I think Solutions think they can still remain profitable by selling infrastructure alone, they've wanted to exit the subscriber unit business- or it appears that way- for quite a while. I think the APX line is way overpriced for what the product portfolio is, and considering that other vendors now have multi-band radios on the table, they are not the only choice. Heck, Vertex had a dual band analog radio on the market in 1990.
Motoroa's refusal to listen to their customers' about QCII and DMR in the APX line tells me they have the mentality of "you will buy it because we say you will". Their competition will put them out of business if they continue. The biggest reason I will not buy an APX is because of their REFUSAL to introduce DMR.
When EFJ releases a DMR capable VP900, you can bet I will be the first to call them up and order one- and pay whatever it costs. and I know I'm not alone here.
Just a side note, a local municipality in my county had to replace their MTS2000's/Spectras when our county went Astro 25. Unlike everyone else who just went out and bought XTS/XTL's, this one municipality put out a real RFP, and got responses from Motorola, Kenwood and EF Johnson. (This was 2008)
Motorola submitted an XTS2500 to meet the RFP. Kenwood submitted the TK-5400, and EFJ the 51SL. All the radios were field tested on the county system for real world performance on the Astro 25 network. The Kenwood was disqualified because it lacked 700MHz capability, which the county requires for future expansion. So that left the XTS2500 vs. the EFJ 51SL.
the 51SL ran circles around the 2500, especially in weak signal areas. In the tests, it unmuted and remained functional where the XTS displayed "out of range". The audio performance of the 51SL was far superior, and did better in high noise tests. The 51SL was also $1000 less in price, came equipped with DES-OFB encryption, and had a longer warranty. Needless to say, EFJ won the bid. And that city has had nothing but praise for those radios, and saved enough money they bought new MDT's and expanded their 4.9GHz public safety wireless network in the process. Except for some problems with the Otto made RSM's, the 51SL's have held up well now 4 years later with only 1 unit that failed out of over 300 put into service due to defects.
So while I think they are ugly, I have used them and they are in fact, superior performing radios. They even SOUND better on the air than my XTS radios. So while they may be not as "sexy" as anything with batwings on them, they ****ing work, they are affordable, and comparable to anything out of Schaumberg. Don't knock a BIG JOHNSON.
