Weber Charcoal Summit: iPhone or Edsel?

[Troy]

@Big Dawg. Let me reply since I replied to @Troy.
I don't believe that you were being called a troll. I think that the comment was directed at people on social media who were "bitching" about being able to buy X amount of kettles for the price of one Summit charcoal.

Yes, this exactly.
Sorry @Big Dawg  - no part of my message was intended to be directed at you.
I was specifically ranting about the repeated facebook rants happening in some groups. The same guys, posting the same 'weber is out of their mind' stuff to eachother. Over, and over, and over.

[LaTuFu]

Agreed, @Troy. They are a very tiring group. Particularly those that are just following the crowd and parroting what they thought they heard. More than once I've seen "you could buy 2 green eggs and have money left over!" not realizing that the SCG is sized and priced similar to the XL BGE with accessories.

A lot of that same crowd disses accessories like the Vortex and Slow n Sear because of cost, too. They're just cheap and bitter.

[huntergreen]

i am interested, but i think it is priced a bit too high.

[Troy]

Agreed, @Troy. They are a very tiring group. Particularly those that are just following the crowd and parroting what they thought they heard. More than once I've seen "you could buy 2 green eggs and have money left over!" not realizing that the SCG is sized and priced similar to the XL BGE with accessories.

A lot of that same crowd disses accessories like the Vortex and Slow n Sear because of cost, too. They're just cheap and bitter.

don't forget the two-times-per-week "fat cap up, or fat cap down?" questions.

[order66]

I want to lead with IM NOT A HATER. I love the Weber brand.
I was disappointed by the price. That being said, It will be neither iPhone nor Edsel. It will be a niche product that may sell well in it's slot in the arena. There may be some buyers who won't buy it because the Weber brand is ubiquitous, and lacks high-end brand cachet. Some of the people who best appreciate the Weber brand for its stalwart quality and durability (like me) are priced out.
If it were priced at 1k or below it would still be a grail-grill for me but I'd strongly consider it. Lastly, I think they missed their target audience. I think it is people like us who take their outdoor cooking very seriously and with a great deal of passion. We talk about our cooks and our gear publicly and on SM and in groups like this on the net. I'll bet on luke-warm sales at their chosen price point and in the corresponding "exclusive" sales channels. Price it at 1k put it in HD/Lowes, I'd bet they would move more units.

(Flame suit on) : )

[Big Dawg]

Thank you @Troy and @Darko.  I am sorry for my side of the misunderstanding.

Even though I have a Facebook page, it's apparently a "Grey" page so I can't really do much but post to my own page. 

I also limit myself to only 3 cooking forums, so I guess I haven't really been seeing the rants that you have.  This, obviously, is one of those 3 and I really like it here.  I am not a real collector like most of you guys, but, this place does have a lot great information someone who is simply a Weber guy.

Again, sorry for my part.





BD

(PS: If any of you know what Grey Page is and how to make it a "real" page, a PM would be appreciated.  Some guy sent me an email saying he'd fix my page for $50.  Just not worth it right now.)

[MikeRocksTheRed]

I'd like to think Weber actually did a good job marketing this.  Sure it was not a grill that they were really thinking many of us in this group or the weber kettle social media outlets would buy, but they knew we would talk about it, and talk about it a lot.  I've talked it up to a lot of high end egg owners who I have no doubt are very interested in the new highest end grill that weber just released.  I too wish it was priced lower, but we don't know at this point how much money went into research and development, test, shipping models out to dealers, etc..  I'd like to think the price will drop shortly after the first year...once those of us who might be on the fence as far as if we actually want it are totally sold, but still inhibited by the price tage.  At first I definitely though it was over priced, but everyday I am seeing something new that it can do.   Initially the amazing ribs review really impressed me then it was Shoestringshop posting a pic with his hand on the lid while it was running 600 degrees.  Now we've all seen that it has a ATC hole already in it.  Then I heard that you can run it super hot with the difuser to make pizzas without additional attachments.  This grill at least in my eyes gets cooler and cooler by the day, and if you can allow yourself to not get sucked into the social media rants about the price, or how many performers or BGE's you could buy, you can see that this grill is freaking awesome if you are in the market this grill is geared to.  I love that I can do pretty much everythiing in my kettles that my friends with offset smokers, eggs, etc can do and it makes me smile even more when they see me do it and taste my final product.  That is why we are all here.  We are in a minority of grillers and smokers and love doing what we do with what a lot of people would turn their noses at.  If given the money to buy a brand new perfomer, a lot, if not most of use would go out a buy a few used grils and some more accesories before buying 1 brand new performer.  There is also a sizable group of keeping up with the Jones' kind of people out there that will see this new Weber product as the new thing they have to have to outdo someone else.  I can't hate on that, and good for weber for going after them.  Who know's, maybe this grill sells as good or better than Weber is expecting and they will have some more profits to put towards the kind of products we would like to see, like bringing back some colors, or offering some of the product only available outside of North America.

I think I'm rambling on a little bit, so to end, I'd say this grill is like a expensive car.  Just because it's out of your price range it doesn't mean you hate it.  I think its crazy that people are so pissed off about this Grill.  If the manufacturer of the car you drive came out with a kick ass car that was 10 times the cost of the model that you are driving, would you hate that car?  I doubt it. 

I get that people thought it was going to be something the the price range of your average kettlehead and you feel a little betrayed, but it was never suggested this was going to be a affordable grill.  Since day one, everything we have seen included "Grill of a Lifetime".  I sure as hell wouldn't expect a car that was marketed as the car of my lifetime to be something I could easily afford....more of a holy grail, set some goals and someday hopefully make it happen.


sorry if there are any typos or grammatical mistakes....I don't have time right now to read through my rant!  LOL.  Back to work for me.

And one more thing I just thought of.  If everyone is trashing this grill, chance are it won't do as well as it would if everyone was saying "If I could only"...  This grill fails and who knows what weber has to cut to make up for it.  Take something out of the lineup?  Raise prices on Performers?  I hope this grill does well.  I hope to have one some day.  I hope it makes Weber a better company in all demographics.

[addicted-to-smoke]

I don't look at any FB pages related to much of anything. I just don't think FB is a coherent venue for any sort of nuance.

But I saw enough of what you guys are referring to in the "have you heard a rumor?" thread there to be genuinely surprised that some here were surprised on April 4 about the cost. I thought that alone was odd, but then again I read a thread from start-finish before commenting.

So I'm in the store today getting some SS bolts for my 900 gasser restore. They have the 4-burner Summit and it's $1500. The 3-burner Genesis equivalent is about half that. Don't ask me why, but it is what it is. Same side burner with old fashioned piezo start. Surely there's more to it than 1 extra burner, but it wasn't evident. At some point, if ya wanna play ya gotta pay.

I'll be watching what happens with these kettles. If I hear consistent reports of low fuel usage, better cooks, easier cooks, less time futzing with the machine during a cook and so on ... then one of these will be on my short list within a year.

It's not about prestige or whatever, NO grill looks "that cool." I've come a long way in 2 years with my cooks but still struggle with some basics and with wondering which machine to use and so on. At some point that's gonna grow old. #GrillofaLifetime

[Lerxst]

When I win the Lotto Max on Friday, the WSC will be on my list of things to pick up immediately.  :-)

[ChaoSki]

@Big Dawg what I meant by the comparison to the iphone is that it is generally considered a very game changing product when it was initially released.  At that time, there were several players vying for market share in the emerging smartphone market.  Nokia, Microsoft, RIM (Blackberry), Google, and Palm all had Operating Systems they were jockeying for position in the market.  Apple came along and cleared out many of them.  Google has remained the only consistent and credible competitor to iOS.

I think you are giving Apple WAY more credit then they deserve. I never saw Iphone being a game changer, perhaps in profits and sale records.....but from a consumer perspective, there was already plenty on the market that did the same thing better and cheaper.

I think the Weber Summit Kettle is nice but there is way too many deal breakers for me. Big/bulky (my kettles need to be portable). Expensive (I can get 5 22" Originals for the price of 1 Summit).

Isn't that the whole appeal of the kettle? How dirt cheap it is? It's like cast iron, dirt cheap and better than most other cooking products.

Now I'm not saying Weber won't make a profit, or that I won't get one one of these days....

[addicted-to-smoke]

... from a consumer perspective, there was already plenty on the market that did the same thing better and cheaper. ...

Right, and consumers, curiously shunning all of the other better and cheaper alternatives, bought iPhones anyway. Later, after Google copied many of iPhone's inherent characteristics and behaviors, another huge segment of consumers continued to shun better and cheaper alternatives in order to buy Android smartphones.

And that explains why most everyone today uses an iPhone or Android phone despite a bunch of better and cheaper alternatives out there. The buying public are clearly out of touch.

[LaTuFu]

@Big Dawg what I meant by the comparison to the iphone is that it is generally considered a very game changing product when it was initially released.  At that time, there were several players vying for market share in the emerging smartphone market.  Nokia, Microsoft, RIM (Blackberry), Google, and Palm all had Operating Systems they were jockeying for position in the market.  Apple came along and cleared out many of them.  Google has remained the only consistent and credible competitor to iOS.

I think you are giving Apple WAY more credit then they deserve. I never saw Iphone being a game changer, perhaps in profits and sale records.....but from a consumer perspective, there was already plenty on the market that did the same thing better and cheaper.

I think the Weber Summit Kettle is nice but there is way too many deal breakers for me. Big/bulky (my kettles need to be portable). Expensive (I can get 5 22" Originals for the price of 1 Summit).

Isn't that the whole appeal of the kettle? How dirt cheap it is? It's like cast iron, dirt cheap and better than most other cooking products.

Now I'm not saying Weber won't make a profit, or that I won't get one one of these days....

I think you didn't read what I wrote very carefully.

Apple didn't invent the smartphone, although they would like you to think so.

But they did change the market, regardless of how someone feels about the product.

[Metal Mike]

Tech Non-sequitur:
Free Chrome OS images exist  for any old Laptop / Computer(s) needing new life:

http://www.neverware.com/#introtext-3

Google's Android/Chrome OS is free & constantly being developed " better and cheaper " is hard to imagine

[Craig]

To Troys point, there are a ton of bitter people on social media regarding the price. The minute the grill is even pictured, more than half the comments are "its too damned expensive" . Facebook is really becoming a social cesspool of negativity and name calling and judgey ass people. I'm to the point I'm not on nearly as much. As for the new grill's pricing, look at it this way... If you want one, work for it. Whatever that may entail. Also the silver lining for me is now a brand new Ranch seems more attainable if I wanted one. But I'm holding out for an old style
mothership or a red ranch.

[ChaoSki]

I think you didn't read what I wrote very carefully.

Apple didn't invent the smartphone, although they would like you to think so.

But they did change the market, regardless of how someone feels about the product.

Apple is a marketing genius....and people buy into their BS.

More power to Apple is what I say. Meanwhile, I simply refuse to buy or purchase any of their products.