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"William R. Mattil" <> wrote
> ......
> I suppose we could include OGS here as well since they also produce
> RC's.........
OGS? Since John Stiles is also a Meade dealer would he have to sue himself??
:)
Actually OGS stopped selling Meades years ago after a battle over a
defective refractor that took months to get fixed, much to the displeasure
of the OGS customer, a university in India.
> ......
> And furthermore I really doubt that this litigation has much to do with
> the smaller 10 and 12 inch varieties. It seems to be aimed at the much
> larger versions, 24 inch, and given their price point the damages could be
> large. And while Meade may not sell many to private individuals the sale
> of scopes to Universities and such is much more lucrative.
I don't know about RCOS, but I do know that less than a third of OGS sales
(in dollars, not scopes) are to individuals. The biggest OGS customers are
the US Air Force and Lockheed Martin, plus universities, museums, etc. From
recently helping with the purchase of an astro CCD camera by the State
University of New York I can tell you that the purchase decision is made by
the school business office, not the professors or using department. The
routine was: "Give us 3 quotes and we'll make the purchase and we don't care
which camera you think is best!" I can see how that could lead to Meade
sales of 14 to 20 inch scopes.
As for Meade's concern about sales: I think that it's more of a 'status
thing' if the Company 7 website can be believed. Their webpage on Meade
states that over 85% of Meade sales are generated by small cheap scopes sold
to Wal-Mart.
George N
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