Betamax vs VHS???
Any updates on the contest, is Ion keeping up with the PII promise? I keep hearing about people buying MiSeqs/HiSeqs here in Sweden but I have yet to see a IonProton? It feels as if Ion needs the PII to finally be competitive (HiSeq 1500 beats the PI, and MiSeq beats the PGM, Ion still needs more handson, much bigger footprint, no real answer to Nextera, no practical PE does this work as easy as in the MiSeq?).
Is Ion going to be to little too late? It could be a problem if Illumina grabs the whole market before Ion gets a chance to develop the PII and PIII distribution lines/customer base. Once you have bought a MiSeq or a HiSeq it becomes very difficult to through it away and by a Proton even if it has 10x more coverage. If Illumina manages to sell, 100k-1M MiSeqs they might have a mass-production leverage that will be difficult to compete even if the Ion has a better product. Its not only about having the best product, its about having a good distribution, support, customer base, marketing and sales.
Also I have trouble understanding Ion, why are they trying to compete with Illumina's HiSeq, that monster is soon to be obsolete "mainframe". You should be building $10k self contained push-go sequencers for hospitals/farmacies/small labs??? I see Core sequencing labs are bound to disappear in the next 5 years... Illumina is already making more money out of MiSeqs than with HiSeqs, take the hint.
We need Ion to keep up the pressure in Illumina, otherwise she will turn into another lazy monopoly like Intel, unlikely to make any real advances because they have no real competition. My advice to Ion: you will never match Illumina at this pace, sell the PGM at cost, and make money on the consumables (printers/ink).... Or what about leasing the instruments? Ion you need to get out there FAST before Illumina get their hands in the whole market!!
Note: Yes I bought a single MiSeq when I really wanted to buy an Ion (I'm a disgrunted wanna be Ion customer). We would have bought the Ion if it was cheaper than the MiSeq, but it had no Nextera, we had to buy the Covaris and the OneTouch, much higher hands-on prep time and a huge footprint. Today if they offer a Proton at the same price as a MiSeq we would have to say no because we already have a MiSeq, we already made the investment... This is our own particular experience, but I know we probably not a rare case. I hope that Ion's manager has a plan, down here in the ground their future seems quite dim.
Any updates on the contest, is Ion keeping up with the PII promise? I keep hearing about people buying MiSeqs/HiSeqs here in Sweden but I have yet to see a IonProton? It feels as if Ion needs the PII to finally be competitive (HiSeq 1500 beats the PI, and MiSeq beats the PGM, Ion still needs more handson, much bigger footprint, no real answer to Nextera, no practical PE does this work as easy as in the MiSeq?).
Is Ion going to be to little too late? It could be a problem if Illumina grabs the whole market before Ion gets a chance to develop the PII and PIII distribution lines/customer base. Once you have bought a MiSeq or a HiSeq it becomes very difficult to through it away and by a Proton even if it has 10x more coverage. If Illumina manages to sell, 100k-1M MiSeqs they might have a mass-production leverage that will be difficult to compete even if the Ion has a better product. Its not only about having the best product, its about having a good distribution, support, customer base, marketing and sales.
Also I have trouble understanding Ion, why are they trying to compete with Illumina's HiSeq, that monster is soon to be obsolete "mainframe". You should be building $10k self contained push-go sequencers for hospitals/farmacies/small labs??? I see Core sequencing labs are bound to disappear in the next 5 years... Illumina is already making more money out of MiSeqs than with HiSeqs, take the hint.
We need Ion to keep up the pressure in Illumina, otherwise she will turn into another lazy monopoly like Intel, unlikely to make any real advances because they have no real competition. My advice to Ion: you will never match Illumina at this pace, sell the PGM at cost, and make money on the consumables (printers/ink).... Or what about leasing the instruments? Ion you need to get out there FAST before Illumina get their hands in the whole market!!
Note: Yes I bought a single MiSeq when I really wanted to buy an Ion (I'm a disgrunted wanna be Ion customer). We would have bought the Ion if it was cheaper than the MiSeq, but it had no Nextera, we had to buy the Covaris and the OneTouch, much higher hands-on prep time and a huge footprint. Today if they offer a Proton at the same price as a MiSeq we would have to say no because we already have a MiSeq, we already made the investment... This is our own particular experience, but I know we probably not a rare case. I hope that Ion's manager has a plan, down here in the ground their future seems quite dim.
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