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Hey everyone!
This may not seem relevant at 1st, but what the 'ell?
Matrox is a biz like any other, in a market with a bit of competition -- one in which no one has figured out even some of the answers. On top of that, the whole biz world is changing, just after reversing itself on the exchanges a while back.
If there is a company that does have it at all figured out, they're losing money 'cause we customers don't trust them yet to do what they say. Whatever the past causes, it's an adversarial relationship at present between any seller vs buyer, & it will take a while for folks on both sides to catch on -- maybe 3 years -- maybe 5.
Like many other fair sized companies, I don't imagine the head people at Matrox invite everyone else in the lower ranks to contribute to their strategy sessions. Where this has occured with new companies by the way, & not just as window dressing, a significant number of those companies are now in trouble or gone.
So, my reading for whatever it's worth, is that the top folks at Matrox are unsure, just like people in the top ranks everywhere. There's been cost cutting, as when they tried to switch everything to solely web support a year ago I think -- if I remember correctly. There've been cards that allegedly were canceled. It's probably hard right now to even project the cost of memory for their products a year or more out, what with all the unsettled rambus mess & the changing production in asia.
I still read it as good guys and bad guys more or less, and figure if you like the rebate offers or not, someone might well have had to fight like the devil for them. That the software price reductions are more then the hardware might say there's a few folks who wouldn't do much to budge.
Playing devil's advocate, if I were at the top tier, & opposed to giving customers more then I absolutely had to, I'd figure this was a good deal -- even if the marvel folks declined for example, still sends a wonderful message to all those Matrox graphics card customers. And then I'd wait and see...
To everyone it should be obvious that something went wrong somewhere and everything hit at the end of May. People at the top did listen, and came up with a response, while Haig made like the energizer bunny -- in his position most of us would have by now been poster children for substance abuse. It took a while I imagine because the software deal itself took quite some doing. The alpha folks (trying to come up with a nice way to say top dogs
) are still listening...
If I were Haig, perhaps I'd be a tad miffed by now if I had fought hard for this (I don't know for a fact one way or the other). Hurts his credibility one, and it appears to some of these alpha folks no doubt that they were right.
Of course, I'm not saying take the deal or don't, or debating if it's worth it. I do think a more measured debate & response might get you what your looking for. Let Haig & others see that we do appreciate the offer, & see if we can't come up with ways that might make it more appealing.
While I don't see Matrox can change it's prices as stated -- no biz could at this stage -- perhaps they could offer an OEM version, or maybe add other Matrox Graphics cards to the mix, leaving the capture part out of it (that might satisfy even more folks, those determined to buy or who have already bought another capture device.
I really do think it might prove worthwhile to also conduct some sort of poll, asking what would people willingly pay, but in a multiple choice format to keep it real.
And at the end of the day, all said and done, make a list (if only in your head) of those companies you've dealt with, & ask: "How would they have handled it"?
Thanks
mike
This may not seem relevant at 1st, but what the 'ell?
Matrox is a biz like any other, in a market with a bit of competition -- one in which no one has figured out even some of the answers. On top of that, the whole biz world is changing, just after reversing itself on the exchanges a while back.
If there is a company that does have it at all figured out, they're losing money 'cause we customers don't trust them yet to do what they say. Whatever the past causes, it's an adversarial relationship at present between any seller vs buyer, & it will take a while for folks on both sides to catch on -- maybe 3 years -- maybe 5.
Like many other fair sized companies, I don't imagine the head people at Matrox invite everyone else in the lower ranks to contribute to their strategy sessions. Where this has occured with new companies by the way, & not just as window dressing, a significant number of those companies are now in trouble or gone.
So, my reading for whatever it's worth, is that the top folks at Matrox are unsure, just like people in the top ranks everywhere. There's been cost cutting, as when they tried to switch everything to solely web support a year ago I think -- if I remember correctly. There've been cards that allegedly were canceled. It's probably hard right now to even project the cost of memory for their products a year or more out, what with all the unsettled rambus mess & the changing production in asia.
I still read it as good guys and bad guys more or less, and figure if you like the rebate offers or not, someone might well have had to fight like the devil for them. That the software price reductions are more then the hardware might say there's a few folks who wouldn't do much to budge.
Playing devil's advocate, if I were at the top tier, & opposed to giving customers more then I absolutely had to, I'd figure this was a good deal -- even if the marvel folks declined for example, still sends a wonderful message to all those Matrox graphics card customers. And then I'd wait and see...
To everyone it should be obvious that something went wrong somewhere and everything hit at the end of May. People at the top did listen, and came up with a response, while Haig made like the energizer bunny -- in his position most of us would have by now been poster children for substance abuse. It took a while I imagine because the software deal itself took quite some doing. The alpha folks (trying to come up with a nice way to say top dogs
) are still listening...If I were Haig, perhaps I'd be a tad miffed by now if I had fought hard for this (I don't know for a fact one way or the other). Hurts his credibility one, and it appears to some of these alpha folks no doubt that they were right.
Of course, I'm not saying take the deal or don't, or debating if it's worth it. I do think a more measured debate & response might get you what your looking for. Let Haig & others see that we do appreciate the offer, & see if we can't come up with ways that might make it more appealing.
While I don't see Matrox can change it's prices as stated -- no biz could at this stage -- perhaps they could offer an OEM version, or maybe add other Matrox Graphics cards to the mix, leaving the capture part out of it (that might satisfy even more folks, those determined to buy or who have already bought another capture device.
I really do think it might prove worthwhile to also conduct some sort of poll, asking what would people willingly pay, but in a multiple choice format to keep it real.
And at the end of the day, all said and done, make a list (if only in your head) of those companies you've dealt with, & ask: "How would they have handled it"?
Thanks
mike
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