Preon Revo Discontinued?!

I'm a relative newcomer here, usually with not much to contribute. So will some of you experts please tell me why in the world 4sevens is discontinuing the Revo? Given its price, size, and features I just can't believe it didn't sell well. I think it is a much better design than regular Preons. Please tell me David is planning to offer an updated version.

I don't think anyone has any idea. Unless David chimes in we would not know for sure. Maybe it doesn't sell as well as the Preon 1 and 2? Maybe the lookalike Klarus at a cheaper budget is too strong a competition to make it worth the while continuing the manufacture of the ReVO? Maybe the ReVO series are experiencing a lot of spring issues that could not be resolved? I don't know.

It's a shame since the Preon ReVO is one of the finest AAA lights ever made.

iTP A3 / Olight i3 might be one reason.

Serial Chiller said:

iTP A3 / Olight i3 might be one reason.

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Yeah, but, those are budget lights compared to the Preon ReVO.

Strange—I just went to order two for gifts. I'm considering the Quark mini AA instead, but read a review saying that the thread was quite loose, which isn't acceptable. Nothing more annoying than accidentally cycling too far through the power levels.

It seems to me that 4Sevens is going away from the enthusiast market:
- discontinued the Revo
- discontinued the 18650 body
- took much longer than other companies to get their main line on XM-L
- despite making their entire line to be lego-able, not going to be selling XM-L heads by themselves
- poor battery configuration on the S18, from an enthusiast perspective
- no longer offering specialty LED's such as the S2, S3, neutral, warm, RGB, etc.
- seemingly less and less participation from David on the forums

All we can do is guess, but I think they quit offering the Revo simply because they are going after a different market now.

As an enthusiast, in the relatively recent past I had little reason to consider a light that wasn't 4Sevens. Now, I can hardly justify any of their lights.

I think that is a bit harsh.

We all know why 4Sevens stopped giving us information - people were immature when things changed (design, timing, etc.), so they decided to only present a new light when it was ready to ship. That is our fault as a community.

They also told us why the 18650 body was discontinued - slow sales. They are still a business, and need to find new ways to grow and make money. If they don't, they won't be able to survive, so we need to encourage new manufacturers like 4sevens to gain a larger general market share.

No one but them knows why they decided to discontinue the Revo line. I can only infer that it was a tough decision for them for quite a while simply because their responses kept changing. I am sure they had to weigh multiple factors, and it looks like they decided to stop production of the Revo lights. It is definitely unfortunate since I do like the two SS ones I have, and I will definitely be holding on to them.

We can only make inferences and assumptions as to why they do what they do. In the end, we all need to decide with our wallet to communicate to manufacturers. If there is a light that you want to keep being produced, then you need to buy it, and encourage others to buy it. If there is a manufacturer that you aren't happy with, then stop buying lights from them.

That is the message they got for the 18650 body, the RGB, and potentially the Revo (again, we don't know all the details).

For me, I am quite selective with my lights. I do have many 4sevens lights (not all, by far), and I like to support new manufacturers when I can, especially when they are local (I live in Atlanta), and I buy lights for specific purposes that make sense for me and my situation. I will probably never buy the S18, and that's ok to me - I have an S12 that I thoroughly enjoy, and I will continue to buy from 4Sevens and other manufacturers that produce lights that I desire if funds allow.

i wished 4sevens would make another revo run with neutral/warm tint, or more neutral/warm tint run of any kind.
but it doesnt seem like thats going to happen, so im going to settle for a i3.

from what i can see, 4sevens seems to be gearing more towards the general market, and leaving the niche market, which would be us.

but its all good, and i hope they gain a larger market share

New theory. A number of people have noted the great similarity between the Revo and the Klarus MI10. I believe I read Klarus was a manufacturer of lights for other companies before it started marketing them on its own. Maybe, as some have suggested, Klarus was the manufacturer of the Revo. Could it be that there was some dispute between 4Sevens and Klarus relating to the introduction of the MI10? Did David want Klarus to stay away from the Revo design? Did Klarus make it more difficult or more expensive for 4Sevens to get new Revos? Was there a dispute over rights to the design? This scenario of a conflict between 4Sevens and Klarus would explain the fairly amazing lack of reliable information from 4Sevens over the past several months about whether the Revo was coming back or not. Maybe they were negotiating over that period and now 4Sevens, for whatever reason, has given up. No way this light wasn't popular enough to warrant continued sales by 4Sevens.

Hoosier Light said:

New theory. A number of people have noted the great similarity between the Revo and the Klarus MI10. I believe I read Klarus was a manufacturer of lights for other companies before it started marketing them on its own. Maybe, as some have suggested, Klarus was the manufacturer of the Revo. Could it be that there was some dispute between 4Sevens and Klarus relating to the introduction of the MI10? Did David want Klarus to stay away from the Revo design? Did Klarus make it more difficult or more expensive for 4Sevens to get new Revos? Was there a dispute over rights to the design? This scenario of a conflict between 4Sevens and Klarus would explain the fairly amazing lack of reliable information from 4Sevens over the past several months about whether the Revo was coming back or not. Maybe they were negotiating over that period and now 4Sevens, for whatever reason, has given up. No way this light wasn't popular enough to warrant continued sales by 4Sevens.

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I just ordered the aluminum version of the Mi10 from Going Gear. Apparently, the stainless steel one has been discontinued. This is okay with me, as I prefer the aluminum - lighter and cheaper! It would be nice if the stainless were still available, though, as I know that there are those that prefer that. I prefer the mode programming of the Mi10 over the Mi X6, as I don't want strobe and I prefer low first, not medium.

Per the 4Sevens dealer forum.. it has been discontinued:

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?251128-Revo-Discontinued/page3

I think the Klarus theory sounds likely. Has anyone opened up a ReVo to see if there are components shared with Klarus?

edpmis02 said:

Per the 4Sevens dealer forum.. it has been discontinued:

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?251128-Revo-Discontinued/page3

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It's just odd that 4Sevens (Trevor) posted a few conflicting entries within that thread (first that it was discontinued, and then it wasn't and he was mistaken, and then it is) and closed the thread abruptly. I do understand the question asked by the original poster was ultimately answered, but the different responses given by the 4Sevens camp seems to have a lot of us confused at the change in the responses.

If 4Sevens is going mainstream and ditching the CPFers that made them what they are, then it's like the person that makes it big and then denies their upbringing as they are ashamed of where they grew up. It's almost like 4Sevens is turning into a Maglite type company now, oblivious of feedback from their customers, which is odd as that was the biggest reason 4Sevens was such a shining star a few years ago when is was spun off from Fenix Flashlights.com or whatever, as David was quick to answer questions and it seemed like 4Sevens were going for innovation and was everything Fenix and Maglite weren't, which was great as it was nice to have a company in tune to the pulse of it's customers the way 4Sevens was in 2008/2009.

^^^I agree with you, Beacon, though it is their prerogative on how to run their business. We're not entitled to anything from them. As nice as it would be for them to cater to the niche market, the reality is that they've chosen a different road and it just is what it is, as sad as that may be.

That is true. I wish them success and hope they still head in the direction of interest to most CPFers. It was nice while it lasted if the honeymoon is over.

Ralls said:

^^^I agree with you, Beacon, though it is their prerogative on how to run their business. We're not entitled to anything from them. As nice as it would be for them to cater to the niche market, the reality is that they've chosen a different road and it just is what it is, as sad as that may be.

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I have a shiny new SS LD01. I got scared off by the green S2 reports during the SS REVO clearance. I have a neutral Preon MINI AA and would love more. but I am not holding my breath.. again.. it is sad!

A whole lot of conjecture here based on the discontinuation of one light.

Beacon of Light said:

If 4Sevens is going mainstream and ditching the CPFers that made them what they are, then it's like the person that makes it big and then denies their upbringing as they are ashamed of where they grew up. It's almost like 4Sevens is turning into a Maglite type company now, oblivious of feedback from their customers, which is odd as that was the biggest reason 4Sevens was such a shining star a few years ago when is was spun off from Fenix Flashlights.com or whatever, as David was quick to answer questions and it seemed like 4Sevens were going for innovation and was everything Fenix and Maglite weren't, which was great as it was nice to have a company in tune to the pulse of it's customers the way 4Sevens was in 2008/2009.

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Hi Everyone,

David here. I still do a lot of reading on cpf and cpfmp even though I don't post much. I've been following this thread since the beginning and it makes me sad to have to jump in here to clear all the posturing and incredible theories. If I don't somethings people assume it's the truth because of conjecture that has been hashed around, rehashed and hashed around some more. Unfortunately most of his cannot be farther from the truth.

I will just keep it brief and say what I need to say and in general terms.

Firstly, it can't be farther from the truth that I'm "ditching cpfers" and "going against my roots." Just because I'm not here personally replying to all the questions and just because we choose to discontinue one model or line of lights doesn't mean I'm ditching you guys. Lights are added and removed based on various factors, some of which is business reasons, but that is only one of many reasons which I at least 5 come up in my mind related to the revo which I'll resist going into - but I will bring up one - unscrupulous suppliers that go against a very clearly stated contract from the beginning and even holding parts as hostage in order to force us to take certain action. Even if something could have been resolved - I refuse to support a business that do not mean what they say and say what they do not mean. There is no future with such a business relationship - so we'll take our business elsewhere. So this has been going on for a while thus the varying statuses of the Revo as reported here. As of now they are no longer available - but that doesn't mean they won't be available in the future - just not now - and no promises either.

Beacon - you say we're oblivious of feedback - that can't be further from the truth. We spend a significant amount of resources taking in your specific feedback - and I'm not talking about me. There are staff in the states as well as other parts of the world who are part of the 4sevens development team that are taking in and assimilating the feedback. It's very hurtful to me that you would say that especially because it's completely opposite from the truth. Just because we don't have a knee jerk reaction to each feedback doesn't mean we aren't busy developing stuff in our r&d department.

Third and lastly (last point I'll address) Beacon you imply that we aren't innovating like before. I have to say that can't be farther from the truth too. We've spent tens of thousands on developing patents this year. There are so exciting things coming - some most of our staff do not even know - but it's cooking secretly and cannot be released until patents are filed and approved. I dare say some of the patents will change the way how people expect flashlights work. I believe some of the big players in the flashlight industry will be scrambling to license some of these ideas - because people will be wondering how can a flashlight have been made without such features. Yes - it's a pretty big claim - but I'm willing to back this up with proof with product in due time. The work is extremely exciting BUT we must keep it protected until the right time.

Already I can tell you some of our prototype concepts leaked out because a contractor in asia couldn't keep their mouth shut. There are two lights that have been announced and suggested as a concept on cpf that were ripped off from our idea we prototyped over a year ago. Sadly we probably won't be producing that light - the idea was flatly stolen from us. I'll just keep the prototypes on my desk as a perpetual reminder of what can happen especially with the unscrupulous unethical companies in china.

Sorry to unload a bit. I can stand getting stolen from by companies in china but I can't just stand by and watch cpf members whom I consider family whom I grow up with make hurtful and wrong guesses about 4sevens. I do hope my rant helps clarify some things. Sorry I meant to be brief when I started.

-David