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Why DMR is succeeding
Posted: 14 Feb 2017 02:33 PM PST
http://wb8nut.com/blog/files/Februar...ue-entry-id-83
A Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!
As many of you know, I am a big fan of DStar. Sure it has some limitations,
but for versatility, it is the best for ham radio in my opinion, because it
was designed for ham radio. Fusion can make that same claim, but I do not
see the versatility there.
DMR is a commercial standard adapted to amateur radio. It seems to be the
least flexible for amateur radio, but seems to be growing the fastest at
this point. The reason why is what I will try to answer.
DStar was the first digital mode that received wide acceptance in the ham
community. It has a slow start, but after a few years, really began to take
off. It had P25 as some competition, but P25 never really caught on. Radios
were expensive and really appealed to a group in ham radio that felt they
needed to have interoperability with police, fire, EMA and other government
agencies. I know a lot of emergency agency people and they wanted nothing
to do with interoperability with amateur radio. They are the professionals
and we are amateurs and the radio kingdom was not going to be intermixed.
DStar caught on with many of the amateurs who like to be on the leading
edge and willing to pay for the equipment to be on the leading edge.
Because of DStar's design, there were also hams on jumped on the app
development bandwagon and created applications for chat and emergency
communications like D*Chat and D-RATS. DStar also integrated into APRS very
well with gateway software referred to as DPRS.
Because Icom continued to be the only provider of DStar equipment (only
recently did Kenwood create a DStar radio) the prices stayed very high.too
high for too long and this is where I believe Icom made a critical
marketing error.
People began to deploy DMR repeaters. Mostly used Motorola repeaters taken
out of commercial operation. They were pretty reasonable and there were
used DMR radios coming to market as commercial owners upgraded their radios
to newer DMR technology. But then the Chinese entered the market with
digital handhelds for under $200. The leading edge crowd started to buy
into DMR. Then when the Chinese started shipping handhelds like the MD-380
for a little over $100, many of the trailing edge hams and more budget
minded hams (aka cheap) started entering into DMR.
DMR repeaters really started to grow. New networks developed. Hotspots were
developed for DMR (and also Fusion) and more people started to flock to DMR.
When hams were looking to try digital, they had a choice of DStar at over
$400 a radio, or DMR for a little over $100. Heck, now you can buy an
MD-380 for under a $100.
Icom did reduce the price of their radios around $300, but it was too late,
DMR had taken the momentum away from DStar.
While all this was going on, about a little over a year ago, Yaesu entered
with Fusion. Yaesu offered clubs Fusion repeaters for $500. The issue is
that Fusion repeaters can do FM or Digital and many clubs bought them as
cheap replacements for FM repeaters. Our club has three with only only just
recently being enabled for digital in addition to FM. Now Yaesu did price
their radios a bit better than Icom. I think their cheapest mobile Fusion
radio is around $139 now and I bought mine when it first came out for
around $169 at Dayton in 2016.
Yaesu was too late to the table. Fusion use is rather limited. Most people
are still venturing into DMR and to a lesser degree, DStar now.
Here is what is sad. I have said this before, manufacturers should have
backed ONE standard.
Second, manufacturers have the capability to make a radio that does
multiple digital modes. Why not do it people?
Yaesu, you can hang onto Fusion and Icom can hang onto DStar, but the
majority of hams going into digital today are going with DMR because it is
affordable. Icom, you kept the DStar radio prices too high for too long.
Yaesu, you just took too long to enter the digital marketplace. You would
have been better served by backing DStar.
Now the best thing for all the manufacturers to do is to come out with a
DStar/DMR/Fusion capable radio at an affordable price. If not, DStar and
Fusion may become the next Betamax (old folks will understand that
reference).
So in summary, the reason DMR is succeeding right now is the price of the
radios. It will continue to grow for that very reason.