Subject:
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RE: Future Mindstorm Releases?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Wed, 1 Sep 2004 02:01:59 GMT
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Original-From:
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Rob Limbaugh <RLIMBAUGH@GREENFIELDGROUP.nomorespamCOM>
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Viewed:
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977 times
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: news-gateway@lugnet.com
> [mailto:news-gateway@lugnet.com] On Behalf Of David Koudys
> Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 11:46 AM
> To: lego-robotics@crynwr.com
> Subject: Re: Future Mindstorm Releases?
>
> In lugnet.robotics, Steve Hassenplug wrote:
> > In lugnet.robotics, Juergen Stuber wrote:
> > > Jon Gilchrist <robots@DEELEETEf3p.com> writes:
> > > > There are other stirrings that *something* is happening with
> > > > Mindstorms, but nobody seems to know what.
> > >
> > > Can you tell us more about those stirrings?
> >
> >
> >
> > There were two things Jake said during his speech at Brickfest.
> >
> > 1) Mindstorms is NOT dead.
> > 2) The future of Mindstorms is not the 2.0
> >
> > With the popularity of FLL, I find it very unlikely LEGO would stop
> > making the RCX.
>
> I know this is a tangent from the current conversation...
>
> Some Commodore guy said years ago that the magic price point
> for electronics is 300 dollars--if you get it under that,
> they sell like hot-cakes, thus the success of the VIC 20 and
> then the C=64 (when the 64 got under the 300 dollar mark).
>
> The thing is, both the Vic and the 64 sold amazingly well at
> 300 bucks, but, after a year, they became cheaper--the last
> 64 I bought new was at a Zellers for 99.99--that was about
> 4-5 years after the 64 hit the 300 dollar mark.
The most notable difference is that the Commodore had what the RCX does
not: competition
> Now the RIS, new on the shelf, even after being on the market
> for the same amount of time as the 64, is still 300 bucks
> (CDN--btw, all funds discussed in this post are CDN ;) )
>
> There are a few differences--Commodore computers became
> cheaper to make after a while, and there was stiff
> competition from Atari, TRS-80 and Apple--the RCX has no such
> competition. Whether the RCX is cheaper to make today than
> it was when it first came out, I'd imagine but I do not know.
Commodore was able to give such pricing and dominate because they owned
MOS Technologies, the company that made the 65xx chips that were in most
of their "competition" and in their own machines. They also had a
"computers for the masses, not the classes" goal.
During the life cycles, Commodore improved the circuit design which
resulted in less parts needed (coupled with laws of supply & demand and
the emergence of the PC's we use today).
In contrast, there are two flavors of the RCX: educational and
consumer. Originally, the educational and consumer RCX were the same
(1.0 with the power jack). Now they are two different styles. The
educational one still has the power adapter, but the consumer RCX does
not. The consumer one should be cheaper to make, yet the prices never
went down (as you've indicated) because there is no competition,
therefore prices are essentially fixed.
> What I do know is that if the price of an RIS 2.0 set came
> down to the 150-200 dollar mark (again, CDN), I'd buy a few more.
>
> As it stands, $299.99 is very pricey after it's been on the
> market for as long as it has, imho.
I'm not sure how anyone else feels, but I'd be willing to spend $70-$100
on an "RIS expansion set" if LEGO offered one that was an RCX (with
power jack) and a handful of parts (such as a motor, a sensor, wires,
and a technic gear set) and current software update patches--I'd be
happy to buy several of such sets as opposed to one RIS or even 1 RCX
through Dacta (at it's current price).
> >
> > However, again because of the FLL, I doubt they will make the huge
> > jump many AFoLs are hoping for.
I'd be more inclined to believe LEGO will make jumps FLL needs/wants to
drive the design for the next RCX. But, they'd probably use general
consumer research to decide packaging, software, complexity, and product
presentation if they intend to sell it to both consumers and educators.
> Eh, that's why we have John Barnes :)
It would be nice to have LEGO to count on, too...
- Rob
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