bklaas wrote: > hi all- > > Before I say anything I want to thank Michael for his openness and > candor on this thread. You rock Michael. But you should rename the > thread to "New Not Squeezebox Radio" ;) > > It's been ages since I've posted here. I had to reset my password > because it was 297 days old. When I left Logitech in June 2011 I had > benevolent plans of doing 3rd party development, particularly on the > Squeezeplay side, but it turned out I couldn't do it. The honest truth > is because it was too painful after what I'd gone through with > Squeezebox. > > The beginning of the end for Squeezebox happened in Fall 2009. We had > released Squeezebox Radio after what I can only describe as a grueling > march. It was the hardest I've ever worked on a tech project. I was > willing to put in that effort because I believed very strongly in the > squeezebox line, and that Radio was going to be the first product to > really seriously put us on the map, with Touch soon to follow. > Unbeknownst to all of us doing that work in the trenches though, there > was a plan already in the works that summer to shut everything down, and > poach everyone for work on what eventually became Logitech Revue, the > Google TV boat anchor that Logitech over-invested in. > > So, Radio gets released, and sure enough a month or so later we get > called into a meeting and told that the Mountain View office was being > closed. Squeezebox was going to be pushed over to another business unit > along with some of the employees, but a very high percentage of the > software team was being redirected to work on Google TV. After about 10 > days of being part of this GoogleTV team, the numbers started rolling in > for Squeezebox Radio and it was selling far beyond expectations. > Scrambling, they sent several of us back to working on Squeezebox. I was > one of them, and was really relieved because from the get-go I didn't > believe in Google TV (this doesn't make me Nostradamus; this was the > general consensus of every engineer from the old Squeezebox team). > However, it was difficult to imagine how things were going to move > forward in the absence of people like Richard (squeezeplay/squeezeos > architect), Tom (low level squeezeplay UI and monkey wrench programmer), > and Caleb (acoustic genius), who stayed with GoogleTV. > > But, as former SlimDevices CTO Dean liked to quote "the graveyards are > full of people the world could not live without", so I thought hey, > maybe we find a way to move things forward. Michael and Felix will fill > in some gaps, Andy's still here, and maybe we'll get a quality hire or > two. > > Sadly, we moved into a business unit that could not have been more the > polar opposite of how we did things in Mountain View. Incredible > politics and bureaucracy ruled there, and thus began the long trend > downward for Squeezebox. I'm sure the paper pushers from that period > would speak of how they "turned squeezebox around", but the principal > reason the dollars went from red to black during that time was because > of the market validation (with practically zero actual marketing, I > might add) of Squeezebox Radio, and to a lesser extent Squeezebox Touch > (still IMO the best Squeezebox ever, but more of a niche product > compared to Radio; nevertheless, it also blew expectations out the > window and they had to scramble to make more). In that time with that > group, we brought to market exactly zero new hardware products. We'd > work on something for months, then get it unceremoniously cancelled. > Lather, rinse, repeat. Some of these products were clearly wrong turns. > Others were clearly going to sell like crazy. Not one thing made it to > the point of building a prototype. The only significant contribution > from that 1.5-2 year period was the squeezebox mobile app, which Michael > (and to a lesser extent, Felix and I) did a really nice job with. > > After Squeezebox was wiped from the roadmap for about the Nth time in > 2011, I got out. Logitech was why I got to work full-time on Squeezebox > in the first place, but (for me) they'd destroyed everything that was > there that made me want to be there in the first place. Worse (for me) > yet, they didn't destroy it quickly, but slowly and painfully. As I > would tell Steven (another ex-Squeezebox employee), "it's like they shot > my dog but then made me live with it for two years. It's like, yes > that's my dog, but EWW". > > After my departure, there was a brief light of hope when the > almost-no-heartbeat Squeezebox product line was shifted to another > business group, run mostly by the Ultimate Ears folks (headphone > company, another Logitech acquisition). Squeezebox alive again?? Turns > out, not so much. > > So, after almost exactly 3 years since Squeezebox Radio was released, we > have the Ultimate Ears Smart Radio by Logitech (catchy, huh? good god). > I view this product as: > 1. First and foremost, a rebranding project and little more > 2. UX changes to fit whatever the marketing department of the month > thinks is important > 3. An explicit severing of ties from the "legacy" squeezeboxes > > The product itself...man, it's so notable in how not notable it is. > There isn't one new "wow" thing this has over the 3-year-old SB Radio. > And it's hitting the market at US$179 MSRP. Ouch. Good luck with that, > UE. > > I write all of this history here because, again for me, this is the > final chapter where I can close the book. At times, working on > squeezebox was the best job I ever had. It was certainly the one I was > most passionate about. In the later stages, it became impossibly > frustrating and untenable. > > I continue to extend good wishes to my past co-workers who are still > doing their best to deliver innovative products. Maybe something good > will eventually be released (because this isn't it). It just won't be a > squeezebox. > > Squeezebox is dead, long live Squeezebox. > > cheers, > #!/ben
Thanks for sharing :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mnyb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4143 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=96188 _______________________________________________ Radio mailing list Radio@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/radio
