It cost many times more than even high end bicycles, without being faster, without being able to be used on streets, without having as much cargo capacity, and while depriving you of exercise.
It cost many times more than a scooter, while being slower, having far less range, less cargo capacity, and not being usable on streets.
What you are saying highlights the reason it failed, while missing the point of the device.
It was not for the bicycle use case. It was not meant to be faster or to be used on the streets. You can carry a couple of modest panniers worth of cargo, and touring-bike loads would again be besides the point. It was meant to deprive you of exercise.
The Segway was meant to create a "new" use case and market segment in the same way that the iPhone and iPad did. (You can find plenty of objections analogous to the ones you list for the iPhone and iPad.) In that kind of context, dorky is going to kill you.
at $3k or so it's just a toy.
What Steve Jobs understood was that it's okay to start out as a toy when creating a new market segment. However, you have to be cool enough while being cheap enough. The Segway had a too high a price point and a too low of a cool factor.
It cost many times more than a scooter, while being slower, having far less range, less cargo capacity, and not being usable on streets.
What you are saying highlights the reason it failed, while missing the point of the device.
It was not for the bicycle use case. It was not meant to be faster or to be used on the streets. You can carry a couple of modest panniers worth of cargo, and touring-bike loads would again be besides the point. It was meant to deprive you of exercise.
The Segway was meant to create a "new" use case and market segment in the same way that the iPhone and iPad did. (You can find plenty of objections analogous to the ones you list for the iPhone and iPad.) In that kind of context, dorky is going to kill you.
at $3k or so it's just a toy.
What Steve Jobs understood was that it's okay to start out as a toy when creating a new market segment. However, you have to be cool enough while being cheap enough. The Segway had a too high a price point and a too low of a cool factor.