Elektron Musical Instruments

Here is the explanation:

The first mail indicated we would offer _up to_ 200 upgrades at the
friends price. We started with 50 promising 50 more in 2 weeks. The
first 50 sold out more or less immediately and indicated an ongoing
interest in the offer.

Then we released 50 more a bit more than 2 weeks later. The offer was
up for almost 2 weeks and then sold out by us offering units to the
Japanese and France markets.

Friend offers are intended for the brave first people who dare to try
a new product without knowing too much about it. During this unknown
time our impression is that everyone who wanted had a good chance of
placing an order.

The second offer didn't really sell out, only almost. Therefore we
decided that there is no need for another friend offer. The demand
might have increased now, but that's because the first daring people
have received their units back and been able to give detailed reports
on what they think about the UW upgrade. The situation is no longer
that ordering an upgrade is getting something partly unknown. It's
like someone posted on the elektron-users board when the second round
was offered: "do we really know enough about the sps-1uw to order the
upgrade?". No, that's a part of the point with the friend offers, we
offer a discount for people daring to take a chance.

The friend offer was closed since the second round appeared to cover
the markets need (for an unknown upgrade). The upgrades are very time
consuming and we are now tiding up so that everyone who dug into the
offer receives their unit and are happy. When that is done we will
offer upgrades for some time at EUR/USD 500. I don't know for how long
we will offer it, it depends how much resources it will consume. We
hope to be able to offer the first "official" ones during the summer,
and it will be posted on the Elektron products page as a product, or
maybe as accessory for the SPS-1.

I'm sorry if people were waiting for upcoming offers. The post could
indeed be interpreted that way. The post probably should have pointed
out that the offer was valid _up to_ 200 units (it did), but emphased
that it would only be offered as long there is a current interest. 

Remember that if you want a friend offer, try taking advantage of it
the soonest possible. We'll never make any promises for how long the
offers will be valid.

Daniel Hansson, Elektron

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, Gerald Stevens <logo64@g...> wrote:
> I dug through the friend emails to see how dumb I should feel about 
> expecting to be notified each time 50 upgrade offers were opened
up... here 
> are some clips:
>  FIRST MESSAGE:
>  We will offer up to 200 upgrades at this price. But in order to
avoid long 
> service queues we will release the upgrades in turns. 
>  As this mail is sent we're kicking off by offering 50 upgrades. 50
more are 
> 
> planned to be offered in two weeks. Only friends registered before
today's 
> date will be able to take part in the offer of today.
> 
> SECOND MESSAGE:
>  As you read this we just made available 50 more upgrade offers for
current
> SPS-1 owners. Last time the 50 upgrade kits offered were sold out in
less
> than 24 hours, so you might better be quick to get one of the
upgrades this
> time!
>  There was no third or fourth messages... and I figured that was due
to the 
> backlog and elektron wanting "to avoid long service queues". In
fact, since 
> nobody was reporting that they actually got their unit back, I
figured they 
> weren't opening up any further slots of 50. Now, I know I'm
grumbling and 
> there's nothing I can do - but can sombody in the third or fourth
group of 
> 50 tell me how you knew to get in? Did you just keep checking the
friend 
> page.
>  Grumble...
>  Somebody *please *let me know on this list when any of the inflated 
> upgrades are offered.
>  -gerald