I think the real problem for companies like OPPO is the difference between average and high end products has become smaller and smaller in recent years squeasing them into a tiny niche of people who actually care about the tiny marginal improvements at the top of the market. We live in a time when we are ridiculously spoiled by the price and quality of technology but sadly the mass market has settled for ok rather than outstanding hence low bitrate MP3's etc
I think that the mass market has always settled for "good enough" rather than great. The evidence is everywhere, and not just in the tech sector. It's all over the place. Food, beverage, appliances, clothing, travel.
You're right that we are spoiled by the lower real-terms costs of consumer electronics and by the average performance levels they achieve. At the same time though I also see a trend of accelerating product turnover; people would rather spend a big chunk on the promise of what a new device can deliver rather than extend the life and improve the performance of what they already own. It still amazes me how resistant folk are to the idea of buying and using a test disc to set up their own system. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot.
This is a big problem within the AV industry in general. None of the high street retailers are leading on quality. It's all about price. That seems to be the only story they have to tell.
Magazines and online reviews show graphs that depict before and after results from calibration, yet the retailers do little more than unbox a TV, stick it on the shelf and put it in
store demo mode. Where's the wow factor? Where's the proof that the retailer knows what they're doing? The retail sector moans about competition from the web, but does nothing to make use of the advantages afforded by a physical presence. Consequently the average customer never sees a TV picture at its best. All they see is the over-contrasty, over-colourful and over-sharpened version presented by the "who can shout loudest" preset. That then becomes the limiting factor, so the difference between a £100 BD player and a £300/£500/£1100 one can't be seen.
It's not like there's no other examples of industries doing it right. Can you imagine the car industry selling in the same way? It's almost as if the AV industry has a death wish.
The sad thing is that Oppo repositioned their pricing significantly. The last generation Oppo BD players were over £1,000, but the new 4K Oppo was almost half the price at £650. That's bloody good value for what the player can do.
