I totally agree with most of the stuff you said.
I do think the Anduril flowchart is probably scaring some people off.
I recently won a SC18 and the UI is amazing for Muggles, I’m thinking about gifting it to my friend’s dad who is in his 70s.
Edit: For my personal use, I don’t even consider an e-switch light without Anduril.
Well, Barry asked why sales of enthusiast lights have declined. I don’t think it’s ridiculous to mention what enthusiasts want in response.
I was going to write exactly that, but you beat me to it! 
Additionally I want to say that, in flashlightly matters, there are no muggles: there are only enthusiasts to be 
, and by insisting on them having Stoopid lights we aren’t doing their future selves any favours! 
Seriously, I still don’t understand the problem people think muggles have with Anduril. It comes right out of the box in Simple mode, which is as simple as it gets (and my wife who is – still – no enthusiast, can use perfectly). And then all the awesomeness of Anduril is just 10H away for the time the (supposed) muggle exits his/her chrysalis as a full blown enthusiast!
@Barry0892, Sofirn should be sure to mention this in bold right at the top of the SC31Pro product page, as it makes a lot of difference for us enthusiasts
But it’s still an FET driven crap which drops brightness like a stone like all their other ‘PRO’ offerings… (shrugs)
IMO and IME that’s perhaps a bit too harsh. Sure, regulated drivers are nice and I do think Sofirn and other vendors ought to offer them more often, but unregulated ones do work and work reasonably well for the vast majority of uses and people, including enthusiasts
(disclaimer: not a single one of my lights are regulated, and I do prefer unregulated lights that fade gradually as the battery is spent, to the regulated ones that don’t have a pre-LVP warning and simply turn off and leave you in the dark when the battery goes dry).
He really asked about a certain class of lights with some specific features. As mentioned above, the number of people buying flashlights that do not consider themselves to be any level of enthusiast far outnumbers those who do. Of course this is BLF, so we discuss things from the “flashaholic” point of view. But as a manufacturer they need to take into consideration what the rest of the great majority of the buying public wants. Unfortunately, there are many who only look at max lumen numbers. Marketing all of the other features that we love/demand to an uneducated public seem to me to be unproductive. But I am not a marketing person, so I have no answers on that.
Reread his original post. Nowhere does he mention “enthusiast”, just why sales in general are down, and that he has too much inventory as a result.
Again, The Muggle probably outnumbers The Enthusiast by at least 1000:1. He’s asking “the experts” for advice, not why WE aren’t buying that extra 0.1% of lights.
It’s like asking us why diving lights aren’t selling, when very few of us actually dive.
Straight from the OP (emphasis mine):
I agree the rest of the OP is ambiguous and could be taken either way, but the above phrase nails it IMO: saying “you guys” in an enthusiast’s forum makes it very clear he’s referring to us enthusiasts.
Another thing I never said.
Simple Mode is great out of the box for The Muggle, especially if it starts out in stepped mode, which I’m pretty sure it does.
I only mentioned that the selling point of “lookit all this stuff your light can do!!” in a huge-ass flowchart would likely lead The Muggle to believe he/she has to memorise that and learn how to use it, and might be scaring off some normies.
Lookit that chart. Like reeeeeeally look at it. Not just all the bubbles, but all the arrows, too. In multiple directions. Solid, dotted, dashed, double-dashed, etc., going every which way. And you tell me some normie who just wants a flashlight to light up shiite in his basement, attic, backyard, cupboard, etc., is going to be thrilled with wifi GPS mode.
There’s a reason true tactical lights have very few modes, and no easy way to change them, because when your ass is on the line, you don’t want to do a flash’n’dash, then another, but whups, too quickly, so now you’re in moonlight mode.
WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?
Are you selling to a relatively few enthusiasts or to an assload of normies? No one’s saying to put stoopit UIs on lights, unless you’re targeting a stoopit audience. Lotta those “as seen on teevee!” lights are exactly that. No, Simple Mode out of the box is fine, then 10H your way to nirvana if you can manage it. 10H is already a sort of built-in IQ test, so leave it.
But The Flowchart might very well be off-putting to normies who see that and think it’s a requirement to memorise and master, for just looking for that can of veggie-soup you swore was still in the cupboard.
Of all the lights I use on an ongoing regular basis, only my TS10 has andy on it. My 'micro has narsim, not sure what my IF22A has, but the rest have proprietary or at least old UIs. And I’m okay with that. My Tacklife has a retarded UI, but I treat it as on/off only, as that’s all I use it for, and just live with it.
As long as it’s not the reviled blink-on-low abortion that came on those old NANJGs, I’m good.
So I’ll wait for Barry to clarify. Is he grexing about lack of sales just to “enthusiasts”, or in general?
(I’m betting on the latter, and answered accordingly, so it then makes zero difference as to what The Enthusiast wants to project what The Muggle wants/needs.)
I’d dare say the vast majority of “we guys” have the mindset that if it doesn’t have andy3 at this point, they ain’t gonna be buying, period.
Sooooooo, I’d dare say that’s been asked and answered, and the quote was just ambiguously worded.
Again, I’m just presuming, and “we guys” really do need Barry to clarify.
I still can’t possibly imagine that the 0.1% of “enthusiasts” would even register higher than statistical noise as far as total sales, so to me it makes no sense why he’d be asking “us guys” why we personally might not he thrilled enough with low-CCT/andy3 to buy more lights.
Oh, and for the record, I’m good with 4500K right down to 2700K, as long as it’s not urine-yellow.
2200K might be a bit low except for a candlelight lantern. In fact, I wanted a few emitters like that just for my KL03s or whatever they are.
I think it’s all about niches: eg Hanklights, I doubt it very much he sells many (if any) lights for non-enthusiasts, and he does seem to be making very good business selling only (or at least mostly) to “us guys”.
I interpret the OP as asking us, enthusiasts, what we think about our niche, not about some other niche.
But I agree, let’s wait for @Barry0892 to respond and clarify exactly what he’s asking about.
And like… is it “HKS”?.. that sells lights for up to a kbuk or more?
But as for niches, refer back to the headlamp thread. I mocked and ridiculed the pickiness of people there already, so I’ll leave that alone. But ask 10 “enthusiasts” for their opinions/wants/needs. and you’ll get probably 35-40 different, conflicting, and mutually exclusive answers.
Hence the “design by committee” snark. Even just the usb-charging part had me going cross-eyed.
“X” models that, at time of launch, had notable enthusiast features are selling poorly and Barry asked what has changed. I guess I’m not convinced that anything has changed about the non-enthusiast market or their expectations since the models in question came out, especially any that would impact sales of these models. Things definitely have changed in the enthusiast market.
Edit: I’ll also add that there is DEFINITELY a subset of the non-enthusiast market that goes and looks at what enthusiasts recommend and just buy it because “they’re the experts”. This is really the only change to the non-enthusiast market I could imagine, but it tracks alongside enthusiast interests.
And don’t forget that opinions change regularly and often.
219Bs were Cozy’n’Rosy, but then too inefficient.
219Cs were Da Boemb, until they were Too Green.
The '351 was The Shiite for the longest time after that, until they too were Too Green.
Now it’s the 519whatevers, and 2wks from now it’ll be something else, then after that, then after that…
People are fickle.
And people wonder why I still love my MT-G2 lights… 
Without more context, it can only be a guessing game, and even with the data, it’s still only an educated guess.
Quantify “less popular.” How large are the declines, and how steep are the curves?
Which channels are down? Some, or all of them? The broader Amazon, or other marketplace stores can be expected to have different audiences than those who find their way to the website, or Ali store.
How is each model affected? Is Anduril truly the characteristic that is causing their decline, or are there other factors in play?
Of course, not asking Sofirn to reveal confidential data, but those things should be considered.
Different markets may have different reasons to be buying fewer units. Enthusiasts could be tired of the same old cheap drivers and selection of emitters.
The broader non-enthusiast market may have discovered the brand through deal sites, but may have also discovered that Anduril is too enthusiast-oriented for their tastes. The spaghetti-chart was just mocked in the latest deal thread.
At the end of the day, these are mature, if not old models that will see natural declines regardless. Anduril may have given the SC31 a big boost when it was given Anduril in its third incarnation, but it’s still venerable, and while tools aren’t fleeting like fashion, the market isn’t static either.
Others, like the W brand, have seemingly been refreshing their lineups at a more consistent rate, and has always had bolder design. The fact that it’s exploring non-Anduril “S” versions of its models may also be an indicator as to what the broader market wants, if not the enthusiast market.
Declines in the enthusiast market, which is receptive to, if not myopic about Anduril in some quarters, suggest other factors are playing a role, if not greater roles.
Brilliant! First time I’ve heard that one. Applies to a ton of stuff in business and marketing eh?
I would disagree, I think it probably is something similar to the distribution of sales for many other things. Most people might buy 1 or 2, and then theres enthusiasts/collectors who might be fewer people but each one has >30 lights, I have almost 100 and my collection is slowly but steadily growing with new model releases.
