gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

I'd certainly make an attempt to prevent unauthorised transponders from working but I wouldn't do it at the expense of house transponders without offering an equivalent replacement product.

Darkgenerals

iTrader: (66)

Poor argument btw, nobody is stopping a company from investing money into RD to develop a new product. That law would prevent a company from keeping a new company to enter the market, currently I think no one wants to develop a new product line for such a small niche market. Think about it man, the rc industry is small, and racing is even smaller. Then factor in you need to get people to switch over to a new system, spending thousands. I really doubt more than a few hundred systems would be sold.

Mylaps forcing people spend a couple of hundred on fully depreciated assets caused 5 pages of discussion on this forum. Can you imagine the discussion for forcing people into a new system?

oldernoob

iTrader: (1)

Not really, domination eliminates competition. No-one can compete with MyLaps - they pretty much own the market (apart from iLaps) MRT are tiny and don't really impact MyLaps (who make a shed of money running timing for other way more lucrative events).

The only way anyone could enter the lap counting market right now would to produce an open standard which allowed anyone to produce a transponder. Which would drive prices down (competitive market anyone?) What MyLaps are doing is preventing an open market so they can charge/gouge $100 for each transponder.

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

I have heard of some tracks in Texas that are using Trackmate too which is IR based, and a handful of us invested in Trackmate for local "outlaw" racing at a local school yard (using garden hoses for track layout) from time to time... $555 for the complete system including PT's was perfect for our budget, and it's proven very reliable too, never missed a single lap count and pricing averages about $30 for PT's.... that to me is very reasonable... I find it hard to believe that RF costs $70 more (per PT) to implement versus IR technology

One LHS owner said his markup was only $6 per PT from MYLaps... the numbers just don't add up IMO.

oldernoob

iTrader: (1)

Yep, I have an ILaps IR for use at a local track and it works great. They are plugged into Live RC too and waaay cheaper than RF. The IR goes through the shell too, so thre is no need to mount under a windscreen/shield either. I did go to the MyLaps site and noticed that most of their transponders are now subscription based (they were all the same price for Motorcycles/Cars/etc)...you know whats coming next...subscription based transponder 'service'.

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

I'd be okay with a "reasonably priced" subscription based service, but only if it's optional. It needs to offer benefits to include lifetime event scoring and/or ability to upload personal results for tracks who are not on LiveTime or similar service. Even better if you can stack rank yourself with everyone else globally on various metrics like standard deviation, total races attended/period/event type etc... the reporting options need to be robust and fully integrated on a global scale in order to justify the service.

oldernoob

iTrader: (1)

It stands:

"Tying one product into the sale of another can be considered abuse too, being restrictive of consumer choice and depriving competitors of outlets. This was the alleged case in Microsoft v. Commission[77] leading to an eventual fine of million for including its Windows Media Player with the Microsoft Windows platform."

"Competition law does not make merely having a monopoly illegal, but rather abusing the power that a monopoly may confer, for instance through exclusionary practices."

Darkgenerals

iTrader: (66)

My laps has the right to patent their unique technology. Nothing is stopping some one from developing their own product.

Microsoft including excel with Windows was effectively creating a monopoly because it created a barrier of entry for a competing product by giving it out for free. You can't compare mylaps because not everyone is forced to buy the timing station. If everyone was forced to buy the timing station and got a transponder for free, that would fall under your example.

Darkgenerals

iTrader: (66)

...

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

I can't choose to buy a competing transponder. I have to buy MyLaps because that's all that works at most tracks. I have no say over what timing system the tracks use. That's a much larger barrier to entry for the transponder market. The Microsoft equivalent would be Windows blocking all spreadsheet applications except for Excel. (I thought the Microsoft antitrust issue was Internet Explorer, not Excel.)

jasburrito

iTrader: (3)

From uncle intel.A Chinese company has been contacted by some American designers to make a new scoring system. The new system will even be affordable to back yard racers. when amb heard the rumors They decided to go for 1 more big money grab. Knowing the writing was on the wall for there future. Save those older mrt/ rcdp sponders they will work fine with this new system. They are undecided yet if they want the newer style amb sponders to work with there first software. So buying the newest amb sponders could be a bad idea. This message may be deleted. Copy and paste.

Roelof

Face it. AMB has become this big because they were the 1st and have made devellopments. For RC racing it has become a world wide standard with also servers keeping every registrated lap ever driven and raceresults if uploaded to the Mylaps server. Making an alternitive system will be hard to gain market if it is not compatible with current mylaps hardware and all software. And what if an alternitive becomes market leader, can we expect a same action same from them?

And again, there is no need to install this update.......

Darkgenerals

iTrader: (66)

You have a choice, its called your wallet. If you dont want to use mylaps, you can choose to race at places that use other systems. You can choose to spend your money with hobby shops that support other timing devices. You are choosing to say you dislike the model that Mylaps spent time and money to develop. In the end you have every right not to race and spend your money at places that support the mylaps standerd.

On a side note: I had to look it up, but your correct. I think Microsoft had several anti-trust lawsuits over included programs. IE was one of the early ones it appears.


I hate to break it to you guys, but this is the real world. Nothing is fair, nothing is just. Mylaps is a business that wants to make money, and this is one of the ways to get people to adopt a newer standard.

Roelof's comment is also spot on, first to market is a real thing. Why do you think the Iphone blew up so fast. Apple made all the money because they killed it with that first phone.

Jasburrito - Thats a pretty wild statement, do you have anything to back that up?

billdelong

iTrader: (33)

pretty sure it was Blackberry that was the first smart phone to market, and where are they today?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

I can? I'm not aware of a single track in my state (or even country) that runs anything other than MyLaps decoders. I either buy a MyLaps transponder, or my laps don't get counted. Period.

Edit: Side note. Our sanctioning body specifically calls out AMB-compatible transponder systems. If a hosting club for an event doesn't use AMB-compatible decoders, the club is responsible for providing transponders to all competitors for every heat and final. While I can't directly blame that on MyLaps, it's another barrier to entry for competing transponder systems.