[Elecraft] Competition coming for Elecraft?

[EricJ]

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of N2EY at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 4:18 AM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Competition coming for Elecraft?

In a message dated 11/1/05 11:37:54 PM Eastern Standard Time,
eric_csuf at hotmail.com writes:


> The number of hams with $6000 who want to connect pre-made cables
> to pre-assembled boards chock full of SMDs is likely a tad on the small
> side. And both of those guys already bought an IC-7800.
> 

Maybe, but consider this:

Back in 1999, when the K2 hit the ham market, I recall a bit of negativity 
from
hams I knew. Typical comment went like this:

'The number of hams with $600 who want to stuff circuit boards, wind toroids

and do all the other assembly and alignment work, just to get a QRP CW-only 
rig, is likely a tad on the small side.'

KE6US: Actually, in 1999 Elecraft would have been riding the crest of a
Golden Age for QRP, CW and a resurgence in homebrewing. It all came together
including two guys with the right combination of engineering, marketing and
management talent. Of course, it wouldn't appeal to everyone. That's the
point of niche marketing. If you broaden the niche, you run head-on into
Kenwood, Icom and Yaesu. If you narrow the niche, you can't sell the
critical mass needed to survive. I'm suggesting that Sienna's niche is too
small.


Or this:

'Why put a high-performance receiver on a QRP rig? You'll just hear a whole 
lot of stations you can't work'

KE6US: This would have been coming from those who were not already QRPers.
As I said, Elecraft hit the market at a time when interest in QRP was
growing.


Or this:

'The QRP market is too small to support such a complex and expensive rig.
And 
in
a year or so Ikensu will come out with a competitor for less money'

Etc. Gloom and doom, yada yada yada.

5000+ K2's later, however, none of the gloom and doom has happened.

--

Is the Sienna "competition"? Not for Elecraft! Its competitors are rigs like

the Orion, IC-7800, etc. 

KE6US: I agree. So that puts a small company in Colorado in direct
competition with the industry leaders. It's not smart marketing. Instead of
carving out a profitable niche that is of no interest to the market leaders,
they assault them directly and join the fight for market share. That isn't
niche marketing...it is often just suicide.


To me the best features of the Sienna are:

- It offers the builder at least some level of repairability.

KE6US: Limited to the areas the builder potentially screwed up...cabling
errors and solder joints.

The customer service for these people is going to be unimaginable. Not only
will they be taking on all the construction errors, they will be taking on
every computer burp! Customer service will deal with every XP problem,
computer application problem, etc. And having it all in one case is going to
appeal more to those who know the least about computers.

Again, Elecraft got it right. The design anticipates customer service issues
from inexperienced builders. DV's biggest vulnerability is in customer
service.

 
- It can be configured the way you want it, rather than paying for features 
you don't want. 

KE6US: Not exactly an issue for someone who wants a $10K IC-7800 or FT-9000,
is it? And these are Sienna's potential customers.

Plus features can be added or removed in the future.

KE6US: That seems to be the direction everything is headed and that's a good
thing.


Gee, where have I seen those things before...
73 de Jim, N2EY

KE6US: It will be interesting to see if it plays out the same.

Eric
KE6US
www.ke6us.com




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