RE: Products, Services, and Looping Gear "Packages"

["Jeff Larson" <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com>]

> From: Bob Amstadt [mailto:bob@looperlative.com] 
> Before I went out and designed a hardware looper, I seriously 
> considered creating a software looper.  I decided against it 
> because I didn't want to deal with the headaches of having to
> support all the different configurations of computers 
> and audio devices.

FWIW, I've found supporting different computers and audio devices
relatively easy.  The absolute *fu&^XUBG* nightmare is supporting all
the various VST hosts.  This would be the single most critical
packaging decision.
 
> I'm not saying that you could succeed selling ready-made 
> looping laptops, but I am saying that it may not be easy.  This 
> is especially the case when your customers start calling you months
> later because their laptop stopped working.

Right on.  When people start paying thousands of dollars for an
"appliance" they expect you to fix it.  This is especially problematic
for computers not just because of hardware variability, but
because it is almost impossible to prevent people from doing stupid
things to them.

You could try to take the "installing uncertified software voids
the warranty" stance, but this may be difficult in practice.

Jeff