Is Glock Limiting Themselves?

[IndyGunworks]

after shot this year you saw alot of manufactures both big and small offering new products, some cool, some not. glock has the gen 4 now, which is really just a glock, not much new innovation...

do you guys think that buy glock not expanding its line and offering others it will loose its US market share w/ guns like the M and P taking its place.... i am a HUGE glock fan, but if i can support smith and wesson who will continue to improve the market and make new products i will.

is it that they just dont care?
or that they make enough just selling to LEO agencies?

whats your opinion?

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

Good question...

And probably one that doesn't have a real answer?

Perhaps Glock is in stagnant mode like many of the US automakers were for years and years... Comfortable in making what they're making, but then competition caught up and surpassed.

From someone on the outside looking in, though, it sure seems that they're limiting themselves.

Of course, we gun-folks also like to pile on those folks who copy others and follow the tide.

-J-

 

[andyrping]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it! If thier sales are going strong, which I'm sure they are, they probably aren't too worried about it at this point...

 

[printcraft]

If it's not broke don't fix it.

EDIT: andyrping is quicka' on the trigga'

Their model is working extremely well.


Kind of reminds me of an issue having to do with motorcycles.
Ducati had a very long and successful run with the 916, classic styling superbike.
A new designer came in and made the new 999 basically more people hated the
new design than liked it. It was a flop.
Tried to get too edgy and the customer base recoiled.

 

[45calibre]

i think they are limiting themselves. the gen 4 smallest grip is the frame just by itself that will prevent an aftermarket flat backstrap.

 

[Joe Williams]

They are coasting. Someday, it may bite them in the butt, but right at this moment, there is no real reason to invest in innovation. They have a product that works as well as most guns out there, they can sell it cheaply to big order customers, and a marketting department that works much better than most others which has succeeded in creating an aura of "perfection."

No reason to change course until someone manages to start taking significant amounts of money from them.

 

[WileECoyotee]

Well , how much did colt really change thier 1911 , I think glock is just comfortable knowing that they have a big following that will buy no matter what they do or don't do in the way of innovation . JMHO

 

[shooter521]

They are coasting. Someday, it may bite them in the butt, but right at this moment, there is no real reason to invest in innovation.

Holy crap, I agree with Joe.

I think that if Glock Inc. in Smyrna was driving the bus for the US market, rather than Glock Ges.m.b.H in Austria, we'd have seen some new and different things over the past 10 years or so.

We in the US have been clamoring for a full-size single stack .45ACP, slimline 9s and .40s, a .22 conversion kit or dedicated pistol, and a carbine for years. Unfortunately, when Glock is backlogged some 20,000 units at any given time with their current products, they don't have any real impetus to bring out completely new ones. Besides which, the US market is still only a part of Glock's overall business (albiet a substantial one), and the US commercial (non-LE) market is just a portion of that.

It may take a sea change in the Glock corporate hierarchy (i.e. Gaston passing away and his son, Robert, taking the reins) before we see some real new and innovative things; much like what happened with Ruger after Bill Sr. passed away.

My

 

[OneBadV8]

Could be Arrogance, could be they don't think anyone has caught up yet.

I think the "If it's not broke, don't fix it" is a good way to let the competition fly right by when they catch up and improve. And being in catch up mode doesn't usually work very well (see Chrysler & GM).

I'm not saying they have to change it a lot, but one cool thing with the M&P is you can easily swap everyting around on the pistol in minutes to make it a Left Hand or Right Hand gun. Or maybe they could look at some of the aftermarket parts and offering pistols with those options as factory. Like the slug plug, full supported Chambers, or a million of the other aftermarket parts.



oh, and everything Shooter said too.

 

[shooter521]

I'm not saying they have to change it a lot, but one cool thing with the M&P is you can easily swap everyting around on the pistol in minutes to make it a Left Hand or Right Hand gun.

Still have that pesky right-hand ejection, though. The magazine catch is swappable on the Gen4 frame. The slide stop is not, probably because Glock doesn't advocate using it for anything but administrative tasks.

 

[OneBadV8]

Still have that pesky right-hand ejection, though.

I'm pretty sure the Factory HKs that are left handed are still like this too. I was under the impression that handgun manufacturers just swapped the levers to the other side and nothing else.

Are there Left-hand ejecting pistols?

 

[Joe Williams]

I'm pretty sure the Factory HKs that are left handed are still like this too. I was under the impression that handgun manufacturers just swapped the levers to the other side and nothing else.

Are there Left-hand ejecting pistols?

I can't think of any current manufacturers producing one. Randall made a true lefty 1911, including left hand ejection, but the company has gone the way of the dodo, and any of their lefties you may find on the used market are not cheap.

 

[IndyGunworks]

i was refering to wanting glock to come out w/ some sort of semi auto SMG... like the vector hk clones, but w/ glocks reputation for quality and reliability... i think w/ glocks size they should be able to keep it under 1500.... and i think it would be right up their ally.

 

[IndyGunworks]

I can't think of any current manufacturers producing one. Randall made a true lefty 1911, including left hand ejection, but the company has gone the way of the dodo, and any of their lefties you may find on the used market are not cheap.

thats very interesting... if they go for mucho money, there may be a market share in there for someone who would want to invest in developing another full lefty 1911.

 

[shooter521]

Are there Left-hand ejecting pistols?

Walther P5:

Randall made a true lefty 1911, including left hand ejection

IIRC, Olympic (Safari Arms) did, as well.

 

[JohnP82]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it! If thier sales are going strong, which I'm sure they are, they probably aren't too worried about it at this point...

my thought exactly. i dont think they have any reason to do anything different and i dont want them to. i am sold on the gen 3 glocks, i dont like the rtf or the gen 4 models and i am glad they are options and not replacements.

 

[OneBadV8]

Learn something new everyday

 

[bw210]

Walther P5:

IIRC, Olympic (Safari Arms) did, as well.

Now that's something you don't see everyday. With all the comments referring to left hand friendly I've seen over the years - I wonder why there aren't more models like this out there. Pretty sure it could have a strong following

 

[Seancass]

I think it's because GLOCK is out of ideas. They had one idea: plastic. And it was a pretty big deal.

What could they possibly introduce that would not be a let down? I'm sure it would be a great gun, although ugly, but the field seems flooded right now. They probably had the polymer revolver in the works, but Ruger and everyone else beat them to it. An SMG seems like a logical move for the LEO market, but there are already a bunch of those and half of them take glock mags anyways.

Why havn't they came out with anything awesome and new lately? Probably because that sort of thing would cost money and this is a bad time to be dumping money into new projects, ideas and R&D.

 

[nawainwright]

Pizza....with bacon if ya like

I like to think of guns like pizza......

If you only have one kind, you have loyal customers who constantly buy.

If you come out with a new "gimmick" pizza every couple of months *cough* pizza butt *cough* then people stop paying attention because whenever they come back for the "new flavor" its been switched.

You've got find a healthy balance...I really like some of the stuff Beretta and it subs have come out with over the last couple years.....they could have just bet on the 92 and done nothing else....but they didn't