From Chris Whitten Sent Wed, Jun 4th 1997, 11:24
From Chris Whitten Sent Wed, Jun 4th 1997, 11:24
In the U.K. one of the biggest stores advertised (for several months) the new 'Mini' from Moog Music. The ad emphasised the 100 ROM presets and 100 user locations, all knobs sending midi control information and the build quality including real wood. And what was the price?.....999 pounds sterling. Does this send out any alarm bells? Well the U.K. price for an SE1 was (at that time) 1,526.33 pounds (at the same store!). *It is only my opinion* but if you think to yourself that it is going to be hard to produce a new instrument for such a competative price and then you see a lot of people complaining that they have not received their orders and are finding it very hard to achieve refunds, it's not unreasonable to wonder if Moog Music was using customers (hard earned) cash to fund the development of a risky business plan. There are many examples of entrepreneurs who have had an idea, found some investors and come to the market with their product already in place. After a while they have been able to reduce prices, expand the line etc. I'm thinking of Doepfer, Analogue Systems, Technosaurus, Novation, MAM....what about ARF. If many AHers were posting desperate threads about waiting for refunds from these companies we would all have the same opinion. Don Martin made the choice of entering the market to a huge fanfare of publicity which included distribution deals around the world and the receipt of money for orders. He who lives by the sword dies by the sword!