I'm Back

[trumb1mj]

What are the other factors? A year since the last bug fix is completely unacceptable in my industry—why is it fine in golf tech?

[penrose]

why today? Did you read something somewhere? Not that I am interested in it but I am interested in competition.

[Dan McWhirter]

I was praying the TruGolf eConnect would show up available today. Sad.

[Morini]

Totally agree. Without the ST in the market, I would have been without the use of accurate launch monitor device. It would have cost me untold amounts in gas, range balls and inconvenience to replicate the benefits. In fact, I couldn't replicate it since hitting at the range involves subpar range balls and no data to analyze.

In terms of the underlying technology, it is actually quite simple as far as i understand. Hobby photographers have been using inexpensive DIY photo triggered flash technology to capture bullets etc mid flight for years. Bullets are a lot harder to photograph in that they are much faster than a golf ball, but easier in that they travel at known velocities and trajectories. If I spent $500 and a few hundred hours tinkering I could probably manage to build something that captures two photos of the ball. I would not have the skill to process the images to determine the ball data, nor developing a ball flight model. As an overall package Skytrak is very impressive, and a total game changer.

[trhuke]

At its price point the SkyTrak is a fookin' miracle in my opinion. I can't achieve super high ball speeds, (because I"m old and short) which seems to be a problem for some, but that aside mine has been a godsend. I'm amazed at how well it does work. Seriously, .....amazed. There is a whole lot of very slick tech going on in these things and pretty flawlessly.

So YAY! SkyTrak! Any additions or corrections in the future will of course be appreciated but keep up the good work.!

[simmb]

I think we all got a bit spoilt last year, Skytrak released a lot of updates in the past few years, I think it was 7 in 2018 alone. They could have held back releases and trickle fed them to us throughout 2019 to keep people happy but they didn't and they gave us a lot in a short space of time. I say let them just do what they have to do, something will come eventually.

[Skippy]

I have to say that I love my SkyTrak. I have had little to no issues with mine so far. From what I have seen it’s just as accurate as trackman and I have hit on both.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Rapsodo develops our hardware, they have no impact on our software delivery schedule. And we have plenty of great devs. Sometimes it's just not as easy as it seems - GDPR and security was a huge bridge to cross, but there are other factors at play.

[trumb1mj]

Seth made no mention of that as a reason for the delay. This makes more sense than a years worth of GDPR updates. They need to hire more devs or open up the api.

[Fhacker]

IMO Rapsodo was devoting most resources to their new radar launch monitor which limited anything new with sky track. Now they are past that hopefully updates will follow

[trumb1mj]

So I guess you're in the camp of "SkyTrak's release cycle is fine by me because everyone else sucks more". That's fine but I think it's also ok to expect more.

[Pawpaw]

I dont know how many have sold but "quote" Sales are stronger than ever

[penrose]

For my 100 dollars I would expect major releases of the software twice year. I do not believe we had anything yet this year. I think a grahpics update was mentioned but I do not see a difference....still graphics from 2010.

[Morini]

Impossible to know what really is going on. I am fairly sure that they are working hard at releasing something, and that the delay is not intentional.

The question then becomes whether they are prioritizing updates, and are giving it the resources they should. If not, is this a good or bad business decision (ethics aside).

I am going to take a wild guess that 60,000 ST have been sold. (I could be off by multiples in either direction). That brings in $6,000,000 a year in game improvement revenue (assuming that all users choose to pay for it).

In commercial systems, such arrangements are common. I have heard top coaches call Trackman bandits, as the annual fees are HUGE. The commercial market grudgingly accepts it. And Trackman has delivered. The same top coaches rave about Trackman's new features.

ST on the other hand have mostly consumer owners, and I am sure most are NOT happy paying the annual fee. BUT I am sure it is part of the greater pricing structure. Without the fee, the selling price would have been higher.

Having said that, I am sure that a fair amount of Skytrak units are sold via word of mouth. Having satisfied customers helps in that regard. Having Seth post regularly was very reassuring, and I am sure that at least some based their buying decision on that. I believe that more transparency would help. People can be patient if they feel like they are in the loop. Some brief regular updates would do wonders. Address the high ball speed fixes. What did testing show, and what can we expect in terms of improvement. My son will be moving into the high ball speed range over the next year, and if I was buying now, in absence of new information, I would hold off or go GC2.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Hey all, still here. I had the family on vacation the last 2 weeks and just getting back to reality. Unfortunately I still don't have answers on a release date. All I can do is try to support you guys the best I can on here and work behind the scenes to make sure that things are ready to go whenever I get the green light.