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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steve C" data-source="post: 1315559" data-attributes="member: 56622">OleafNo flame from me.  I suppose since we have discussed what the term "design" is or is not, maybe there is something to be said for the definition of "innovation".  I agree that there is probably no real technical innovation ith the Promaster/Hawke.  Pretty much a silver mirrored, broad band multicoated binocular with some sort of ED glass.  There's lots of that going around.However, what is new or "innovative" here is the sort of optics we now have in a $500 class binocular.  It may well be that this is just a symptom of the mid-range binoculars getting ever better.  But in point of fact we have a binocular that will hang optically with a Swarovski EL and it only costs $500.What might be eventually "innovative" is how the big 3 or 4 respond to this.  It would seem to follow that Vortex, Pentax, Bushnell and others who pretty well live in the mid price range will react fastest to the Promaster/Hawke.  It seems to me  the initial bite will come from their sales, not at the expense of the alpha class.  But if this takes hold and we see in a few short years truly alpha class optics appearing at the Razor/Meostar price class at say $750, then the bite into the alpha sales may well begin in earnest.Maybe Swarovski is already reacting with their new long delayed binocular.  If it is a truly flat field, then there is perhaps some technical innovation there.  If so Swarovskis' response is "we can still make it better".  Maybe so but what sort of marketing innovation will they need to sell enough $4,000 binoculars?  I'm not buying at the current level, let alone at $4k.  Maybe they will use some of the improvements (whatever they might be) of the Promaster/Hawke and keep producing their current line with some cost reductions?  Probably not at the expense of not selling enough of the $4k binocular to sink that deal.  If the price keeps going down in the competetion and the quality of said competition keeps going up, at some point the alpha class will have to come up with a response.  How much further up in price can they go with the alpha reputation?  Can they survive with the support of however large of a segment of optics buyers will buy based on traditional alpha class quality?  Those last are more or less retorical, and I am not predicting downfall of tha alpha, but one can wonder.</blockquote>

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