Not Many Segway Sales
from the not-looking-good dept
It seems that plan A for getting those Segway scooters to market has hit a bit of a snag. While plenty of places are testing them (including the San Francisco post office, starting next week) no one has been willing to place an order. In fact, a number of those who tested the scooters decided they’re not worth the money. The initial strategy had been to get police departments, post offices, and large corporations to buy up the first batch to convince people they were trustworthy. Part 2 of the plan was to then release a cheaper consumer version. So what will Segway do if no one buys any of those initial scooters?
Comments on “Not Many Segway Sales”
Too expensive!
If they can get the price down, I think it will sell.
On a related topic, does anyone else think it’s ironic that the post office is raising stamp prices (again) because they can’t make a profit but also are sinking money into Segways?
Re: Too expensive!
On a related topic, does anyone else think it’s ironic that the post office is raising stamp prices (again) because they can’t make a profit but also are sinking money into Segways
Nope. I consider the “need” to subject mail to gamma rays to ‘protect us all from anthrax’ to be a far bigger issue.
The Segway has 2 problems. The 1st is cost. The 2nd is the legality of the device for more than a ‘fun’ toy….if you want to use it as transportation device, it has to be legal to use. DEKA/DEan/Segway is working on both. The 2nd part won’t matter if they can’t get the 1st part figured out.
Novelty
The Segway is little more than a novelty. It’s almost as pointless as called the pogo stick a form of transportation. I’m not saying the Segway isn’t cool. The thing goes about 15 miles per charge and weighs 80lbs. This means you have to be very close to whatever you need to travel to. It also means that if the Segways does run out of power or suffers some sort of mechanical problem you have to drag the thing home. It’s too heavy to drag a long distance and it’s too light to leave on the side of the road. Anyone with a pickup truck will be able to swipe the Segway without much of a problem. I’d rather by a moped for $300.