Well, I’m not an expert in business and marketing, but this turned up after a brief google: How to Avoid Disappointing Your Customers When Launching a New Product
One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that your customers haven’t misunderstood the purpose of your product. If you’re launching a new product or a new product category, customers don’t necessarily know what it’s going to deliver. As a result, they’re comparing your product with an image of your product in their head, which could be an unrealistically high bar to reach.
In this case it is the customer that is wrong, OK. Apple said exactly the same thing about the Phablet, now they spend their time trying to sue everyone for the billions in revenue they threw away through their own willfulness. I don’t mean to suggest that Yaesu are making a similar mistake, just that sometimes the customer is wrong, and sometimes it is the manufacturer that is wrong. When it is the customer that is wrong, it needs to be broken to them gently.
I do realise, however, that whatever customers choose to buy, Yaesu wins.
Matt
Matt, 1st rule of PR is never make forward looking statements that can impact negatively on current sales.
i.e. don’t tell everyone you will be making the current model obsolete in 2 years time with a new model that does everything the current one does but much better. Simple say “we have a policy of continuous improvement”.
All you have to fund your company costs is current sales. If you destroy your current sales, what will pay the 3 years design costs, production costs and testing & approval costs.
6 watts - why, it is but a flea bite in RX signal?
Better stability - why? I am not going to use an 817(8) for frequency stability critical modes on a hilltop
Larger battery capacity - that has been available for eons in other market places!
Something is not right here, I wonder if it is just, as others say, a chance to replace obsolescent components.
Incidentally, have they done anything about the very fragile external power socket?
But others might! The big thing about the 817 is its flexibility, well all the 8*7 family are flexible but the 817 is small and flexible, and if the 818 is just a revamp to overcome a shortage of obsolete components then I applaud it but won’t buy one until I need it - my current 817ND has years of life left in it!
Disappointing. Granted the price difference isn’t major considering it is less than the cost of a TCXO for an existing 817 - but in th end that’s all one gets. Better batteries by non-OEM now anyway. Probably would have been better off to announce an 817P or something as an upgrade vs replacement.
The minor upgrade and change of model ID we are apparently seeing might have been forced on Yaesu due to the Japanese type approval process, which is quite stringent.
It does prove one thing. They won’t be bringing this upgraded 817 out if they were designing a replacement like it has for the other rigs in its lineup.
I agree - I don’t think we’ll be seeing an FT-791 for sometime to come - if at all. This is a sensible business decision. The FT817 is still selling well. I would suggest Yaesu have learnt by attempting to replace the FT857 with the FT-891 and seeing a less positive response as the new rig has less coverage (no VHF). Perhaps the plan was for the FT-791 not to have VHF/UHF and is now having to be redesigned? All rumours, all just ideas.
Maybe they should have called it the “FT817X” - changing the model number has obviously raised expectations far higher than this upgrade will meet for many people!
A less positive response from Sota activators, perhaps, but there has been a lot of very positive comments about the rig, too - in fact I am considering one myself because of the compliments awarded to its DSP, a more effective DSP than that in the 857 is something that I really need in this noisy urban location!
I’d prefer FT-817ND Mk II as it really doesn’t need a new model number for such small upgrades, but I read somewhere that the FCC is easier with a new FT-818 number designation.
Yep, almost the same radio with TCXO9, bigger battery and 6 watts. Page 16 recommends you charge the battery on a 10 hour cycle if you haven’t used the radio in the last week…
If there was one change they could have made that would have made me leap at it, it would have been a waterproof case.
