Demoing your about-to-be-released product on a top-rated television show ranks way up there on the scale of bad-ass things to do. The first rule of product demos is this: they never go right, and the higher the stakes, the more likely a catastrophic failure. (This is why the iPhone engineers went out and got drunk for a week after the not-nearly-ready phone was unveiled and shown in action without crashing.)
will.i.am went on The Tonight Show last night and showed off the PULS, which is still shipping “in December” at a price they’re not disclosing. It went more or less OK. He played some beats and called his mom from the PULS, although he probably could have done without her complaining that the sound went “in and out.” Fallon was enthusiastic, and will.i.am got to talk affectionately about his programmers in Bangalore and his hopes for the the PULS might inspire inner city kids. And he promoted a live DJ gig using the PULS at Bloomingdales at 7am on Black Friday. (7am? Really?)
A demo in front of 3.5 million viewers is strong stuff. In product launch terms, it was dropping the mic and walking off stage, no matter what The Verge says.
Fallon usually chops up his show and posts them. At this writing, the best you can do is see it at The Tonight Show’s site; the segment starts at about 28:00, and you’ll have to watch a lot of ads…