Ominous lack of stock in UK

[TheLastMan]

I have been thinking of buying a Squeezebox Radio and was looking at a number of retail and on-line sites for deals.

What is clear is that there is almost no stock in any shops and virtually none on-line. There are none at Dabs, Currys, Richer Sounds or Superfi (my usual choice of UK discount outlets). Amazon is not selling any direct and only have 3 available from a third party seller.

The same applies to the Touch.

However, you can still get them direct from the Logitech web site (and a few from the usual ramshackle collection of small on-line traders).

The optimistic view would be that they are about to release upgraded replacements. The pessimistic view would be that they are about to kill off the Squeezebox line of products altogether. I fear the latter is the most likely scenario. It is very unusual for stock of one generation of a product to be allowed to be sold out completely before the next generation is released. I also think it is ominous that they have renamed Squeezebox Server "Logitech Media Server" - possibly in preparation for killing off the name?

Any views?

[cblock]

..while they're still around. I recall seeing a decent display of radios and Touch's in my one trip to the Southampton store about a month ago..

Chris

[castalla]

And online: http://www.bestbuy.co.uk/product/100...io-system.aspx

[garym]

Any views?

probably means nothing. this topic comes up about once or twice a year from the beginning of the SB line. Of course, eventually, it will be true, as eventually virtually all products come to EOL. ;-)

[erland]

Any views?

No reason to worry in advance.

If I compare it with Apple, it's usually hard to get the latest version of a certain Apple hardware product at least once a year, the reason is either:
1. They are about to release a new hardware version.
or
2. They are selling more than expected and haven't been able to manufacture enough units yet.

Let's stop predicting the death of the Squeezebox.

Sure, you might be correct, but as already mentioned this has historically happened before several times and so far it hasn't meant that the Squeezebox is about to die.

Threads like this always make me wonder if I should go and get a few extra Squeezeboxes so I have some spare parts if Logitech actually would decide to stop manufacture this excellent hardware.

[garym]

Threads like this always make me wonder if I should go and get a few extra Squeezeboxes so I have some spare parts if Logitech actually would decide to stop manufacture this excellent hardware.

that's why I have two TOUCH units still in the box. I like these things so much that I want to have backups if/when one of my other units crap out. And I spend less on this sort of hardware than my CD buying habit, so it's cheap insurance!

[amcluesent]

I can't think of a single instance when the Logitech bean-counters have done the right thing for the Squeezebox community

[erland]

I can't think of a single instance when the Logitech bean-counters have done the right thing for the Squeezebox community

I can think of several things:
1. They saved the Squeezebox product by purchasing Slim Devices and provided the economical strength needed to be able to develop and release Touch and Radio.
2. They hired a number of third party developers within the community
3. They put the Squeezebox on the shelf on my local electronics store
4. They have signed deals with a number of streaming services and provided access to them through mysqueezebox.com
5. They continued to take the costs to keep running this forum and the related wiki
6. They released the two Squeezebox models with best potential so far (Touch and Radio)

I could of course also make a list of what they have done wrong and that list would probably have been longer, but saying that they haven't done anything right isn't fair to them.

Of course, they did some of the above things thanks to the employees originating from the community or Slim Devices and also thanks to Sean/Dean who managed the Logitech unit responsible for Squeezeboxes during the first 1-2 years after the purchase, most of them no longer working for Logitech, but still, it was done while the Squeezebox products were owned by Logitech.

It's easy to assume the world would have been a lot better if Logitech never acquired Slim Devices, but it's important to realize that we really don't know what would have happened if they didn't, Squeezeboxes might not have been possible to buy at all today if it weren't for Logitech. I'm pretty sure one of the main reasons why Slim Devices was sold was because they couldn't produce enough profits without being able to reach the masses and to accomplish this I could think of a lot worse choices than Logitech, at least from a community perspective. Another important reason was probably that they needed the economical strength to be able to invest in product development to keep up with the competition, this worked great within Logitech during the first years, not so great during the last 2-3 years.

[TheLastMan]

I can think of several things:
1. They saved the Squeezebox product by purchasing Slim Devices and provided the economical strength needed to be able to develop and release Touch and Radio.
2. They hired a number of third party developers within the community
3. They put the Squeezebox on the shelf on my local electronics store
4. They have signed deals with a number of streaming services and provided access to them through mysqueezebox.com
5. They continued to take the costs to keep running this forum and the related wiki
6. They released the two Squeezebox models with best potential so far (Touch and Radio)
[snip]

+1
Excellent reply. I would probably not have heard of Squeezebox if it were not for Logitech. Still, I worry because it is such a niche product and it takes a brave company to carry on investing in this kind of technology in the long term.

I sometimes wish that the Squeezebox line had the design integrity of the Sonos kit which looks much more like a "system" than Squeezebox.

I think the SB Touch has stolen a march on the Sonos lineup but they need to build on that with an amplified touch-screen player and a touch-screen Radio (and Boom?) all designed around the same interface and with a similar "style".

It is encouraging that I see many fewer posts on the Touch forum from people with the wi-fi problems that always seemed to plague the Duet. That reduces the advantage that Sonos has in that area.

[sc53]

I don't see how you could call the Squeezebox a "niche" product, when all we ever hear about nowadays is streaming music, music from the "cloud," downloading bits rather than purchasing CDs or (heaven forbid) LPs. I would characterize the SB products as right in line with mainstream commercial trends in music and computers. It would be foolish for Logitech to abandon the market share it has rather than try to enlarge it with new products and BETTER software!