maggior;495853 Wrote: > > My fear about convergance is that you will see devices that do > everything in a mediocre fashion rather than devices that do something > really well. These devices would be the hybrid bikes (road > bike/mountain bike combo) of media streamers - yuk! > > Since the SB does audio really well, perhaps they could build upon that > and add other capabilities without damaging the core audio capability. > That would at least keep their current user base happy. > > I wonder if the SB line can move from being niche devices without > embracing convergance. And can the SB line survive long-term as a niche > device? > I think Logitech needs to make a choice: 1. Either be really good at the audio part 2. Or use the technology in the Squeezebox and mix it with some video hardware and make generic streaming devices.
Alternative 1 isn't the mass market (at least I don't think so), but alternative 2 is. The competition in alternative 2 is a lot harder then in alternative 1, at least as far as I've seen. If people can choose between a device that can do audio and a device that can do audio+video and the price is similar, most people in the mass market segment is going to select the device that can do both. As mentioned earlier audio and video are completely different use cases, still I'm pretty sure most people in the mass market segment would prefer an all in one device. Kind of similar to why they prefer a small stereo with built in CD player, amplifier or radio over a HiFi system built on separate components. People in the music lover segment, might realize that audio and video is totally different before the purchase. These people will be interested in a audio only device as long as it also gives a clear advantage over a combined audio+video device, it's not enough to just being able to play the music files, it got to enhance the experience through great sound quality and music library control and managment. People in this segment also want to have integration with other audio related products. They want to easily bring the music outside in the garden or on their portable player, they want to bring it in the car, they want to easily be able to purchase new music and download or rip+tag it. <off topic> Generally there is a problem with most video devices on the market, they assume that you somehow has got a lot of video files and stored it on a hard drive. It's very rare with video devices that takes care of the purchase/download step to actually get the video to your hard drive so it's accessible. I think AppleTV does this through its rental services but unfortunately it doesn't work very good in Europe. Tivo sounds pretty good, unfortunately no commercial actor has thought about doing the same thing in Europe, here we have to rely on home built MythTV systems to get similar functionality. </off topic> -- erland Erland Isaksson 'My homepage' (http://erland.isaksson.info) (Install my plugins through Extension Downloader) (Developer of 'TrackStat, SQLPlayList, DynamicPlayList, Custom Browse, Custom Scan, Custom Skip, Multi Library, Title Switcher and Database Query plugins' (http://wiki.erland.isaksson.info/index.php/Category:SlimServer)) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72512 _______________________________________________ beta mailing list beta@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/beta
