Maglite question

I've been buying expensive flashlights for a year now, and have Surefires among others.. and I wonder a few of things about Maglite:

1. WHy hasn't Maglite (or someone else) made a high powered Lithium version of any of their lights? ]
2.Why can't the battery companies make a Lithium D or C size battery?
3. Why haven't they offered dimpled relector replacements?
4. Why not offer LED's as an option?

Thanks to anyone who can answer my question... and
feel free to email me if you have a clue , cause I sure don't.

Doug

High power is not everything, it depends on the application.

1. Litium batteries have not been the cheapest per lumen option but has been a size consideration. The litium has other valuble features as well but that has not always been enough. That may be changing or has already changed with the cost of lithium 123a drop in price.

2. They do make them, but not neccesarily in the same voltage.

3. The target market, many buyers will not take the time to know the differnce and will not affect thier buying habits, extra effort is therefore wasted so you have at least two market but probably more then two. By making the reflector change, you will get some of the customers that know the difference but the cost has to be spread over all purchasers but the gain only occurs with those who were influenced. If the cost is and extra dollar per unit, and 1% are influenced, then it cost $100 to get one more sale on an item, if you marginal profit is $5.00 per unit, it did not make sence to capture those customers. Now the 1% is still a valuble market and that is where nich players enter the market and grab up those who know the difference.

4. Same reason as #3.

Many things need to be considered when making an item, the knowledge of your customer base and a number of dynamics. It is hard to capture the broad market and the highend user at the same time and in most cases it does not pay to do so.

mag built it's empire by introducing state of the art lights years and years ago.

by means of ridicoulous patents and a huge legal department, they rely on the technology they developed all that many years ago hold their weight still. they have no interest in producing better lights, becaues they are making money with what they have. instead, they choose to take money that they could spend in r&d, and use it to fund frivolous lawsuites against smaller companies with better products.

maglites are fine for what they are...20year old technology at a decent price, but they have no desire to change up update the technology, because they can just smother the competition anyway via currupting the us legal system.
the main reason cpfers don't buy mags is not because they are old or crappy (in fact, they make awesome mods), but because of their evil litigation techniques.

various members have contacted mag about stipled reflectors, but they respond with the fact that stipled reflectors loose more light (which is incorrect, but what do the support people know anyway?), and that mags are design to throw a beam, and stippling would result in less throw.

mags target market is the unwashed masses, people who don't either know or care about better lights, and who find the thought of spending above $30 for a flashlight ridiculous. i assume mag believes that the general public would be unwilling to pay for lithium batteries (even though they can be had cheaply online), and i would assume they are correct in this aspect.

mag has claimed they are working on ledlites, but haven't found a way to provide them without the drawbacks they provide. cpfers speculate that the drawbacks are higher cost, additional curcuitry, and loss of revenue do to the fact that they do not need to be replaced.

basically, mag could do everyone of these things you mention, but it isn't in their business model. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif
they are content to sit where they are and stifle the compition with ridiculous lawsuits and perverse litagation /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Wow. I had no idea Maglite was run by a bunch of ponces. TOo bad really, cause they would be in a perfect position to adapt what they have to newer technology.

I can't believe a stippling effect on a reflector would cost so much extra per light!?! It's got to be the most basic improvement they could make, are they really that
blind? They should take a que from some of the newer companies that are making their lights look ultra weak.

Hell, if Surefire can make G2's retail for under $30 and Streamlight can build Scorpions for under $20, MAglight, which is a hell of a lot bigger and wealthier company can make a decent LED or Hi-power Lithium without taking away too much from their bubble wrap demographic. It's plainly absurd to see such a crappy business model prevail.

Every manufacturer needs to do R&D or the competition will eventually bury them. Niche market strategy only works until someone comes up with a better cheaper solution... and that doesn't seem that far off.

Someone should send Maglite a cheap but effective mod with an offer to sell them the patent, or strike a deal for production, in order to help them see the light, so to speak... or Maglite should get off their lazy arses and dimple the simple reflectors already. It's not like they don't have enough sales to spend a little extra on design...

(Just hoping some of the Maglite knuckheads are readng this)

Thanks for the info in any case...

Anyone know what Mag's annual sales are? Just curious. We always mention they are a giant, etc.

Knowing thier annual sales does not tell you anything, contrary to popular belief, profit is not as an effective way to measure the size of a company either because it is deceptive in how it is done due to tax accounting. The way to tell the current strength of a company is free cashflow VS the equity in a company combined with it retained earnings as a % of equity.

Who would want to help mag out? Besides, they don't care about quality...they care about the bottom line. Eventually, when they are forced to change due to market forces (ie consumer demand).

LED, more efficient incandecants, better overall designs and lower battery prices will eventually become more mainstream at lower prices then are currently available. Once this happens, mag will change...until then, live with their 20 year old technology. Unfortunately, they will probably never give up their stupid practice of frivalous law suites.

All businesses are concerned by the bottom line as they should be. And businesses are allowed to make mistakes, but not be unethical. I never have a problem with a business watching the bottom line, its when they use non-competitive means to keep that bottom line going, such as law suits.

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Doubro said:
Hell, if Surefire can make G2's retail for under $30 and Streamlight can build Scorpions for under $20, MAglight, which is a hell of a lot bigger and wealthier company can make a decent LED or Hi-power Lithium without taking away too much from their bubble wrap demographic. It's plainly absurd to see such a crappy business model prevail.



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I have had many Mag lights, I use to get them for free. The company I worked for started this safety program. Every day an employee worked without an accident they got safety points. They keep a record of your points in their computer. They had a company store and one could go to the store and buy stuff with their safety points. You could only buy with safety points, there was no cash register, just a computer so they see how many points you had left and charge you. They had lots of neat stuff, like Coleman camping gear. Just one problem, almost everything had the company logo added to it. For example I refused to buy a Coleman Ice chest (or anything else) with the company logo also on it. I did not want people that did not understand seeing me with an ice chest (or anything)and have them thinking, he stole that from work. About the only thing they carried that did not have their company logo added was Mag Lights. Since I worked in the office and not on the water front it was easy for me to save up lots of points. I bought so many Mag lights with my points until I was literally giving them away to my friends. I don't work there anymore.

I use to think Mags were great lights. Then I learned about companies like, Streamlight, Pelican, Princeton Tec, and Underwater Kinetics, they all make better lights than Mag. Companies like Brinkmann and Dorcy make lights just a good as Mag but are cheaper. I now consider the few Mags I have left (6) to be my loaner lights. If someone wants to borrow a light I give them a Mag because I don't care if I get it back or not.

Hey Doubro, if you have found Scorpions anywhere for $20.00 lets us know where. I would get at least 4 more at that price. Two more for me and 2 for Christmas gifts.

The only thing I don't like about my Scorpion is the rubber sleeve around it but I am getting use to it. Has anyone else that has a Scorpion noticed that they are real easy to click on but hard to click off?

James.

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Doubro said:
1. WHy hasn't Maglite (or someone else) made a high powered Lithium version of any of their lights? ]


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The Space Needle II is a 2 C cell Mag, with a 5 watt luxeon, overdriven w/ three 123 lithium cells.
Until a few weeks ago, it was the brightest single LED light in the world, and still, no slouch.