February 25 2011 is less than 60 days away... What about the arrows?

[mujjuman]

In 53 days from the time of this post, Mike V's patent on his dual-antennae system for the arrows will expire. As a proud V1 owner, I can only imagine the V1 becoming a product that becomes a collectors item once other companies can pick up the arrows concept.

Any thoughts on this? I know there's treads already posted about this, but it's 2011 now, and there's little time left. What do you think will happen once the patents expire in 53 days? Share your thoughts.

I honestly have no idea what to think. I just bought a concealed display today. I hope the company stays around for at least another couple years. I was only 18 when I invested in a V1 and had to save a good amount of money to get it. I would be disappointed if the V1 became a product of the past within the next 2-3 years.

In the event something does happen to VR, I'll probably just use my V1 until it dies and won't invest in another detector for a while. I highly praise the way Mike runs VR; it's small enough that it's almost personal when conducting business with them. I also respect that Mike is (from my experience) an honest businessman and won't rip you off. (example: I've seen upgrade notices for certain users where he will tell you that it's not a necessary upgrade to pay for unless you really want the feature. Other companies would market the crap out of it to get every dollar out of you.)

i highly praise that about him too. dude just lost like $145 but atleast he was honest. i'll def buy another V1 from him once he updates it

[rmm518]

I'm going back to work in Mid Feb (had back surg), and am waiting until then to get a new RD, so I know how it'll perform for my commute. This way if anything puts me off, I have the 30 days to return. I was planning on getting a V1, but i'm not sure now. Is it a good idea?

[KaPro]

ROFL!!! Epic speculation!

[radarrob]

ROFL!!! Epic speculation!

+1.

[man114]

Cobra will release a dual antenna 45 band detector that will leak Ka everywhere. Some of the 45 bands will be alcohol on the breath, trees, rain etc.

Just kidding. The only company I can see doing anything with a dual antenna setup in the immediate term is actually RMR (and anyone Attowave OEMs for). Not kidding either (that is if they're smart enough to try and capitalize on it). I remember someone opening an RMR a while back and we were discussing the fact that it was made by Attowave. Attowave made detector's have a weird copper antenna which is open on the sides. Anyway I remember looking up the patent and in the patent is also a variant of the antenna that can face two directions front and rear. While I'm not sure it was exactly dual antennas it was designed to be dual directional and as far as I know they've not yet released a product using it. While I've tested RMR products before and wouldn't buy one from them (and I can probably speak on behalf of others here saying they wouldn't either) for obvious reasons, they've made improvements based on the ones I've tried and I guarantee if they came out with such a device for $200 less than V1 there are people that will buy it simply because they know no better, it will be packaged in flashy packaging and be marketed as the best thing since sliced bread (they'll probably claim they invented it for all we know).

That said the most obvious thing here is the ones most likely to implement such a technology are really the least viable in terms of actually being competitive to a V1. Cobra's performance is spotty in many respects. RMR is blatantly dishonest in many respects. While I have not used any of Cobra's current lineup I did test RMR's supposedly best detector the C475 and while it had good K band range it was still much less than that of my V1. Overall I found it slightly better than Cobra's previous generation (plus it didn't leak anywhere near as badly as the Cobras do allowing me to actually test it side by side with other detectors). Now if they're taking what I'd consider a $130 performance detector, putting a useless scrambler in and selling it for $225 I can imagine a dual antenna variant would run close to $325 leaving the smart people in much better shape running a used V1.

Those buying a V1 or considering it probably are smart enough to realize that unless Escort comes up with a variation those detectors that will likely crop up will be lower end vendors and thus not be true competitors.

Venting over useless worrying over. V1 stays on the windshield.

[Jon_Doh]

Nobody cares about the arrows except Mike Valentine and his fanboy posse. February 25th will come and go with only a yawn in the industry.

[atticuss187]

perhaps a laser jammer built into it.

Good lord.

[midd]

Not to worry about the V1. Afterall, Dec 2012 is quickly approaching...

[bombebomb]

Nobody cares about the arrows except Mike Valentine and his fanboy posse. February 25th will come and go with only a yawn in the industry.

I should save this post. For future reference of course!

[v1user]

Nobody cares about the arrows except Mike Valentine and his fanboy posse. February 25th will come and go with only a yawn in the industry.

I should save this post. For future reference of course!

I'll mark his word because I'm pretty sure he's right. Somebody wake me up if I sleep through it!