Originally Posted by
rhklenke
Where do you get that statistic? In my (very normal) club, the ratio of Spektrum to any other radio is probably closer to one-to-one than 10-to one. Lots of guys are now flying the lesser brands like HiTech and Airtronics, and the "off brand" radios too, like FrSky and Turnigy...
ALL of which take one receiver and two antennas, BTW... Oh, and they work fine on the average club guy's 1500 MAh NiMh, just like the old 72 MHz systems did...
Bob
Bob, that is my estimate based on feedback from two large Metro Toronto Hobby shops, who claim they almost never sell a Tx other than Spektrum. It may not be 10 to 1, it could be 5 to 1 or 15 to 1, I'm not privy to industry stats even if they are available but, the point is, like Spektrum or not, they enjoy a very large market share.
One of the Spekky software engineers has commented on another forum that they can have production runs as much as 50K units. I seriously doubt that anyone else is running those kinds of #'s.
Based on that kind of market share you would expect to hear of 10 times the failures of Spek vs other brands.
In my own business, where I import some electric goods from Asia ( China and Korea) we expect a 2% failure rate and in fact receive an additional 2% discount on the goods to cover anticipated warranty costs. I doubt any other electronic goods are much different.
Someone else already commented earlier in this thread that even at jet rallies, half the guys are running the Dx-18. At club level, my observation is most run Spek, much lower end ones mind you as an $800 Tx is regarded to be very expensive.
Even if you don't like the product, you have to respect the well oiled marketing machine that is Horizon Hobby. They created the Spek brand and in 8 years or so they have clobbered the competition, many of whom have been around for over 30 years.
You're in denial if you don't think they own the market right now.
Mike