So what happened to all those MindStreams in the wild.

[robbyg]

Judging by your comment about Ecotech I really do not think you get the reasons why one product thrives and another dies in a crowded market. If there was no Vortech and Ecotech bought it to market next week with the patents in place, the Vortech would take off just as fast, and in a couple of years reach the same status as it is right now. There are very few products in this market like the Vortech and the Mindstream that have an ingenious and unique design that are also protected by iron clad patents. Anybody with cash can make a controller, but then they have to deal with the marketing might of Neptune. Anybody can make a DC Pump or LED light system but they then have to deal with the larger players to get a slice of the Market. Nobody can make a Vortech style pump except Ecotech and nobody can make a reflective dye water testing system except SAI. There is nothing new about this! Apple released the first iPhone in an already crowded market but they had a different take on the traditional designs that was unique and functional. More importantly they had patents for all of their tech. That's why they rammed through the market and steamed over the untouchables like Blackberry and Nokia.

As for your fear of a small company buying the Mindstream, your definition of small must be different than mine. SAI spent at least 10Mil on the MS. I would seriously doubt that they are selling the IP or company for anything short of 3-5 million or possibly more. So if someone was considering buying the company they would have to have that money plus the money to restart operations and fund the final areas of the development. That would not be possible for a small Aquarium company.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

The divergence of this conversation is getting further from the point... it's obvious that we disagree. I can't make my point any clearer. I definitely don't want to go round and round about the same point. With that, I will leave my thoughts where they are.