Minelab Survey

[Hardtimehermit]

I have bought the Equinox and the Vanquish in the last 3 months and filled out warranty info, plus had to send back my first nox because of a bad switch. They took good care of me, but my point is i know they have my email, that's cool though i still like 'em. 👍

[Steve Herschbach]

I actually did get an email from Minelab recently - a new survey. I guess they found my email address finally. 

The survey asked about perceptions about Minelab and the competition. What I thought extremely interesting was Minelabs idea of who the competition is. Garrett, Nokta/Makro, and XP. No mention of White's of course. But also no mention of First Texas (Bounty Hunter, Fisher, Teknetics).

Minelab has specifically targeted both the Garrett AT and XP Deus with Equinox. Vanquish specifically targeted the Ace. Minelab looks at market leaders, and then goes after their market share. Nokta/Makro they obviously want to keep an eye on due to machines like the Simplex+. An aggressive up and comer, not unlike Minelab in its early days.

If you were Minelab, what is there First Texas makes that you would would want to go after? I can't think of anything, so it's not surprising Minelab did not bother even asking about them.

[Steve Herschbach]

The Impulse beach detector is a niche product (PI) in a niche market (beach hunters). And guess who really dominates that market. Minelab multifrequency models, not any PI detectors. The Impulse AQ is not revolutionary anyway, just another PI. A very nice one, but nothing earth shaking. The Impulse Gold model? The best they can hope for is to match already existing Minelab models. Minelab has seen what FT is planning there for a couple years, and anyone that thinks Minelab will let some PI gold market share go without responding is just dreaming. Whatever FT does there with their gold PI is too little, too late.

There is a ton of money in pinpointers. Most sell for more than some metal detectors! But you have to move numbers, and I doubt the F-Pulse or Tek version have made a serious dent in the market. That is one area where I'd say Minelab has scored a fail so far. I never even bothered to try their pinpointer, that's how compelling it is.

[mn90403]

I have said for years, the Minelab pointers are their worst product by far.  I own one and I don't use it.  It was weak and failed me so ...

[mn90403]

I've gotten another survey since this one that deal more with hardware.  They were asking about other detector brands I knew about and used.

Steve is right.  They are in the game and know the competition.