Keep Real and Be Transparent-About Backstab and FiiO Product Planning-From @JamesFiiO
Let’s talk about a quite sensitive topic today. Recently, I have seen a lot of people talking about "backstab" on the Internet, then I searched its meaning. It turned out to be a buzzword derived from a game, referring to the situation when a manufacturer release new product, and his competitor reacts quickly for an unexpected and fatal blow. The strategy may be, for example, launch a new product with a big gap in price, performance, etc. At this time, many people will say that the competitor is successful in ‘backstab’. What makes people feel even more angry is that the manufacturer ‘backstabs’ himself. I don’t even need to make an example, everyone may know better than me.
The core of "backstab" is two points: 1. No defense, totally unexpected. 2. The latter product either has stronger performance when the price remains the same, or has similar performance but much lower price.
Therefore, I hope to share with you some of my thoughts on ‘backstab’ as a manufacturer. The following is only for FiiO's own situation, which is not representative and universal.
Regarding to the pace of product release, many users complain that some manufacturers launch new products too fast.
First of all, we need to clarify the definition of ‘releasing new products too fast’. We can say so, only when the update cycle is significantly shorter than the general cycle of the industry for the same kind of products at similar prices. For example, the update cycle of high-end mobile phone industry is one year. But in the HIFI industry, I think more than one and a half years can be regarded as a normal update frequency.
In fact, FiiO's product planning generally follows this pace. Generally, at the end of each year, we will summarize the current year's sales and market feedback, and make new plans for the upcoming year. Some of the products have a longer cycle for development and production, and we even make the plan two years in advance.
Then why users complain this issue?
1. Normally, manufacturers will not take the initiative to disclose the details of product planning. After all, it is necessary to prevent competitors from knowing in advance. So, FiiO and other similar manufacturers are exception to be more transparent in product planning. But it is easy to for us to get ourselves a lot of trouble. In addition, it should also be noted that even so, FiiO cannot disclose all details. Because some new categories have nothing to do with the current models. For the products that have no substitutional nor competitive relation with the existing products, we will choose whether to disclose information according to various situation.
2. There is a great uncertainty in the implementation of plans. Therefore, it’s not suitable for FiiO to announce products planning through official channels. Official news and announcements should be more rigorous, after all, it is equivalent to a promise. Therefore, I would more like to tell you guys part of plans through my personal social accounts. This will be more casual.
However, the spread of information in this way is not wide enough, which results in some users not knowing anything about our new products. Therefore, if you are interested in FiiO products, you can pay more attention to this account, and you will get a lot of news and announcements concerning new products in the next few months.
3. There are always some unexpected things that disrupt the our plans. Especially in the past two years, chips are in short supply due to various factors, such as the epidemic, new energy vehicles, home office etc. What makes things even worse is that, AKM, one of the two essential DAC chip suppliers in the HIFI industry, suspended production due to the fire happened in its semiconductor plant. For nearly 2 years, the entire industry has been chaotic. In 2021, it can be said that 80% of FiiO's R&D resources were spent on coping with the impact of chip shortage. Firstly, the models that we selling need to change the chip, such as BTR5, E10K, D03K, K5 Pro, etc. Secondly, the models that still under development require new chips, like the M17. Thirdly, some new products can only be produced in a small quantity and then need to change new chips, such as M11 Plus, K9 Pro.
Some of these objective factors are predictable, while some are unpredictable. We have already let you all know what we can predict in advance. For example, when the M11 Plus was launched, we said that due to the discontinuation of 4497, our existing chip inventory can only make 6,000 units of M11 Plus, and then it would be changed to ES9068AS for further sales. However, we cannot predict everything, such as the BTR5. We have already ordered a large number of 9218 DAC chips in advance. However, after a few months, the chip manufacturer informed us that due to the tight capacity, they could only stop production of the 9218 chip in order to make 9219 chip. As a result, we had to change the current scheme of BTR5, and the BTR5 2021 version was thus released.
Last but not least, for some of our new products will be launched in the future, we will reserve in advance at least two different DAC chips scheme in case of various unexpected situation. For example, the desktop decoding amp K7 that we are going to make, may have three different chip schemes: ESS, AKM, and CIRRUS LOGIC. In this way, we can use whatever chip we can purchase.
Let’s talk about a quite sensitive topic today. Recently, I have seen a lot of people talking about "backstab" on the Internet, then I searched its meaning. It turned out to be a buzzword derived from a game, referring to the situation when a manufacturer release new product, and his competitor reacts quickly for an unexpected and fatal blow. The strategy may be, for example, launch a new product with a big gap in price, performance, etc. At this time, many people will say that the competitor is successful in ‘backstab’. What makes people feel even more angry is that the manufacturer ‘backstabs’ himself. I don’t even need to make an example, everyone may know better than me.
The core of "backstab" is two points: 1. No defense, totally unexpected. 2. The latter product either has stronger performance when the price remains the same, or has similar performance but much lower price.
Therefore, I hope to share with you some of my thoughts on ‘backstab’ as a manufacturer. The following is only for FiiO's own situation, which is not representative and universal.
Regarding to the pace of product release, many users complain that some manufacturers launch new products too fast.
First of all, we need to clarify the definition of ‘releasing new products too fast’. We can say so, only when the update cycle is significantly shorter than the general cycle of the industry for the same kind of products at similar prices. For example, the update cycle of high-end mobile phone industry is one year. But in the HIFI industry, I think more than one and a half years can be regarded as a normal update frequency.
In fact, FiiO's product planning generally follows this pace. Generally, at the end of each year, we will summarize the current year's sales and market feedback, and make new plans for the upcoming year. Some of the products have a longer cycle for development and production, and we even make the plan two years in advance.
Then why users complain this issue?
1. Normally, manufacturers will not take the initiative to disclose the details of product planning. After all, it is necessary to prevent competitors from knowing in advance. So, FiiO and other similar manufacturers are exception to be more transparent in product planning. But it is easy to for us to get ourselves a lot of trouble. In addition, it should also be noted that even so, FiiO cannot disclose all details. Because some new categories have nothing to do with the current models. For the products that have no substitutional nor competitive relation with the existing products, we will choose whether to disclose information according to various situation.
2. There is a great uncertainty in the implementation of plans. Therefore, it’s not suitable for FiiO to announce products planning through official channels. Official news and announcements should be more rigorous, after all, it is equivalent to a promise. Therefore, I would more like to tell you guys part of plans through my personal social accounts. This will be more casual.
However, the spread of information in this way is not wide enough, which results in some users not knowing anything about our new products. Therefore, if you are interested in FiiO products, you can pay more attention to this account, and you will get a lot of news and announcements concerning new products in the next few months.
3. There are always some unexpected things that disrupt the our plans. Especially in the past two years, chips are in short supply due to various factors, such as the epidemic, new energy vehicles, home office etc. What makes things even worse is that, AKM, one of the two essential DAC chip suppliers in the HIFI industry, suspended production due to the fire happened in its semiconductor plant. For nearly 2 years, the entire industry has been chaotic. In 2021, it can be said that 80% of FiiO's R&D resources were spent on coping with the impact of chip shortage. Firstly, the models that we selling need to change the chip, such as BTR5, E10K, D03K, K5 Pro, etc. Secondly, the models that still under development require new chips, like the M17. Thirdly, some new products can only be produced in a small quantity and then need to change new chips, such as M11 Plus, K9 Pro.
Some of these objective factors are predictable, while some are unpredictable. We have already let you all know what we can predict in advance. For example, when the M11 Plus was launched, we said that due to the discontinuation of 4497, our existing chip inventory can only make 6,000 units of M11 Plus, and then it would be changed to ES9068AS for further sales. However, we cannot predict everything, such as the BTR5. We have already ordered a large number of 9218 DAC chips in advance. However, after a few months, the chip manufacturer informed us that due to the tight capacity, they could only stop production of the 9218 chip in order to make 9219 chip. As a result, we had to change the current scheme of BTR5, and the BTR5 2021 version was thus released.
Last but not least, for some of our new products will be launched in the future, we will reserve in advance at least two different DAC chips scheme in case of various unexpected situation. For example, the desktop decoding amp K7 that we are going to make, may have three different chip schemes: ESS, AKM, and CIRRUS LOGIC. In this way, we can use whatever chip we can purchase.
