RE: Oversold territory-thutter"What does the cost advantage have to do with the low retail price? Do you believe that the low retail price has been obtained through lower manufacturing costs?"
By selling at a loss the LCD and Plasma guys are creating a barrier to entry. They have more money than us. Short term pain for long term gain. They don't want someone to get in on their market. Part of the low retail price for LCD has been obtained through cost reductions. Not a lot but some. It's electronics manufacturing... the cost always comes down whether it is a computer, DVD, TV or GPS.
"You later mention that many are selling at a loss so I am not understanding why you do not get it. The cost to manufacture has not fallen anywhere close as fast as the retail price. If a company can bring a product to market with a lower manufacturing cost then they will sell it for a smaller loss or maybe even a profit."
Agreed, the cost to manufacture has not come down in proportion to retail price but I have a question for you. Why would you want to bring a new product to market to lose money? Ifire's business model has always been based on low cost to make a great profit. Their intial plan was to price themselves BELOW LCD and sell a better product at a better price. Now that LCD is selling at their intial retail price point ($1,000) we've lost the retail price advantage. Yes we will have a better product but all these plants still have to be built to compete. This has to be what manufacturers like Sanyo etc. are looking at when they consider tooling up for Ifire. How much do we have to invest and how long is our payback time. If you owned a huge LCD plant and were losing money on manufacturing and selling a LCD product why would you want to "retool" and make it an Ifire plant which would cost you even more capital, so that you can continue to lose (perhaps less) money to compete against other inferior LCD competitors???
The company's business plan likely has to change. WED is out of options. We don't have much money in the bank and the longer our technical problems aren't fixed the less negotiating strength we have. Ifire will likely need to find a major manufacturer that has both the money to invest in new technology AND compete on price against other LCD manufacturers and likely lose more money. They will sell Ifire outright to someone and we'll make a few dollars.
While there is an outside chance their original business plan will work, selling outright has now become the probable outcome.
ARRHW