May 29, 2006

IT'S A SCOOTER, FELLAS:

Segway Sets Course For Stock Market
Scooter's Catch On With Cops, But Not Consumers (AP, 5/28/06)

Although the electric, self-balancing Segway scooter never quite caught on with commuters the way its backers had predicted five years ago, the gizmo has found a growing market among law-enforcement agencies, with more than 100 departments around the world now signed on as customers and many others testing the device.

The niche market, coupled with a burst of interest from Europeans struggling with gas prices much higher than in the U.S., have breathed new life into the Segway.

And Segway Inc. President and Chief Executive James Norrod, hoping to parlay the growth into a payday for the original investors in the scooter, has made grooming the company for an initial public offering in the next few years a top priority. [...]

[T]he device is still expensive even five years later, retailing for between about $4,000 and $5,700, depending on the model and accessories package.


The top priority ought to be cutting the price in half.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 29, 2006 6:51 PM
Comments

A top priority should be using the technology to make something that people want to ride in. An open air scooter with no storage space other than a back pack is useless for most of the vehicle purchasing public. If they didn't keep the silly thing such a mystery and opened it up for some of our geniuses to figure out what it's good for, it would have made them a gazillion by now.

Posted by: erp at May 29, 2006 7:15 PM

Yeah, now it's only a mere "open air scooter with no storage space", but I remember when it was a world-changing, cold-fusion-powered, personal anti-gravity device.

Posted by: H.D. Miller at May 29, 2006 8:30 PM

The high price is the only thing it has going for it. The only people buying them now are status whore geeks, if everyone could have one they'd just move on to something else.

Posted by: joe shropshire at May 29, 2006 8:57 PM

No son of mine is ever gonna ride one of those things.

Posted by: Pepys at May 29, 2006 8:58 PM

The cops, docents and Disney staffers who I've seen on them think they're cool.

Posted by: oj at May 29, 2006 9:01 PM

If it were one of those Scooters programmed to attack Valerie Plame, I'd seriously consider it.

Posted by: David Cohen at May 29, 2006 11:27 PM

I come from a long line of Irish cops and each and every one would rather catch a beating than ride one of those in public.

I can just imagine them driving one of those scooters through Hell's Kitchen trying to look tough.

Good Lord.

Posted by: Pepys at May 30, 2006 12:08 AM

Gotta have a horse to look tough.

Posted by: oj at May 30, 2006 12:34 AM

They're trying to kick the horses out of their NYPD stable over on the Hudson River right now. They're looking at a new site 10 blocks north, but I suppose if that falls through, storing a stable full of Segways would take up a lot less space.

Posted by: John at May 30, 2006 9:32 AM

Pepys, you haven't been back to Hell's Kitchen recently I'd guess.

Posted by: erp at May 30, 2006 11:23 AM

They think their product placement in the Omen remake, is a good idea?

Posted by: narciso79 at May 30, 2006 12:57 PM

Erp: I've heard they renamed it "Clinton". HAHAHAHA!!!

Posted by: Pepys at May 30, 2006 3:46 PM
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