Please stop this discussion, none of the people here have any clue what you are talking about.
You only have the outside view of it, you have no idea how the profit and solvency for the Squeezebox business looked at the end in Slim Devices and how it looked within Logitech during the period when they shutdown Squeezeboxes. You have no idea why Logitech acquired Slim Devices and you have no idea why Slim Devices decided that it was a good idea to be acquired by Logitech, maybe the alternative was bankruptcy and let the Squeezebox die already 2006, we simply don't know. You have no idea how the Logitech organization works inside, I'm pretty sure it's not the people that manage the Squeezebox unit that made the decision to acquire Slim Devices, this is typically a decision that's taken a lot higher up in the organization. In big organizations a typical problem is that the goal/vision of the top level management doesn't always flow down properly in the organization to people on the floor knows the vision/goal and is able to fulfill the vision/goal. It might be easy to think that the reason one company acquire another is mainly that they like their product and want to take it to the next step, but in many cases there are a lot of other aspects that could be of interest also. I'm not defending what Logitech has done with the Squeezebox, I'm just saying that we have no idea if Logitech and Slim Devices executives still think it was worth the trouble or not, we can't just assume that it's a failure because they decided change the name of the brand after a few years. Also, please realize that it might feel like Logitech has shutdown Squeezeboxes but in reality what they have done is changed the name of the brand and tried to take it to the next step of a journey they believe is the right one. Just look at the hardware of the UE Smart Radio, it's almost exactly the same as a Squeezebox Radio, then take a look at the software/firmware in the UE Smart Radio solution, also that is based on the Squeezebox software/firmware and when taking a look at it, it's also in many parts identical. They have changed a few things and disabled some functionality which they don't think fits in their new strategy, but in many ways it's based on Squeezebox. Do you think Logitech would have been able to release the UE Smart Radio without the acquisition of Logitech, I certainly don't. Without people from Slim Devices they would likely have released another AirPlay speaker or possibly a UPnP player or Reciva chip based radio. To do something like this, a name change is necessary, because it would have been very strange to release a new Squeezebox which isn't compatible with the others. They might also have realize that there is too much geek history in the Squeezebox brand so to be able to reach the mass market they needed to change the name even if Squeezebox brand was established. Now, this doesn't mean I think they've done the right things, I think many of he things they have done during last years including the UE Smart Radio is the wrong move, I'm just saying that there could be reasons for it and one of the reason is probably that many people in this community (including me) no longer is the main target for the UE Smart Radio device. For people who are in the new target group, the move they did with UE Smart Radio might be a big step in the right direction, but we don't know that because we don't have a clue what their long term strategy really is. Finally, this whole thread is a bit silly, Sean/Dean is not to be blamed for what Logitech has done with the Squeezebox, Sean/Dean will not come back and save Squeezebox and even if they wanted to Logitech wouldn't allow them, so let's just stop this discussion here and now and focus on the reality: - Your Squeezebox works exactly as good today as it did last week before the announcement - Your Squeezebox is going to work great also for the next 12 months, probably longer - Due to this there is no reason to worry at the moment, instead look forward to the exiting future where somebody will fill the hole left by Logitech with something which are actively developed. If there is a need and a market, there is a possibility for someone to do business and then this usually happens, it just requires some time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96213 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
