aforementioned Vlad's geographic location, no information is available other than the fact that he's got a generic Netscape.com account, which doesn't tell us anything.

Stir, stir, stir the pot

In another twist to this twisted story, Quark CEO Fred Ebrahimi yesterday stated in a CRN interview that an important component of the XPress solution, the Quark Publishing System (QPS), won't be available until next quarter.

For many customers, QPS support is critical vis-à-vis whether or not they choose to upgrade. Further clouding this issue is the fact that Quark had previously announced that QPS support will be dropped in the future.

Flavor to taste

In the same interview, Ebrahimi also stated, "The truth of the matter is we should have done this [released an X-compatible version] earlier. My apologies to all of you for being late." Whereas Quark communication manager, Glen Turpin said in his MacCentral comments yesterday (now expurgated) that XPress couldn't have come earlier given the realities of the situation.

And, serve...

However, all is not lost for those waiting at the front door for Fedex to arrive. In the said same MacCentral piece yesterday (call it v2.1), Quark's perhaps now erstwhile communications manager reiterated that the product will indeed ship next week.

"I absolutely want to reassure you that QuarkXPress 6 will ship next week," he said.

Now, have you got that clear?

Editor's note: Mmm, Mmm... out of the pan and into the fire. In marketing, there are few things worse than confusing the customer, especially when they're none too pleased with you to begin with. What started early yesterday as Quark's road out of perdition twisted back downward into the depths.

Well, at least they're going to ship next week...