Regarding the M11 Plus, there are many questions from our users. Here I would like to give some explanations.
Question 1: Has the fire that happened at the AKM factory stopped the production of the AK4497? Then why did FiiO still have about 15000 pieces? Are they inventory chips?
Reply: The fire only affected parts of the AKM factory. There were already some finished products such as the AK4497/4499 in stock, many of which were for the M11 Plus and other models. We are so grateful to AKM who provided us with these unaffected AK4497s at the original price. These were parts of our AK4497. The other part was the inventory from distributors before the fire, who generally would not keep the inventory. Since some brands did not need so many AK4497 because of the sales yet we were in need, we just took them.
As a result, we finally purchased more than 14000 pieces of AK4497. A small part of them was produced and delivered in 2020, and most of them were delivered to us this year.
Question 2: So many AK4497 have been made into a complete device for sale, and AKM has ceased its production. Will there be any problem with the repair?
R: Don't worry, we will prepare enough AK4497 for after-sales repairs.
Question 3: The M11 Plus has thousands of units in total. Is it a gimmick to call it a limited edition/an out-of-print edition?
R: AKM has officially notified us that they have discontinued the production of the AK4497. We dare not fool everyone about this. In addition, these units are sold globally. It is impossible for us to continue the production of the M11 Plus with the AK4497 once it is sold out.
Question 4: FiiO said that the AK4497 is sold much more expensive than before, so it is more profitable to sell a single AK4497 rather than a complete device. Is it just an exaggeration?
R: A fire that happened at the AKM factory led to suspended production of the AK4497 with the price going up sharply. Many manufacturers using the AK4497 also said that some commercial companies have deliberately raised the price of the small number of inventory AK4497. If you ever paid attention to it, you must see relevant reports that mentioned this. For the M11 Plus using 2 AK4497 chips, if we priced it just based on the chip price in the current market, it will be much more than that. However, the MSRP of the M11 Plus followed our usual pricing rules, so it is not that expensive. After all, the R&D and mold costs were also very high. If we just focus on profit, selling individual chips will be more profitable.
However, we cannot simply work out the profit. Because we are not traders who resell chips. Therefore, to provide our sales agents with enough products and make sure our users can enjoy products at reasonable prices, we still choose to develop a complete device.
Question 5: The Stainless Steel Edition is more expensive than the Aluminum Alloy Edition. Is it reasonable?
R: The rigidity of the Stainless Steel Edition is several times higher than that of the Aluminum Alloy Edition, so the difficulty of CNC machining, loss and processing time required are several times higher than that of the Aluminum Alloy Edition. FiiO is actually a brand that pays great attention to commercial factors, but it has always been restrained in the application of some precious metals. So far, we have only produced a small number of Stainless Steel Edition of the M11 Pro, M11 Plus and FD5. If it's so easy to acquire benefits, why don't we use the same method for all of our products? The reason is very simple. A slight expensiveness of the Stainless Steel Edition is really not enough to make up for the cost increases. After all, it is impossible to spend all the cost difference on materials, and the cost of agents/e-commerce platforms is based on proportions.
Question 6: When will the M11 Plus with an ESS chip be released?
R: We are developing the M11 Plus with the ESS9068AS chip. Since the project has just started, it is estimated that it will not be available until the end of the year. At that time, the configuration as well as the price may be different.
Question 7: Is FiiO releasing new products too fast?
FiiO's old users all know that FiiO players are generally iterated in one and a half to two years. The M11 Pro was roughly released in September 2019. It has been more than a year and a half. So it's normal to release a new generation.
In fact, the M11, M11 Pro and M15 have all been discontinued in 2020. The one you notice on sale is inventory from our sales agents.
Frankly speaking, manufacturers in the HIFI industry actually do not have much motivation to acquire benefits by upgrading product models, because the cost is too high. In most cases, the upgrade is actually caused by various accidents or the inability to continue the production of old models. The main reason for the discontinuation of the M11/M11 Pro/M15 was the discontinuation of the Exynos7872 chipset and the display. Otherwise, the 7872 platform is still a very good platform with better performance than the Qualcomm 4XX yet with a much lower price than the 660. It is a very good choice for mid-end HiFi Android portable players.
Question 1: Has the fire that happened at the AKM factory stopped the production of the AK4497? Then why did FiiO still have about 15000 pieces? Are they inventory chips?
Reply: The fire only affected parts of the AKM factory. There were already some finished products such as the AK4497/4499 in stock, many of which were for the M11 Plus and other models. We are so grateful to AKM who provided us with these unaffected AK4497s at the original price. These were parts of our AK4497. The other part was the inventory from distributors before the fire, who generally would not keep the inventory. Since some brands did not need so many AK4497 because of the sales yet we were in need, we just took them.
As a result, we finally purchased more than 14000 pieces of AK4497. A small part of them was produced and delivered in 2020, and most of them were delivered to us this year.
Question 2: So many AK4497 have been made into a complete device for sale, and AKM has ceased its production. Will there be any problem with the repair?
R: Don't worry, we will prepare enough AK4497 for after-sales repairs.
Question 3: The M11 Plus has thousands of units in total. Is it a gimmick to call it a limited edition/an out-of-print edition?
R: AKM has officially notified us that they have discontinued the production of the AK4497. We dare not fool everyone about this. In addition, these units are sold globally. It is impossible for us to continue the production of the M11 Plus with the AK4497 once it is sold out.
Question 4: FiiO said that the AK4497 is sold much more expensive than before, so it is more profitable to sell a single AK4497 rather than a complete device. Is it just an exaggeration?
R: A fire that happened at the AKM factory led to suspended production of the AK4497 with the price going up sharply. Many manufacturers using the AK4497 also said that some commercial companies have deliberately raised the price of the small number of inventory AK4497. If you ever paid attention to it, you must see relevant reports that mentioned this. For the M11 Plus using 2 AK4497 chips, if we priced it just based on the chip price in the current market, it will be much more than that. However, the MSRP of the M11 Plus followed our usual pricing rules, so it is not that expensive. After all, the R&D and mold costs were also very high. If we just focus on profit, selling individual chips will be more profitable.
However, we cannot simply work out the profit. Because we are not traders who resell chips. Therefore, to provide our sales agents with enough products and make sure our users can enjoy products at reasonable prices, we still choose to develop a complete device.
Question 5: The Stainless Steel Edition is more expensive than the Aluminum Alloy Edition. Is it reasonable?
R: The rigidity of the Stainless Steel Edition is several times higher than that of the Aluminum Alloy Edition, so the difficulty of CNC machining, loss and processing time required are several times higher than that of the Aluminum Alloy Edition. FiiO is actually a brand that pays great attention to commercial factors, but it has always been restrained in the application of some precious metals. So far, we have only produced a small number of Stainless Steel Edition of the M11 Pro, M11 Plus and FD5. If it's so easy to acquire benefits, why don't we use the same method for all of our products? The reason is very simple. A slight expensiveness of the Stainless Steel Edition is really not enough to make up for the cost increases. After all, it is impossible to spend all the cost difference on materials, and the cost of agents/e-commerce platforms is based on proportions.
Question 6: When will the M11 Plus with an ESS chip be released?
R: We are developing the M11 Plus with the ESS9068AS chip. Since the project has just started, it is estimated that it will not be available until the end of the year. At that time, the configuration as well as the price may be different.
Question 7: Is FiiO releasing new products too fast?
FiiO's old users all know that FiiO players are generally iterated in one and a half to two years. The M11 Pro was roughly released in September 2019. It has been more than a year and a half. So it's normal to release a new generation.
In fact, the M11, M11 Pro and M15 have all been discontinued in 2020. The one you notice on sale is inventory from our sales agents.
Frankly speaking, manufacturers in the HIFI industry actually do not have much motivation to acquire benefits by upgrading product models, because the cost is too high. In most cases, the upgrade is actually caused by various accidents or the inability to continue the production of old models. The main reason for the discontinuation of the M11/M11 Pro/M15 was the discontinuation of the Exynos7872 chipset and the display. Otherwise, the 7872 platform is still a very good platform with better performance than the Qualcomm 4XX yet with a much lower price than the 660. It is a very good choice for mid-end HiFi Android portable players.
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