The disappearance of companies like Yaesu and Kenwood and their boring products could be the best thing to happen to ham radio for a long time. It would create new opportunities for small companies like Elecraft or Juma (http://www.nikkemedia.fi/juma-trx2/). Small companies selling direct via the Internet can compete well on cost with the big mass produced products because the dealers and distributors handling the latter products demand such huge profit margins.
I think that as the Chinese gain more personal wealth (and they are - you may not see many Chinese tourists in the USA due to visa restrictions but they are in Europe now in droves) and get interested in ham radio you will see more Chinese ham radio products. I have a Chinese 2m HT (though it's really a wide band VHF model that I've programmed 2m channels into.) The Chinese are not really innovators though. Their strength is in manufacturing cheaply products that are designed elsewhere - something Wayne and Eric might want to think about if the K3 order book keeps growing faster than they can make them. :) -- Julian, G4ILO K2 s/n: 392 K3 s/n: ??? G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com Zerobeat Ham Forums: www.zerobeat.net/smf On Nov 7, 2007 6:00 AM, Corboy-Poteet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My thoughts (semi-serious) were that should the Amateur products > portion of Vertex include manufacturing and marketing it might be > worth looking at. Internal access to the Japanese market and I would > think that Elecraft could cherry pick for the capabilities they could > use (like manufacturing). But you are right, even should Motorola be > able to do a clean split of the amateur radio portion they would > certainly expect the buyer to assume all warranty obligations and > other repair, not a pleasant prospect. > > But probably all of Yaesu amateur products are so inextricably tied to > Vertex commercial and government gear that a clean separation will be > impossible. Motorola is certainly not going to continue turning out > Yaesu amateur radio products but the 20% left in the hands of the > company's founder may do so in some form. > > Ironic, if Yaesu fades and Kenwood slowly withdraws, we may get back > to the point where the big names in amateur gear are again American > and (perhaps) European. I guess China could enter the market but I > would expect that the Chinese business model does not include low > volume endeavors like Ham Radio (unless, of course, Elecraft sells > hundreds of thousands of K3's and the Chinese notice). :) > > > Mike W5FTD > > > > > > > > Ha ha ... someone hand Wayne the smelling salts ... > > he likely passed out after reading that post (Elecraft acquires Yaesu). > > > Guess opportunity and problems come in bunches! > > > w9gb > > > >> You know, this may be Elecraft's opportunity to make its first > >> corporate acquisition: take Yaesu off Motorola's hands (this assuming > >> that Yaesu has some manufacturing and marketing assets). Though > >> probably Yaesu manufacturing is contracted out to China; perhaps not a > >> net plus for Elecraft. > > > >> Mike W5FTD > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Post to: [email protected] > You must be a subscriber to post to the list. > Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm > Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com > _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
