Numbers Don't Lie

Has anybody noticed that in just over 2 days since this new Clip+ board was just launched, there are already over 160 posts?

Compare that with a measly 84 posts in the board for SanDisk’s previous release, the SlotRadio player which (according to certain SanDisk pep-talkers here) was going to revolutionize the way the world listens to music. 84 posts. . . that’s over twice the volume of activity surrounding the new Clip+ player, and the SlotRadio board was opened in March 2009, 5 months ago!

Even more telling about where the consumer’s interest lies is the fact that the SlotMusic player and it’s forum board have been out for almost a year, and still only has 140 posts to date! That bears repeating . . .  140 posts in 1 year!

I think the lesson here is clear for anyone to see. Hopefully the suits at SanDisk are taking notes. Put out a decent, higher-end, more expensive product and you will see a virtual firestorm of activity, resulting in increased sales and subsequent profit.

Give the masses something cheap, cheesy with no viewscreen, user-controllable options, settings or high quality sound and it will die on the vine, no matter how much you hope & pray that it will stimulate sales of prerecorded music on memory cards.

It’s been said that the ‘Slot’ players are perfect for, and should be enjoyed by those in this world who are less ‘tech-savvy’ and have no desire to learn or spend the time loading music, fiddling with settings and so forth. I think SanDisk has a warped sense of who their customer base really is, and what demographic they should be marketing to. Do they want to sell a few units to Grandma & Grandpa? Or would they rather sell millions if units to everyone else; at least half of whom will either immediately, or at some point in the future buy a memory card (if not more than one). This is the way to stimulate memory card sales. Not with some toy and card loaded with music that you won’t even tell the customer what’s on it until after they’ve already bought it!

Please SanDisk, don’t sell your customers short and ‘assume’ you know what they want and that they are too dumb or lazy to want or operate anything ‘technical’. Companies have gone bankrupt adopting this dis-respectful attitude regarding their customers, and ‘dumbing-down’ their product line.

Personally, I’d like to see SanDisk dig themselves out of this rut they seem to have gotten themselves into. They’ve got the know-how. They’ve proven that in the past. They just need the desire & the courage move forward, rather than taking a back seat to their competitors.

I now will humbly step down from my soapbox. :stuck_out_tongue:

@tapeworm wrote:

Has anybody noticed that in just over 2 days since this new Clip+ board was just launched, there are already over 160 posts?

 

Compare that with a measly 84 posts in the board for SanDisk’s previous release, the SlotRadio player which (according to certain SanDisk pep-talkers here) was going to revolutionize the way the world listens to music. 84 posts. . . that’s over twice the volume of activity surrounding the new Clip+ player, and the SlotRadio board was opened in March 2009, 5 months ago!

 

Even more telling about where the consumer’s interest lies is the fact that the SlotMusic player and it’s forum board have been out for almost a year, and still only has 140 posts to date! That bears repeating . . .  140 posts in 1 year!

 

I think the lesson here is clear for anyone to see. Hopefully the suits at SanDisk are taking notes. Put out a decent, higher-end, more expensive product and you will see a virtual firestorm of activity, resulting in increased sales and subsequent profit.

 

Give the masses something cheap, cheesy with no viewscreen, user-controllable options, settings or high quality sound and it will die on the vine, no matter how much you hope & pray that it will stimulate sales of prerecorded music on memory cards.

 

It’s been said that the ‘Slot’ players are perfect for, and should be enjoyed by those in this world who are less ‘tech-savvy’ and have no desire to learn or spend the time loading music, fiddling with settings and so forth. I think SanDisk has a warped sense of who their customer base really is, and what demographic they should be marketing to. Do they want to sell a few units to Grandma & Grandpa? Or would they rather sell millions if units to everyone else; at least half of whom will either immediately, or at some point in the future buy a memory card (if not more than one). This is the way to stimulate memory card sales. Not with some toy and card loaded with music that you won’t even tell the customer what’s on it until after they’ve already bought it!

 

Please SanDisk, don’t sell your customers short and ‘assume’ you know what they want and that they are too dumb or lazy to want or operate anything ‘technical’. Companies have gone bankrupt adopting this dis-respectful attitude regarding their customers, and ‘dumbing-down’ their product line.

 

Personally, I’d like to see SanDisk dig themselves out of this rut they seem to have gotten themselves into. They’ve got the know-how. They’ve proven that in the past. They just need the desire & the courage move forward, rather than taking a back seat to their competitors.

 

I now will humbly step down from my soapbox. :stuck_out_tongue:

“It’s been said that the ‘Slot’ players are perfect for, and should be enjoyed by those in this world who are less ‘tech-savvy’ and have no desire to learn or spend the time loading music, fiddling with settings and so forth. I think SanDisk has a warped sense of who their customer base really is, and what demographic they should be marketing to. Do they want to sell a few units to Grandma & Grandpa? Or would they rather sell millions if units to everyone else; at least half of whom will either immediately, or at some point in the future buy a memory card (if not more than one). This is the way to stimulate memory card sales. Not with some toy and card loaded with music that you won’t even tell the customer what’s on it until after they’ve already bought it!”

I disagree with this. Imo Slot players that run on a AA or AAA battery, and have no pc connectivity will appeal to many such as myself who are tech savvy if they have good sound quality, a display, and reasonable choices for navigation. Imo a player similar to the Clip+ that runs on a AAA battery, but lacks USB connectivity would be quite desirable. It might need to be a bit larger than the Clip+ or have a slightly different shape, and perhaps have a basic low power LCD screen like on a digital watch that is on all the time while the player is playing, and a backlight that is on only while a dedicated button is pressed would be quite desirable. While A AAA battery is larger than the built in battery in the Clip+, leaving out charging circuitry, USB connectivity circuitry, and a USB plug will save space on the player. It would also reduce the cost.

Saying that slot based players without pc connectivity  is a bad concept since there is little interest in “lobotomized” ones doesn’t make much sense. A slot player could be designed to have all the features of a Clip+ except for USB connectivity, and charging an internal battery. A slot player could also be designed to receive firmware updates by having the firmware file in the root of the card. Years ago I had an mp3 CD player that was firmware upgradeable by burning the firmware on a CDR then placing it in the player and playing it.

Message Edited by JK98 on 09-03-2009 02:20 AM

@jk98 wrote:

 

Saying that slot based players is a bad concept since there is little interest in “lobotomized” ones doesn’t make much sense. A slot player could be designed to have all the features of a Clip+ except for USB connectivity, and charging an internal battery. A slot player could also be designed to receive firmware updates by having the firmware file in the root of the card. Years ago I had an mp3 CD player that was firmware upgradeable by burning the firmware on a CDR then placing it in the player and playing it.

Mmm, do you think it can be really cheapher considering the missing functionalities? Probably it could cost on retail about 10$ less than an equivalente Clip+ 

Obviously I’ll never buy a similar player, and I think that many people will do the same. 

If you look on shops you’ll see that, excluding some product like Sansa Clip / iPod Shuffle / Samsung U series and some fantasy name cheap player, all include a colour display and video playing functions, that are about a nonsense for a music player. But people buy it because it’s nice to have a colour screen.

So why go crazy with AAA batteries. The nice thing could be a replaceable battery and an unexpensive battery charger, if for you is critical that battery dies while you’re far from an USB power source.

Somehow, it doesn’t surprise me that on a board of active owners of Sandisk products, who are technical enough not just to find the board but also to engage in discussion here, that there is much more interest in a configurable player that is a follow-on to a successful product, than to a simplified device that has yet to find its market.

In other words, I doubt that people who discuss here are in the target market for SlotMusic/SlotRadio.

@loiscatherine wrote:

Somehow, it doesn’t surprise me that on a board of active owners of Sandisk products, who are technical enough not just to find the board but also to engage in discussion here, that there is much more interest in a configurable player that is a follow-on to a successful product, than to a simplified device that has yet to find its market.

 

In other words, I doubt that people who discuss here are in the target market for SlotMusic/SlotRadio.

This phrase is key and part of the point I was trying to make. The SlotMusic player has been out for a year now, and as you say, has yet to find its market.

The Clip+ on the other hand, already has an established market base, in those of use who already own 1 (or more). And more units will get sold as work of mouth gets around.

Although I agree with you that SanDisk should go more high-end and not mess around with the slot players, especially since the RIAA is involved and we all know what blood-suckers they are, the fact that there is so little posts does not mean that they did not sell well, even though you are probably right that they didn’t sell well, because the type of audience that those players are designed for, are not supposed to have questions or anything hard to understand. It’s supposed to be as simple as possible, as in, “My microSD card does not fit, what do I do?” “Turn it around and try putting it in again, you might be putting it in the wrong way.” “Wow! Thanks! That was it! You must be a genius! Do you work at the Genius Bar in the Apple Store?”. So, so little posts doesn’t really mean anything.

@yelped wrote:
Although I agree with you that SanDisk should go more high-end and not mess around with the slot players, especially since the RIAA is involved and we all know what blood-suckers they are, the fact that there is so little posts does not mean that they did not sell well, even though you are probably right that they didn’t sell well, because the type of audience that those players are designed for, are not supposed to have questions or anything hard to understand. It’s supposed to be as simple as possible, as in, “My microSD card does not fit, what do I do?” “Turn it around and try putting it in again, you might be putting it in the wrong way.” “Wow! Thanks! That was it! You must be a genius! Do you work at the Genius Bar in the Apple Store?”. So, so little posts doesn’t really mean anything.

Pleas for help aren’t the only topic in posts here. There’s a lot of other discussions surrounding the players and their operations, etc. You may have a point in that whoever buys these toys A.) might not even have a computer or internet access, B.) Not be inclined to visit and/or register & post at a user’s forum, or C.) Not have any problems or questions about said toy because it is built & operates so simply.

Which leads me back to my question regarding the demographic SanDisk is targeting these ■■■■■-proof devices to. Who, in today’s world is not wired to the max with cell phones, PDAs, Blackberrys, Wi-Fi, Netbooks, I-phones, broadband home & work internet connections, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, on & on & on. Very darn few, I’d say (even Grandpa & Grandma are getting up to speed). I think the majority of today’s consumers can handle what’s required to rip CD’s or download tumes, load & operate a proper mp3 player, and doesn’t necessarily want a dumbed-down version with virtually no options whatsoever except ON, OFF, PAUSE & VOLUME. Sure, there’s always going to be a few, but does SanDisk want to sell their products to the few, or the many?

@tapeworm wrote:


@yelped wrote:
Although I agree with you that SanDisk should go more high-end and not mess around with the slot players, especially since the RIAA is involved and we all know what blood-suckers they are, the fact that there is so little posts does not mean that they did not sell well, even though you are probably right that they didn’t sell well, because the type of audience that those players are designed for, are not supposed to have questions or anything hard to understand. It’s supposed to be as simple as possible, as in, “My microSD card does not fit, what do I do?” “Turn it around and try putting it in again, you might be putting it in the wrong way.” “Wow! Thanks! That was it! You must be a genius! Do you work at the Genius Bar in the Apple Store?”. So, so little posts doesn’t really mean anything.


Pleas for help aren’t the only topic in posts here. There’s a lot of other discussions surrounding the players and their operations, etc. You may have a point in that whoever buys these toys A.) might not even have a computer or internet access, B.) Not be inclined to visit and/or register & post at a user’s forum, or C.) Not have any problems or questions about said toy because it is built & operates so simply.

 

Which leads me back to my question regarding the demographic SanDisk is targeting these ■■■■■-proof devices to. Who, in today’s world is not wired to the max with cell phones, PDAs, Blackberrys, Wi-Fi, Netbooks, I-phones, broadband home & work internet connections, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, on & on & on. Very darn few, I’d say (even Grandpa & Grandma are getting up to speed). I think the majority of today’s consumers can handle what’s required to rip CD’s or download tumes, load & operate a proper mp3 player, and doesn’t necessarily want a dumbed-down version with virtually no options whatsoever except ON, OFF, PAUSE & VOLUME. Sure, there’s always going to be a few, but does SanDisk want to sell their products to the few, or the many?

100% agreed…

@tapeworm wrote:


does SanDisk want to sell their products to the few, or the many?

There was a wise man once that said, “The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.” Who was it?

And since then, the walls of Berlin and the USSR came crumbling down, and BMWs are strewn over the streets of Beijing …

@marvin_martian wrote:


@tapeworm wrote:


does SanDisk want to sell their products to the few, or the many?


There was a wise man once that said, “The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.” Who was it?

 

 

“Or the one.”

Wise, indeed!