Subject:
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Re: Mindstorms on Slashdot
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Wed, 30 Nov 2005 02:34:20 GMT
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Original-From:
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steve <sjbaker1@airmail.!AntiSpam!net>
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Viewed:
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2498 times
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Matthew Davidson wrote:
>
> On Nov 29, 2005, at 12:00 PM, Mr S wrote:
>
> > Some suggestions (workable or not) would be:
> >
> > 1 - A tie-in with X-10 products for control of those
> > products
> > 2 - Wireless communications with sensors (bluetooth?)
>
>
> I thought about bluetooth, but I personally feel 802.11 would be
> better. I bought a Roku Soundbridge new for around $125 and that
> included a WiFi card.
>
> > 3 - More advanced sensors (get out of the experimentor
> > stage)
> > 4 - Ready made shells for home-brew parts/sensors
> > 5 - Products that link systems together at home in
> > ways that are not available to home users in general.
> > For example, look at new home construction products
> > and how they function over networks.
There have been dozens and dozens of discussions here about what
might or might not make a great RCX replacement - I don't think
there is much chance of it happening - so it's really a waste of
time to discuss it.
> Regardless, if Mindstorms was a runaway financial success for TLG, the
> product line would not have stalled. Even if a company has the ability
> to produce a product, does not mean it makes financial sense for them
> to do so.
Right.
The trouble is, we AFOL's see something as absolutely mouth-wateringly
great - but the general public might not even understand it.
We are a *TINY* fraction of TLG's business. I'd bet that even if
every one of us bought several 'new RCX' sets, Lego wouldn't come
even close to breaking even on the high R&D costs of such a part.
RCX is really the worst of both worlds - it's expensive to develop
(so high NRE) but has a small market niche (so cost-recovery is
difficult).
You can see why (if faced with a choice) they'd make a few standard
parts in new colours - *maybe* design a couple of new pieces - stick
a 'Harry Potter' label on it - and sell them in vast quantities.
That has a tiny NRE (mostly the licensing of the movie rights) - and
large quantity sales. If a set fails for some reason, the NRE was low,
so the loss is small. If you invest to make a new RCX and it fails,
you've just blown a couple of million dollars.
The only fix for that is to stick a big price tag on the set - but
that's just going to drive the market share down yet futher.
> Launching any new product (even if it is a aggregate of
> existing R&D) is a commitment. A financial commitment. And, it involves
> work. Sure, it could be a source of profit, but that is not enough. The
> projected sales figures have to reach a certain point for a product
> launch to be deemed worth doing. If catering to AFOLs and robotics
> enthusiasts registered on TLG's financial radar, I'm sure they'd do it
> in a heartbeat.
Yep - exactly.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Mindstorms on Slashdot
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| (...) I thought about bluetooth, but I personally feel 802.11 would be better. I bought a Roku Soundbridge new for around $125 and that included a WiFi card. (...) Is there a composite wish list for a next-generation RCX-like microcontroller (...) (18 years ago, 29-Nov-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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