When will Trackman release a personal launch monitor?

[Trap Junior]

Once Mevo+ comes out along with the Tiger Woods monitor surely the days of $20,000 launch monitors are numbered apart from TV and tour players.

 

Will Trackman respond to the the likes of Mevo and bring out their own version of Trackman for the $3000 mark? 

 

 

[YoungJedi]

1 hour ago, Trap Junior said:

Once Mevo+ comes out along with the Tiger Woods monitor surely the days of $20,000 launch monitors are numbered apart from TV and tour players.

 

Will Trackman respond to the the likes of Mevo and bring out their own version of Trackman for the $3000 mark? 

 

 

I’m pretty close with my TM rep and he said no chance. 
 

His only thought was taking something like a 3e, and blocking out some of the parameters to reduce the price. But that’s about it. 

[Trap Junior]

11 minutes ago, YoungJedi said:

I’m pretty close with my TM rep and he said no chance. 
 

His only thought was taking something like a 3e, and blocking out some of the parameters to reduce the price. But that’s about it. 

The market may force them to in future is my hunch.

 

Anyway makes you wonder how much a Trackman is overpriced.  If a Mevo+ can be sold for profit at a $2000 tag then maybe its costing 5000 or so to make a Trackman and being sold for massive mark up.

[YoungJedi]

I think with units like these, you are more so paying for the software than the hardware. 

[hammersia]

No idea, but Trackman as a business still have huge chunks of market to go at. There are only a couple of Trackman Ranges in the UK and they have neat tech that works with that.

Also a lot of shot tracer coverage on the PGA Tour is still patchy, wrong flights etc. so that’s the sort of market Trackman is probably more interested in.

[Shilgy]

1 hour ago, Trap Junior said:

The market may force them to in future is my hunch.

 

Anyway makes you wonder how much a Trackman is overpriced.  If a Mevo+ can be sold for profit at a $2000 tag then maybe its costing 5000 or so to make a Trackman and being sold for massive mark up.

Makes me think the Mevo+ costs less than $400 to make. So same percentage profit involved.

[amace04]

6 hours ago, Trap Junior said:

The market may force them to in future is my hunch.

 

Anyway makes you wonder how much a Trackman is overpriced.  If a Mevo+ can be sold for profit at a $2000 tag then maybe its costing 5000 or so to make a Trackman and being sold for massive mark up.

It probably costs far less per unit to build than $5000, but hardware is a tiny part of their costs.   R&D and marketing are by far their biggest costs.   It's not like they're profiting 10k a unit.  That would be insane. 

[Dax279]

I agree with the comment above that they may look to release some one of TM3e equivalent that provides certain data points at a reduced cost. 

[LBB]

I think it's a lot easier said than done.  Yes, Trackman already have the technology, but it's stepping your foot into uncharted waters.  It's probably the reason Foresight Sports got acquired by Vista and were cobranded with Bushnell to make the GC3/LM Pro happen.  Foresight sports could still focus on what they do best in terms of hardware and software and leave the expansion, distribution, consumer marketing, and large scale customer service to those who have the experience in that category.

 

The lower market is also extremely competitive, which also means it's high risk.  TrackMan is currently operating in a market where only a handful of competitors exist, and the barrier to entry to that market is high.  Yes, it's lower volume, but margins are much higher, and it's much easier to meet demand...especially when you consider today's supply chain and chip shortage issues.  Going down market does open up opportunity for higher volume sales, but also introduces more competition not just from the current manufacturers in that space we know of today...but there are new ones constantly popping up and it's only a matter of time before app development for mobile phone/devices gets good enough to also compete in the $2000-4000 PLM space. 

 

Will Trackman lose current sales to the lower competition...absolutely yes...but there is a much smaller segment of Trackman's current customer market that are now opting for a < $8000 PLM as compared to customers who could never consider a Trackman to begin with.  The need for high quality data and software in not just the golf industry is still growing.  And while the price is really high, for many of Trackman's customers, the cost is a business expense.

 

As a consumer, I'd love to see Trackman go down market as competition is always good for the consumer...but I also understand why they wouldn't do it, or at least might not be diving head first.

 

 

[Shades234]

All fair points LBB, not to derail the conversation, but couldn't a large part of Foresight wanting to sell have to do with the founders themselves though? If they're at or near "retirement" age, wouldn't you want to cash out now while golf is at its biggest peak in the past 20 years? I don't know how equity was distributed within the company, but if it was held by a handful of guys, this deal was a huge boon for them.

 

The deal also has to make sense for the business, and like you said, they get to focus on their core competency which is developing technology and leave the other parts to Vista.

 

As far as TM is concerned, I don't see it happening within the next couple years. Golf is big right now, but what happens if it cools off and companies have shifted their production to making these consumer priced models that now don't sell? If I were Trackman, I'd rather follow and see if consumers are actually going hard on these lower priced launch monitors. Then, come out with something later once the market has shown consistent demand over a longer period of time. Keep focusing on TM 5 (whenever that may be) and keep doing market research to see when it makes sense to pivot and release something in that other price bracket.