I know where you're coming from with the general point you make about Mr Maglica suing competitors.
However in his shoes, would YOU stand idly by whilst a ex partner and child set up a rival organisation, attempted to muscle into your hard-earned market and attempted to poach your staff and trade secrets (by default)?
I stopped buying M@glite products after learning about a certain lawsuit against Arc in which the issue was placement of lettering along the bezel of Arc's single-AAA keychain offering. Ridiculous beyond belief! As for other lawsuits . . . It's clear that the founder of M@glite genuinely believes that he's invented every single flashlight innovation that exists, has existed, and
will exist in the future. Sue-happy is far too mild a term to describe him. If I were in his shoes, would I protect my creation? Absolutely! Would I file one ridiculously frivolous lawsuit after another until my lawyers were practically dropping dead from exhaustion? No.
And I've owned Maglites in one form or another for over twenty years.
Yep there's a few valid moans insomuch that they aren't at the cutting edge of torch technology at present.
But all this knocking their reliability?
Simply relating my previous experience with numerous M@glite models. Yes, they've failed on me. To be clear, different models, different issues.
I owned a MagCharger for over 15 years and had been soaked, banged and dropped from 3m onto a hard concrete pavement.
Apart from a gouge out of the head it worked and continued to work perfectly until sold for a V3 model.
No doubt M@glite builds the MagCharger to a much better standard than their other full-sized models. Personally, I had a 3D M@glite that lasted 3 years riding beside the driver's seat in my car. One day, I went to check to see if the batteries needed replacing. Light wouldn't switch on. I then noticed I couldn't screw the tailcap back on. I decided to inspect the lamp too. Now I couldn't screw the head back on. Removed the bezel ring, same issue. That light literally fell apart in my hands. I was left holding a bunch of pieces. Keep in mind, that light did nothing more strenuous than ride along with me in my car for 3 years. Not even my cheapest 3AAA No-Name lights from China suffered from that problem.
Everything else from the Solitaire to the 6D has always served me well and apart from battery leakage (NOT Maglites fault of course) have been faultless in their operation and reliability.
I honestly wish my M@glites performed that way for me as well. However, I'd be lying if I said my numerous M@glites have been completely reliable.
As for Maglite selling the same products for over 40 years will little or no change.
If something is right first time does it need to change?
No. Perfection needs no improvement. However, based on my personal experience over the years with numerous examples of their lights, M@glite is no where remotely close to perfection. And, definitely didn't get things right the first time.
When did you last come across a non-circular steering wheel?
When I saw a classic 1903 Oldsmobile. But getting back to lights . . .
It's good to hear you got an extreme bargain with your $1.99 torch-sometimes it can happen like that.
There is some merit in your points that Mr Maglica is slow at introducing anything new.
Newer isn't automatically better though.
When it's been about 40 years, and your competitors are drastically eating into your market-share, yeah; that would be an example of when newer is definitely the way to go.
But I for one,having found out the hard way with an ASP torch, will NEVER EVER buy anything with a CR123A power ever supply again.
So yes I'd love to see Mr Maglica at the tip of the blade when it comes to technology but I'll be buying his products on an as-needed basis provided he sticks to providing tough reliable products at reasonable prices.
Well, that's the thing. I haven't found his products to be tough, or reliable. There's something seriously wrong when a cheap disposable costing two bucks can outperform a full-sized M@glite in terms of output, beam quality, ruggedness, reliability, and price.
As for not wanting to rely on lights running off of multiple CR123 cells, I can understand that. I'd go with Streamlight's selection of non-CR123 based models. Especially their older rechargeable models.