nicolas75;644875 Wrote:
> You actually demonstrate that the main market for Squeezebox (the one
> with the volume required for the product line survival) is missed ...
> SBS succeeds with customers ready to accept poor stability and user
> interface (volume too small), and fails with others.
> A company like Logitech simply cannot continue to support this product
> line if it doesn't change as soon as possible.
>
I think the point completely missed in this thread is that if you ask
any Squeezebox user the question "Would you like to be forced to turn
on the computer when you are listening to music", most of them are
going to answer it with "No", because most users really doesn't want a
computer involved in their music system, they want their music at their
fingertips and they don't want to wait for a computer to boot up to make
it possible to listen to some music.
So, what does this result in ?
It results in that all the geeks (a big part of the members in this
community), decides that they want a computer running 24/7 because they
want their music to be available anytime. Their choices are:
- Run a 24/7 Linux box
- Run a low powered hardware solution (NAS, VortexBox or similar
running Linux)
- Get a new computer and by Windows Home Server to install on it, this
is a solution for some, but pretty expensive if they are only needing
it for music listening)
The normal non geek users, will instead:
- Attach a USB drive directly to the Squeezebox Touch (which is running
Linux by the way) and accept the poor performance and reliability.
Or
- Run a Windows machine and continue being annoyed that they have to
wait for it to start-up every time they like to play music.
So I believe the reason Linux is a lot bigger among Squeezebox users is
because:
1. The above mentioned scenarios
2. Squeezebox is a geeky product and due to this attracts Linux users
more than other similar products usually do.
If Logitech want to advance into the mass market, the solution is not
to focus on Windows, the solution is to focus on getting rid of the
need to have a computer in the system at all. This is easiest to
accomplish by investing in mysqueezebox.com and online streaming
services and by offering a working hardware player which works reliable
with a locally attached USB drive. The Touch exists but we all know it
isn't reliable with a USB drive attached and its performance is
certainly not as good as most of us expect when used in this mode.
I bet most of the Revue users would like to view videos without turning
on the computer, the reason many of them got a Revue is because they
didn't want a computer/HTPC in their living room. Getting rid of the
need for a computer with the Revue can be accomplished by:
- Installing LMS locally on the Revue (which runs Android which is
Linux based)
- Offer the possibility to run LMS on a Touch or corresponding new
hardware (which runs SqueezeOS which is Linux based)
- Last and most unlikely, offer a new small low power silent server
hardware which runs LMS reliable with a locally attached hard drive
(and very likely is going to be based on some Linux OS)
So the thing Logitech management has to understand is that people don't
want to have a computer involved in their music, video, picture viewing
system and due to this Windows and even more so OSX should have a lot
less priority than Linux support.
But since Logitech management doesn't seem to understand which products
they are actually selling and doesn't have contact with their end users
so they understand what the end users want, they choose to focus on the
operating system which is most common when playing games and similar
stuff.
Finally, and not completely irrelevant. If I today ask any of my
friends what they typically use to surf the web, read mail, listen to
music, view youtube, access facebook many of them answer "My iPad of
course" and those that don't say this is going to say "My iPhone or
Android phone of course". If you look at any recent sales statistics,
you will also realize that the iPad has taken over a large part of the
market which previously were occupied by netbooks, laptops and standard
computers. People no longer want a computer, we want a tablet/phone
which gives you access to everything you want independent where you
are.
I'm not saying the computer is going to disappear, I'm just saying that
people aren't going to want to use a computer to do everything we used
to use a computer for. It's not going to be natural that your computer
is powered on just because you suddenly decide that you want to listen
to music or see a video. However, it is going to be natural that you
have your iOS or Android tablet or phone in your hand.
--
erland
Erland Isaksson ('My homepage' (http://erland.isaksson.info))
(Developer of 'many plugins/applets'
(http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/User:Erland). If my answer
helped you and you like to encourage future presence on this forum
and/or third party plugin/applet development, 'donations are always
appreciated' (http://erland.isaksson.info/donate))
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