On 4/10/2014 1:24 PM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
Bug fixes should be for free but additional feature/functionality should have a
reasonable fee. That gives the manufacturers an incentive to keep improving the
firmware of the older rigs.
Don't tell Elecraft that. They're still tweaking and adding features to
their K3 (an SDR with knobs), and are committed to never charging for
firmware updates. Not only that, their beta program is sufficiently
robust that by the time an update hits the website it's solid.
Their motivation is pretty simple -- keep the customers satisfied! They
DO charge for harware updates, but it's always pretty nominal. And they
seem to be doing fine -- their serial numbers start at 1, and I recall
seeing numbers in the high 8,000s several months ago. The KX3 I bought a
month or two ago was s/n 58xx (I'm going from memory), not bad for a rig
that's been out for only about a year, and they only started shipping
the 100W amps a few months ago.
As I predicted when the KX3 was first announced, it's ending up on the
main operating desk in lots of shacks, and at Visalia last week, they
showed a working prototype for a spectrum display for it.
73, Jim K9YC
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