acetech said:
From what I have heard from someone higher up in rs. Uniden will be the only company they are using for scanners anymore. RS pretty much uses uniden for a lot of products now. Gre will not be making any new scanners.. Just what I was told. True or not true? I do not know for sure but just what I was told.
That's a load of crap. Who's your source? The guy delivering your Sunday Paper with the RS ad in it?
Let's look at this from a business perspective (which is how the world works...)
Uniden has been providing a bunch of models lately just because they've got a ton of unused capacity they need to unload... They are making some sweet deals to RS, and RS is finding ways to move Unidens dogs... Like bundling that Uniden with some nice headphones and practically giving them away to the NASCAR drones... Great idea. Easy money for the Shack. Why couldn't Uniden do that themselves? They don't have the sheer size and market presence, not to mention distribution channels. (Heck, you practically have to go to Uniden headquarters in person to buy a Uniden scanner anymore... How'd that work out for the folks at Drake?) That should not be construed as anything other than a sign of trouble for Uniden.
Uniden keeps losing market share to RS/GRE. RS scanners (the GRE ones, not the rebadged Uniden ones) have %60 of the market, and it keeps going up. Being that scanners are a fairly tiny market, and are horribly expensive to develop, Uniden may just abandon the market altogether. (Seen any Uniden radar detectors lately?)
Given that RS (despite its recent troubles) still has $4 Billion in annual sales, while Uniden only has around $800 Million, and Uniden's earnings (and stock price) are down about 30% in the last year, what division do you think might get the axe next?
Uniden makes a LOT more profit off of cordless phone and FRS radio sales...
GRE has plenty of stuff in the pipelines, they just have tighter lips about future products... RS wants to be #1 in any category they are selling, even if it is a piddly one like scanners (sorry, but scanners probably bring in about $2 Million annually to RS while Cell Phones bring in around $1.5 Billion...) and that's why they have gotten out of many categories lately in which they did not dominate (car audio, wired security systems, bulk wire, etc...). Uniden's probably looking to do the same, as all successful companies should.
Oops... Didn't mean to lapse into a business lecture there