Kenwood DMR units in the U.K.

[JPSan]

Wonder how long before these hit stateside? Originally from VA3XPR | Toronto's Ham Radio Repeater Connection

On January 15, 2014, Kenwood Communications announced the release of a new line of Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) portable radios, thereby tossing its hat into the DMR ring with other companies, such as Motorola, Vertex Standard and Hytera to name a few. The flagship version of these radios, the TK-D200G (VHF) and the TK-D300G (UHF) feature an impressive 2 inch, sunlight readable, full color display, built-in GPS and up to 18 hours of battery life. While these radios were launched for the UK market for business users, there’s no doubt that some will find their way to North America for ham radio use.

In addition to this announcement, Kenwood also indicated that it will begin be offering a line of DMR repeaters in March 2014.


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Kenwood DMR Digital Hand Portable and Repeaters | Kenwood Communications
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[mmckenna]

Last year when I was at IWCE in Las Vegas, the Kenwood booth had a small display of their non-North American products over in one corner. There were some interesting looking products that I'd never seen before, including some radios that looked very similar to this. There wasn't any information on any of them, but it does show that Kenwood has many products they produce that never seem to make it to the US.

It will be interesting to see if Kenwood USA decides to get into the DMR arena. Right now so much focus has been on NexEdge and it as a product path for replacing the aging LTR systems. Will be interesting to see if they want DMR in the mix. With the popularity of MotoTrbo, it would be interesting to see.

Since P25, NXDN and DMR all can use the same AMBE +2 vocoder, it isn't a big stretch.

 

[mmckenna]

Looking at that photo and comparing it to my NX-410, the keypad layout is almost identical.

 

[KampingAnthony1AolCo]

I wonder if the prices will be higher or lower than what Motorola is offering for there DMR series. I like Kenwood but I personally would still go with the Motorolas DMR radios.

 

[mmckenna]

I wonder if the prices will be higher or lower than what Motorola is offering for there DMR series. I like Kenwood but I personally would still go with the Motorolas DMR radios.

Kenwoods have been historically less expensive than Motorola.

 

[MTS2000des]

from what I have heard on the streets of Gwinnett county, GA (figure out who's US HQ is there....) you will never seen these radios inside North America. Kenwood is merely putting their name on someone else's product for the international DMR market, just as they did in Japan selling "badge engineered" Icom D-Star mobiles for the amateur market:

RigPix Database - Kenwood/Trio - TMW-706

Kenwood USA is wholly committed to NXDN, and it would be foolish to compete with themselves selling DMR subscriber products. They are expanding their Nexedge product line up this year.

 

[mmckenna]

Kenwood USA is wholly committed to NXDN, and it would be foolish to compete with themselves selling DMR subscriber products. They are expanding their Nexedge product line up this year.

That's similar to what our rep keeps telling us, glad to hear he isn't just feeding me a line.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Didn't JVC-Kenwood just acquire EF Johnson? EF Johnson has no DMR product to my knowledge. It would seem foolish to ignore the DMR market in NA.

 

[MTS2000des]

Didn't JVC-Kenwood just acquire EF Johnson? EF Johnson has no DMR product to my knowledge. It would seem foolish to ignore the DMR market in NA.

Kenwood's parent holdings company, JVC Kenwood, acquired EF Johnson as a separate subsidiary. Note their mention of their NEXEDGE product focus, and their desire to expand into the P25 infrastructure market in this Japanese corporate press release:

http://www.jvckenwood.co.jp/en/press/2014/01/press_140131_05.pdf

Nowhere is DMR even on the roadmap. DMR is not in Kenwood USA's future, unless they want to change horses and water down Nexedge penetration.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

No but they can rebadge their EU DMR product with EF-Johnson tags and market them here.

 

[MTS2000des]

No but they can rebadge their EU DMR product with EF-Johnson tags and market them here.

Why would they do that? That would be competing with themselves and eroding their Nexedge sales?

They bought EFJ for a reason, they don't have P25 infrastructure,

They have a complete Nexedge portfolio of both subscriber radios to FNE, they have plenty of P25 subscriber products but no FNE. Their acquisition of EF Johnson was strictly for that purpose. Did you read the Japanese press release? They pretty much spelled that part out verbatim to their investors.

 

[rapidcharger]

Nexedge sales?
What Nexedge sales?

DMR is where it's at. That's the dominant force to be reckoned with. If a business, say a hotel or condo assc buys a 10 -20 unit DMR system then a couple years down the line they need to replace the radios that got stolen or smashed and they don't want to pay as much as they did before because they hadn't budgeted for replacement, they could choose a less expensive kenwood if it was available. They're not going to switch altogether to NXDN. (They're not the school board who will blow huge sums of cash on a new radio system instead of repair and replacement) I don't know what percentage of sales is replacement radios but I think it's safe to say they're losing opportunities to compete there. They don't necessarily have to sell DMR repeaters and infrastructure and their DMR product line doesn't have to be cheaper than their NXDN offerings but they certainly could manufacture the radios for DMR and would be foolish not to IMO. I think they will come to their senses.

For the same reason, they bought EFHJohnson, this also pokes large holes in the theory that it will compete with themselves and their NXDN offerings. They sell analog radios too! That could compete with their NXDN offerings!

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

"Why would they do that? That would be competing with themselves and eroding their Nexedge sales?"

Because the parent company takes in all the profits and the dealers selling NXDN can still brag about how great NXDN is while the EF Johnson dealers can brag about their wonderful new DMR product.

Why would Fiat buy Chrysler" ?

Volkswagen Group sells passenger cars under the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda and Volkswagen marques; motorcycles under the Ducati brand; and commercial vehicles under the MAN, Scania, Neoplan and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles marques.

Why? More market share and Benjamin$$$$$

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

And maybe, just maybe, they know NXDN is not gathering the market share that DMR potentially will? I could be wrong,,,