Did any of you get the latest news today?

InFocus will be offering the ScreenPlay 4800 and the LS110 for sale through Circuit City, Wal-Mart and SAM's Club....

Now I know the differnce in picture quality from the 110/4800 to the 5700, 7200, 7205 and three chip, but the 110/4800 BOTH produce a picture that would pacify 75% of the people I may have tried to upsell to the 5700 or 7200 a week ago...anf now they can see it in Wal-Mart?

Guys...seriously....how do you pick your battles anymore, when every one of them ends seems to end up in a big box somewhere?

avdude
site admin
www.integrationpros.com

This message was edited by avdude on 11/04/03 16:07.

GOt a link for the Press release or whatever??? I can almost see Circuit city, but Walmart????

Talk about instant credibility destruction.......

you'll never see Runco in Wal-mart.............

That Sucks!

I guess we will just have to give everything away from now on, and still pay the B&O Tax.

This is from my rep:

"ScreenPlay Partner,

The home front projection market is taking off even faster than we expected. Thanks to you, we are growing the ScreenPlay brand all over the world. With this success comes interest from other channels. We think we have come up with an excellent strategy to increase the penetration of our home front projectors while protecting the investment that you have made in the ScreenPlay brand. As a foundation to this discussion, you should know to InFocus, the ScreenPlay designator means "home use" and that means there will be multiple models to serve different customers.

Starting this month, you will see two new partners carry a limited selection of the ScreenPlay line. Retailers like Circuit City and Sam's Club will begin selling the SP4800 in their stores and on their websites. Sam's will also offer the LS110 on their website. In some cases, they are bundling an inexpensive screen with the projector to help "complete" the package for entry level consumers.

Why should you be happy about this? We have begun to differentiate the line to accommodate the margin needs of our channels. That means more people will get to know what projectors are and as a result, enlarge the "pie". This is no different from many other products you sell, like receivers, televisions or speakers. We will only offer our big box retail partner's products like the SP4800 and a soon to be announced step up model. The LS110 will be sold in some outlets since your focus has shifted to the SP5700 and there are only a few hundred left. Our existing integration retail partners will have access to the full line, and should focus on the SP5700, SP7200/05 and upcoming 3-chip model.

Retail Channels- SP4800, LS110 (closeout), Step up model
Full Line Channels- SP4800, LS110 (closeout), Step up model, SP5700, SP7200/05, 3-Chip

We are very excited about the amazing growth of the ScreenPlay line, and thank you for your contribution to it. You can be assured that our strategies will always revolve around broadening the range of front projectors to many markets, up and down. In doing that, we realize you want us to continue to provide you with excellent profit potential. Expect that to continue. Thank you for your business.

Jim Davis
Sr. Director
Consumer Products
InFocus Corporation"

Okay. Between this and the AVAD 'direct sales' tactics maybe we should all start hounding CEDIA to get a 'hold' on the industry. CEDIA could very well revoke the memberships of any and all manufacturers that choose to turn the screws on the industry professionals. Whats next? Its bad enough that you can already get a tan, pager, cell phone, computer, satellite dish and HTIB from the same store........how about adding automated home control to that order of cheesburger and fries!

I think its time to step up guys. If CEDIA cant convince the industry to protect the custom guy then I say its time to abandon CEDIA and form a new organization that will. The sooner the better in my book.

Sick of it all,
Brian

oooohhhh they are sneaky....they're in the stores the day AFTER they inform their dealers...ONE DAY

[Link: samsclub.com]

avdude
site admin
www.integrationpros.com

You all of course know that Infocus had the X1(akaScreenplay 4800) in Best Buy for about 6 months already.

avdude,

the link you provided has 'timed out'. For anyone that is interested the price on the Infocus 110 is listed at $1988.00 and the Da-Lite 84" wall mount-pull down screen is $106.38. Mounts are also available on the website www.samclub.com . Also, the Infocus LiteShow is being sold on the website as well.
The LiteShow is listed as being a peice that affords you the ability to not run wires. As you already know this isnt completly true since this will only work for 802.11b enabled computers to display their video.

It'll be interesting to see what these companies sell the Infocus 4800 for.

CC had the 4800 listed on their site for 1299.

OK, as usual I'm going to be the odd man out here. I can see being upset/disappointed if this were the 5700 or 7200. But the 4800 is a mass market item. There is no way in hell any manufacturer in their right mind is going to choose the CEDIA type channel exclusively to sell a $1000 projector. The X1 ("commercial" version of the 4800) has already been available at Best Buy and all over the Internet for $995 for the past year.

This is no different than Sony or a hundred other companies that choose Best Buy to sell their TV's but will look to CEDIA to sell their 30K Qualia projector.

avdude even stated in his first post that his real concern is that people might think the 4800 is good enough and he might not be able to upsell them to the 5700/7200. In other words, he doesn't want to sell 4800's.

I see this as having 0 effect on my business.

This message was edited by QQQ on 11/05/03 21:35.

QQQ,
I respect your opinion and in most ways agree completly. However, you stated that this will have 0 effect on your business. I disagree but dont wish to argue my side of this. I just got to work and in the process of getting here was rear ended. Nothing too serious but I dont feel all that well either. I would like to say that I feel as manufacturers start to sell lower end but same branded products throught the mass market outlets it will eventually erode the landscape for the custom integrator to make the 'upsell'. I cant recall the last time a customer told me that they new the difference between a $1000 projector and a $11,000 projector. The common response is usually "I dont want anything fancy- I dont need anything high-end" and this is from people who can afford it. Everyone shops at Wal-Mart and the more marketing that is done to 'brain-wash' the end user into beleiving that you dont have to spend more to get better performance, the less business we integrators will do. After all wal-mart is your 'one stop shop for all your home theater needs. they got dvd's, dvd players, surround sound systems, hdtv's and the experts to help you put it all together.' I beleive the commercial goes along those lines.

I hope I am wrong but I still think that as more 'outsiders' penetrate this market the fewer customers we all will have. Why buy it from you when it can be purchased at a chain store, over the internet or at the neighborhood mega-store. Sure we may get some of the labor for installing this but is that really enough to keep your business afloat?

my $.02

Becuz of things like this. I know I have really been trying to get our company to move towards "sourcing" alot of equipment as opposed to be being a dealer. Being an authorized dealer for alot of stuff doesn't count for anything anymore. Some huge brick and mortar, or some guy in his basement is gonna hammer you on pricing. Of course when stuff doesn't work right people seem to remember your number very quickly, and if you don't help them.....you're the jerk!!! :P ....Oh well....

This has happened so many times that I just can't get worked up over it any more. All you can do is educate the customers that will listen and do the best job for them that you can so they won't even contemplate buying from the big boxes. I do think they should have sold it under a different brand name. Same as Toll Brother's builds their tract housing under a different name.

Interesting that Inf--kus has taken a stance at AVAD to limit the amount of dealers that sell their products because they want to "elevate" their image in the marketplace and eliminate the internet whoring of it. Great way to do this you buttplugs!!! Tell dealers like me that I can't sell Inf--kus because I missed the training and didn't turn in my paperwork which my local AVAD guys forgot to tell me about... even though I've sold a few of your stupid units at full whip and then put the f-----g things in SAMS club and Wal-Mart. Now your "Home Theater Consultant" is either missing 7 teeth and living in a trailer or spends half his/her day fighting teenage acne and has NEVER even hung a bloody screen... let alone actually built a home theater. This industry is amazing me more every day... I revel in the stupidity around me and just consider myself blessed that I have a few good clients around to keep me from f----g exploding!