c2thew wrote:
"As for a smaller light with built in battery, aw come on Paul. You'll destroy Q-flash's business doing that!"
It would do more than just destroy the Q-flash and the quadra market: it would force those retailers to lower their prices to remain competitive. HOWEVER, there are tons of loyal brand folllowers so they won't not feel an immediate hit.
another factor is if paul keeps backordering his product line, than customers who need the strobes right away will seek products elsewhere. I've seen numerous posts where many other photographers have gone to another system because of the huge backorder list.
My goal is not to destroy anyone or to dominate the market. All I try to do is to create innovative and useful products, and bring them to the user at minimum cost and maximum service and humanity. Because our business model eliminates (in the USA) all middlemen that gives us a huge price advantage. But this require a high level of customer trust, and this takes years to establish.
This, in some eyes, leads to the belief we make "Cheap products". Simply not true. For example, Einstein costs us about $300 to build. If we followed the norms of distribution it would sell for about $1000 and still beat most competitors in performance/VS price and customer service.. ABs have a similar cost/price relationship.
More and more, competitors are turning to China and India manufactures to compete. We prefer to keep as many manufacturing jobs in the USA as possible and eliminate salesmen instead of workers.
There are some items that are simply impossible for us to manufacture in the USA . . . fabric products in particular. We would make them here if we possibly could.
Manufacturers that depend on a vast network of dealers, reps, stores and other profit suckers are at a definite disadvantage. They are beginning to fall prey to Ebay sellers who design nothing and provide no service, relying on buying the cheapest possible stuff from China and dumping it on America and the world.
We consider our methods to be the future, and our position in the industry proves this out. But it is almost impossible for manufacturers with complex established distribution models to switch to a direct-to-customer model as this takes years of building customer trust and to completely revamp customer service, shipping, stocking, order taking etc. Very difficult for an entrenched corporation. But it is also difficult for us to distribute outside of North America . . . this does involve middlemen, though we try to minimize them. Yet international customer scream and yell that they are being ripped of because our product costs them more than it does in North America.
Me? Luap be nimble, Luap be quick, Luap jump over the candlestick. Do I make mistakes and miscalculate schedules sometimes? Of course. But if and when I do, I don't just pass it on to customers . . . I live by the Golden Rule and always do me absolute best in serving my customers and employees and the industry. Copy catting is easy . . . innovating isn't.
As for Vagabond Mini Lithium I think you will see it on schedule and as advertised. I have about $1,000,000 invested in it. Please check our website late next week for mounds of information, prices and projected shipping schedule.