Early adopters always get stuck with finding bugs in any product, because no amount of quality testing can find every problem. The issue with RIMs statement, though, is that they KNEW they didn't perform due-diligence in trying to find all the problems. RIM tried to rush out an unfinished product in time to hit the Holiday shopping market.
If this example tells us consumers anything, its that we should avoid all the hype around black-friday and the Christmas season. If manufacturers are going to knowingly put out crap to try to get it to sell, we, as consumers, should knowingly not buy that crap. Wait till the summer to buy any new products, sure, they'll be a few months old, but most of the problems should have been worked-out by then.