This is a huge advantage for Whistler, though many will be loath to admit it. Whistler can watch the reaction to the SDS100 over the next month and learn its wins and losses. Plus, they can reverse-engineer the SDS100. Being #2 to the plate is not a bad thing if played properly. See post #223 for some perspective.
Whistler to Launch New LSM Capable Scanners
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This is a huge advantage for Whistler, though many will be loath to admit it. Whistler can watch the reaction to the SDS100 over the next month and learn its wins and losses. Plus, they can reverse-engineer the SDS100. Being #2 to the plate is not a bad thing if played properly. See post #223 for some perspective.
Put me in the "definitely not" wishing category.
Uniden's marketing strategy is simple--implement the full functionality for their scanners, even if that means paying royalties to properly follow trunking systems. So you pay more (for formats you choose to monitor), but you get more functionality.
Whistler doesn't charge extra, but you get a more limited trunking functionality you have no way of upgrading if it is unsatisfactory.
I'm not sure how. Uniden is running away with the market with a product that delivers on its promises, and then some. Whistler's response so far is a press release. The final product may be great, or it may not be. It may be released on schedule, or it may not be. It's hard to get excited about something when on the one hand you have a product in hand that delivers on its promises, and on the other hand you don't even have a rough back-of-a-napkin sketch of the concept.
You don't win the market by reverse-engineering a competitor's product. Does Whistler really want to become the jPhone of scanners?
Because it's irrelevant to what I said. The new Whistler models may be even better than Uniden's products. Or they may not be. It's even possible (though unlikely) that they may never actually get to market. Nobody knows, because other than the press release, there's nothing concrete to go on. Assuming they will suck is unwarranted (as mentioned in post 223), but assuming they will be super-awesome is equally unwarranted.
It's not "bashing" to point out that many people would rather purchase a product available now, that meets or exceeds its marketing hype, as opposed to waiting 6 months or more for a complete unknown. Being in that position is not advantageous for Whistler in any way. The longer it takes Whistler to bring a viable competitor to the SDS100 to market, the more market share they cede to Uniden.
I don't hate Whistler. I want them to be competitive with Uniden, to keep Uniden from becoming complacent and from overcharging for their products.
It's not "bashing" to point out that many people would rather purchase a product available now, that meets or exceeds its marketing hype, as opposed to waiting 6 months or more for a complete unknown. Being in that position is not advantageous for Whistler in any way. The longer it takes Whistler to bring a viable competitor to the SDS100 to market, the more market share they cede to Uniden.
I don't hate Whistler. I want them to be competitive with Uniden, to keep Uniden from becoming complacent and from overcharging for their products.
Wilrobnson
Rock or Something
Good to see some have gone as far as debating what the radios may or may not look like (on absolutely no data) and basing purchasing decisions on that alone.
I don't care if the radio body is cardboard. If it does what I need it to, I'm buying. If you need pretty colors and information overload, use your smartphone and Broadcastify.
I don't care if the radio body is cardboard. If it does what I need it to, I'm buying. If you need pretty colors and information overload, use your smartphone and Broadcastify.
Well to be fair, i want it to stand up as i have dropped my radios by accident in the past. and thankfully my radios have been rugged enough to stand up to that.
milcom_chaser
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Perhaps Whistler stake in the scanner market is not
is a high priority given all the other products the sell.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Uniden sells quite a few products besides scanners as well.
KB7MIB
Member
I think I mentioned it before, it's possible that Uniden's announcement of the SDS-100 forced Whistler's hand, and their announcement was made earlier than they had originally planned, in an attempt to not lose too much of the market share to Uniden. They may be hoping that enough people will decide to wait and see what Whistler is going to come out with, instead of going out and buying the SDS-100 right away.
Some seem to be taking that stance. Others have bought, or will be buying, an SDS-100, and are also planning on buying Whistler's offer when it comes out.
I've been back and forth on it myself. I wanted to wait and see exactly what Whistler will offer as far as capabilities compared to the SDS-100, as well as wait for any bugs discovered in the SDS-100 to be worked out, whether software or hardware related. I was also pessimistically thinking about the possibility of Murphy rearing his ugly head after dropping that kind of money, and wondering if it would really be a good idea, even though I haven't gifted myself a new scanner, or any other major purchase like this, in a decade since I bought my GRE PSR-500. (And since I already have a GRE, the programming and operation of a Whistler should be very similar, rather than having to learn a new way of doing things with a Uniden.)
Then I got to see and hear an SDS-100 in action in person, and I decided that I didn't want to wait lol (My PSR-500 is deaf in comparison on a local simulcast system.)
However, due to Murphy showing up even before I actually made the purchase, I may just be forced to put off any purchase until at least Christmas due to other, unfortunately more important, things that have been, and may soon need to be, paid for.
Oh, well. We shall see I suppose.
John
Peoria, AZ
Some seem to be taking that stance. Others have bought, or will be buying, an SDS-100, and are also planning on buying Whistler's offer when it comes out.
I've been back and forth on it myself. I wanted to wait and see exactly what Whistler will offer as far as capabilities compared to the SDS-100, as well as wait for any bugs discovered in the SDS-100 to be worked out, whether software or hardware related. I was also pessimistically thinking about the possibility of Murphy rearing his ugly head after dropping that kind of money, and wondering if it would really be a good idea, even though I haven't gifted myself a new scanner, or any other major purchase like this, in a decade since I bought my GRE PSR-500. (And since I already have a GRE, the programming and operation of a Whistler should be very similar, rather than having to learn a new way of doing things with a Uniden.)
Then I got to see and hear an SDS-100 in action in person, and I decided that I didn't want to wait lol (My PSR-500 is deaf in comparison on a local simulcast system.)
However, due to Murphy showing up even before I actually made the purchase, I may just be forced to put off any purchase until at least Christmas due to other, unfortunately more important, things that have been, and may soon need to be, paid for.
Oh, well. We shall see I suppose.
John
Peoria, AZ
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KB7MIB
Member
I just commented on that.
Rich Carlson's SDS-100 beat out Joe's ("Cellphone") 436 when we met up at 67th and Cactus last Sunday, with none of the issues you've mentioned, at least as far as Simulcast G is concerned. (We didn't try a UHF or VHF comparison. Joe's 436 heard 2/3 to 3/4 of what the SDS-100 heard, which seemed to be everything, but of course none of us were staring at the screen to see if it was missing the switch to a voice channel at any point.)
John
Peoria
Rich Carlson's SDS-100 beat out Joe's ("Cellphone") 436 when we met up at 67th and Cactus last Sunday, with none of the issues you've mentioned, at least as far as Simulcast G is concerned. (We didn't try a UHF or VHF comparison. Joe's 436 heard 2/3 to 3/4 of what the SDS-100 heard, which seemed to be everything, but of course none of us were staring at the screen to see if it was missing the switch to a voice channel at any point.)
John
Peoria
YMMV is such a true statement when it comes to radio / scanner issues. I believe you had that exact experience, which makes all of this all the more baffling.
? Did you update the FW when you got your SDS100? The new FW may have made a change that was unknown.
With all off-topic posts and the release several months away we're closing this for now.
When Whistler gets closer to a release we'll either open this back up or start a new thread.
(I really wish people would stay on topic. Discussing whether or not someone updated their SDS100 FW in a Whislter forum...seriously???)
When Whistler gets closer to a release we'll either open this back up or start a new thread.
(I really wish people would stay on topic. Discussing whether or not someone updated their SDS100 FW in a Whislter forum...seriously???)
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