Surefire Lights - The Future?

What does the future have in store for Surefire? Will they remain top dog? Will they be forced to price more competitively? Will they lose market share?

i am guessing they are moving their focus away from incandescents, (whats the last new incan that they put out? the M6?)
they are probably moving onto LED development and HID, as could be seen from the Kroma, the beast II and PK's pocket rocket.
I dont forsee surefire lowering their prices, in fact, i am guessing they will keep on rising as newer technologies emerge and they recoup their investment in R&D
surefire is smart in that their R&D in Darpa projects bleed off into civilian markets, so they are making lots of gains.

I'm waiting for the proto-type 10w LED they were showing off to make into production. The rest can wait...

Maybe Surefire will make a CR2 Ti light???:nana:

Global markets and the War on Terror have provided good times for Surefire and nothing in the immediate future appears likely to change.

Whilst competitors will probably be able pick up sales with speciality items like the Gladius for law enforcement the military is where the money is. I suspect that Blackhawk can pick up a lot more sales to LEO's due to more competitive pricing but will have problems with large volume sales to the military due to the large R&D budgets that are required?

Surefire still has the edge with their brand name and with the well known lifetime guarantee they offer. Whether this will be sufficient to ensure competitors don't erode their customer base in time remains to be seen.

Personally I now favor both Blackhawk and Surefire for my personal lighting needs but find the pricing of the Falcata lights excellent. I just wish Blackhawk would confirm where they have their lights made? Despite being a global economy one of Surefire's greatest strengths is the 'Made in USA' declaration which to me personally is extremely important.

Doug

hey blah? what light is that???

PhantomZ said:

hey blah? what light is that???

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That is what PK is currently calling the "PocketRocket"

blah...you need to stop showing off, i am already booking a plane to Millbrae, CA to look for you... if you see some singapore kid walking behind you, the chances are high that it is ME.

that light is totally cool... it runs on cr2!?!? omg... i want aa

Yukon_Jack said:

1) What does the future have in store for Surefire?
2) Will they remain top dog?
3) Will they be forced to price more competitively?
4) Will they lose market share?

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My personal opinion:
1) Many exciting things - significantly advancing the application of technology as well as the technology itself.
2) I have no doubt they will continue to be "top dog".
3) I think that SureFire will continue with their current pricing policy. I don't see any other manufacturer(s) being able to force SureFire to lower its prices.
4) I believe we only really see SureFire up against competition in market sectors where SureFire is not well established but where the brandname is becoming increasingly well recognised. SureFire continue to grow.

chesterqw said:

that light is totally cool... it runs on cr2!?!? omg... i want aa

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The samples PK had at SS2006 were CR2 powered and there was an adapter to accept the AA battery. Check out PK-E for lots of photos.

Al

1) tir lens on lux V? finally getting the kl1 and kl3 to run at 750ma?
2) they will... unless i come up with a killer light( aka impossible)
3) i hope so, that will, i can then afford them.
4) Will they lose market share? i didn't know they bough shares
i don't think they will ... unless no.2 happens.
they will continue with their shiny (pun intended) brand and glowing(needless to say pun!) new lights...

the future looks birght - Pun intended :lolsign:



Does anyone know if Surefire will use K2 emitters?

I would love it if Surefire would come out with some high quality AA and AAA lights. If they do it right they would sell bunches (and not just to me). I think moving into more common Batt set ups would be the way to go at this point as everyone is putting out 123 batt powered lights. A single AA batt light with multi power levels...lets say 4....50 honest lumens would do...and a beam pattern similar to the L4 (wall of light). That would get my wallet out quick.

Ken

Badbeams said:

I would love it if Surefire would come out with some high quality AA and AAA lights. If they do it right they would sell bunches (and not just to me). I think moving into more common Batt set ups would be the way to go at this point as everyone is putting out 123 batt powered lights. A single AA batt light with multi power levels...lets say 4....50 honest lumens would do...and a beam pattern similar to the L4 (wall of light). That would get my wallet out quick.

Ken

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I don't get this fascination with old low power batteries? Lithium is lighter more compact and has more power why would you want alkaline? Please don't say price if you can spend over $150 on a light (which any new SureFire LED will be) than you can spend $1 on a battery.

JT

i'm a fan of CR2 and woudll ov to see their offerings in that venue.


The 10w LED has me thinking the most.. I keep holding off on my L4 hoping that the next big thing will show up

Well I like the thiner form of the AA batt...a little longer...yea...but feels better to me in the pocket. Plus there is the wow factor...people are impressed by my 123 batt lights untill they find out they take "special batts"... then they lose interest in having one. And in a way I see their point of veiw...nice to be able to buy a batt anywhere and run the light. Almost everyone has rechargable MI AA batts now days as they are used in so many devices. One guy commented to me that he could stack a bunch of 2032`s together and make a smaller brighter light than the 123 I was showing him. I commented it wouldn`t run for very long...his comeback was "well if run time is your concern why not just go with AA`s". At that time no one was making small bright AA powered light and I didn`t know it could even be done. But now we know better.

Ken

I hear ya... I'm still undecieded


I'm on the fence on the issue. 123'a and easy to get for me (i have probably 50+ @ my house) and I gather you but...average people don't get it.

Also in an outage... I knwo I won't go thru all my 123A's but do likehaving the Mini mag's with drop in jus tin case...


It's like give take... ya know?

jtivat said:

I don't get this fascination with old low power batteries? Lithium is lighter more compact and has more power why would you want alkaline? Please don't say price if you can spend over $150 on a light (which any new SureFire LED will be) than you can spend $1 on a battery.

JT

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Hello jtivat

I'm a little curious about your math:hairpull:
When somebody will spend about 150$ for a good light, this should be the reason for to throw money out of the window.

AA-cells must not be Alkalines, there are also nimh-cells.
When the user of the light needs it every night at his job, for example, 2batts for 1 hour=2$ per hour. So it will needs only 100 hours to spend 200$, that's 50$ more than the 150$ which has had cost the light, and that after only 100hours.

hmmm........

Best regards

_____
Tom

Manzerick said:

I hear ya... I'm still undecieded


I'm on the fence on the issue. 123'a and easy to get for me (i have probably 50+ @ my house) and I gather you but...average people don't get it.

Also in an outage... I knwo I won't go thru all my 123A's but do likehaving the Mini mag's with drop in jus tin case...


It's like give take... ya know?

Click to expand...

Yea...I`m not saying Surefire should stop making and realising new 123 lights. I`m just thinking if they expand...they will find customers who would prefer lights that take more common batts...but want the quality of a Surefire....thats all I`m saying.

Let make one more comment...gifts. I gave my boss a Dorcy super 1 watt (123) for hs birthday a while back and he loved it...used it all the time at work. But after the batt went dead...well I gave him 2 more batts and he used them up. He ended up going back to using a plastic Eveready light. While he loved the Dorcy he was not about to take the responcibility of replacing the battery. I had no intention of replacing them forever. At his wedding I gave him a Fenix L1T. He loves it even more and guess what...it`s always on him and always running.

Ken