Segway clone from Toyota at Tokyo motor show

[pam]

I'm not sure it will be a competitor - apples and oranges. Just like the Neighborhood Electric VEhicles are not really competitors - they are both electrically operated, they both will take a person from one place to another, but that's as far as the comparison goes. Sorta like comparing Vespas with Electrically supplemented bicycles.
Pam

[JohnM]

quote:Originally posted by pam

I'm not sure it will be a competitor - apples and oranges. Just like the Neighborhood Electric VEhicles are not really competitors - they are both electrically operated, they both will take a person from one place to another, but that's as far as the comparison goes. Sorta like comparing Vespas with Electrically supplemented bicycles.

Isn't getting from one place to another what transportation is reallly all about? If one considers land transportation as a continuum, with walking at one end and high-speed rail at the other, with the multitude of alternatives occupying their respective overlapping niches, then there is no one method without competition. The Segway does overlap with walking, running, rollerskating, cycling (pedal and motorized), NEVs and cars, therefor competing with them. Each transportation method has its own set advantages and disadvantages, and cirumstances and personal preference will dictate the final choice. But to say that the Segway has no competitors is naive. Certainly the Segway has a distinct set of operating characteristics that make it suitable for manuevering in tight environments like sidewalks and indoors, however those are not the critical environments where most transportation takes place. Getting from here to there, i.e. transportaion, is not really the Segway Human Transporter's forte, moving within an restrictive environment is. This Toyota thingy is too big and bulky to match the Segway's manueverability, but with the addition of the third wheel for high speed stability it may be more suitable a quick zip to the 7-11 or Circle K for a loaf of bread. Both devices occupy overlapping niches between walking and cars, and would be in direct competion for the same alternative transportation dollars.

The only way you might say that the Segway has no competitors would be to pull it off the transportation continuum completely and deny that it is a Human Transporter at all. Maybe call it a Electic Personal Assistive Mobility Device? But for Segway Inc the change the product name from HT to EPAMD and redefine the device's primary function from transportation to mobility would be shooting themselves in the foot, or dynamically stabilized wheel as the case may be. Mobility Device sounds to much like a device for the elderly or infirm, which ironically is turning out to be a major market for HTs. But then the competition becomes the Rascal scooter.

JohnM
Anything worth doing for 2 hours is 10 times more worthwhile if done for 20 hours.
RUSA #235

[pam]

Actually, I don't agree with you John, but you're certainly entitled to your opinion. I don't consider roller skates and bicycles as competitors, although they're both forms of transportation. I'm not saying that the HT has NO competition, however I don't see the i-Swing as competition, given what I know of both units. Just as I don't consider the Q to be "competition" for the HT.
Pam

[JohnM]

quote:Originally posted by pam

Actually, I don't agree with you John, but you're certainly entitled to your opinion. I don't consider roller skates and bicycles as competitors, although they're both forms of transportation. I'm not saying that the HT has NO competition, however I don't see the i-Swing as competition, given what I know of both units. Just as I don't consider the Q to be "competition" for the HT.

I'd like to hear your definition of competition. Do the competitors have to be so similar as to be virtually identical?

JohnM
Anything worth doing for 2 hours is 10 times more worthwhile if done for 20 hours.
RUSA #235

[pam]

They have to be sufficiently similar to fill the same niche. So, in some sense, yes, they have to be sufficiently similar. Just as Fords and Dodges are competitors, whereas Fords and Kubotas are not, although they both run on gas and have 4 wheels and are both a form of transportation.
Pam

[JohnM]

quote:Originally posted by pam

They have to be sufficiently similar to fill the same niche. So, in some sense, yes, they have to be sufficiently similar. Just as Fords and Dodges are competitors, whereas Fords and Kubotas are not, although they both run on gas and have 4 wheels and are both a form of transportation.
Pam

Segway Inc, in their very first national ad, proclaims "The Smart Alternative to High-Price Gas" and "Had Your Fill of Filling Up?", while showing a SUV sitting at the pump while a happy Segger glides by. "About half of all car trips in America are less than 5 miles ... trips ideally suited to the Segway HT." They are competing against the internal combustion engine.

Your business competition is anyone getting the money that you want. If Segway Inc wants to carve out a niche on the transportation spectrum, any device that overlaps that niche is their competition. As long as cars are being used for trips ideally suited for Segways, that's the target. Segway has seen the reality of the situation.

JohnM
Anything worth doing for 2 hours is 10 times more worthwhile if done for 20 hours.
RUSA #235

[pam]

Yes, but I'm limited to what I can carry on the HT, and am limited to the distance I can travel. The HT is no competition at all for my car for my shopping trips on Saturday. I have to have a car. I can limit the amount of gas I use weekly via the use of my HT going to and from work, but I will never be able to completely replace my car. At least not in the place I currently live. If I were to live in a major metro area, I might be able to replace the car. But I wouldn't do it with the i-swing.

Pam

[GyroGo]

quote:Originally posted by JohnM

I'd like to hear your definition of competition. Do the competitors have to be so similar as to be virtually identical?

The Segway is an electriped (electric pedestrian) and competitors would have to also be able to function not only as electically powered transportation devices, but also coexist safely and socially with pedestrians on a sidewalk or in a building.

[JohnM]

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door" doesn't hold true if everyone in the world owns a cat.

JohnM
Anything worth doing for 2 hours is 10 times more worthwhile if done for 20 hours.
RUSA #235

[GyroGo]

quote:Originally posted by JohnM
[br}... doesn't hold true if everyone in world owns a cat.

but not everyone does own a cat