Are we seeing the final death throws of a once great company?

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eaf1956

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X the thousands of listeners of those feeds that didn't buy a scanner from anyone.

Sorry. Not a win in my book, Lindsay.

Gee I wonder how many people start listening to feeds and get hooked and go out and buy their own scanners. It happens! Everyone wants to control what they hear and all and feeds are so limited in scope.
 

blantonl

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X the thousands of listeners of those feeds that didn't buy a scanner from anyone.

Sorry. Not a win in my book, Lindsay.

You neglect to consider the thousands of listeners who are already scanner owners that are interested in monitoring remote communications / incidents.

Additionally, I know the platform and statistics better than anyone - Broadcastify drives a tremendous amount of scanner sales. Sorry, I have the hard facts.

Might not be a win in *your* book - but in the industry's book it is a win.
 

JoeyC

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Doubtful that all 5200 broadcasters bought shiny new scanners for the chore. But its possible that a tiny percentage of the casual broadcastify listeners that had never had a scanner before bought one.
 

blantonl

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One thing is certain - the scanner market over the next 5 years or so is definitely going to be upended by the low cost SDR platform market. We are seeing tremendous advancements in software with regards to the SDR platforms, and it is only a matter of time before a marriage of Unitrunker type functionality with SDR# functionality (and plugins) and DSD functionality results in a sub $100 integrated scanner solution that decodes most major digital voice protocols and trunking formats in an easy to use installable package.

Hopefully the scanner manufacturers recognize this and adjust accordingly with their own offerings
 

KC4RAF

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Uniden isn't going to fold, at least any time soon.

They have hit a slump in sales, just like all other industries have. Things will get straighten out between Japan and the USA, (kind of believe some new people will be placed in management over there).
I have several scanners and once in a while listen in on Broadcastify in other locations to see what's happening there. One guy down the road bought a scanner because he could not get Polk Co. SO at Broadcastify!
There's ups and downs in all things in life.
 

oneadam-12

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If they fail which I hope not maybe Whistler or someone else will buy them out just like when Uniden bought Electra.
 
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tumegpc

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If they fail witch I hope not maybe Whistler or someone else will buy them out just like when Uniden bought Electra.

A buyout of Uniden"s scanner division would be a good thing if it was someone like iCOM, Yaesu or Kenwood. Maybe we would finally get a scanner with features like GPS, Bluetooth, Li-ion battery with drop-in charger, and dual reception.
 

RF23

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For what it is worth:

My understanding is when Yahoo was streaming live Public Safety on the internet their advertisers supposedly complained they did not seem to be getting much “bang for their buck”. So, Yahoo did a survey of their listeners and very surprisingly found that 80% to 90% (I think) of their listeners where public safety people, so I guess the ads were sort of like “preaching to the choir”. As a side note, Yahoo actually had a “drop off the dispatcher’s console” in Seattle and Dallas which gave them unsurpassed quality (no scanner involved). However, Yahoo closed all of their Public Safety streaming after this, as far as I know.

Please jump in if I have miss remembered the details, if was a long time ago.

However, I watch the news and weather nationally to see what might be interesting to listen to either live or with archival recordings, so a scanner (I have 7 or 8) would not help me to do this.

In addition, I like to listen to places I have lived at in the past and it is very enjoyable (to me anyway) but again a scanner with a 5000 ft. tower could not help me do this since most are 1000 to 2000 miles away.

These are just some other possible uses that people may be using the live public safety streaming for.

Also, I know locally some poor people that depend on the RR site for timely information from our local storm spotters when tornadoes are around.

I think it may be the mobile apps that access public safety streaming that may be giving some public safety people concern.

Just some thoughts on our interesting hobby.

EDIT: It seems it took me to long to reply as much of what I have here others posted while I was putting this together. Active topic I guess!
 

marcotor

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A buyout of Uniden"s scanner division would be a good thing if it was someone like iCOM, Yaesu or Kenwood. Maybe we would finally get a scanner with features like GPS, Bluetooth, Li-ion battery with drop-in charger, and dual reception.

To go with the $899 price tag
 

SCPD

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As a recent owner of a 436HP .. I just have to say 'though the 436HP had a couple of really good features, it was mostly a bust and had to go. It really sucked .. '. You just have to read the forums here at RR to see this is very true. I do not see a great future for Uniden unless they concentrate on quality rather than the fancy stuff ...

I will probably not buy a Uniden for a long time .. cause honestly I cannot trust them to come out with a quality product. Lets face it, if it does not work well .. the bells and whistles do not matter much.

I have not owned a Uniden otherwise since the 780XLT, mainly cause the quality of their products have really gone downhill, especially recently.
 

scosgt

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I own/have owned just about every radio they ever made.
Truth be told, the best radio in terms of build and reception remains the 796D. Everything else has more features and memory but just does not work as well.

And how do you leave the RESUME button off the HP series????
 

Boatanchor

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I doubt that a 40 million profit for the year is the end of the company wish I could make 40 mil after all is said and done must be nice

Not sure where you pulled the 40 million profit figure from.

The data shows that for the last reporting period (march 2014 - March 2015), Uniden Corps bottom line was just US$3.3M and that was only after it sold off US$3.2M worth of assets and investments. It can't keep selling off assets to prop up the bottom line every year.

The stock price is telling too if you zoom out to the 10 year period. There have been a few minor blips up, presumably as a few new products hit the market, but the stock is still down from over 2000 to just 250 today despite trillions of Yen being injected into the market by central banks since 2008.

It's appears to be a rapidly thinning tightrope that Uniden are walking..
 

airwolfbell222

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From Tokyo, a megalomaniac micro manages the entire operation with an iron fist. He is nearly 80 years old, has lost touch with reality, and dictates in accordance to his recollections of 1970's business practices.

That's quite the statement!
 

marksmith

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Sadly, I bring no good news to this thread.

If you are looking for a 'happy, 'feel good' reading experience, stop now and go elsewhere...

For the curious amongst you, all of the following information is available from public sites.

Come to your own conclusions.

Links

UNIDEN CORP (6815:Tokyo): Financial Statements - Businessweek

And maybe most telling of all, from local (ex) employee perspectives:

Uniden Reviews | Glassdoor

Will Uniden be around long enough to sort out the x36HP woes?

It's not looking promising.
Even if they remain, which I suspect they will, don't count on them expending resources to solve the x36 problems.

Mark
536/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/
396XT/PSR800/PRO668/PRO652
 

Voyager

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Anyone (obviously, external to Uniden) know what percentage of these figures are from their scanner business?

UPMan said previously that scanner sales make up a small percentage of their overall sales.
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