Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Logitech Revue now an endangered species

A bit late on this topic, and it's not necessarily good etiquette to speak ill of the dead after they're buried, but The Verge reported a few days ago that Logitech Revue sales dropped significantly in Q4 2011.

"Unsurpisingly, Logitech cites the Revue as part of the reason for its eight percent decline in American sales, noting that Revue sales were down by $15 million this year, partially due to the pre-announced discontinuation, and partly due to the significant price cuts the Revue experienced since it launched."


The term "unsurprisingly" may have as much to do with the fact that Logitech CEO, Guerrino De Luca, had scapegoated the Google TV-powered product (or should we say, partially Google TV-powered product, since Logitech never fully implemented the 1.0 or 2.0 Google TV specs).

It's odd that the Logitech, which had a $100 million revenue loss in Q3 due to EMEA missteps and the Revue, would choose to cut off its own sales for the Q4 holiday shopping season. Something doesn't add up, but it's now looking like the EMEA misstep was the real issue for Logitech and the Revue was the convenient red herring to deflect from the strategic missteps in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The good news for all those who still want a Revue box is that the price has dropped. We'd mentioned the $79.99 refurbished units on Amazon, but there are also new units now for $99.99 from Tiger Direct (while supplies last, of course).