Encourage Early Adopters

[CCmachined]

As we all know, we need the MK1 units to sell.
Especially with a device this expensive (£200) people tend to wait for the first hardware revision (i.e. MK2). This is bad.

What I'm proposing is this: offer a deal on future MK2 purchases with every MK1 sale. 10 or 20% off for example. £20 or £40 off may not sound like much, but i'm betting it'll sway many people to buy the device early rather than later.

what d'ya think?

 

[TaG]

As we all know, we need the MK1 units to sell.
Especially with a device this expensive (£200) people tend to wait for the first hardware revision (i.e. MK2). This is bad.

What I'm proposing is this: offer a deal on future MK2 purchases with every MK1 sale. 10 or 20% off for example. £20 or £40 off may not sound like much, but i'm betting it'll sway many people to buy the device early rather than later.

what d'ya think?
I don't think they'll need to offer such incentives. Also 20% is a whopping amount - and as we don't know how much profit they will make per unit, they might not be able to do that.

 

[anexanhume]

Craig has expressed to us that the current price point is near the lowest margin they can afford to sell the device at, so it wouldn't make sense for them to offer that kind of deal. The best thing they can do is assure us that MK1 is final hardware, and not a test run, and offer a complete warranty. They have done both of these, so we should have confidence in the product.

 

[Pickle]

As we all know, we need the MK1 units to sell.
Especially with a device this expensive (£200) people tend to wait for the first hardware revision (i.e. MK2). This is bad.

What I'm proposing is this: offer a deal on future MK2 purchases with every MK1 sale. 10 or 20% off for example. £20 or £40 off may not sound like much, but i'm betting it'll sway many people to buy the device early rather than later.

what d'ya think?

I think you (or any of us) really have no buisness trying to determine the marketing strategy, (no offense intended).

If you want it to be successful on the first batch, just buy one (or many). I dont think theres going to be any issue selling the pandora unless there some major hw failure, which is very very unlikely. Most people are probally only going to buy one version, not 2. I know im not, but I will attempt to get one of the first batch
anyway.

 

[CCmachined]

understood. sorry if I sounded offensive.

 

[arcadeaction]

I believe they promised to fix even hardware-side of things if it would be discovered later on that something was broken, so I think there is no need for them for offering such a deal.

If you don't trust the first hardware release, then simply don't buy it and hope that a second batch will be made eventually.

I will probably not be an early adaptor, although I will follow the community with great interest. I am definitely not feeling as negative about the Pandora and the team as I was in the beginning, I am looking forward to the comments and reviews of the early adaptors and software releases.

 

[Pickle]

understood. sorry if I sounded offensive.

I didnt say you were offensive, but I think there are certain boundaries on what the community can suggest or help plan out. I think its fine if you complained about the price being to low/high (although you would be instant char-flamed for it)

Anyways everyone needs to remember theres a MK0 version, which is intended to get the full line of testing so that MK1 is near perfect. So really the first buyers are getting the second wave, not the first.

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

In all honesty, I don't thing MK1's will have any problem at all selling out at preorder time. In fact, I'm worried I won't get one! :lol:

Besides, "early" adopters may become "late" if this release is stretched out much further. If the tension continues to mount, there will be very few who won't have Pandora fever!

 

[God Ginrai]

In all honesty, I don't thing MK1's will have any problem at all selling out at preorder time. In fact, I'm worried I won't get one! :lol:

Ah, you suffer from the same affliction as I. I suggest we call it: PMS, Pandora Misgiving Syndrome ;P

-God Ginrai

 

[canguy247]

I didnt say you were offensive, but I think there are certain boundaries on what the community can suggest or help plan out. I think its fine if you complained about the price being to low/high (although you would be instant char-flamed for it)

I don't think this was past any boundaries. Suggestions are suggestions. Maybe someones idea will be used. Nobody here is demanding anything and I doubt the designers/builders are that sensitive.

Canguy

Edit: Typo.

 

[Twiitcher]

Just a bit of insight. I'm owned my GP2x since 2/22/07. I bought it within a week of seeing it's capabilities. I've used it everyday since then. I only recently signed up to these boards however I've been an avid reader of all things GP2X since my purchase.

I would venture to guess that there are lots more of 'me' out here, itchin and waiting to jump onboard the 1st shipment of the Pandora. There is NO OTHER MACHINE even close in the running as far as I'm concerned for my hard earned dollars.

I'm just an old dos horse that loves the simplicity of retro gaming and the ease of use of the gp2x. I don't write code, I don't participate in the forums actively however just visiting, lurking and reading, and using the GP2X makes feel a part of the community. The larger percentage of the community just seems to 'get it' and the positive attitude and willingness to share is amazing.

So if I were to speculate, I would venture to guess that the first shipment will not be difficult to sell. Perhaps a bit of lag after the initlal thousand or so.. until we show it off to our less informed peers and I would expect to see a 2nd surge of sales. A killer app or 2, with full functionality .. perhaps a combination of gaming / umpc capability combined would certainly drive the sales of "GP2X history impaired folks".

The above is pure speculation on my part, but one fact remains, I will be ordering the Pandora the day I know it's available.

Twiitcher
Proud GP2X Owner

 

[Megamixman]

Viral Marketing will sell these like hot cakes. Craigx and co have nothing to worry about. As long as the final product is decent, the community will take care of polishing it up and making something truely special about it.

 

[_VWV_]

I think that the first batch is even too small. There will be more willingers to buy a unit. Remember it's advertised (at least listed) on the unpcportal.com so I quess viral marketing is not the only selling force in this case. There's a discussion on the internettablettalk - a forum about Nokias internet tablets. The P is roughly in the same league/nich/whatever so I guess some folks from that forum will come and buy some units from the first batch.
There were several polls at this forum like "will you buy one from the first batch". And each time only about a hundred users voted for buying it as soon as posible. I don't know the reason why but I think those polls gave false results. It's a huge underestimation of reality. I have a strong feeling that 3000 units will hardly be enough/not suffice.
Edit: typo

 

[TaG]

I think that the first batch is even too small. There will be more willingers to buy a unit. Remember it's advertised (at least listed) on the unpcportal.com so I quess viral marketing is not the only selling force in this case. There's a discussion on the internettablettalk - a forum about Nokias internet tablets. The P is roughly in the same league/nich/whatever so I guess some folks from that forum will come and buy some units from the first batch.
There were several polls at this forum like "will you buy one from the first batch". And each time only about a hundred users voted for buying it as soon as posible. I don't know the reason why but I think those polls gave false results. It's a huge underestimation of reality. I have a strong feeling that 3000 units will hardly be enough/not suffice.

Possibly so - but to get a unit from the first batch you need to register - and I assume the developers know how many people are registered and can make appropriate decisions based on those numbers. Anybody not registered might be lucky or might have to wait. But if the lead time is 4-10 weeks, there is a good possibility they would not have to wait too long.

Having said that, I really do hope there is enough so that there is one with my name on.

 

[DrDerekDoctors]

I reckon there'll be enough early adopters. I'm a pretty casual user and I'll be happily shelling out my £200 for this once the units are in people's hands and I start to see reviews coming in because it just seems to be the *ultimate* emulation machine which ticks all the boxes.

I'm even quite keen on the unit from a devving point of view once they get SDL on it as it might be the machine I finally write my dungeon crawl on - the aspect ratio and resolution of the screen makes it idea to fit a portal and map on there. *drool*

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

I agree with whoever said there is increased interest in people outside this community. For instance, at a forum I moderate, there's a 5-page thread about this. Nearly everyone who posted in it said they'd buy one from the first batch. The others either chose to stick with their PSP or thought the development time was taking too long... :lol:

Either way, there's plenty of people chomping at the bit to get one. Let's say there's 10,000 people on that mailing list, and there's only 3,000 Pandoras available. That's 30%, a relatively small number, and entirely feasible. Factor in people who aren't on the mailing list who preorder after getting whiff that's it's available, and I'd say we've got a very healthy amount of first-batch orders.

And Ginrai, though the creativity astounds me, I don't know if the acronym should be used for a.... male user-base. XD

 

[_VWV_]

Maybe we should ask our comrades to register at the mailing list so that Craig decides how many Ps to make in the first batch 30000 or 300000. ??
If I remember correctly the problem is that Craig won't make a bigger first batch because it will cost more and devs resources are rather limited. Having this in mind we should be as quiet as possible to reduce the competition for the first batch. h34r:

 

[God Ginrai]

And Ginrai, though the creativity astounds me, I don't know if the acronym should be used for a.... male user-base. XD

Aww... And after I broke out my thesaurus to nail that acronym. ;P

-God Ginrai

 

[mahousaru]

I'll stick to my usual early adopter plan of buying the MK1 and when the MK2 comes out, I'll give it to my bird and then treat myself to the new one. That way everyone is happy

 

[emil10001]

I'll stick to my usual early adopter plan of buying the MK1 and when the MK2 comes out, I'll give it to my bird and then treat myself to the new one. That way everyone is happy

That's probably what I would do too. But, she has gotten wise to this tactic, as she rarely uses the stuff that I give her, like the 770 or n800. Fortunately, I've got a few friends who would probably buy a used one from me.