Devialet partner with Sky!

[Jean-Marie]

Yes, I think Allen is right.  With respect to Hifi_swlon's post above, I do fully understand the sentiment in what is said, although personally I do have a slightly different take on what is happening here.  For a start, comparisons to Sony and Samsung should not tell us much about what Devialet are actually trying, I think Sony is worth something like $40 Billion and Samsung something like $250 Billion.  So in this company, Devialet are indeed nothing.  Recently we have seen Samsung gobbling up Harmen Kordon, JBL, Arcam etc. like me buying a vending machine coffee with some loose change that I found in my pocket.  So my take is that this is not a case of the Devialet brand not being strong as perhaps Devialet thought it was, I would suspect that Devialet are fully aware that in the overall scheme of things, they are tiny and pretty much unknown.  OK, there is a LOT of bluster from the marketing department, but I am sure that Devialet has some very smart and sober minds in their ranks that know only too well that they are not Apple or Sony, a few numbers on a simple spreadsheet would make this clear to anyone.  Outside of the rarefied would of audiophiles and perhaps a few puzzled commuters wondering past a Devialet 'pop up shop' at London St Pancras station or wherever, nobody in the real world has the remotest idea who Devialet are.

Last night I was watching a documentary on TV, as I fast forwarded through the adverts, I noticed that there was a 'Sky Q' advert.  I have seen the same advert during sports shows and other programs.  I am sure it will not be long before the offer of this 'Sky Devialet' box will appear in similar adverts.  It is worth considering that Sky has 12 million subscribers in the UK alone and their programming appears on many other platforms, that is a LOT of market penetration. (Blame Rupert Murdoch) In a years time, I would say a fair proportion of the UK, and much of Europe, will at least have heard the Devialet name.

So I think this little box is quite important to Devialet.  For example, if it gets a reputation for being poor quality, unstable or whatever, then a lot of people will only know Devialet for this.  If it sounds superb and works as it should, then all is good.  So the strategy has much risk.  Hifi_swlon mentions the Sky boxes made by Amstrad a few years back, and for those that do not know, I can confirm from personal experience that these were desperately poor things and incredibly unreliable.  Although these were actually manufactured by Amstrad and made up of off the shelf parts, hard drives, electronics, scart sockets etc. to Sky's specification.  The only proprietary tech in those things was Sky's programming guide software, which was at the time pretty much state of the art but, has nothing to do with Amstrad.  So I see the Sky Devialet box as being very different to this, as it will surely contain much Devialet technology, ADH, SAM, ICM and so on.  

Irrespective of how this one turns out, this time next year an order of magnitude more people will be aware of Devialet relative to the 0.1% of the population that know them now.  I will try to end on a positive note.  Lets assume Devialet get this right and the little Sky Devialet box sounds excellent and works as it should, then this really could be the start of many good things for Devialet.  Consider what Devialet have publically stated, they are interested in moving into TV and in car entertainment, I do not think they are deluded about the Devialet brand, this is a start for what is in reality a relatively small company.  Personally, I am looking forward to my first ADH powered car stereo, that would be nice too!   Will I have to buy a Renault to get one?   

I pretty much agree with this analysis. 

I see Devialet strategy, pure guesswork from my side based on their public statements, to have two legs:
1) Highest quality products, with primary requirement during the inception being driven by design and absolute sound quality (with a goal of nearing objective perfection as much as achievable given technology). I see those products being sold and marketed under the Devialet brand. The Phantom and the Expert fall in that category. 

2)Embedded technology building on the expertise gained from products of category 1 but packaged in a way that it can be put in cars, TVs, phones, computers etc.
To be successful in 2, they absolutely need to keep up with innovating on 1, make it better etc. 

If I'm taking a car analogy, they are like an engine manufacturer, they sell engines to car makers, and this is their volume market, but to be able to develop the best competitive engines, they also have smaller volume super cars brand. 
One can't really live without the other: embedded volume provides the money allowing the development of top of the line, while top of the line provides the quality and fame needed for embedded volume. 

Jean-Marie