http://www.empeg.com/empeg.html

has such interesting FAQ like:

How has this affected the car player?

New Revised answer: SonicBlue means that after we completed our main production run, we're going to ensure that the only way to get any future product will be for us to sell it to some middle-man company via an OEM arrangement, let them mark it up further, and let THEM sell it to you.

The tuner module has been finalised by Rio's electronics facility in Germany and is expected to become available during Q2 2001.

should now read: "The tuner module was available in a limited production run, and if you didn't get it while you could, you're fairly screwed unless we decide to do another run of them."

That page is just one of those things that you look back on and go "Hmmmmmm"

D

Hmm, are you suggesting that with the benefit of hindsight we might have gone for one of those lucrative IP deals that would have ensured the discontinuation of all manufacturing and consumer sales at the end of 2000? I guess we could have just shut down the business, that's always a good option too.

Instead we went with SB and that decision quadrupled the volume of car players in the world. Frankly that's more car players than I thought would ever be made when we were empeg.

Rob

Noooo, all I'm saying is that a lot of what's in that "buy-out heads-up", in hindsight, didn't quite play out as it seemed at the beginning, and that updating that document might be in order. D

I thought about that the other day, but thought I'd leave it alone for historic reasons.

Rob

Maybe somehow to "date" the document more formally. It says the date of the acquisition, but to make it abundantly clear that it's "historical" and not "predictive". D

New Revised answer: SonicBlue means that after we completed our main production run, we're going to ensure that the only way to get any future product will be for us to sell it to some middle-man company via an OEM arrangement, let them mark it up further, and let THEM sell it to you.

Oh, come on, Dredd. I have been as critical of SonicBlue as anyone else, probably more so. But the OEM arrangement has nothing to do with intentionally screwing the customer. You've been on this BBS for almost as long as I have, so surely you must be aware that Empeg would be a DISTANT MEMORY without being bought out by someone.

Like you, I would rather Empeg could keep making the Empeg as an aftermarket product, but it's clear that they couldn't do the volume in the aftermarket that would be necessary to stay profitable. In case the stock markets haven't taught us a lesson, let's review... Companies that aren't profitable die.

As for the tuners, they have already said they're going to see what they can do about the tuners. Show me another fscking company that's going to promise that kind of action within hours of the customer complaints...

You should catch up in the other part of this thread. It wasn't meant to be as critical as it sounded .. just sorta "ironic" that most of what was described, in hindsight, came to pass MUCH differently than was thought... D

just sorta "ironic" that most of what was described, in hindsight, came to pass MUCH differently than was thought...

That sounds like the definition of "life." Things happen much differently than you think they will.

Hey, I realize you were just trying to point out the disparity between SonicBlue's grand vision of what would happen and what they were actually able to deliver. But is that really news? Every company's marketing literature is way ahead of their actual ability to make those things happen. In that regard, SonicBlue is no more or less evil than any other company out there.

But I wasn't pointing out "evil"ness at all. It was all about IRONY, hence the subject.

D

But I wasn't pointing out "evil"ness at all. It was all about IRONY, hence the subject.

But earlier on...

we're going to ensure that the only way to get any future product will be for us to sell it to some middle-man company via an OEM arrangement, let them mark it up further, and let THEM sell it to you.

Hey, the subject is one thing, but that statement really sounds like SonicBlue is doing their damnedest to screw the customer. I apologize for taking this out of context.