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APX NEXT XE Released

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GlobalNorth

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It's another "badge of office" for EMS/Fire/Le executives to show off. Expect Division Chiefs, under-Sheriffs, Police Commanders, and the like to get these. Just the kind of assignment that they'll rarely if ever use them for anything other than a pager / texting device, but by gosh, they'll impress the rookies, smaller agency big-wigs who can't afford them, and Motorola Solutions executives.
 

RadioDitch

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I've been around Motorola long enough to know that they are not doing this because they think it's the wave of the future. They are doing it because they see it as a way to lock users into the Motorola marketing system and milk money from them for as long as possible.

There's two types of corporations in the world. Those that operate motivated by ideology/values/goals, and those that operate strictly motivated by profit. Motorola is unabashedly the latter. There's nothing wrong with that per se as long as they deliver on a quality product, which Motorola does. And if their business practices are ethical, which while Motorola in many ways is sly, I think still are. But I agree with everyone that this doesn't really make sense beyond being a new shiny toy.

And anyway, Motorola doesn't get within country mile of Apple's down right evil and deceptive business practices and engineering. Motorola allows third party repair and doesn't intentionally engineer their devices to break after a certain period.
 
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MTS2000des

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APX Next is loaded with mandatory "add-ons" like Radio Central, VIQI/CAD integration, location based service (think "Find my iPhone for your $12,000 radio). As someone who supports and works on a P25 system for a living, love to know where the funding is going to come from. Maybe some cities and counties can afford this, where I work, with 30 percent unemployment looming, a shrinking tax digest as businesses stay shuttered and many closed permanently, the days of multi-thousand dollar subscribers with hundreds bucks a year in recurring costs have come to an end, fancy toys like this just aren't practical or on the radar. It's hard to justify to us taxpayers why we NEED such a device when they really don't do anything spectacular that 5 year old APX6000s or 2 year old Kenwood VP6430s don't do.

It's a niche product with a high cost of ownership, and never ending value added services with tie-ins that direct fees to the vendor. The competitors have top tier P25 subscribers with LTE integration at fraction of the cost, without the costly "value added services" piling up.

Everything counts in large amounts.
 

GlobalNorth

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Government grants are available for toys such as the APX Next and more than enough Chiefs, Directors, commanders, managers, and executives are of the opinion that they deserve things like this.

Our "on-call" investigators have to drive 7 year old vehicles that cannot be taken home, yet the big guy who never comes out to scenes gets a new Tahoe to drive back and forth from home.

It's all just another "badge of office".
 

slobonmycob

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It will be a real kick in the balls when they EOL the less expensive models and force these onto agencies..one of my agencies just purchased the APX8000XE models :(

Though I love the radios purchased, I noticed during the process how difficult it is to to have subscribers from different vendors added onto a state system that’s already Motorola.. It’s so technical and expensive I’m not sure I understand how the system is APCO compliant
 

MTS2000des

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I don't think the APX8K/8KXE's have been slated for EOL yet. There is too much direct competition (Harris XL-200p, EFJ VP900, and yes, even the f'ugly Relm BKR9000) to throw the 8K out. It's only been out for 4-5 years. The AN versions maybe, but they always replace them with current (BN, CN, DN, etc) hardware and usually enhance it someway to jack up the price.

Either way, the 8K will probably end up replacing the 6K BN at some point. An 8K can be ordered in single band only from the factory for not too terribly much more than a 6K BN if bought in volume. Makes sense to sell ONE radio fifty different ways. Harris sells the XL200 that way.
 

slobonmycob

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I don't think the APX8K/8KXE's have been slated for EOL yet. There is too much direct competition (Harris XL-200p, EFJ VP900, and yes, even the f'ugly Relm BKR9000) to throw the 8K out.

I agree that I think it’s too early to EOL the APX8K. But it’s hard to consider competition whenever a single vendor runs a huge statewide system.. I was honestly very impressed with Harris whenever I spoke to their representatives but the cost and technicalities that go into adding another vendor to an already Motorola system just wasn’t worth it.
 

mbnv992

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I always thought the 8000HXE was going to be the replacement for the 8000XE, and the 8000H would replace the standard 8000.

I don’t see Motorola coming out with a brand new top tier P25 portable to replace the APX line anytime soon. Look how long the XTS series stuck around in some varient or another. Heck - many agency’s I know of still have xts5000 ( and even dare I say some 3000’s ) in their fleet.
 

12dbsinad

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Most public safety users I know need a public safety radio with no screen, 2 user friendly control knobs on the top and that's all they really care about. Most don't even know the functions of the radio and they don't care. Turn it on, and push button to talk, and maybe change channel or talkgroup every now and again.

I've got guys who ask me if they can go back to carrying the HT1000 because it always worked and was simple.
 

WX4JCW

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Most public safety users I know need a public safety radio with no screen, 2 user friendly control knobs on the top and that's all they really care about. Most don't even know the functions of the radio and they don't care. Turn it on, and push button to talk, and maybe change channel or talkgroup every now and again.

I've got guys who ask me if they can go back to carrying the HT1000 because it always worked and was simple.
probably will get to a point you will need a degree to operate these things :p
 

maus92

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Our statewide system that went operational in 2012 (and should be fully deployed in 2021) is now planning to replace the original APX6000s, the main users being the state police agencies, with some localities using the system for their fire service. I expect the police to get some APX Next subs mainly to experiment with the various applications, and to extend / enhance the coverage footprint via the LTE radio. They also have some utility to replace separate handheld devices that display suspect photos and other records data. But for the fire service, I don't see the display to be big enough to be very useful, although it may have some enhanced man-down functionality.

A side note about the APX6000s: our state has gotten a bit crazy with a plethora of interop and special purpose tgs; so much so that the APX6000s are running out of channel capacity to support them.
 

Ant9270

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Meanwhile, we still have to program all the softkeys as “unprogrammed” on APXs, and make the menu options stuff like “BATT and CLCK” because if you don’t, you’ll get 25 calls a day from a chief saying “uhhhh, yeah, my portable is making a squelch noise and I don’t know why. Also, it changes channels on its own without me touching the knob” and they think this is gonna work? Lol, good luck MSI.
 

K2NEC

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Meanwhile, we still have to program all the softkeys as “unprogrammed” on APXs, and make the menu options stuff like “BATT and CLCK” because if you don’t, you’ll get 25 calls a day from a chief saying “uhhhh, yeah, my portable is making a squelch noise and I don’t know why. Also, it changes channels on its own without me touching the knob” and they think this is gonna work? Lol, good luck MSI.
The usual go-to is Scan, Battery, Clock lol
And forget having more than 3 soft keys, someone will scroll to the right and suddenly they can't find their battery button anywhere :ROFLMAO:
 

mmckenna

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There's two types of corporations in the world. …..But I agree with everyone that this doesn't really make sense beyond being a new shiny toy.

I'm more concerned about their sales people than anything. They make fine radios (usually, they've had some duds in their history), however their ethics on the sales side are often found to be lacking.
 

slobonmycob

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I'm more concerned about their sales people than anything. They make fine radios (usually, they've had some duds in their history), however their ethics on the sales side are often found to be lacking.

The executives look to jack the price up wherever possible in a way that is egregious.
 

12dbsinad

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The executives look to jack the price up wherever possible in a way that is egregious.
They (Mother M) also wants to get rid of the middle man (dealers) and deal directly with the customer. The dealer will get thrown the scraps.. Seen it happen time and time again.
 
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