Uniden at CES 2014

[jkahn]

Who knows what the future will hold when these software defined radios will have the capability to decode encrypted traffic. Of course it would have to be someone from a different country to write the software and code to do that but anything is possible at this point. Scanners will never be-able to.

The future for listening to encrypted communications will be spent in a federal prison, regardless where the software is written.

What good would it do the average law abiding citizen to listen to a communication that he could not repeat or discuss with anyone, or act upon?

JK

 

[jkahn]

Paul (Upman):

How about a quick update on what's happening at CES?

I know you probably have not had a lot of floor time, but you HAD to go look around and scout the competition. Anything extraordinary on display?

JK

 

[kd7eir]

Umm, how about Whistler re-introducing the PSR500 and retailing it for ~$350?
I realize we are comparing apples with oranges here, but how many 436HP sales are going to evaporate overnight once your competitor brings a digital scanner to market for $150 less than your latest show pony? Sure, some will need the Phase 2 capability of the HP scanners, but not all..

Uniden seem to be claiming that the 4/536HP scanners are the cream of the crop, best of the best or top of the range. That's all fine, but not everybody wants/needs/can afford the top of the line scanner..

The 396XT on the other hand has proved to be a tough, reliable little performer over the last 4 - 5 years, but it is likely reaching the product's EOL. An updated 396XT with improved audio (the existing 396XT audio is terrible on head/earphones), some minor firmware fixes to increase the talkgroup capacity and maybe even a minor external facelift and then retailed for ~$350 would fill the void nicely between the 346XT and the 436HP scanner lineup. Not to mention, it would give the new Whistler PSR500's some serious sales competition. A $150 'premium' applied to the 436HP seems appropriate for the additional bells and whistles minus the cost of batteries, wall charger etc.

Anyway, we'll see what eventuates but I know for a fact that Uniden are currently selling many hundreds, if not thousands of 396XT's into other markets (Countries) that do not utilize phase 2 in a big way, with potential for many more to be sold over the next few years as more P25 Phase 1 networks continue to be rolled out. It would be a shame if this model/form factor and price point were completely discarded by Uniden.

Regardless, clearly Uniden can't keep selling the 396XT for $499 if the new model is the same RRP.

I would not expect to get any indication from Uniden that there may be another 'lower spec' digital scanner in the works as this would potentially impact on the hype surrounding the release of the 4/536HP units. There is also little pressure from it's competitor at the moment, but this would change very quickly if Whistler get it's act together and starts shipping product.

Therefore, I predict that any new 'lower tier' digital product announcements won't materialize until the new HP units have been on the market for a few months, the pent up demand/hype for the high end models has stabilized and Whistler bring their models to market.

I seriously doubt that a reintroduced PSR500 at ANY price will affect the sales of the 436/536HP scanners. As you said, you are comparing apples to oranges. Considering that the first shipment of the 436/536HP scanners has already sold out I see a bright future for them. The people that want a less-capable scanner are not the people ordering them, and those people will likely never order one, so their money will go to a less capable/less expensive scanner anyway.

Considering Whistler's reputation for making bottom of the quality barrel products, I really doubt that they will have much of an impact on Uniden's sales. If they had any competitive products lurking in the shadows, they would have already announced them to try and blunt the sales of the 436/536HP's. The need/want for a Phase II capable scanner is huge right now. If anything, I would guess that Whistler is going to try and capture the low to mid price range of scanners and not try to compete with the 436/536HP's. The market that is potentially waiting in the wings for the possibility of Whistler releasing the PSR800 dwindles everyday. The market that is waiting in the wings for Whistler to potentially release a PSR500 is not affected by the release of the 436/536HP in any way.

The great thing though is that we are all free to hand our money to the vendor of our choice. You pays your money and you takes your choice/chance.

 

[lep]

Umm, how about Whistler re-introducing the PSR500 and retailing it for ~$350?
I realize we are comparing apples with oranges here, but how many 436HP sales are going to evaporate overnight once your competitor brings a digital scanner to market for $150 less than your latest show pony? Sure, some will need the Phase 2 capability of the HP scanners, but not all..

Uniden seem to be claiming that the 4/536HP scanners are the cream of the crop, best of the best or top of the range. That's all fine, but not everybody wants/needs/can afford the top of the line scanner..
t.

But, some of us can both afford want/need a top of the line scanner. Nothing that is "top of the line" has so far ever come from Whistler in their incarnation as an importer of radar detectors, to prove their bona fides in scanners will take more than a few photos said to be from CES.

LEP

 

[AZScanner]

The future for listening to encrypted communications will be spent in a federal prison, regardless where the software is written.

Only if you're dumb enough to make it known to the authorities that you're doing that. :roll:

-AZ.

 

[Ersin]

Who knows what the future will hold when these software defined radios will have the capability to decode encrypted traffic. Of course it would have to be someone from a different country to write the software and code to do that but anything is possible at this point. Scanners will never be-able to.

Why would it have to be someone from a different country? Are you talking about the laws abroad? If so, that is valid. But it would be easy to write the software to decrypt digital radio. What would be hard is getting the correct cryptographic key to plug in.

The reason scanners will never have it is because the only people that can lawfully possess such a device would be cops. And then the market will be too small.


Cheers.

 

[pepsima1]

Yes I do believe that writing software to decode digital is pretty easy. There would need to be a way for the software to take Encrypted Audio and force different keys into the audio until it was cleaned up.

This would be almost impossible and would need such a super sonic computer to do these task at light speed which is at a 186,000 miles per second. If you could get a computer to do these calculations at this speed then the world would be our oyster again. Encrypting traffic would be a thing of the past.

Computer data is already flowing accross fiber optics around the world at light speed anyways. Its just a matter of time until computer calculation speeds catch up.