I have no doubt that there will be an initial rush of orders for this machine because there are certain people with enough disposable income who just have to try every new machine on the market no matter the price. When those dry up what I wonder about is if after that it will continue to have strong sales, or if the price, weight, and some dubious (to some people) features such as GPS will really hurt it's sales potential. If in fact it turns out that guys with another Minelab and the right coil are able to match it's depth and unmasking ability (if indeed those have been improved on it) then that will really hurt the sales. Why buy a heavier Etrac, unless you plan to water hunt...But then there is the Xcal for half the price to do that. You could just about buy an Xcal and an SE, Etrac, or GT for the same price...Or at least one of those machines used and the other new.
I feel it could go either way and there will probably be no in between. Either it's going to sell very well or it's going to be an Edsel. Regardless, there is no doubt about it...With the price, weight, and extravagant features Minelab is for sure playing a high risk game. When you push those sorts of things to the extreme it's easy to cross that line and go from the "Wow!" factor to the "Are you kidding me?!" response. For that kind of price it's going to have to have some incredible ability over the current machines that can't be addressed with a good aftermarket coil on the current machine they own. A lot of people had to scrape and save to buy what they got now. Add another $500 to the price tag for this machine and it's just plain out of the reach of most people, and it'll really have to show them something other than just being waterproof to justify the kind of financial sacrifice to go out and buy one.
Not arguing that it can't be a huge success. It very well could be. I'm just pointing how that there is no doubt that this is high stakes in terms of a gamble for Minelab. Somewhere there is a line that gets crossed where the price, weight, or features of a machine is just too much. Look at these electric cars. Most of them don't sell very well at all. Just too much money to spend, and as a result what ever gas savings you make won't make up for the extra cost of the car for years down the road. Some may look at a new detector with a super high price tag in the same light. On the other hand, it could be the next hottest thing since sliced bread. Besides hearing about the performance of this machine, I'll also be real interested to hear how it's been selling say 2 or 3 months down the road when the initial rush of people who just have to have anything new dwindles.
