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Re: schematic,new looper
At 10:32 AM 9/22/2002, Mark Sottilaro wrote:
>It isn't?! I can't remember his name, but I got an email from someone at
>Gibson who was complaining about the problem with getting those simms.
No, it really isn't a big problem. Gibson has to find a vendor that has a
large stock of them so supply a whole production and is willing to sell
them at the low price they want to pay. There are many to choose from, the
problem is more in getting the price low enough. But they are available.
And when you look at the prices, using any other type of "new" memory
would
actually result in a much higher list price for the EDP.
> It stuck in my mind because I thought a lot about a time in the future
> when hardware becomes obsolete even though it provides a valid use and
> runs good software.
It is a very real problem for music products to manage component
obsolescence. The cost to develop a product like this is the same whether
you are going to sell 100 or 1 million. But with niche music products, the
volumes will be really low compared to practically any other type of
product. This isn't like networking appliances, where the volumes are
relatively low but the exact same type of hardware could be sold for
$5-10k. So the price is pretty low too. The only way to make back the
investment in the development is for the product to last in the market for
a long time. Many years in fact. It simply is not economically viable to
put out new hardware versions of niche music gear every year like with
consumer PC products. So you really have to be careful about the
components
used, and cross your fingers a bit. It is a serious disaster if a part is
used that is too closely tied otherwise to the PC industry. They will stop
using it within a year, and the manufacturer will likely stop making it.
Then you are screwed. Just the cost to do a minor change in the hardware
to
replace such a part can wipe out the profits of the whole product.
kim
______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint | Looper's Delight
kflint@loopers-delight.com | http://www.loopers-delight.com