Quote:
Originally Posted by robm321
Yep, clearly he could have not released this at a worse time... well maybe a year down the road would be worse considering projections on where we are headed... yes, I think it will get much worse, I don't don't think we are near the bottom yet.
However, while doing R&D on this phone, there was no way he could have predicted what was to come. And he couldn't just not release if for 2 years or so. It is what it is. And I'm sure Grado along with all other companies will be hurting in sales.
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Agreed. I've already discussed this a bit in another thread, but I'll type it up again.
This move (like Sennheiser) could be part of their business plan due to the economic environment.
They're creating a high profit margin product. Grado isn't exactly a widely known company (among audiophiles yes, but otherwise no). So if they try to create a new headphone for the everyman, their customer base will barely change, totally defeating the purpose for such a move. And not to mention create a huge deficit due to their R&D efforts.
On the other hand concentrating on the existing customer base, who's more than willing to pay for $1000+ products, was by far the smartest move. Despite the state of the economy, tons of head-fiers are still willing to buy both the HD800s and PS1000s.
Due to the economic climate, obviously they won't garner as much profits as an economic upswing, but it'll help the company's balance sheet far more than if they attempted to subsist off current product sales.