An MK2 model would risk alienating long-standing customers? That’s a bogus argument because it is simply not true! Apple is also a company that produces products that don’t diminish value by introducing an enhanced product. Look at all of the customers fighting to become the first new-model iPhone buyers. Look at the high second-hand price levels of older iPhone models as compared to second-hand older Android phones.
If Elektron would announce that “next quarter” (at any point in time) a new model would come out, of course demand for the old model would instantly drop without a serious lowering of pricing levels, because people would then postpone their buy. That’s why old-model cars for example are stuffed with free accessoires once a new forthcoming model is announced. And that’s why Elektron is smart enough not to advertize a forthcoming MK2-model of any sort in advance.
However, the OT has been out of stock for about a year now. Therefore not one single OT-buyer could have feel fooled by Elektron buying the old model (“MK1”) if today would be the release date of the MK2 model!
You’re not seriously suggesting that an MK2 model would righteously upset any Octatrack owner that bought an old model’s hardware over one to four years ago, are you???
I own several 27" iMacs, plus Thunderbolt Displays for the MacBook Pro. Last Friday Apple announced a brand new 27" Retina iMac at a 5k screen resolution having 77% more pixels than a UHDTV.
To me, that’s cool, I want one! But it sure doesn’t upset me because I own regular iMacs! And neither would an MK2 version of the Octatrack!
I bought an Octatrack in 2011 through retail. And I would immediately buy an MK2 version that supports Overbridge, even when Overbridge has not been released yet. If I wouldn’t have enough cash to own two Octatracks I’d sell the MK1 model at a reasonable price second-hand to free up funds for the MK2. And if I would have enough cash at hand, I’d still buy the MK2 and keep the MK1 because it would be useful as a live performance/DJ-tool , and I could always load a saved MK1-project into the MK2-device for bouncing down individual tracks on a DAW.[/quote]
Reading back through the threads, it can be seen there are plenty of people who cannot afford multiple musical instruments and computers like you and me who would be upset if a Mk2 Octatrack came out now. Not everyone, of course. But it’s a completely different market to that of personal and mobile computers: musical instruments are much more personal and have a longer lifespan.
We can look at the similarities and differences between Elektron and Apple. As you correctly pointed out, both companies add ongoing value to their products by releasing free software updates that can be installed on machines that are several years old. However, in hardware, Apple has revenues and resources that are literally orders of magnitudes greater than those of Elektron (which has, I think, about 20 people in total). Apple’s high market share in a mass-volume business and hefty resources mean that it can afford to produce upgraded hardware models each year in a way that Elektron simply can’t. That’s another reason why Elektron doesn’t make frequent incremental hardware upgrades of its instruments.
I understand that you would really like to have an Overbridge-capable OT Mk 2 right now but (to answer your earlier question to Elektron), given the reality of their situation and their company ethos, I think that doesn’t make it a reasonable project for Elektron to undertake and therefore it is not likely that we will see such a thing in the foreseeable future. Do you?
(Love your updated avatar, by the way!)
but even if if you don’t use X feature Theres no reason not to wonder whilst you can… Peaz. x