OK, a lot of churn on here, which is understandable. A few things as we near October, many I have said many times - and still stand true:
A. We know, not matter what we do, we will never please everyone all the time. We could come out with a pocket camera that shoots 12K @120FPS for $500...and people would complain it erodes the value of their current camera. We could come out with the same camera at $250,000 - and people would complain their RAVEN does not have 12K.
B. No one in their right minds, at least at this level, offers upgrade programs. Why? First, see bullet A. Second, they are a b*tch to explain, to administer, etc. Third, companies long ago figured it was better for their bottom line to come out with a new model that makes yesterday's model obsolete.
C. We are going to (that is, attempt to) simplify our lineup AND our upgrade paths. At NAB 2015, we tried to account for every single scenario and contingency - which led to a super-complex clusterf**k of a program that was impossible for customers to wrap their heads around it. Heck, even the BOMB SQUAD had to have cheat sheets.
D. We do have to keep the lights on. We will always strive to do what is best for as many new and existing customers as possible. Within reason. "Let me upgrade from (x) tofor (RED's cost - $10,000)" just does not work as a long term business model. On occasions more than I can care to count, RED has taken hits because - in that case - we felt it was the right thing to do at that time. We just cannot do it all the time. I think we are pretty darn aggressive when it comes to being mindful of your checkbooks. See bullet E....
E. Price to performance ratio. I mean, like Jarred said at one point, take our $10K SCARLET-W and put it - spec for spec - against every camera we just saw at IBC. Where does it stack up? For $10K? Come on...
F. No one has ever been forced to upgrade. There are a shit ton of people out there shooting the crap out of RED ONE M-Xs right now. I would even say stack that camera against a lot of what we saw at IBC. Upgrades are "upgrade offers", not "upgrade mandates." If it works for you, do it. If not, don't.
F. People are making calculations of what they THINK the offers are, or will be. Some have been close to the pin. Some in a different hemisphere. Some close, but missing critical context or additional information that dramatically changes the vibe of the offers. Speculation is half the fun of REDUSER, just don't sharpen those pitchforks and light those torches quite yet...
Ok, let's wrap this rant. A lot of people will be happy with what is coming down the pike. Some won't be. That is just the way it is in life.
) (unless we join the third party manufacturer program) )
Heh, things were a little further progressed back during those old days. We even had digital cameras back then and even $20k was a hurdle. '-)As a customer I'll say it's better not to listen to us that much
Do your thing as you've always did and things will turn up spectacular as they have been for the past 10 years.
If you asked customers anything in 2006 probably they would have told you that all they need is just a 3 perf S35 camera to save a bit on their film stock cost, or worse, HD cameras with compressed formats for 200K
And people were sand blasting small pieces of glass to make 35mm lens adaptors
I can tell you're not one of us Dec 10th guys
Love it.... and makes me wonder why would you go up a mountain with a lot of bags of gold in the first place...? :smile5:
