Osamede wrote: > True that the server support needs for 3rd party would have been > massive without better software. But ultimately integration into > AV/Audio hardware should have been the vision, not selling standalone > boxes Put it this way: even 10-15 years ago selling standalone radio > tuners was a dead end market. integration had to be the game. And as the > previous poster said, at reasonable price point.
I'm not so sure the timing of the Fusion Research product offering is an unfortunate coincidence for Fusion Research. Maybe their offering and the cancellation of the SB lineup are related. Consider. Logitech may have had some strategy of unifying their media offerings. At least re-naming the server to LMS suggests that, as does their investment in the Harmony remote control line. The Revue may have been part of a strategy to unify electronics in the living room. Its a logical extension of the idea of "peripherals" from the PC world to home theater. They apparently lost a great deal of money on their Google TV offering (the Revue) and may have been forced to re-focus and sharpen their product lines to shore up their balance sheet - that is, to cancel their grand vision. At the time they canceled the Revue, I was a bit surprised how bitter their execs sounded (I have a Sony Google TV and think its an OK product) .... maybe they were bitter because they felt GTV's failure killed the cornerstone of their plan to take over the living room. Its not too hard to imagine a business consultant making the following observations: * The traditional SB devices rely on customer integration of complex systems. This will always be a small market, and with the exception of the Transporter (which wasn't refreshed during its product lifecycle, was it?), a market space with thin margins. * There is some reason to think that sooner or later the traditional SB product line might be overshadowed (in the public's mind) by a device from Apple .... at least, this would certainly seem like a risk to a consultant. To put it another way, even a profitable niche is a risky place to be. You have to be a substantial player or risk loosing the market. * The SBR is undoubtedly the most popular SB, and could be more popular if simplified. So the strategy might be this: * Re-deploy the traditional SB product line for PROFESSIONAL integration. Logitech doesn't play in this space, which would mean selling support and intellectual property to the likes of Fusion Research is the best way of moving their IP (intellectual property) into this other market space. This could explain why the Fusion devices come out the same month Logitech announced EOS (end of sale) for the traditional SB. * Distance the SBR from the SB lineup and simplify it - hence the UER. The one thing that doesn't make sense is that the Fusion boxes use mysb.com ... they could easily have supported another domain using the same backend s/w and h/w. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ wuffles's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=32915 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96231 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
