One quick question to Peter. You say, "Look at the 6700, and *especially* the 6700R -- These look like First wave, price premium, no-holds-barred, products." No arguments from me but I'm curious as to why you say especially the 6700R, isn't the receiver in the 6700R going to be identical to the receiver in the 6700? I think I may be missing your point here.
Rick On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 8:09 AM, Peter G. Viscarola <[email protected]> wrote: > It's all about marketing and pricing and product introduction strategy, > isn't it. > > The standard strategy for high-end tech products is: > > First wave: You introduce a cutting-edge, highly differentiated, novel, > model at a premium price. There will be people who buy it who buy it > because they want "the best" and can use it's features to their maximum > potential, there will be people who buy it because they want to the latest > technology, and there will be people who buy it because it's expensive and > they want to show their friends they can afford it. > > If the product is sufficiently well differentiated, there's really no > competitive pressure. A customer buys your premium price product or misses > out on the newest technology. > > By introducing your newest model at a premium price, you maximize your > profit and recoup your R&D expenses more quickly. The "early adopters" > are happy. You're happy. The market is "seeded" with a bunch of happy > people, and the blogs are full of great reviews. Ordinary folks are > saying "I wish I could afford one of those, because they're great." That's > when you launch the second wave. > > Second wave: After you've filled the initial wave of orders, you use the > same technology (the R&D already having been paid for) but remove a few > features. You offer this model at a substantially reduced price from your > initial offering. This is really the "sweet spot" for most buyers, where > the "bang for the buck" is. The product has perhaps 90% of the capability > of the premium priced model, but is sold at maybe 60-70% of the premium > model's price. > > This is mainstream adoption. More good reviews, more happy people. You > wait a while, and introduce your third wave. > > Third wave: Your create a low-end derivative, at a "value" price point. > This uses the same base technological innovation as your first and second > wave products, but has a significantly reduced feature set and vastly > reduced cost. This is the "introductory" point in your product line, aimed > at getting people who are not normally buyers for your technology to buy > one of your products, in hopes that they'll get to know you, love your > stuff, and eventually upgrade... either in the current or next generation. > > This is standard tech marketing 101. Look around and you'll see many, > many, products that follow this pattern or a small variation of it. > > Look at the 6700, and *especially* the 6700R -- These look like First > wave, price premium, no-holds-barred, products. I applaud Flex for > introducing them, and am actually a bit surprised that they priced them so > reasonably. I suspect they have taken the economy into account, and > introduced the 6700 for about 20% less than what they could have charged. > > What Flex have done -- which I think is very considerate of the amateur > community -- is introduce their Second wave product, the 6500, at the same > time as their first wave product. Again, I suspect they very carefully > considered the economy here... this is a difficult time to be introducing > price premium products in a hobby market. By introducing Second Wave > products at the same time as First Wave products, they're maximizing > product uptake (the number of people who buy the product, total) and > probably total sales. They are likely not maximizing their profits. > > They ARE being considerate of the ham radio community by releasing the > 6500 early-on that many serious hams (serious QSO'ers or serious technology > addicts) can afford. I would *guess* that making such a great piece of > gear available at a reasonable price to the amateur community that has > supported them for these many years as a "thank you" of sorts is part of > their calculus. I can tell you, if I was the CEO of Flex I would have > shipped the 6700 and 6700R first and then intro'ed the 6500 for immediate > delivery about 9-12 months later. But, I'm not nearly as nice as the > people at Flex. And I'm sure they have their reasons, and information > that I don't have. > > Bottom line: Don't complain about the price. These folks aren't price > gouging. They're not even following the "standard play book" for > maximizing profits in the tech sector. Rather, they're introducing truly > innovative technology and letting us buy-in at a darn reasonable price. > Which is darn nice of them if you ask me. > > Peter > K1PGV > > > > _______________________________________________ > Flexedge mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz > This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is > used for posting topics related to SDR software development and > experimentalist who are using beta versions of the software. > -- Rick McClelland, AA5S Fort Collins, CO _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist who are using beta versions of the software.
