------------------------------------------------------------------------ A poll associated with this post was created, to vote and see the results, please visit http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96660 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Question: Would you buy a new Squeezebox player if it became available? - Yes , if less than $100 - Yes, if less than $200 - Yes, if less than $500 - Yes, if less than $1000 - Yes - price is no object; I just want the best sound - No - I would NOT buy another Squeezebox player ------------------------------------------------------------------------
ninthsrw wrote: > I agree the diversity of the ecosystem is a huge asset, overall. > > However, Logitech has kept the radio idea for itself, as evidenced by > their intent to sell it as part of the UE ecosystem. Additionally, the > radios compete more directly with the exploding field of mini-speaker > systems and apple airplay systems with built in speakers. This is to say > it is a crowded market in which it is both difficult and expensive to > distinguish any given product. Though I would immediately acquiesce that > margins for these types of products are likely the highest and the > market is arguably the largest relative to #2 and #3 type products. > > In so far as #2 and #3 are concerned - they are aimed directly at > satisfying the existing SB enthusiast market by accommodating future > expansion of existing SB systems (as evidenced by your own example), and > providing a point of entry into the SB ecosystem for which there are few > direct competitors, if any: Naim and Linn have laughably high margins > that kept them from competing with the SB price point; Sonos is both > slightly more expensive and doesn't support high quality play back; > Cambridge's software is painful and their app doesn't run on some recent > android phones; Olive has promise, but is also relatively expensive, and > necessarily ties in a hard-drive containing device if 24/192 playback is > desired; UPnP based systems are painful to use, and make library > curation a Sisyphusian task, and so on... > > The point is #2 and #3 are products in markets where SB can handedly > stand out and continue to thrive - as it has before - in terms of > price-to-quality ratio. #2 and #3 are appear to be the segment of the > market which Logitech has abandoned by moving onto UE. SB has been the > price-to-quality leader from the beginning, and it can continue as such, > by continuing to stand out where the > not-perfect-but-usually-awsome-super-feature-rich software is a huge > asset when coupled with quality hardware (syncing, gappless FLAC > playback, plug-ins, etc..). Taking on competitors based on the > iTunes/AirPlay-crowded-market-of-mini-portable systems is not the answer > in the near term (this is not to say that iTunes integration isn't > important to use cases #2 and #3). But the cheap generic radios does not sync with my squeezeboxes or use the versatile plugin architecture of the squeeze system . And radio is 2-3 times more expensive than the competition . Now that logitech have dumbed it down to UE radio lets see how that fares when it's twice as expensive ;) To be fair Eu radio still have the app system so some advantage over the compettition ( even if many apps are gimmicks ,why just not offer the functionality pre installed ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96660 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
