In the pro audio world, this very scenario has unfolded over the past 10 years or so. The Behringer Corporation got their start by cloning the designs of manufacturers like Roland and QSC. One could read a great deal of contempt for their strategy on enthusiast message boards; indeed in the beginning Behringer's quality may not have been outstanding, but their prices were superb. Behringer managed to bootstrap themselves through this process of copying the designs of their competitors; eventually they became large enough that they bought up many of their competitors and are now making a great deal of money on new designs of their own, like the X32 Mixer.
Something smells funny about doing business this way, but although they are certainly not a beloved brand in the industry, I suspect that within 10 or 20 years their consumers will have mostly forgotten about their dubious start and will consider them like any other brand. I'm not sure what the takeaway is here but its an interesting case to study.
Something smells funny about doing business this way, but although they are certainly not a beloved brand in the industry, I suspect that within 10 or 20 years their consumers will have mostly forgotten about their dubious start and will consider them like any other brand. I'm not sure what the takeaway is here but its an interesting case to study.
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