Berkshire President posted:Rider Sandman posted:My layout is 100% Legacy and I suspect Lionel will eventually get to the same place. Building new software apps for use on common devices will be orders of magnitude less expensive than continuing to build physical remotes with chipsets that are 20 years old. I would much rather have them spend their engineering and financial resources on new product innovations instead of keeping ancient hardware alive. Given the shrinking customer base, it seems to make good sense to me.
So.....you're OK with something that profits Lionel or MTH exclusively while you receive less choices and fewer options as a result?
ABSOLUTELY. I'M DEFINITELY "OK" WITH THEM MAKING PROFIT ON SOMETHING THAT ALLOWS THEM TO FREE UP RESOURCES FOR SOMETHING ELSE THAT I VALUE MORE - e.g., NEW TOOLING OR ADDITIONAL FEATURES.
And you don't think that Lionel or MTH has ANY obligation to continue to support parts of their operating systems that they sold to us (and we bought into) 15-20 years ago?
THEY ARE SUPPORTING IT, THEY ARE JUST DOING SO VIA A DIFFERENT INTERFACE. MY SENSE IS THE NUMBER OF COMPANIES STILL SUPPORTING 1998-ERA TECHNOLOGIES EXACTLY AS THEY SOLD THEM BACK THEN IS VERY SMALL. MICROSOFT WILL STILL SUPPLY A VERSION OF EXCEL THAT WILL OPEN YOUR 20-YEAR-OLD SPREADSHEET, BUT THEY WON'T SUPPORT OFFICE '95.
If so, I strenuously (but respectfully) disagree.
FAIR ENOUGH. ALSO RESPECTFULLY, MY ONLY POINT IS THAT GIVEN THE MONOTONICALLY DECREASING MARKET, IF EITHER MTH OR LIONEL CAN DISCONTINUE PRODUCTION OF A DEVICE WITH ANCIENT (AND THEREFORE EXPENSIVE) CHIPSETS IN FAVOR OF DEVICES MOST FOLKS HAVE IN THEIR POCKETS AND DOING SO MEANS I CAN GET MORE CONTENT IN OTHER AREAS, I'M COOL WITH IT. I UNDERSTAND IF OTHERS DISAGREE. ONE POINT THAT SEEMS TO REALLY GET LOST IN THESE DISCUSSIONS IS THE COST OF COMPONENT OBSOLESCENCE. I SPENT YEARS AS A POWERTRAIN HARDWARE ENGINEER. THE IDEA THAT ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS ARE "TOOLING" AND THEREFORE ALWAYS AVAILABLE AT LOW COSTS ISN'T REALITY.
