Coming "Soon"? Really?

[OneEng]

I have been closely watching the new Behringer X32 line of mixers (yea, I know.  I would have bet good money a year ago that you would never hear me say this out loud, rather on write it on a public forum).

When they were "introduced" at the 2012 Winter NAMM (October I think?), the excitement about the product was significant.  The website states "Coming Soon!".

Ok, that was 4 months ago.

The latest rumors have it pegged at Q3 release .... which I translate into late September.

In another thread Abzurd pointed out (correctly so) that I shouldn't be rooting for a company ..... who is known largely for their lack of quality .... to be rushing a product to market.  (Good point).

What I am wondering is what you guys think of early introductions.  It seems like it is becoming more prevelent to announce a product, then take a year to actually have the product for sale.

I have always held our product releases until the product was ready (or very nearly so) for sale.

Now, there is more to doing this than meets the eye.  Everyone generally thinks that all you have to do is engineer the product ..... which you certianly do, but that is only part of it:

1. Alpha product - Internal testing only
2. Bill Of Materials and final costing per unit
3. Sourcing of manufacturing
4. Sourcing of components
5. Beta product - someone outside under NDA tests it
6. Initial production run (Pilot)
7. Marketing materials, Sales strategy
8. Distribution pipe fills
9. Release Product

Generally this takes us around 2 years from concept to release to the public.  A year before product availibility we would generally be at beta.  I generally don't announce unitl we are filling the distribution pipe (within a month or two of product release).

Do you think it is a good practice to announce the product a full year before you start selling it?  As a consumer, it is pretty annoying.

[RoadRanger]

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OneEng wrote:

Do you think it is a good practice to announce the product a full year before you start selling it?  As a consumer, it is pretty annoying.

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Only a year? Anybody have an IPR4500 yet ? 

Killing your competitor's sales with FUD is a standard tactic these days and just about everyone does it.

[ChiroVette]

 

I hear you, OneEng, I really do.

 

I waited as long as I could for the ix16 in the hopes it would release, because I need a small but nice mixer both for my acoustic trio (lol used to be a duo) and to act as backup for when I get the big mixer for my Dead cover band, either the X32 or the SL 24.4.2.

I ended up going with the Mackie DL1608, which I ordered several days ago, because there was simply no indication that the ix16 would launch any time soon enough to suit my needs.

[OneEng]

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ChiroVette wrote:

I hear you, OneEng, I really do.

 

I waited as long as I could for the ix16 in the hopes it would release, because I need a small but nice mixer both for my acoustic trio (lol used to be a duo) and to act as backup for when I get the big mixer for my Dead cover band, either the X32 or the SL 24.4.2.

I ended up going with the Mackie DL1608, which I ordered several days ago, because there was simply no indication that the ix16 would launch any time soon enough to suit my needs.

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Yea,

I still think that they will release the iX16 before Q3 ...... they were making noise about the iX16 before they were making noise about the rest of the X32 family.

I was originally thinking I didn't need a control surface .... but for an additional $500.00, it seems to be worth it over the X32 rack.

... and I know that there are advantages to releasing "VaporWare" products.  It can put a hold on peoples buying decisions and hurt the competition.

I always tell people that these kinds of tactics are a "White Elephant".  You can hunt the darned thing all day long, and never shoot it ..... because it doesn't exist.  It is impossible to win an arguement about a new product NOT being as good as a company SAYS it is going to be .... it is a white elephant!  Doesn't exist.  Nothin real to shoot at .... nothing real to track.

.... now once the product is actually released .... oh, well, now it is a gray elephant.  And gray elephants are big, they stink, crap all over the place and leave huge tracks in the dirt to follow.  Oh yea, you can shoot those rather easily

The thing about the X32 series is that the big brother is already on the market ..... and it doesn't stink.  I suppose this makes the tactic of making an early announcement even more effective.

As for the IPR4500 .... it is starting to look like the much anticipated PC game "Duke Nukem Forever" which is over 10 years late

I think there is some danger to this approach for Behringer.  If I were at Presonus, I can assure you that my engineering team would have had one of the first X32's, disected it, created a BOM, found the supply chain for parts, and would have a project to "one-up" the product with the next release of the StudioLive series in about 2 years.  Given a 1 year warning (actually Presonus has had more like 2 years), I would think Presonus could have a pretty good reprisal for the X32.

It is a risk to tip your hand too early.

Now, it seems to me that given that most of the X32 family is VERY closely related to the X32, Behringer should be able to punch out the remainder of the family pretty quick.

X32 Compact .... this is the easiest.  It is nearly identical to the X32 with fewer channels.

X32 Rack ... minus the control surface.  This should be the next easiest.

X32 Core .... Just the brains and the digital snale connections already present in the existing product.

X32 Producer .... this may require the most work since it uses a different LCD, different layout and thrifts quite a few of the knobs on the X32.  Sadly, this is the one I am most interested in

iX16 .... I have a feeling this is the most different of all the products ..... and may be where all the engineering effort is being spent.

The market volume for the iX16 is the highest.  For "mix from the stage" bands, this thing is going to be pretty darned nice ..... and it will be under $1K.... and I bet they make a pretty decent margin on this thing since there is so little to it physically.  I am guessing that the boys and girls at Behringer can do spread-sheet math just as good as I can

[drumstix]

Pretty much how the X32 mixer entered the market. Released NAMM 12, started popping up in the late summer for a very select few and hit the stores in the fall.

[agedhorse]

FCC part 15 as well as CE requires emi/emc testing and approval for unintentional radiators, in addition to intentional radiators such as transmitters. You might want to re-read the regs. Additionally. Even though you use a packaged radio transmitter board internal to hour finished product that carries a component approval the finished profits must be tested and approved as well.

[OneEng]

 

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agedhorse wrote:

 

FCC part 15 as well as CE requires emi/emc testing and approval for unintentional radiators, in addition to intentional radiators such as transmitters. You might want to re-read the regs. Additionally. Even though you use a packaged radio transmitter board internal to hour finished product that carries a component approval the finished profits must be tested and approved as well.

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True.

My point was that the majority of the FCC regulations are not pertenent if you don't intend on integrating a radio.  

We have a couple products with integrated wireless (wifi and bluetooth) using off-the-shelf radios and have gotten CE approval on them.  Never had to go through any FCC testing.  I have had them through Ford and GM IT approval and never had an issue.  It is possible that I got something through.

But to your point, this does cost some money and time to get done.

Does a year seem like a bit long to you for announcement to release?