So given that SB have 1000+ units in stock and they are maybe selling 5 - 10 units per week (guess by how many ppl announce it on the BBS) when are we going to see a major incentive to get rid of the stock (and provide us with a bargain) ?

LOL yeah we need a 20% off discount for people who already own one.

Sean

Don't laugh. It's not THAT strange what he says. After all, I believe there was an upgrade offer for MK1 owners when MK2 was released.
So why wouldn't they give existing MK2 owners a discount if they want to buy another Empeg.

I for one would certainly be interrested, because I can't afford the full retail price for a new one at the moment.

Riocar 10gig (for now) S/N : 10101747 amber

Im laughing at the chance of the price coming down. A 20% discount will put a second empeg in reach for me, so I would be happy to see it happen. It would be a nice way of rewarding the current customer base. Besides, if voice recognition ever comes into being, the extra RAM would be useful.

Sean

My thoughts exactly! Let's hope something like this is in the works...

Riocar 10gig (for now) S/N : 10101747 red

it has to be when the stock must be worth £1m UKP +. You don't want that hanging around do you. And it can't go past end of line for too long either, because the competition is catching fast, which will serve the general consumer market.

I think they need to bit the bullet and sell for 1/2 price.

LTJ

Hmm, if the Rio do drop the price on the remaining stock, then the 2nd hand values of units in the hands of existing owners drops too. IMHO it would be more interesting if Rio sold the stock in one batch to an investor, or else increased the price gradually as the stock decreased.

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Rod ,UK Mk2a Sn:1911 Mk2 64gig S/No:341

Business is Business. SB are gonna cut their losses I reckon.

So I and many others are now in a dilema... buy a 'backup unit' now, or wait until further discounts. I have been giving it a lot of thought... my empeg is VERY important to me. I don't want to risk losing all the features that it provides due to circumstances beyond my control (theft, fire, acts of god, etc). I am 95% sure that i AM going to buy a backup unit & stick it in a closet or fire-proof box.

So what do people like me do now?
1) Wait for a discount & risk the remaining stock being bought up.
2) Buy now & risk a large discount in near future.

What are others thinking?

-Jeremy

Mk2/40GB/Blue

Half off? That sounds like a fantasy. At that point, I'm buying a backup for me and one for my dad and one for my girlfriend, etc. First they wait to see how they sell right now. Then, you can expect a gradual ramping down of the prices.

For no other reason, if they suddenly slashed the prices, Digital River would collapse under the load. You think they have order fufillment problems now...

I just hope that they start with the origional owers first, like they've always done.

-CHiP

Who cares about the second hand value of their units? I know of no-one who is even willing to sell their unit. And even if there were, when there will be no more Empegs left that can be bought through the officcial channels, their value will increase automatically. If it was an 'original full price Empeg' or a 'discounted Empeg' will not matter. So that's a pretty moot point.
Otoh, if SonicBlue was to give such a mentioned discount to existing users, I bet lots of them would buy another one (or even two or three), so in that case everybody wins. The users, because they would have their backup of their beloved Empeg, and SonicBlue because they wouldn't be left with a load of stock that they can't sell (or at a very slow rate). Heck, it might even open their eyes so they would see that there really was nothing wrong with this unit before they canned it, except for it's price.

Riocar 10gig (for now) S/N : 10101747 red

Would it be best for lots of Empegs to sit in peoples cupboards, or for them to actually be used. The more units actually in use, the more projects that might occur.

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Rod ,UK Mk2a Sn:1911 Mk2 64gig S/No:341

Good point, but where would you prefer them? On users' cupboards or on SonicBlue's cupboards?

Riocar 10gig (for now) S/N : 10101747 red

I'd prefer one in my car full of my fav tunes.

Are the official channels keeping quiet on this one ?

I guess they are, but that might be good. Maybe they're whipping such a deal up as we speak and they don't want to spill the beans before there actually is a deal.

Riocar 10gig (for now) S/N : 10101747 red

Are the official channels keeping quiet on this one ?

You don't seriously expect SonicBlue to announce "we'll cut prices by 20% in two weeks"...

Borislav

You guys are engaged in some really wishful thinking. I know this borders on parade raining, but what is the REAL incentive for them to slash prices? Keeping stock in a warehouse costs virtually nothing. Fulfilling a large flood of orders that would come from such a price drop is a lot more difficult than slowly bleeding out the remaining inventory at the current prices.

Look, I would love to replace my Empeg with a RioCar so I can get the extra RAM and get my warranty back. But I see people talking about them offering HALF OFF. That would be a HUGE loss per player.

They will have no trouble selling Empegs at current prices (which ALREADY have the discount that was announced this summer.) I know you guys are in this thread lobbying for reduced prices, but try to temper your hopes with a little bit of realism. Or better yet, send an email to Microsoft asking them for 50% off Windows XP. :)

-Tony
MkII #554

I get your point about stock in a warehouse costing virtually nothing, but its stock that is quickly being caught up by the major players in Car Audio. I know that nothing that Pioneer, Sony, etc can come up with will be as good, but they are high profile, big advertising budget companies.

Lets see what happens, I think that a 10% or 15% price reduction will not bring on the kind of demand they need to ship the rest of the players.

Lets see .... come on SB! How are you going to sell the stock ... come on ... tell us !

LTJ

Ah, so you think some of the lurkers are SB people that would be involved in making this sort of decision . When you say major players are catching up, I have to disagree. Firstly as there are no products available yet and secondly as the proposed products are more consumer friendly and hence lack the hackability of the Empeg. The limited sucess of the Empeg is probably due to only people with an appriciation of the hackability willing to come up with the relativily high price - if you just look at the unit as an MP3 player.

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Rod ,UK Mk2a Sn:1911 Mk2 64gig S/No:341

Major players in car audio catching up? Hello? Have you read the threads about why exactly it is that the Empeg was not commercially successful? The empeg's nature as a "geek friendly" device with features your average Joe doesn't want or need rules out your argument entirely. The major players have NO PLANS to compete with the same features Empeg had, they're going in other directions entirely. Yes, the big audio companies DO have products in the works which will use hard drives and play MP3's, but the similarity ends there. The audience isn't the same.

To answer your question about where SonicBlue is on this thread, let's just say that I'm sure the talk of 50% off existing stock has given them a bit of a chuckle.

-Tony
MkII #554

Hi.

let's just say that I'm sure the talk of 50% off existing stock has given them a bit of a chuckle.

Where is the lowest model at currently? about 1000US$+VAT?
I won't give you any details, but the price SonicBlue told me for a bulk purchase of 500 players (10GB ones) was really tempting (which means that it was certainly more than 20% off). But this purchase was not my real objective (I was more interested in a later production run once the nav software is finished), so I turned the offer down.

cu,
sven

proud MkII owner (12GB blue/green/smoked, was #080000113 is #090001010)

Well, thanks to a friend "in the biz" in Portland, I was able to obtain some details on SB's upcoming promotion for existing users. Prior to taking the expedient step of accepting lot bids from liquidators, the SB stores will offer the following pricing/terms (quotes are for 10GB unit) for owners of Mk1/Mk2/Mk2a:

1) Pricing in U.S. is set at 650 U.S.D.
2) EU and all International (other than Canada) customer pricing set at par in GBP, approximately 450 GBP
3) Allocation has been made for all existing Canadian owners from US eStore with same price in USD.

As might be expected there are a few other terms and conditions -- those little hoops you just have to jump through every once in a great while. These are:

1) US orders from the Digital River eStore will be fulfilled between May and July, 2003.
2) EU and international orders will be fulfilled within 2 business days but will be subject to VAT of approximately 1150 GBP
3) The single unit allocated to Canada will be delivered, damaged, to an undisclosed location in northern Manitoba.

Hope this helps.

Jim

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Rod ,UK Mk2a Sn:1911 Mk2 64gig S/No:341

I guess its obvious, however worth pointing out that discount was due to you buying in bulk and also I guess sold as seen with no warrenty. Should you sell the units you would have to offer some sort of warrenty.

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Rod ,UK Mk2a Sn:1911 Mk2 64gig S/No:341

:-) too. Very good

OK, so I got 5 mins into a heated conversation with the automotive line manager along the lines:

"Why the hell do I get to find out about an EOL promotion on the BBS"
- "I have no idea what you're talking about"
"Well then someone has been shooting their mouth off"
- "I have no idea what you're talking about"
"Oh [censored], I just read the second half of the post.. erm, bye"

Git!

Rob

This is perhaps the most amusing post I've ever read on this BBS. jimhogan, you da man.

-Tony
MkII #554

2003 ?

Bill B.
Mk.2 SN 080000183 - 38 GB / Green

lol sounds like a good deal