On Sun, 13 May 2007, James Duffey wrote:
The conclusion one can draw is that there won't be many K2s sold for
exclusively home (base) use. The more options one puts on a K2, the less
value it presents. The market for those who want a low power consumption rig
must be close to saturated, or at least will be if lots of K2s hit the market
in anticipation of their owners moving up to a K3.
I expect that most of the K2s sold for base use go to people who are
interested in building and maintaining their own base rigs. Whether they
go for 10w or 100w is then simply a matter of operating style and
time/budget. I agree that the K3 will eat into K2/100 sales in this
market, but I don't think it'll destroy it. With all respect to the K3,
it's a computer, and swapping boards isn't this community's idea of
building and maintaining. I also don't think you'll see many of these K2
owners selling. We put a lot of love into building them.
The QRP builders' market has always been niche, but it is full of
active, vocal enthusiasts. This market can be saturated by any given
product, but I doubt it ever actually saturates. I don't even want to
count the number of rigs I have in this category. These folks will
probably buy a lot of K3s -- when they would never buy a similarly classed
or priced YaeComWood -- simply because of the brand loyalty. At the same
time, I don't see them dumping their K2s, and I see continued K2 sales to
this group as builders work up to bigger and more complex kits.
The K2/100 as a dedicated contesting rig is an interesting emergent
market. Most people who are serious about their contesting have a "big
rig" at home, and take one of the mid-sized high end commercial boxes to
the field. The K2's entry into this market has been fascinating and mostly
driven by the quest for performance. This is where I think we'll see the
most turn-over, and that's nothing new. These folks have been buying the
latest and selling what they aren't using ever since the hobby began.
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