-----Original Message-----
From: Don
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2012 11:06 PM
To: Ed Haskell
Subject: Re: [FlexEdge] Whither PowerSDR and the 5000 3000 and 1500
Thank you Ed it does help.
I fully understand that FlexRadio will continue to support PowerSDR.
I do not question that.
But I also recognize that when a company takes on a new project one of three
things
must happen. Either a whole new crew must be hired to develop the new
product, the existing crew with some new members or the existing crew must
now
cover both old and new.
I do not know (and it's not really any of my business) which of the three
categories
mentioned above FlexRadio fits into. At least for now it appears that it is
the third,
where the existing crew must now cover both.
As time goes by the new project begins to use more and more resources.
This seems like the natural progression because it is now the new project
that is
generating most of the potential income. So the old project slows down and
at some point
gets shelved for future development. The old project will continue to be
sold which
now helps fund the new project since development cost have stopped.
"Now contemplate a day when all the original objectives of the Flex line
have plainly been accomplished." In my limited view point this is part
of the problem. PowerSDR has taken so long to get to this point I really
do not remember what was and what was not promised, but somehow I
don't feel that it is there yet. Now with the addition of the 6000 line I
see
this point moving further away in time.
Now with the new 6000 series it would appear that a maintenance fee is being
charged
for software development. Makes me wonder if all the "original" objective
will be met by
the time the hardware is shipped, somehow I don't think so. Which makes me
wonder
when the maintenance fee will start, when the hardware is shipped or when
the "original"
objectives are met?
Hopefully in the next couple of months all these type of questions will be
answered and the
fear sill subside.
73's
Don, kd6hq
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Haskell
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2012 4:09 PM
To: [FlexEdge]
Subject: [FlexEdge] Whither PowerSDR and the 5000 3000 and 1500
The question keeps coming up in different ways about whether and when Flex
Radio is going to stop improving PowerSDR and essentially abandon the
currently shipping hardware line. These recurring questions suggest that
some proportion of the subscribers to the two lists have an inadequate
understanding of how products are marketed. I'm going to attempt to
characterize the market realities that argue persuasively against dumping
the present hardware and ceasing development on PowerSDR. My hope is to
allay the fears of those who keep raising these questions as much as is
possible absent a definitive, comprehensive, and probably impractical
guarantee from Gerald Youngblood, whom I obviously do not speak for.
The United States is, or at least has been for most of the modern age, the
largest single market for electronics devices. It is natural that
manufacturers have adapted their approach to markets to accommodate the US
marketing approach which implements a method of segmenting a market around
the concept of 'price points'. Simply stated a price point is established
for a product that is characterized by a set of features and benefits for
which it is assumed a consumer will be willing to pay a certain price.
Multiple price points for the same kind of device exist such that a family
of products is designed and manufactured with increasingly desirable
features as the price increases.
In the case of Flex Radio there are presently three price points being
addressed by their shipping products, ranging from the 1500 at the bottom
to the 5000 at the top. It could be persuasively argued that at each of
these price points the Flex Radio offering is the best of the products
offered by all manufacturers participating in that market at that price
point. The only thing that keeps these products from being run away winners
in the market place is consumer fear and aversion to change. It took a
generation for the horse and buggy to disappear after Henry Ford found a
way to make the horseless carriage affordable. Those of us who have
purchased and used Flex Radios would, for the most part, not even consider
going back to the old way. Those who have not tried may not change during
their lifetimes or may simply not have been presented with an opportunity
to understand why the new way is so much better.
Price points generally do not change over time but feature creep provides
increasingly better devices for the same price as the years go by. Since
the currently shipping Flex products are considerably superior to the
competition it is almost certain they will continue to sell well in each of
their price points. Their development costs and market risks have all been
absorbed and now they are reaping the benefits of better profit margins due
to the lower costs associated with maturing products. To stop making and
supporting them now when they are at the point of maximizing profit would
be a completely irrational act. I have spoken to Gerald a number of times
over the past 7 years or so. He is not only a quite exceptional engineer
but a very successful business man (he had a fine career before retiring
and then fiddling with SDR). He is not the least bit irrational.
No one making analog radios can compete on price with Flex Radio for the
current product line. They enjoy the enviable position of having the best
market entry in each of their three price points and, I suspect the
greatest price flexibility (now) if it becomes necessary to defend
themselves. Worries about them abandoning the 1500 3000 or 5000 are simply
not justified. If I needed another 5000 I would not hesitate a picosecond
to order one.
As for PowerSDR. "The software is the radio" is frequently heard. The
reason it is oft repeated is that it is the truth. The current hardware can
be a cash cow for years, but not for a minute after users perceive that
development is being seriously curtailed on PowerSDR. I am sure it grates
on Gerald that a number of copycats are getting a free ride off PowerSDR.
However he can't do away with it (unless he comes up with a replacement
that won't work on the copycats) without shooting himself in the foot. (See
my reference above to him not being irrational.) There is the further
consideration that PowerSDR is Open Source software. If Flex Radio were to
burn to the ground tonight, taking with it all the developers and support
people (God forbid), the rest of us would not be left in the lurch.
Hundreds of copies of the source exist in the hands of users. It would take
a while for us to organize to carry on, but carry on we would. This would
not require any invention or anything otherwise speculative. The Open
Source model of development and support goes all the way back to 1955 with
the founding of SHARE, Inc. The disaster to Flex and its staff would hurt
us all as people but would only be an inconvenience technically.
Those who are concerned that little work will be done on PowerSDR have
little to fear. If FRS were to functionally stabilize PowerSDR, that is,
continue support for current features but not offer any improvement, the
user community would simple carry on. Much of the code in that software was
done by volunteers who are not now nor ever were employees of Flex Radio
but were working on a common dream. This is a characteristic of the Open
Source world and would apply as much to our circumstance as it does to
thousands of other free software 'products'.
As for concerns that some of what customers thought they were promised (I
say it that way because comments made by people on the reflectors do
not necessarily constitute promises made by FRS, but let's not get hung up
on that) I believe that Gerald will not stomach the idea of functional
stabilization as long as the real promises are unmet. He is one of the most
highly principled men I have met.
Now contemplate a day when all the original objectives of the Flex line
have plainly been accomplished. If the software were stabilized at that
point would you be any worse off than you would be 5 minutes after you
bought an analog radio? No you wouldn't, but you would have a radio with
dozens of new features that crept in during the active lifetime of
PowerSDR. So how did you lose?
I hope this helps some.
73
Ed Haskell W1PN
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This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used
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_______________________________________________
Flexedge mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz
This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for
posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist who are
using beta versions of the software.
