Over the past few months I’ve seen, what I think, is an interesting trend. Since GP has entered the RC battery market and has now dominated it for close to year, we can start to see the effects of it.
It has, up to this point, helped the racer and the basher by giving them high quality low cost cells. The cells, for the most part, are equal in voltage and run time, fewer packs are required for a day of racing, and they last longer and cost less. Seems like a win-win situation all around… but will it be in the long run?
While I don’t have any real hard evidence of it yet, I think the new battery market will force many of the small professional matchers out of business. The first sign of this is the recent announcement that one of these small professional matchers have thrown in the towel. I think we’ll see many more to follow. Sure we’ll still have the big guys such as Trinity and SMC. We'll also have the local racer that buys a matcher thinking they can save money and get a leg up on everyone else only to give it up a few months later.
But it is small pro matcher that is in trouble. That is the company that has been around for quite awhile. They have decent names where when talked about, people have heard of them but they only do a few cases a month. This is the businesses that have helped keep prices low by offering good quality products and their low overhead helps them offer cells for less.
Why are they in trouble? The combination of high quality cells available to everyone combined with the need for racers to buy fewer cells (fewer needed for a day of racing plus they last longer) means their sales have been cut in half (or more). At some point it just isn’t worth for them to keep going. Sure, some will survive but overall your choices could decrease dramatically.
Now lets throw in the advent of brushless motors with lower battery requirements that can really toss this whole battery business into chaos and we have some big questions in the not too distant future.
If this happens, what does it mean to the RCer? Will prices go up? Will your choices really be limited? Will it be harder to find good cells? Will we go back to the way it was before where less then a handful control the market? Or won’t it make any difference or don’t you care what happens?
I like to throw out these different scenarios and see what others think. We no longer have the mass confusion that was prevalent a year ago but in the long run will it still be an asset for the end user?
It has, up to this point, helped the racer and the basher by giving them high quality low cost cells. The cells, for the most part, are equal in voltage and run time, fewer packs are required for a day of racing, and they last longer and cost less. Seems like a win-win situation all around… but will it be in the long run?
While I don’t have any real hard evidence of it yet, I think the new battery market will force many of the small professional matchers out of business. The first sign of this is the recent announcement that one of these small professional matchers have thrown in the towel. I think we’ll see many more to follow. Sure we’ll still have the big guys such as Trinity and SMC. We'll also have the local racer that buys a matcher thinking they can save money and get a leg up on everyone else only to give it up a few months later.
But it is small pro matcher that is in trouble. That is the company that has been around for quite awhile. They have decent names where when talked about, people have heard of them but they only do a few cases a month. This is the businesses that have helped keep prices low by offering good quality products and their low overhead helps them offer cells for less.
Why are they in trouble? The combination of high quality cells available to everyone combined with the need for racers to buy fewer cells (fewer needed for a day of racing plus they last longer) means their sales have been cut in half (or more). At some point it just isn’t worth for them to keep going. Sure, some will survive but overall your choices could decrease dramatically.
Now lets throw in the advent of brushless motors with lower battery requirements that can really toss this whole battery business into chaos and we have some big questions in the not too distant future.
If this happens, what does it mean to the RCer? Will prices go up? Will your choices really be limited? Will it be harder to find good cells? Will we go back to the way it was before where less then a handful control the market? Or won’t it make any difference or don’t you care what happens?
I like to throw out these different scenarios and see what others think. We no longer have the mass confusion that was prevalent a year ago but in the long run will it still be an asset for the end user?