mrchrispy Wrote: > In order to fly off the shelves the Squeezebox needs to be on the > shelves to begin with. There are are hardly any retailers selling it > right now. I live in NYC and wanted to pick one up at a bricks and > mortar store and couldn't find one. (Tekserve only had the Squeezebox > 2). Internet sales are great, but for a consumer product you really > need to find a way to get in stores. > > Squeezebox is a great product - I love mine, but it's really not > marketed to consumers at all. I can't imagine growth is "exponential" > because there's no awareness of the product in the marketplace (which > is why you all have such trouble explaining the product to your > friends). Ask 100 people at random on the street what a squeezebox is > and you'll get 100 blank stares. Ask 100 people what an iPod is and 30 > will take one out of there pocket to show it off, 65 will offer an > explanation, and 5 will adjust their hearing aids and ask you to repeat > your question. > > One of the reasons that iPods sell so well is that they've been > brilliantly and exhaustively marketed. If/when Apple ever gets serious > about competing with the squeezebox with something other than Front Row > they'll probably outsell Slim's lifetime numbers within a week or so > (assuming they build a halfway decent product). That's not a knock on > the people at Slim, just a testament to the power of advertising.
Well, to add to this train of thought, Squeeze has done a great job of being a niche product, but to bust out to the mainstream the price will have to come down. Wi-fi appliances like the SB3 don't cost $300, they cost $150, $200 at most. I've showed my SB2 off to several friends who were very interested in the device until they found out what the cost was. You'd really think with direct sales they could sell for less and still make a good profit (while possibly increasing their volume). Then again, maybe that's not the goal, maybe they would like to sell more to the Niche crowd. -- jmpage2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ jmpage2's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=41 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=23505 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
