I agree what you said for a $300 million? business. I have been in management of projects that have a 5 year budget in that area. But Elecraft is far from that. I see many plusses from announcing the product when they did. Add in a little enthusiatic optimism coupled with the knowledge they have a faithful following, they have been able to divert potential business from straying - which helped me make my decision to buy since I was in the market. The "down payment" was no issue with me, either, you either pay now or pay later, with interest to their financier.? So, rather than place them in a takeover position, I was happy to do the $ down. A lot can be said about a bigger company having in-situ production capability, but that wasn't always the case, i.e. it is Elecraft's time to move on. They should be thankful that they didn't eat the investment over in-house capability with out-sourced PCBs coming to maturity. The painful result of having a full vertically integrated facility at this?date is the?process of dismantling it and transitioning to outsourcing is rife with conflict. What do we do if outsource causes problems we can't fix and decide to go back?? Who pays for it (duh, the customer) and so on. Anyway. . . it's done and it will be great. By taking the 'risk' I'll have my K3 on the air this evening.
73,? Al WA6VNN -----Original Message----- From: Phil Westover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 8:01 am Subject: [Elecraft_K3] K3 Product Launch My profession is R&D, product development and product launch with a $300 million/year company. One alternative to this entire situation would have been for Elecraft to do what we do: Not divulge anything about the product or its launch schedule until all development is finished and all production systems are ready. I've enjoyed watching Elecraft's development with the K3. It's an insight that I normally don't get (because all of our competition keeps everything very quiet and secret as well). Whenever the customer gets any wind of a new product, especially one as exciting as the K3, the risk is very high to keep everyone happy. I don't criticize Wayne and Eric (and the gang) for letting us all know what's happening. After all, they did keep things secret for 3+ years! But as I said, with the first production runs not completed at the time of the announcements, they are taking the risk. I think they knew that, and I think they are so dedicated to getting the job done right that they were willing to take that chance. I haven't ordered a K3 yet, but I will. By not being one of the early adaptors, I reduce the risk for myself as well. - Phil WA7URV ________________________________________________________________________ Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com
