Akai vs. M4L conspiracy theory

[Jeff Brown]

I have no evidence to make the following accusation, so I'm not making it. But here's a thought:

Max for Live + Monome + thousands of independent developers across the globe = ability to do lots more stuff than the team behind the APC 40 could ever dream. So they might have made Ableton agree to the condition that they only release Max for Live after enough time has passed since the APC's release for Akai to secure itself a good market share of customers who won't want to switch platforms.

Of course, there are only a thousand or so mnoomes in the world (I'm guessing -- anyone know the figure?) but Akai could have reason to be equally worried about competition from cheaper, more mass-produced stuff like the Korg PadKontrol. Yes, it's not built with Ableton in mind, but it's cheap, and clever programming can make up for a world of missing hardware.

[Android Bishop]

I'm pretty certain that Max4Live hasn't even passed beta testing stages yet and is nowhere near ready to be released. I sincerely doubt its some kind of conspiracy.

[john doe by choice]

If there is any "conspiracy", I imagine it's probably like this:

Akai knows:

that a lot of its user base for its MPD series are Live users

that a fair amount of Live users are looking at Monomes with the announcement of M4L

that the complaints about support and updates for their MPD series are absolutely valid

that putting Abletons name on a controller will help it sell

that working with Ableton to make this controller will greatly improve Akai's reputation with the Ableton user base

Ableton knows:

a great deal of Monome users use Live as well

a great deal of MIDI controllers are made with Live in mind

Ableton hasn't been making any real money from the controller market

a controller built with them is going to work better with their software than other controllers (probably)


and all of those are just easy observations that could very well be substantiation for the business moves we are seeing right now between Ableton and companies like Akai and Cycling 74. It's simple business, really - not only will the customers be more likely to purchase the APC and M4L because of the direct association with Live, but all companies involved will profit greatly from the partnership, and see less money going to outside companies for solutions they could be coming up with themselves.

Simple business, no conspiracy.

[itook4lefts]

conspiracy? against who? who's losing out? i don't get it.

[starving student]

I don't even understand why ableton just won't make their own series of Live controllers i'm talkin like 4 of them that appeal to different types of users, they would clean up and the controllers would undoubtedly be extremely versatile and on the level Live i'm sure. whomever was in on that meeting and said no I don't think our own set of controllers is the way to go should be fired.

[porfiry]

Running a software company out of some office in Germany with a small number of employees quietly sitting at computers all day is a lot different than running a manufacturing company.

[moodles]

True, but ol' Monolake sure knows a lil' somethin' about making cool controllers.

[ewistrand]

I'm pretty certain that Max4Live hasn't even passed beta testing stages yet and is nowhere near ready to be released. I sincerely doubt its some kind of conspiracy.

This.

The Cycling '74 guys I talked to at NAMM were shooting for a September release if things went well.

ew

[smutek]

dick cheney

[timothyallan]

[3dot...]

wtf ?!

[nuperspective]

wtf ?!

dont you see! dont you see?

its manbearpig - half man, half bear, half pig!!!

[3dot...]

wtf ?!

dont you see! dont you see?

its manbearpig - half man, half bear, half pig!!!

jokes aside...I've actually seen ManBearPig in my neighbourhood one night...

[hoffman2k]

You sure it wasn't scuzzlebutt with Patrick Duffy as a leg?

[nuperspective]

I don't even understand why ableton just won't make their own series of Live controllers i'm talkin like 4 of them that appeal to different types of users, they would clean up and the controllers would undoubtedly be extremely versatile and on the level Live i'm sure. whomever was in on that meeting and said no I don't think our own set of controllers is the way to go should be fired.

because they have no experience of designing hardware for mass production. or the contacts to supply the parts cheap enough.

the meeting agenda is as follows..

9.00am - akai ask henke what features the controller should have.
9.30am - home time.