Anyone have a clue what might be coming up?
Best Guess on Ecotech's Next Big Rollout?
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Fish Styx
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I'm not sure. However, I bet whatever it is will break in less than 12 months and they'll find a way to invalidate the warranty.
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Nah. Both companies are owned by Aperture, and they wouldn't cannibalize market share from Neptune. It wouldn't make much sense, especially in light of their current competition with the Hydros system.
Mattiejay6
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how many years has it been since their last release of a new product?
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I'll hold out for world peace. It'll arrive sooner.
RoanokeReef
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Just guessing here .... Radion G7 ;)
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I wonder how that works now with Aperture.....
Although I have always hoped for a full line of wireless, independently-controlled gear.... add a slimmer and a heater to the mix, and you're pretty close to a full setup. Although I don't know what new idea they could bring to the table with respect to skimming.
And didn't Ecotech like own (or something) Nyos....? If anyone was going to reinvent the skimmer, I suppose it would be them.
At some point i was also hoping they were going to buy the rights to the MindStream tech and run with that....
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No, they just handled American distribution and warranty claims went through them.
That tech was vapor wear at its finest.
Those guys did sit down with ecotech (as I'm sure many other industry leaders) and they did a hard pass.
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Ah! Thank you for clarifying! I thought i remembered them being connected somehow.. this makes complete sense...
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Ok - I must not have been read-up as i thought. That is unfortunate, although i do recall, not being able to make sense of the theory behind it. Thanks.
I get the impression you're pretty well connected here; any thoughts on the up-and-coming?
I don't see much innovation here. I now see that an AI light was the obvious choice, the radion G5s and G6s don't have a gleaming track record. If a G7 rolled out it would be less accepted than an AI version.
I honestly was expecting an ecotech light that diverged from radion. Different form factor, passively cooled, etc.
As far as innovation goes, I think we won't see much from the big companies in the hobby, there has been a huge dynamic shift in focusing more on maximizing profits and less on dumping resources into R&D.
If anything innovative is going to happen, I'd like to see it emerge from hobbyist. Who better to have their finger on the pulse than those in the trenches. There are a lot of great minds and extremely skilled people in the hobby. Most hobbyists are perfectly fine with wasting their time and effort on developing an idea. All it takes is the right people with complimentary skills to come up with something that would have a big impact.
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This is unfortunate. My take on the G6's is slightly different... As a MH fan for the longest, I dove into Kessil (for display and also for a modest prop system I'm building) but difficulty (and necessity) of sourcing a quality, available, affordable (at scale) supplemental system left me pretty frustrated. I decided to try out the G6's on my display and was impressed by the coverage, blend, and the ease of use of Mobius (I used Ecotech extensively circa G4 timeframe but flip-flopped between tech (Apex/manual timers/MH/LED/manual/auto dosing, etc - and completely stopped using Ecotech for a while when I realized Mobius still hadn't brough WiFi onboard officially.).
I decided to sell my Kessil gear (along extensive 48" supplemental lighting I had), and quickly became frustrated with the little I was able to recoup due to exorbitant shipping costs of anything over 48"... vowed to never go back! lol. With G6's over my display and happy with the lack of issues w/ Mobius (barring still not being able to connect to WiFi (srs what the heck)) I broke out my other Ecotech gear (Versas/MPs/Vectras) and started using it again. I guess I was hopeful that Ecotech would continue to roll out innovation, and was also hopeful that being bought by Aperture might mean additional R&D resources....
I really hope you are wrong (but am afraid you are not).
Yes, would have been great to see something different here.
Man, this is hard to hear.... I guess what 'gets' me is that didn't Ecotech start out as a group of hobbyists, like you mention above? How do we break the cycle of ; hobbyist innovation > company development > new innovation rollout > purchase (and subsequent stifling) by purchaser > minimize R&D/Max profits...? And I guess also - shame on Aperture, as they started as hobbyists too, no? Wasn't this Ryan's company (and maybe another invester's) to begin with?
And as a final thought... did I not read a comment somewhere from Ecotech stating something along the lines of "partnership w/ Aperture will get us the much-needed capital to continue product development"? Lip service? Will try to find the source...
Final final thought/question: why zero interaction from Ecotech here on the r2r boards. Is there another place where that team regularly interacts with their customers?
No, not really. Turns out that private equity groups started to sniff around our hobby. Understand this was years in the making. I'm not sure if brs was shopping around but they were first domino to fall at the hands of Bertram Capitol. Only speculation to say that in order to sweeten the deal, early on, AI, Ecotech, Marine Depot, Leap and Neptune System were brought in as well in order to make it an offer Bertram couldn't easily walk away from.
Ryan might have facilitated some of the Introductions but aperture/A Pet Life wasn't formed with him at the helm. That was a misconception that Ryan conveniently never publicly corrected.
Turns out that was spin to get public buy in. They said whatever we wanted to hear to calm the masses before the deal was finalized. Most of us shut up because for the most part we gave them the benefit of the doubt.
I'm not sure if Bertram is kicking themselves for not running away or if they have a clear vision in their head as to how to move forward. It certainly appears that whatever balance the individual companies had with hobbyists, product development and profit has now skewed heavily towards maximizing profits.
I don't see them doing anything outside the box anytime soon. And if you ask me, they are going to venture away from a focus on product for reef tanks and try to capture market share in broader pet markets.
I don't know why they stopped interacting with customers here. It's possible they have more control in their Facebook page. But it makes more sense to contact them directly when an issue arises.
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