In reply to:
For whatever it's worth, in my opinion, the news of the SB buyout of Empeg Ltd. marked the beginning of the end. It was the "Handwriting on the wall", so to speak
I had similar feelings. Even though it's pretty much accepted that Empeg would be dead if they hadn't been acquired by SOMEONE with some capital, I think there is some question as to whether SonicBlue was the best suitor. I'm not saying that any other company would have made an immediate earth-shaking profit on the Empeg MkII. But I think that maybe other companies would have had more patience with the product, and maybe let it go until a more marketable MkIII had come about.
My take on things goes like this... At some point before the SonicBlue acquisition, I remember either Hugo or Rob saying something along these lines... In the future, they didn't expect the Empeg to be their meal ticket. Instead, less featured and more "consumer friendly" car players would be their "money makers" and the Empeg would always be more of a "side project" that wouldn't make much money but wouldn't LOSE them money, so they'd be willing to keep it going. Well, the consumer friendly money-making model never had a chance to blossom.
Now we have been told the entire Empeg line is finished, and I put that squarely on the short-sightedness of the parent company. I am NOT a sales genius but I do know that the profits from the less extravagant model could have carried the Empeg as we know it "on its back." This is equivalent to how the Ford Mustang Cobra sells a lot of Mustang V6es (and even Tauruses and Escorts), and just as Johnny Walker Blue Label sells a lot of Johnny Walker Red. The high end model is what people lust after, and those who can't afford it will happily settle for the average model until they can.
Maybe if Empeg was acquired by Creative Labs, or Pioneer, or Aiwa things would have been different. (Yes, I'm just naming random companies with MP3 interests.) Maybe one of those companies would have had the patience to let the affordable less geeky model evolve, and maybe they would have given the Empeg people the freedom to keep the "flagship" model alive.
Instead, SonicBlue has decided that the "fringe" Empeg project is an unwanted nuisance in their efforts to turn the Empeg intellectual property into a moneymaker. I think every company has a right to make money, but I also think it would be great for a company's image to have a high-end model to put on the covers of magazines to get their name out. And THAT would lead to MORE profit on the middle and lower price points.
To summarize, I think killing the Empeg project is actually a POOR business decision, despite the trend away from aftermarket and towards OEM. I believe that the MkII could have driven up sales of more consumer friendly models. And I'm upset that SonicBlue wouldn't put a few more chips on the table to give that a chance.
All of that said, I love my Empeg, I greatly appreciate the time and effort put into it by the Empeg team, and I hope to see Empeg's software showing up in more gadgets in the future. I also am appreciative of SonicBlue at least taking a chance on a small company like Empeg. But next time, stay in the game for more than a year before you kill a flagship product.
-Tony
MkII #554
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