Should Shearwater add Air Integration to its computers?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

boulderjohn

Technical Instructor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
31,643
Reaction score
29,779
Location
Boulder, CO
# of dives
1000 - 2499
This thread was started because another thread (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/co...zers/519628-shearwater-coming-out-new-dc.html) diverged into many different topics, and splitting it out into all of them was too big a job.

In that thread, one diverging discussion was related to whether Shearwater should make a computer that included air integration. If you have any opinions on that issue, please make them here. If you want to see the previous discussion to see what others said before, just follow the link above.
 
Sure.
Why not.
I will not use that feature though.
And I would prefer that their pricing for the computer itself not budge should they make that decision.
obviously,
The sensors themselves will cost additional.

Chug
SPG's only.
 
Definitely no.
 
I don't really care if they do or not...I won't be interested in the feature. Would it open up an additional market for them?? Sure. Will the profits outweigh the costs? Probably.

I'd be more interested in them designing something original. How about a hosed AI computer that can analyze the gas and give pressure? That would be novel at least. I still wouldn't buy it though.
 
Not sure it would benefit them much. They are used heavily by technical divers and I am sure that is a large part of their market. There are some technical divers that use AI computers but the vast majority don't. There are several threads about technical diving and ai computers, but probably not the market for it based on the largest amount of their consumers. They didn't make their new one small and increased the battery lift which will be a nice feature.
 
If it would not benefit them then they should not.

If they want me as a customer, they should add AI. I wouldn't want one without AI.
 
Not sure it would benefit them much. They are used heavily by technical divers and I am sure that is a large part of their market./QUOTE]

It might be a large part of THEIR (Shearwater) market, but "technical divers" are probably what, 5% of the total/overall market of Diving ?? From a business perspective, why shouldn't they ? I think they are leaving "money on the table", by not hopping into the "AI or Recreational Only" market. I seem to recall another company that expanded it's product line & offerings. I think it's name was. . . umm . . . Apple ?? Imagine a "Perdix-R", (rec only version) for $395 to $495, possibly including AI, and the transmitter for another $195 to $295, and that puts you roughly at the price of the existing Perdix. So for roughly the same price, you could get a Perdix or a Perdix-R, it's YOUR choice. And of course there could potentially be an upgrade path/key for the R version to the "Tec" version. Upgrade/pin/key would be $99 to $149. PURE PROFIT ! Fundamentally, why wouldn't Shearwater want to play in another market, that's way larger than Tec/Rebreather ?
 

Back
Top Bottom