Working for big software company and being engaged into portfolio planning processes I might claim that I know what top management in such companies expects. Slimdevices was a niche company focusing on enthusiasts, as Xinthar and many others also mentioned above, and Logitech is a box moving company with strong focus on cost leadership and volume business. Logitech was and is in relatively premium segment for all computer peripherals devices. Still the main focus is on the cost and volume. And these two worlds do not fit together. The quick start with unfinished products did not bring expected success - I guess most of us still remember server related issues with Duet and first Touch.
Another biggest challenge in the industry is: "I want it like Apple" biasing. All companies want to have continues revenue stream from the content we all use. Apple, Google, Spotify and some other companies do offer and engage partners into revenue sharing Programs. It is very tasty offer, and having millions of users multiplies by few cents on regular basis becomes a big sum at the end. Some companies could monetize this approach, but not many others as the infrastructure costs might be higher than generated revenue. This is the area where volume and guaranteed cash flow are the must. And I guess having enthusiasts market in the mind revenue sharing model would not work: we all have own CDs libraries and this is one of the main reasons why we actually purchase Duet, Touch and some earlier devices. This does not fit well together. Own library generates Zero revenue for Logitech and there is only one possibility to connect all of us to revenue source - to get us off our libraries. This is exactly where the shift in the product line goes against our expectations. Logitech will not be able to work for the niche market. This will not fit into the corporate structure. There are plenty of examples where this did not work. Remember just Yahoo acquisition of "Musicmatch Jukebox" - exactly the same reason. Unfortunate result is well known. If Slimdevices had some patents protecting technology, ideas - then it is unlikely that Logitech will reverse changes - they want to be in the volume business and have revenue share model working - where mandatory connection to the server is a must. And it will be active as long as the revenue will be high enough to keep IT infrastructure. Otherwise Logitech will need to change the strategy and come back to enthusiast market, but thenÂ… competition with Apple, Google, Sonos and multiple other vendors will be tough. When with currently defined strategy all of them might be just partners (at least for some time until competitive offering is available). Interesting, very interesting case for the MBA strategy course :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ AndreE's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=30476 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96188
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