What's a Cree worth? Fenix will answer!

Whatever premium that CPFers are willing to pay for a Cree XR-E instead of a Luxeon III will be challenged when the new P1D and P1D-CE come out. The difference in price between the Luxeon and Cree models will be the first round in the battle of the LED giants. Objectively this light will only be worth at most $20 over the P1. That is what CPFers are willing to pay for a Flupic board at retail. Maybe throw in another $5 for getting it installed. Fenix is almost certainly paying less for the XR-E than the premium bin Luxeon III, so there's no material cost increase to Fenix there.


If we see droves of people willing to pay $70 or more for them, I would hate to be sitting on an $ inventory of Luxeon lights. I think Lumileds will be the only one standing when the music stops on CPF!

Fenix's experiment will be the first shot in the LED wars. Let the battle begin!

Bernie

Fenix is first out the chute.......again....

Bring it on!:rock:

I think Fenix will pick a price that is good for them, while tempting us.

If by some miracle we ALL decided not to buy it if it was beyond a certain price, they will lower the price. It'd be a miralce if everybody had such will power.

I just hope we don't set a bad price point based on how many people will purchase it regardless of the price. Then other companies will also set their prices to that.

aceo07 said:

I think Fenix will pick a price that is good for them, while tempting us.

If by some miracle we ALL decided not to buy it if it was beyond a certain price, they will lower the price. It'd be a miralce if everybody had such will power.

I just hope we don't set a bad price point based on how many people will purchase it regardless of the price. Then other companies will also set their prices to that.

Click to expand...

I'm one of them!

FirstDsent said:

Whatever premium that CPFers are willing to pay for a Cree XR-E instead of a Luxeon III will be challenged when the new P1D and P1D-CE come out. The difference in price between the Luxeon and Cree models will be the first round in the battle of the LED giants. Objectively this light will only be worth at most $20 over the P1. That is what CPFers are willing to pay for a Flupic board at retail. Maybe throw in another $5 for getting it installed. Fenix is almost certainly paying less for the XR-E than the premium bin Luxeon III, so there's no material cost increase to Fenix there.


If we see droves of people willing to pay $70 or more for them, I would hate to be sitting on an $ inventory of Luxeon lights. I think Lumileds will be the only one standing when the music stops on CPF!

Fenix's experiment will be the first shot in the LED wars. Let the battle begin!

Bernie

Click to expand...

Most people know what an LED is but tell them a Cree is better and a Joe six pack will probably not pay a premium........ an LED is an LED.

What person in his right mind would pay upwards of let's say $50 for a flashlight?


Ray

In the past Fenix have always been quite fair with their pricing

I hope they keep it low!

I can't imagine the price point would go up that much? hmm... we'll see

the emitters cost the same, so a cree Fenix will not cost more than the premium models now.
If more, then most ppl wont buy them!!

Remember, there are already ridiculous priced lights for the "even more crazy than average"-light addicts --> CR2 f.e.
those are not even to be considered

I am certain Fenix will offer the new lights at fair prices...

I would expect the price to be not much higher.

The manufacturers should know that we know that the Cree LED
isn't any more expensive than a U-bin luxeon.

So really there should be no difference between a luxeon or a cree-based LED, just the price of the modified Flu-pic driver.

However should this light become availabe in Ti ...

I doubt the price will be raised much, if at all. If it's pitched too high, people will just wait until it drops to an acceptable level. Meanwhile, stocks of non-XR-E lights will be reduced to clear, so could go for bargain prices.

yellow said:

the emitters cost the same, so a cree Fenix will not cost more than the premium models now.
If more, then most ppl wont buy them!!

Click to expand...

Haven't you been watching this forum? The day after the first post about the release of the XR-E there were threads popping up everywhere with people begging Fenix to release an XR-E light. Don't you think that the Fenix fanatics will be willing to pay a premium for a tiny 135 lumen light?

The market value of a light has nothing to do with the cost of its material. If so, a SureFire M6 would cost $35. The huge (unreasonable IMHO) price is far, far above what it costs
SureFire to make it despite higher manufacturing cost than most. It is what SureFire's customers think it is worth.

Bernie

well, I consider myself being a "Fenix fanatic"
but there is absolutely NO WAY I would even think about buying lights like the CR2 or similar.

For a modder selling his stuff, there might be enough crazy ppl to pay more than 100,--, but for a semi mass producer, the "a bit more than average" customer is what counts (and thus the number of sales)
at least I hope this...

one example: this "K2 Stunner Raffle" here, up right. Get a ticket to Win a WOW light for 10,--. As sasha just had posted, there were less than 100 tickets sold by now. Seems to me, there is not this high number of ppl even wanting such a model.

Now count together the crazy ones posting something like "I`ll get the D1D-CE when it costs not much more than 100,--" here.
1st: there would be no reason (for me and for much others hopefully) to pay this much more, expecially when we know its just because of the hype.
2nd: 50 times 50,-- makes 2500, 500 times 10,-- makes double of that (and I am sure the Fenix sales are higher than 500 pieces/Model)

btw: I am waiting for the 2AA/14500 clickie "LxD" model, so I will have a close look to what happens upon release of the D
and if there will be no AA model with the same driver --> my crees and my hosts are already ordered. Thus I will make me and my light buddies the usual 2-stage model (but with a real low), like with the luxeons be4.
:Wink2:

I think Cree wants to go for market share and volume. Pricing it too highly will hurt that effort. The real prize is the automotive market where I think Cree is close to introducing viable products.

FirstDsent, you're right that there are some who will be prepared to pay a premium to be the first to have these XR-E lights. But it won't last. There is a relatively small number of them, and most manufacturers will price their products for the mainstream. And soon someone will bring out an even brighter LED which uses even less power, etc etc. Today's must-have Cree will be tomorrow's past-it Luxeon.

It's like computers, if you think about it - they keep on getting quicker and more portable, but the price doesn't rise in line with the specifications (if they did, any 2006-spec laptop would cost millions in 1980s money.)

If Fenix doesn't keep the price at reasonable level (let's say around $50) I'll simply wait for price drop or maybe for competition product, I am not in a hurry. However I think price should be acceptable for us, like Fenix used to do in the past.

aceo07 said:

...I just hope we don't set a bad price point based on how many people will purchase it regardless of the price...

Click to expand...

Huh? Isn't that what CPF is all about? Where else would the the Maxabeams and Alephs and McGizmo's come from?

Anxiously waiting. Hopefully the PS3 effect will be minimal when the product starts
becoming available.

It can't be like the Playstation. It doesn't have massive hype on TV to fuel it.

I won't pay more than $60 for this light (XE). It's not that much different than the 3 watt P1... It has a nice feature in the mutli-stage switch, and the CREE is a nice to have. Luxeons are damn good LEDs. Let's not forget how excited we were when the P1 came out. They were flying off the shelves. Point is that this is a nice upgrade for the P1, but not worth upwards of $60 as compared to the P1.