Author: Steven Schwartz
Date: 14:53:47 10/20/01
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On October 20, 2001 at 15:09:34, Christophe Theron wrote: >On October 20, 2001 at 11:34:38, Steven Schwartz wrote: > >>On October 20, 2001 at 08:39:57, O. Veli wrote: >> >>>On October 19, 2001 at 10:46:34, Steven Schwartz wrote: >>> >>>>Where did they get Star Sapphires? The chips to manufacture them >>>>will not be available till late December, and product won't be >>>>available until January? >>>>http://www.icdchess.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?page=8/80-N13.html&item=80-N13&cart_id=2600247.17861 >>> >>> Is there any concrete evidence for this? Star Sapphire was supposed to come ou >>>t in Summer 2000, then Christmas 2000, and now January 2001. Wasn't Novag >>>renamed as Perfect Technologies? I look forward to this product, but have no >>>hope of seeing it in my hands. >> >> >>The chips were supposed to be available in early November so that >>the product would be available for Christmas. However, we received >>word about a week ago that the chips were delayed until late Decmeber. >>So, January delivery looks good. However, we have learned from 23 years >>in this business that new product is delayed more than it is on time. >>We will know for certain that they are here when they get here. But >>right now January is as good a guess as any. >>Steve (ICD/Your Move Chess & Games) > > > >I don't want to sound harsh, but in my opinion this product is dead before it is >born: you can just buy a PDA and download a good chess program for it and you >get a better combination than the Star Sapphire. > >Even if the unit is cheaper than a PDA of the same speed at this time, it's just >a matter of months before PDAs are cheaper and faster. And naturally they are >more flexible. > >If this product had been released when it was first announced, something like 2 >years ago, it would have been a winner. But 2002 is too late. I don't understand >why investors would put money in this anymore (unless they are blind). > >I must certainly be missing some piece of important information about the unit. >But what? > Christophe Having sold $10,000 and $6,000 and $2,000 and $1,000 chess computers in pretty high numbers in the past, I can never predict what our customers will and will not like. We have started taking pre-orders for the computer. I will let you know in a month or two just how successful or unsuccessful a venture it is going to be. I think the success of failure of the Star Sapphire and Star Diamond will be a pretty good predictor of whether the stand-alone high end chess computer market will ever attract a sizeable number of customers again. It should be interesting. Steve (ICD/Your Move Chess & Games)
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