Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/03/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]If you get away from the Leica, and just look at it from a Sellers' point of view: The announcement of an upgrade that will PROBABLY become part of the standard product: It gets down to a customer need vs a want. If you make the announcement of the new widget being available in 6 months with the upgrade included at no additional cost: If it is a need, and need means you must have it by next week, because your factory gets shut down without having the walls done in time, then you buy it, pay the upgrade later. If it is a want, then you wait, cause it is bucks down the drain. The problem is that every marketing guy thinks it is a need...... All this is a generalization. Sure, there are exceptions, etc. But it is generally the truth. If you announce the new widget at a lower cost than the old, with the upgrades included, you choke off sales. Except for the Need folk. Ditto at a higher price... you choke off some sales permanently ( higher price to the marginal buyer); the "needs now" folk do not care and buy it anyway, now: and then you get to the argument The Wants make a dollar call.... is it worth more now to get the old camera, and do the upgrade: or is it better to wait a few months and pay the difference ? What is the price difference? How will that difference affect me? How long will the upgrade take and what will I do in that time frame? An area of gray. The wrong answer cuts off cash flow from this product. Can you afford that? If not, the conservative way is to wait in the announcement of the new widget, and its features until you use up the old stocks. Does that better address your question? Frank Filippone red735i@earthlink.net You still have not answered the question. A prospective customer who may want to buy a M8, now has a decision: pay $5500 now and may be another $1800-$2000 for an upgrade, or wait until Leica sells the M8.2 version for, lets say, in the middle, $6500. Sure Leica has made no announcement re: M8.2 availability or pricing, but that's the point. From a business perspective, they are in a dang if they do, dang if they don't position. They are in a bind. This has nothing to do whether I have my R-D1 in front of me, or an M8 behind me. It's a business and customer issue. I face similar issues in my company, just trying to see how other companies handle things. At 06:12 PM 3/6/2008, Sonny Carter wrote: >So Leica puts out a camera every three years, and NikCcanOlyPen puts out a >new camera at every phase of the moon. > // richard (This email is for mailing lists.