The problem is not usually down to the quality of programmers or designers, its product management I have found to be an issue. There will always be improvements or defects to fix in a peace of hardware or software. When it comes down to the line product management has to ask are the existing defects worth stalling the release further and losing out in market share. Microsoft are not incompetent, they almost certainly knew about the problem named the red ring of death why else put the red ring there, but I guess they didn’t know how big the problem was.
2