Market for phase in the UK

[Ham]

Well im sitting here wondering on what to sqaunder my next big lump of cash. Of all the options, most ive spoken too have said get my act together and get eveything i need to start building and selling phase coolers.

This leads me too thinking, how many people would actual be interested in extreme cooling soloutions? Mainly Single Stages and possibly chillers. Beyond the boarders of forums members here, theres a lot of enthuiasts out there. But how many would want one?

Any input welcome:wavey:

 

[FragTek]

U know u can put Jimbo down for one

 

[JN]

I'd say that there's a fairly big market for it mate. However, you'll need to get a quick turnaround on the builds and also do them at a reasonable price.

I know of at least one other UK company that are starting production of their own units for around the £350 price range and you'd also need to make sure that the OCZ unit doesn't stamp you out just as you're getting established.

 

[NoL]

Its very hard to build. Your parts must be fresh and brand new, your warranty must be perfect, and one bad build will put you in the toilet. Its still worth trying though. Once I get a bit more cash I'm going to build Project kempez, and Ive had to dally so long on that due to the costs.

 

[FarFarAway]

Ah ye forgot about that

Anyhoo I think it's worth it Ham, if you make them pro then you'll have a lot of interest

 

[specialtech]

Just my 2c worth

From and industry point of view we don't often get asked for phase, now this may be because we don't advertise any but all in all we talk to a lot of people who know their watercooling and a lot seem to be a bit stand offish on phase due to the complexity. Now this may be down to knowledge or the lack of but it still remains we don't really get any requests for phase.

The chiller side is also not a fast turnover rate for us either, they do turn over but not on any frequet rate.

Watercooling has now pretty much become the norm, no longer is it just in the realm of the technical wizards out there but more and more 'joe public' is getting in to watercooling, now if this trend is to follow then surely over the next 12 - 24 months phase should start to pick up as it too becomes more in the realm of 'joe public'. If this will happen or not is still to be seen but with the likes of OCZ hinting they are going down this route, it may be brought more to the publics eye.

As someone mentioned before the important factors would be, availablility of stock, a good solid support system, warranty and last but not least, pleasing to the eye, trust me this is important especially with windowed cases.

I think the main reason why we don't get many enquires towards phase is lack of knowledge, yes I know on a forum like this the majority would know at least something about phase but in a retailers eye this will probably equate to a very very small percentage of it's customer base (unless a specialist) therefore they'd have to consider if it's worth holding stock of a slow turn over product that may either sit in stock and go out of date or not sell at all.

Plus retailers may lack knowledge, I know a little about phase but in all honesty not a huge amount and I would be uncomfortable if someone, say as knowledgeable as Ham rang up and started asking questions on phase cooling. If ST were to consider going down the phase route I'd want at least 2 or 3 of us to sit down and learn as much as we could before taking on stock.

I know this may sound like doom and gloom but it's things to consider, I'm not saying as a retailer we wouldn't be interested but I have highlighted some issues that may relate to us and other retailers out there.

 

[BUFF]

Plus retailers may lack knowledge, I know a little about phase but in all honesty not a huge amount and I would be uncomfortable if someone, say as knowledgeable as Ham rang up and started asking questions on phase cooling. If ST were to consider going down the phase route I'd want at least 2 or 3 of us to sit down and learn as much as we could before taking on stock.

I don't know if this would work for you but a slightly analogous situation:

I used to sell shower pumps for a major manufacturer & you would be amazed about how many plumbers etc. don't (or certainly didn't used to) fully understand all the ins & outs of designing a pumped shower system & used to shy away.

What really helped us grow & gave us an USP over our competitors was when we instituted a free design service. We drew up a form that they filled in with the info that we needed, faxed it to us & we gave them a recommend (using one of our pumps obviously ).

 

[Mr. Smith]

I'd say the market is small - it is a niche product that is expensive and most users perceive phase to be a daunting and potentially dangerous experience (bad insulation = dead hardware, quite complex to install/setup).

You need to gain a reputation which will take time, to build up a customer base, you also need to be prepared for your money to be tied up in assests until you start turning a profit - which might not ever happen.

You are going to be competing in a market that is already dominated by bigger players, taking a slice of a small pie won't be easy.

Not easy but possible.

Water is becoming more popular but far from 'normal'. Normal is getting a pc and leaving the stock HSF on! Water cooling is 'normal' amongst enthusiasts, but you need to maintain a perspective. On sites such as this we are all enthusiasts that are exposed to people who make what we do look tame, air cooling is tame compared to water, water to tec, tec to phase, pahse to ln2... Attempting to put a figure on this, it would be fair to say approx 90% of the market use air to cool. We (enthusiasts) are a sub division of that 10% and of that a percentage of us water cool (not everyone on here uses water - maybe do a poll 'what cooling do you use' air, water, tec, phase etc to get some figures of the market, it may be worth adding what country you are in and if you would be prepared to use more extreme cooling at what cost. Perhaps join xs and post something similar. The more of the market you can assess the more realistic your expectations will be.) a smaller percentage are prepared to go further and use tec/phase...

I admire the fact you want to do this, I've thrown in my opinions for what they are worth.

My advice (hope you don't mind, I'm certainly not claiming to be an expert here, just offering up some ideas) would be to carry out market research and then scruitinise those results, if 10 people say they are prepared to do phase, I imagine only 3 would - converting potential sales into actual sales is not easy.

Best of British my man!

Buff makes a good point, you need that Unique Selling Point...

 

[FarFarAway]

I would say 99.9% of the market use air to cool. We're very much in the monority

 

[specialtech]

I would say 99.9% of the market use air to cool. We're very much in the monority

My apologies maybe I should have been a little clearer.

Over recent months and from our industry point of view our customer base is getting wider, once we only had the 0.01% calling us re- watercooling, modding, upgrading etc but in recent months this 0.01% has grown vastly, no longer is it the realm of the uber niche market but more and more 'average' home users are showing an interest. Our current stats support this, watercooling is outselling air cooling 3 to 1.

Obviously we know most are still happy with the 'beige box' in the corner and leaving it well alone.

Still on the flip side Ham we at ST prefer to deal with specialists over others, you get a far better level of support and knowledge from them over some of the 'bigger' players out there.......

 

[Ham]

Cheers for the comments guys.

Im thinking i may just build enough to cover some of the investments ive made. The prices of the main parts of the units are quite high so id never actualy break even, but at least make some back.

TBH i would have thought phase's uniqe selling point would be kinda intergrated into the product. The sub-zeroness?

Still on the flip side Ham we at ST prefer to deal with specialists over others, you get a far better level of support and knowledge from them over some of the 'bigger' players out there.......

*coughTTcough*

 

[AydST]

you have my MSN

 

[BUFF]

TBH i would have thought phase's uniqe selling point would be kinda intergrated into the product. The sub-zeroness?

but you won't be the only phase supplier ( as we weren't of shower pumps) & phase isn't the only way to get sub-zero ...

 

[andy[tek]]

we stock the vapochill product directly from Asetek in the tower xe2 unit and the vapochill lightspeed

 

[Pyr0]

i'd love to get a custom phase unit *drools*

 

[Marcvs]

yah if you can make them quiet enough an cheap enough definately they would sell the problem is the time taken to make one with all the certification stuff as well