The sad part is the mindset that convinced the folks at H-D that the addition of an iPod would be important to sales or corporate profits. I for one can't ever remember buying a specific vehicle just because it came standard with a particular audio device. It might make a tiny bit of sense if they were offering something unique that you can't buy elsewhere, but even an old guy like me is pretty familiar with iPod's these days (I've got three at the moment). I'd much rather see Harley spend their money, time, and effort on improving the mechanical bits and pieces so the products do a better job at what we buy them for. If I just want to listen to tunes, I don't need a Harley for that.
Jerry
I doubt that HD was thinking that adding an iPod interface would increase sales. Typically technology and convenience adds are done not to increase sales, but to not
decrease sales. If major competitors have a direct iPod interface, then it becomes an "expected" technology at a given price point. So it isn't a matter of "I'm buying this because it has direct iPod control" but more-so "Why doesn't it have iPod control? Victory, BMW, Honda has it - maybe I should look at them".
Case in point - we were casually shopping around for a new car and had heard good things about the re-designed Chevy Malibu. Went out and built one on the web and it came out to around $28K I think. No option - and I mean NO ability to add - a factory Nav unit. I looked at the car no further. No matter how good the car may be, the lack of available factory Nav at $28K sticker (even if it was a $2G option) made me lose total interest in buying one. Didn't even want to test drive it.
I think direct iPod control is now considered (regardless if people see value in an iPod or not) an expected option on any vehicle that has an "upgraded" audio system. It is fast becoming an expected technology even on base-level factory audio systems.
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Topic: Ipod = LAME (Read 2812 times)