[Elecraft] KPA-800 etc.

[Phil LaMarche]

Rudy,

Great focused thoughts.

Phil 


Philip LaMarche 
LaMarche Enterprises, Inc.
www.instantgourmetspices.com

www.w9dvm.com 
800-395-7795 pin 02 
727-944-3226 
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K3  #1605

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-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Rudy Bakalov
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 5:23 PM
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Elecraft] KPA-800 etc.

IMHO, taking the OEM route is Elecraft's best approach to meeting the demand
for amplifiers and other products that are expensive to develop and bring to
market.  Elecraft is a small company with very limited capital and resources
and new, R&D intensive products are unlikely to be commercially viable.
Assuming that there are approximately 4,000 K3 manufactured to date, my
guesstimate is that 25% of the owners will purchase an amplifier.  In other
words, we are talking about 1,000 units at best; add another 100/year in
future sales and the market size is still pretty small for a single-focus
player.
Should Electraft take the OEM route, SPE may not be the best OEM vendor as
they appear to be focused on the ham-radio market.  I would seek OEM
arrangements with large manufacturers that do not depend much on amateur
radio sales, such as Acom.
>From margins perspective, even small margins with no R&D cost are much
better than still relatively small margins, but with a significant R&D cost.
 It's all about economies of scale and economies of scale are not Elecraft's
forte.
Speaking of R&D and OEM, I also think there are great opportunities to apply
the OEM concept to the K3 itself.  For example, Alex VE3NEA (the guy who
created CW Skimmer) has been working on a bleeding edge RTTY decoder that
takes advantage of the power of modern DSP and CPU components; why not
license his or any other kick-ass RTTY decoder to turn the K3 into the
RTTY-er's choice?
Or how about opening the firmware so that anyone can write for the K3?  As
brilliant the Elecrfat guys are, they are no match for the collective brain
power of the community, not to mention their limited time.
So my bet is that we will continue seeing minor additions to the K3 product
line due to limited resources and capital.
Rudy N2WQ
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