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DCRainmaker on Powerpod Lite

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 3:51 pm
by texmurphy
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2018/06/tec ... eview.html
June 22, 2018 by DC Rainmaker wrote: Tech Tidbits Friday: PowerPod’s new $199 model
This past weekend the folks behind the PowerPod announced a new variant, the PowerPod Lite. This new model drops the price down to $199 (from $299+) and does away with some of the higher-end features (software focused). You still get total power transmitted via ANT+, but you only can store a single bike and you can’t use their desktop software to download full files for more advanced analytics afterwards.

As part of this, PowerPod has split things out into five different SKU’s, which, I’ll talk about in a second. Here’s the lineup as it stands now according to a chart on their website:
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For the vast majority of people, the PowerPod Lite will fit the bill perfectly. When I look at how I’ve used the PowerPod in the past with testing and such, it’s totally within the confines of the PowerPod Lite features. And I suspect that’s true for 98% of readers as well. I think the shift to a $199 option is a great move, especially as WatTeam and 4iiii have gotten to the point in pricing that you’d have to significantly consider them over a PowerPod (when it was priced at $299-$399).

Certainly there are some caveats to be aware of with a PowerPod, but I find that most folks that knock it…haven’t actually tried it anytime recently. It’s not necessarily the product I’d personally use myself, but I think it does work for a lot of people.

One thing I’d say is that I think the above has too many SKU’s. I’d shorten it to merely three SKU’s: PowerPod Lite at $199, PowerPod ANT+/BLE at $299, and AeroPod at $499. I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone caring about PowerStroke anywhere within the 1,002 comments left on my PowerPod review. If folks want it, it should be an easy up-sell. Speaking of which, as noted above by the chart, most of these things you can actually buy after the fact as software updates. Thus having multiple SKU’s increases complexity. Again, just my two cents.

In any case, great to see this price movement here. This is a price point that’s done really well for them at Black Friday and other major annual sales, so it makes sense to adopt it more permanently.