but it might be a VERY useful support device. Let's give TI a chance before we start hating on 'em too hard....
Those were my thoughts, too. Unfortunately, TI blew that chance.
I knew from the postings on this thread that I was going to wind up on backorder for a while. When I checked a few weeks ago, the website said my order had "shipped". Sorta: the webpage was poorly designed, so it wasn't really clear whether it had.
When it hadn't arrived last week, I went back to check again. Not only had the "check status" link they emailed me stopped working, but the webstore had completely lost my account.
There's no contact link specific to the webstore, so I used the "comment about the website" link to complain about that, and ask for contact information. I got a form email that appeared to be about product tech support, saying that "due to export regulations, we need to know where you live before we can talk with you". It told me to go to a page on their site and fill out the contact info form. So, grumbling, I followed the link, and discovered that there was no form there.
This is actually my second go-round with the MSP430: the first one ended when the Linux driver (not TI's, so not their fault) for TI's USB-to-serial chip replaced the firmware in the ez430 programming dongle with standard serial port code. Unfortunately, it's too light to be used as a boat anchor, and I'm not big on jewelry 
I don't know who TI is competing with, but they're sure making it easy for them.