That is something that only my bosses can answer definitely, but @dhusky is correct.
We do help other manufacturers with network module hardware, firmware and iOS/Android apps - they will need to talk to us to see if that is something potentially viable and makes sense for them and for us. I suppose this is a form of coopetition. It is inevitable that our partners will potentially decrease the sale of our own products when some of them are in the same price class and sold in the same market, but on the other hand they may have other distribution channels, market acceptance, or brand synergy, etc.
On the same day dhusky made his post, I received notification (in my timezone) that our partner’s new model passed the technical tests of Roon Ready certification using our solution with our help - it went through 10 firmware iterations to achieve this, even though it was based on our code base that was already Roon Ready for many of our own models and our partners’ previous models.
I think the “competition” you mention is similar to what has been going on in the Craft Beer industry for decades. Working together to make each other as strong as possible also makes the entire industry as strong as possible. Companies like Lumin and Hegel should be considered part of the “Craft Audio” industry, and can learn from the Craft Beer industry. Solidarity trumps division. IMHO, anyway.
Gosh, that certainly gives me a lot more sympathy for companies like Hegel who are having to start from scratch! To my mind, it also strengthens the case for working with a partner with a proven track record instead.
I used to work for the defense arm of IBM. It was rather common to partner with a company on one government bid and compete against the same company on another government bid. I would call it “enlightened self-interest.”
It always makes good business sense to form strategic partnerships with those that can do what you can not do or will not do… The trick is to find the those partnerships that bring the most synergy to all partners…
Hi Peter!
Could you explain, please (if you can and it is not a big secret):
Many of us (Hegel amp owners) have understood this as that LUMIN and Hegel had entered into an agreement to use LUMIN technologies in Hegel amplifiers. The current Hegel product line will have adopted LUMIN firmware, and their future product line will feature full streaming modules from LUMIN.
Does this mean that in the nearest future we can finally expect the Roon readiness for Hegel? (we are really tired waiting).
Does this also mean that it will be possible to use the LUMIN App software to control Hegel amplifiers?
Or is this post regarding other LUMIN partner? (and there is no hope )
)