On reflection I'm dissappointed about all this, but to a certain extent
I don't know why.

What I have always loved about the Squeezebox is that it married my
interest in music and hi-fi with my love of IT.  This was then made
even stronger by the fact that I could read the source and understand
how it worked and even tinker with my system when I felt the need.

BUT....fundamentally I am not a mainstream user.  Non-techy friends
have been blown away by what the Squeezebox device can do, but once I
told them what it cost and what was needed they were not always so
keen.

I think the problem here is that Slimdevices has become too successful
to continue as it was. Media Streaming is clearing an up and coming
market and SD are not going to be able to continue forever on ripped
CDs as a source - CD is a dated format now and I'm sure the music
industry would dearly love to hasten its demise. Online music and DRM
is going to be the future whether we like it or not.

For SD to continue to move forward they do need to appeal to the mass
market - it can be done as Apple have proved.  This is where a link
with Logitech makes more and more sense.

I suspect the future will be to embrace DRM and get down to a mass
market price point. Otherwise I fail to see how Logitech can get a
return on their investment.  This is a real opportunity for there to be
a SD device in every living room - the only shame would be that it may
not be in mine....There will always be another start-up coming along
that delivers what I want!

It does feel like the end of an era, but to quote the late great George
Harrison 'All things must pass'.


-- 
Browny

http://www.last.fm/user/BrownySV/
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Browny's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2295
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28821

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