Why can't production of SB's be restarted?

[MrTeroo]

Just following on from the "What do I replace with when mine stops working" thread.

Who owns the copyright / IP on Squeezebox devices? Logitech still?

Have they ever been approached to gauge the possibility of more units being manufactured?

Years after they were discontinued they would still wipe the floor with the competition

[garym]

Who owns the copyright / IP on Squeezebox devices? Logitech still?
YES

Have they ever been approached to gauge the possibility of more units being manufactured?
YES

Years after they were discontinued they would still wipe the floor with the competition
TRUE

Short answer, never going to happen.

[MrTeroo]

Never say never.

I'm just testing the water in advance of my mega lottery win

What happened when they were approached? What we're they asked and what was their response, do you know?

[garym]

I'm not an insider, so don't know any specifics. But I recall folks that knew more saying they showed zero interest. Keep in mind that even when these things were being produced, as a business line, they were probably .000000000000000000000000000000001 percent of Logitech revenues. Logitech was probably not a good fit as the owner, but it is what it is. Easy enough to duplicate a TOUCH with an rPi and piCorePlayer anyhow.

[cliveb]

SB players were always a niche product that would never become mainstream (which is precisely why Logitech were absolutely the wrong company to buy Slim Devices).

Nowadays the mass of potential buyers wouldn't have a clue about why the LMS ecosystem is better than the plethora of alternatives now available, so resurrected SB hardware would be even more niche and could never be profitable.

Finally, the original hardware devices used components that are no longer available. So new hardware would need to be designed, and when anyone can slap piCorePlayer on a RPi and have a functioning LMS player up and running in about 10 mins, there's simply no point.

[pfarrell]

SB players were always a niche product that would never become mainstream (which is precisely why Logitech were absolutely the wrong company to buy Slim Devices).

Finally, the original hardware devices used components that are no longer available.

Logitech buying Slim Devices made sense at the time, as Logitech was betting big on the Google TV box, and Slim Devices at least understood streaming. So the buy was a talent acquisition. But the Logitech/Google TV box had a lot of problems when it was released, including political/business issues, software bugs, missing features and a price that was simply too high.

Logitech brought in some impressive engineering talent to work on some of the later Squeezebox hardware (the radio and Boom), but as folks said upthread, the mindset of a mass market company like Logitech don't mesh well with the actual sales volumes that SlimDevices could move even at its peak.

While real Raspberry Pi units are impossible to buy right now, RPi promises that the shortage will lessen in the next few months, and there are many RPi clones at all price and quality points if you need a system-on-a-board today.

I expect Sean and Dean took their money and a well deserved vacation. I wonder what they are doing these days.

[Goodsounds]

Sonos played in the same space and has developed into a nicely sized and profitable company. Sonos took an Apple-like approach. They realized that potential customers didn't really want to play with configurations and hardware and software, they simply wanted to play music. The more plug and play they could make their ecosystem, the better market acceptance it would have and they succeeded in doing that, to the detriment of the SB products. When they were competing neck and neck, Sonos' products weren't necessarily technically better or as flexible as the SB family and SB was ahead at the start. The SB flexibility was popular with only a small segment of the market and for the rest of the market opportunity, the complexity for the average user was a turnoff. Sonos won the competition, it did a better job of assessing the desires of the market and filling them.

[agbagb]

Elon Musk to the rescue!

We should add, seriously, that it's amazing that Logitech, after all these years, still provide decent, specialist SB support, via our very own Michael Herger, plus the mySB.com servers.

[Paul Webster]

I think Logitech or UE no longer sell any devices with ethernet or WiFi any more and perhaps nothing with a display - I suspect the last networked device was Harmony Hub that was discontinued in 2021.

[kidstypike]

Never say never.

I'm just testing the water in advance of my mega lottery win

What happened when they were approached? What we're they asked and what was their response, do you know?

This from an ex Logitech/SB developer

https://forums.slimdevices.com/forum/user-forums/squeezebox-radio/93495-new-squeezebox-radio?p=1069473#post1069473

[MrTeroo]

This from an ex Logitech/SB developer

https://forums.slimdevices.com/forum...73#post1069473

Interesting read, thanks for that. As Logitech's annual turnover is over 4 Billion dollars, I don't see them ever revisiting Squeezebox.

It's good that they support this forum still, if I am correct in thinking that?

I've never given any thought to building a Raspberry Pi version.

Can anyone link me to a current, up to date, walk through as a starting point for my research please?

[Paul Webster]

I've never given any thought to building a Raspberry Pi version.

Can anyone link me to a current, up to date, walk through as a starting point for my research please?

piCorePlayer is a popular way of doing it

https://docs.picoreplayer.org/getting-started/

[kidstypike]

Interesting read, thanks for that. As Logitech's annual turnover is over 4 Billion dollars, I don't see them ever revisiting Squeezebox.

It's good that they support this forum still, if I am correct in thinking that?

I've never given any thought to building a Raspberry Pi version.

Can anyone link me to a current, up to date, walk through as a starting point for my research please?

https://www.picoreplayer.org/

No Linux skills need, all setup via a web browser.

Pictures of one of my setups, nearly 6 years old and still going strong.

Raspberry Pi 3B+
Raspberry Pi official 7" screen.
HiFiBerry DAC board
FLIRC remote dongle (allows me to use original SB IR remotes).

Can run LMS as well as being a player.

[cliveb]

Sonos played in the same space and has developed into a nicely sized and profitable company. Sonos took an Apple-like approach. They realized that potential customers didn't really want to play with configurations and hardware and software, they simply wanted to play music. The more plug and play they could make their ecosystem, the better market acceptance it would have and they succeeded in doing that, to the detriment of the SB products. When they were competing neck and neck, Sonos' products weren't necessarily technically better or as flexible as the SB family and SB was ahead at the start. The SB flexibility was popular with only a small segment of the market and for the rest of the market opportunity, the complexity for the average user was a turnoff. Sonos won the competition, it did a better job of assessing the desires of the market and filling them.

First time I laid my hands on a Sonos product was at a HiFi show in 2006 (I went there to checkout and order a Transporter).
My immediate reaction (apart from the feeling that their remote was WAY too big) was that Sonos would appeal to the sort of people who bought B&O - they just wanted something to plug in, turn on, and have working.
In contrast, the Squeezebox system appealed to the kind of people who back in the day mounted and aligned their own pickup cartridges, and fiddled around with VTA.
So it's hardly surprising that the potential market for Squeezebox was as small as it was.

[MrTeroo]

https://www.picoreplayer.org/

No Linux skills need, all setup via a web browser.

Pictures of one of my setups, nearly 6 years old and still going strong.

Raspberry Pi 3B+
Raspberry Pi official 7" screen.
HiFiBerry DAC board
FLIRC remote dongle (allows me to use original SB IR remotes).

Can run LMS as well as being a player.

Thank you.

What would your hardware list look like if you were building one today?