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Garrett Rumors?


johnedoe

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Are there any rumors of Garrett maybe reintroducing the V3i?

I hate to see such a great machine go away.

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On 8/30/2021 at 6:49 PM, johnedoe said:

Are there any rumors of Garrett maybe reintroducing the V3i?

I hate to see such a great machine go away.

I would say that it’s highly, highly unlikely since even Whites was running out of parts to sustain production much longer, for example the screen and processor. It would certainly be awesome if they could find a workaround for this issue, but it sounds pretty hopeless. Centerville Electronics, who’ve taken over repairs of Whites product was told Garrett doesn’t plan on producing any of Whites machines (save for the 24K). They’ve been asked directly about bringing back certain machines. Their reply was that while they appreciate that many of us are loyal to Whites machines, keep our eyes on Garrett’s future releases…. 

I have mixed feelings about this. For one, Whites machines might be more expensive to produce than it might be worth to Garrett. My feeling is, why did they even bother to buy the brand then. Many of us had the impression it was to keep the Whites name alive as a parallel brand. Apparently not though. There’s some Whites product I feel is objectively more capable than their leading products, like the Bullseye TRX and MX Sport/MX7. I don’t feel Im putting Garrett down by saying that, since they now own it. There’s some product that fit somewhere in the middle and might sell well like the TDI. They might feel differently or that it would create issues they’d rather avoid.  

I can say with near certainty that buying up Whites only to put the brand to bed will have the opposite effect on many White’s guys they hoped for, which was to inherit the customer base. I’ll continue to buy whatever I think works best, but I know there are a lot of guys who feel the way I’ve described. It’ll drive them away because it won’t be seen to have been done with “good” intentions, or for what they had initially expected. They’ll feel duped. A careful reading of Whites parting words, and Garrett’s acquisition, does not say what it might’ve sounded like on its face though. 

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I have to say I agree with your assessment.

When the day comes that my V3i finally gives up the ghost I will probably be done with detecting....

Even now I have to say I just don't get out like I used to.... Health and interest have both been in decline.

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11 hours ago, ☠ Cipher said:

I can say with near certainty that buying up Whites only to put the brand to bed will have the opposite effect on many White’s guys they hoped for, which was to inherit the customer base. I’ll continue to buy whatever I think works best, but I know there are a lot of guys who feel the way I’ve described. It’ll drive them away because it won’t be seen to have been done with “good” intentions, or for what they had initially expected. They’ll feel duped. A careful reading of Whites parting words, and Garrett’s acquisition, does not say what it might’ve sounded like on its face though. 

My gut tells me Garrett bought White's for anti-competitive and IP reasons, not the acquisition of White's customer base. I could be wrong, though.

I don't see why Garrett doesn't release more White's product though, either directly (like the 24K) or indirectly (by taking a White's product and using it as a starting point for a new product).

I know that Garrett doesn't want to release a product that competes with something they already have. On its surface, the 24K competes with the AT Gold. But I get the impression that when it comes to gold machines, the AT Pro is NOT at the top of most people's lists of non-PI detectors to purchase.

I think this same concept can apply to beach machines. I've heard that White's had some pretty good PI beach detectors...at least machines that are better than the Sea Hunter Mk 2. So why doesn't Garrett release a White's beach machine? It shouldn't directly compete with the Sea Hunter, since that can be used for diving...and the Sea Hunter it's not the best or most recommended PI beach machine out there from the research I've done on it. And it shouldn't compete directly with the Apex, since that's more of an all-around treasure hunting machine and is not designed to get very wet very often. But perhaps Garrett's accountants crunched the numbers and decided that it would cannibalize too many of their potential Apex and Sea Hunter sales?

Or maybe Garrett is doing all of the above, but they're not working as fast as I and some of us might wish they would.

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Garrett also has all of White's patents which has future ideas and designs. This could put it ahead of what White's detectors were. So why go to the past when you can go to the future. I'm not saying White's detectors from the past are not great detectors. Just saying Garrett has the the opportunity make them better. As we all know engineering can take a very long, long time. 

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1 hour ago, mh9162013 said:

I know that Garrett doesn't want to release a product that competes with something they already have. On its surface, the 24K competes with the AT Gold. But I get the impression that when it comes to gold machines, the AT Pro is NOT at the top of most people's lists of non-PI detectors to purchase.

The only reason anyone would think (erroneously) that the 24K and AT Gold are competitive as gold prospecting detectors is because they have Gold in their name. The same goes for the 19 kHz Gold Bug Pro. Compared to the Garrett Goldmaster 24k, the AT Gold is not competitive. It is a perfectly good multi use detector but 18kHz to 48kHz just to name one feature puts the Goldmaster 24K on another planet. Garrett knew exactly what they were doing when they filled that huge hole in their detector lineup by releasing their version of the 24K as soon as they could.

Whether they will release any other Whites detectors "as is"............I don't know.

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Might be cool to use the Vx3 technology and incorporate it in their Multi Flex. Wouldn't mind seening an AT series with response on individual frequencies as the Vx had.

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,  All valid points to ponder! It's anyone's guess! But at least they appear to be on the right track with their last two releases!

   IMO, I would think that to stay in the running, Garrett needs to keep moving forward to increased, and stable profits with their hobby sector! Using their rights to the Whites patents to build up what they already are progressing with!

    As much as authentic "reboots" of past White's units may be cool and functional, they would have a limited market! And I don't think that will help them keep pace with ML, or NoMak, to name a few! And when I say keep pace, I don't necessarily mean profit margins, or percentage of market share! More so just staying current with the latest technology, and ever changing marketing trends, and not following dead end roads, like past competitors!!👍👍

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Yes Kac, I'm looking forward to Garret's mf waterproof detector. It could be great. Especially if they can keep it light like the Apex.

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