pski;615050 Wrote:
>
> Nothing in their marketing has a single reference to using the player
> without a server.
>
Which marketing are you talking about ?
There isn't much indication in the material on their web shop that
indicates that you need a local server to use the device ? Have I
missed some other marketing channel ?
I agree with JJZolx:
- The Radio should be market as an player for online music, with its
physical design and support for Spotify, Pandora, LastFM, Napster,
Rhapsody, WiMP and similar services it should be very hot for the users
that want an internet radio.
- The Touch needs to work reliably with music from UPnP servers and USB
drives without running a separate server, without this support it's hard
to sell it to a lot more people.
The Radio is for bedroom, kitchen or outside the house while the Touch
is the solution if you like to play the music through your existing
amplifier and speakers.
As mentioned before, many of us are happy to run a separate server and
like the thin client model in our multi room setups, but it gets too
complex for the masses.
Also, they should use the existing third party offerings for iOS in
their marketing. I mean, $10 for an iOS app is nothing if you just have
purchased a $299 product and previously an even more expensive iOS
product. Mentioning iOS and Android on the box and in the marketing
material will make the devices easier to sell. Logitech could even
arrange so you get a $10 discount to make it possible to get the iOS
app and still be below $300. Trying to build an iOS app themselves is
just stupid, they will never be able to do something as good as current
third party apps and they will never be able to earn back the
investment, it's a lot more cost effective to just promote the existing
third party offerings. In the long run, we will get a lot better support
and a lot more features if the third party offerings is used, if
Logitech is in control they will just make something that works good
enough to put it on the box and then halt the development since it's
not worth investing more as they have to give it away for free. If they
insist on having a Logitech logo in the app, I'm sure they will be able
to come to an agreement with the third party developers as long as
Logitech don't get greedy and want to start earning money on the app
themselves. Personally, I wouldn't prefer a re-brand because it removes
the competition between the apps and the result is that there is no
reason for the third party developer to keep adding features to stay
ahead of competing iOS apps, I think some kind of discount arrangement
would be preferred.
At last, to be a great success they also need to improve how you get
the music to the device, the current process with ripping and tagging
is too complex, what we need is either:
- Mainly use online music services, like Spotify, Rhapsody, Pandora,
WiMP, Napster, LastFM
or
- Integrate a music store similar to iTunes Music Store.
Even though a music store would be great, there is no way Logitech can
compete with Apple in this area, so this once again means that their
focus needs to be on good integration with online music services,
something Apple has more or less ignored so far.
In my mind, all this means that the focus needs to be on the client
side and on the mysqueezebox.com side, unfortunately the standalone
server in the form of SBS really doesn't fit in the above scenarios.
I'm sorry to say this because I really want it myself but to be honest,
it's not the best way to reach the masses.
There could possibly be room for a more geeky multi room solution with
a Logitech provided server product on top of this, but it would be
targeted at the geeks, a bit similar to the more expensive Logitech
Harmony remotes. Still, the Radio and Touch products needs to work good
as standalone players without any local server, so a standalone server
wouldn't be a great source for profits but it would make the Squeezebox
product line more attractive to users who need a multi room setup and is
ready to pay. A re-brand or collaboration of vortexbox seems like the
logical choice for such a box.
--
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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