Any company can have something catastrophic happen in 10 years that affects their future business whether they are a small private company or a large corporation. We have all seen cases of both. And we have all seen companies of all sizes that continue on with greatness. I like to think the glass is half full.
If you are thinking out 10 years you get to enjoy whatever brand of radio you buy and get your money's worth of enjoyment. Even if a company does not go out of business you still need to deal with obsolescence. It is difficult to get parts for some obsolete rigs, even from the large companies that are still introducing new equipment. I would assume in 10 years I would be into a K4, K50, FT500,000, an IC-80,000, Flex 1,000,000 or my K3's with all kinds of upgrades so it is still on top of the heap. But in the mean time I am really enjoying my K3's. Now I go back into my hole. 73, N2TK,Tony #311 #1435 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nate Bargmann Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 6:07 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Interesting Conversation about FT-5000 vs K3 * On 2010 01 Dec 09:16 -0600, Lee Buller wrote: > He said, "I think Yaesu, ICOM, and Kenwood will still be around in 10 years. > Will Elecraft?" With Motorola having a majority share of Vertex/Standard, will Yaesu be around in 10 years? Even with the release of the TS-590, Kenwood's interest in the serious high-end of HF gear has been in some doubt for a long time. That leaves only Icom who appears serious enough to be around a decade hence as a full line manufacturer. I'll go further and suggest that 10 years from now the amateur radio market place will look almost nothing like it does today. Wouxun is now on the tongue of a lot of hams. Expect more Chinese imports to follow and they *will* undercut the Japanese on price. The question is when their performance will match the Japanese Big Three offerings. While the Big Three are responding to Elecraft now, their real worry would seem to be the up and coming Chinese as they are working from the same playbook the Japanese used 40 years ago. But, Lee, your logical answers were unheeded because some people cannot be outside of the comfort zone of owning what everyone else owns. The examples of this are legion. In his mind, Elecraft is a bit player and not a "safe bet". The problem is psychological, not logical. Elecraft interested me way back when W0EB had a booth at the KS Convention years ago. I just didn't express that interest outwardly nor really to myself, but I was interested to see where this company was going in the future. The seed for buying a K3 was really only planted about a year ago as I overheard testimonial after testimonial on the bands. Yet, I took my time and did my homework (that conservative German nature coming through I guess) and decided to pull the trigger before this autumn's operating season. As Wayne stated, Elecraft's customers are the best sales force the company has. Clearly, the K3 is not for everyone for various reasons, but for a lot of us it is a fine radio that will find a home in our shacks for years to come. 73, de Nate >> -- "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true." Ham radio, Linux, bikes, and more: http://n0nb.us/index.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
