Logitech to Lay Off 140 Employees

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Logitech has joined the long line of well established companies facing cutbacks due to sagging sales last year. Like other companies, Logitech is seeking to sell off unprofitable divisions, discontinue low percentage sales items and concentrate on the company’s core products.

That trouble prompted Logitech to announce in January that it will try to sell its Harmony Remote business, as well as its digital video security division. The company is discontinuing its speaker docks and console gaming efforts by the end of the year.
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It is like this for the entire computer industry; simply no need to upgrade anything.
 
Good luck to all those affected. I hope they find employment quickly.
 
Wow, Hate to hear this. :(
I buy exclusively Logitech computer accessories because for 1 reason. -Quality-.

I have wasted my money on a lot of other brands including Microsoft and I stick with Logitech exclusively.
Wireless, mouse, keyboard, game controllers. Good quality and a reasonable price.
Long battery life.
 
Does not surprise me since Logitech's quality has sucked for the last several years.
 
Hate to see this happen as others have expressed. Logitech makes great products and has great customer service. Godspeed to those affected.
 
This sucks ever since I bought my first Logitech mouse, Revolution MX I am brand loyal.
Owned:
2x Rev MXs
1x Rev VX

Currently owner of a G700.
 
I'm betting this has something to do with tablets taking over the market, and individuals not having the need for keyboards, mice, webcams, or other peripherals.
 
Bet it has more to do with investor sentiment than anything else. Yes, sometimes companies need to downsize to stay solvent. But it seems that 9/10 it's to keep the stock price up so the investors are happy. Which in my limited time on the earth seems to be the WRONG thing to do 9/10 times. I hope they stay in business though. They do make some cool peripherals.
 
Red Falcon said:
I'm betting this has something to do with tablets taking over the market, and individuals not having the need for keyboards, mice, webcams, or other peripherals.
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That is part of it, and its also that Logitech did not keep up, and make products that made sense to people or worked well.

Look at the many of the last iterations of mice where they would drop a major feature for no reason. Remember the 1 button G5? How about the shoddy side buttons on the G9x, then they completely missed the mechanical keyboard / NKRO movement by like 3 years. In that time lots of smaller gaming centered companies have built lots of good competition for Logitech. It used to be you pretty much only had 2 choices for gaming grade gear, Logitech or Razer, now days we have dozens. In those days Logitech has garbage drivers and even recently they were still garbage the only thing saving them was Razer was even worse if that is possible.

Logitech then came out with Harmony Link and one and screwed both of those up requiring access to a server I still have harmony link and it sucks it locked down you cant change anything or make it work well with anything else, it crashes all the time and you have no options to make it hold its connection etc..

So even in the universal remote market they started to get beat up by companies who offered way better software on phones etc..
 
Red Falcon said:
I'm betting this has something to do with tablets taking over the market, and individuals not having the need for keyboards, mice, webcams, or other peripherals.
Click to expand...

That is part of it, and its also that Logitech did not keep up, and make products that made sense to people or worked well. So if they weren't selling to the mindless masses gimmick products they were going to see a problem. But in the same time many other companies like corsair have expanded their lines and tried to break into more markets.

Look at the many of the last iterations of mice where they would drop a major feature for no reason. Remember the 1 button G5? How about the shoddy side buttons on the G9x, then they completely missed the mechanical keyboard / NKRO movement by like 3 years. In that time lots of smaller gaming centered companies have built lots of good competition for Logitech. It used to be you pretty much only had 2 choices for gaming grade gear, Logitech or Razer, now days we have dozens. In those days Logitech has garbage drivers and even recently they were still garbage the only thing saving them was Razer was even worse if that is possible.

Logitech then came out with Harmony Link and one and screwed both of those up requiring access to a server I still have harmony link and it sucks it locked down you cant change anything or make it work well with anything else, it crashes all the time and you have no options to make it hold its connection etc..

So even in the universal remote market they started to get beat up by companies who offered way better software on phones etc..
 
I usually buy every new wireless gaming mouse that Logitech makes, but not last year, or the year before… It's now been 3 years since their last wireless gaming mouse, the G700.
That's how long I've been waiting for an improved G700 with much longer battery life. I hate cords, and a wireless mouse that is only wireless some of the time just doesn’t cut it.

I’ve since fallen back to my trusty MX1100… best wireless mouse ever… 10 programmable buttons and months of battery life with standard AAs. However, I do miss the 3 extra buttons of the G700. Yes, it's only 1600 dpi, but it's more accurate than some higher dpi mice I've used. If Logitech want a hundred bucks from me, update the MX1100 with extra buttons and I’m sold.
 
What many people forget is the fact that Logitech lost of ton of money from their Google Tv the Revue.

The cost of the hardware was really hard to just ignore in the face of already shrinking revenues from PC peripherals.

Luckily they already have a well know brand in the mobile device accessories market and make a ton of margin on Bluetooth keyboards and other items for tablets.

They really started to lose their way trying catered to the high end PC gaming market for a few years until their designs improved as to become products worthy of a premium price because for a long time they pushed macro key laden, membrane switch sporting , LCD flashing models that were far more aesthetic than performance.

They are going to dump their remote control business because they never really improved it much after initially buying it and it does seem like they want a lot less product lines so they can focus on what people really want from them in gaming mice and keyboards and bluetooth keyboards.
 
rudy said:
Logitech then came out with Harmony Link and one and screwed both of those up requiring access to a server I still have harmony link and it sucks it locked down you cant change anything or make it work well with anything else, it crashes all the time and you have no options to make it hold its connection etc..

So even in the universal remote market they started to get beat up by companies who offered way better software on phones etc..
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Yup, their Harmony products are AWFUL. They're all completely useless without an internet connection and an account since everything is done server-side. Additionally, they are designed for idiots, have limited functionality, and are not customizable in the least. The "software" is really just a web browser in disguise with a non-existant GUI, running some old version of java. If the software is blocked by a firewall instead of telling customers which ports to enable/unblock they suggest to disable the firewall completely; that's obviously the proper solution. Did I mention that these products are garbage?
 
I just hope they don't stop making wired mice and keyboards. They seem the be the only ones who still make them, and I'd hate being stuck going wireless, it's just more stuff to worry about such as batteries, signal etc.
 
I just bought a logitech g510 not that long ago during black friday on amazon for $60.

nice keyboard but they keys are not spaced not far enough apart

and i still have my 5.1 z680 speakers from 2003 as my main PC speakers.

The ps2 cordless action controler is also way fucking better than the crap normal ps2 controler in everyway I am sad they will not be making more console controlers for playstation because sony makes crap controlers.
 
Apart from accessories for Apple devices, when was the last time Logitech made any serious improvements to their product line? Half the stuff on their site is over 3 years old now.

No new Harmony remotes, no new desktop speakers, mice, keyboards, unless you look at those solar powered nonsense things.

They ruined the Squeezbox, and are working on ways to mess up UE stuff as well.

Something happened to Logitech, and it happened about 3 or 4 years ago. They just stopped innovating, and just focussed on making existing products out of cheaper materials.

I think Logitech just got fat and lazy, and maybe the profits they made 4 years ago got to the heads of the managers...? Shame really, as I love their stuff...
 
the only mice I've ever owned that didn't die on me in 6 months were mid to high end Logitech mice. After the MX518, that no longer held truth in my opinion. I killed my G5 in less than 4 months of daily abuse in FPS games.

I now rock a Corsair M60 and have not looked back. Corsair has me sold on a number of their products. once my current mechanical keyboard goes out I may give their keyboards a shot. hopefully their quality will still be as impressive then as they are now to me.
 
been almost exclusive logitech for almost as long as I've owned a computer... part of the problem is no need to buy anything new lol still rocking my G15 keyboard after 3 years, G500 mouse for 2 years, webcam, usb wired headset ... they all work beautifully. Only time something has broken was the mouse (originally G5) and they sent me the G500 free of charge brand new in box as replacement.

The only time I wasn't loyal to them was for wireless headset and that's because the shop was out of stock on the G930's so I went corsair rather then wait.
 
I have always loved Logitech because of thier quality, and the fact that customer service always kicked right in where the quality control left off. The few products that had to go back were swapped quickly and as often as needed. Luckily this wasn't very often at all.

I'll never forgive them for killing the MX Revolution and releasing a never ending stream of cheaper feeling, uglier, and feature lacking models after it. I tried all of the alternatives and none of them made me forget about the MX Revolution.

The Logitech Harmony products aren't so bad, I have a few of them. The software is the limiting factor here. I get the fact that Logitech was aiming to make things easy, but if you are a person that has more than one of these products for different room setups and or are the type of person that likes more control over customization, then things can get a little irritating with what Logitech offers.

Good luck to those that are now without a job, I hope they all find new jobs very soon. I've been there and it ain't a happy place.

Maybe Logitech will surprise me with some new killer products that will have me screaming "take my money!". It's been a while.
 
BryanSTG said:
Yup, their Harmony products are AWFUL. They're all completely useless without an internet connection and an account since everything is done server-side. Additionally, they are designed for idiots, have limited functionality, and are not customizable in the least. The "software" is really just a web browser in disguise with a non-existant GUI, running some old version of java. If the software is blocked by a firewall instead of telling customers which ports to enable/unblock they suggest to disable the firewall completely; that's obviously the proper solution. Did I mention that these products are garbage?
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Hey now, they keep peace with the wife.

I agree the software is stupid though. Especially from a business perspective. I have three TVs and like your remotes? I need three computers to configure them. OK, I'm a computer geek. I have three computers. I don't want to run to the tv, see if I screwed up a config because something is labeled funny in the harmony DB, run back to the PC, rinse and repeat. Don't create an artificial obstacle to me throwing money at you.
 
Red Falcon said:
I'm betting this has something to do with tablets taking over the market, and individuals not having the need for keyboards, mice, webcams, or other peripherals.
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Tablets have not "taken over" the market. :rolleyes:
Tablets are simply a NEW SEGMENT of it.
You may think this is the case because this is all you read about in tech news.
Power users are not budging from their workstations and high end laptops.
Grandmothers, housewives, and girls that are only concerned about FaceBook , Twitter, email and checking to see who is on Fattest Idol will switch to tablets away from PCs and notebooks.

Logitech makes tablet accessories too. Small, portable BT mice, KB, etc.
 
I like logitech stuff (in spite of all their awful decisions regarding GoogleTV) but they have not done anything that wowed me in years. Their speakers, mice, keyboards, harmony, all pretty stagnant.

Razer and others have came to play, and while I still like logitech, Razer is at least trying to make some cool new things.
 
I love Logitech personally. Excellent customer support. Their products are just too well made haha. I'm still using a nearly 9 year old G5 and G15 combo that I bought for $50 and $100. They never break down so people don't ever have to replace them. It's great I know, but not so great for business.
 
gossipninja1 said:
Razer and others have came to play, and while I still like logitech, Razer is at least trying to make some cool new things.
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Razer is a joke company that make expensive, low quality plastic shit in shiny boxes to trick people into buying them. But, if they disappeared I would be sad because of less humorous products on the market. :(
 
Well maybe it's a wake up call for Logitech to start innovating again. Their products are really well made and, as most of you, love their products. But I agree that we haven't really seen anything innovative that I really have to replace my current IO devices from Logitech.

I've seen that Kickstarter mouse that turns into a pointer, stored data and wireless mouse. That's a good product that I might want to purchase next. I forgot what the title it but it's really awesome. If only they could incorporate gestures in it then it's complete.
 
raz-0 said:
Hey now, they keep peace with the wife.

I agree the software is stupid though. Especially from a business perspective. I have three TVs and like your remotes? I need three computers to configure them. OK, I'm a computer geek. I have three computers. I don't want to run to the tv, see if I screwed up a config because something is labeled funny in the harmony DB, run back to the PC, rinse and repeat. Don't create an artificial obstacle to me throwing money at you.
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I unpacked their software installer, took one look at all the nonsense it was going to install and refused to have it anywhere near my computer. In the end I decided to run it in a VM, and thanked god that I didn't actually pay for my Harmony 880 or install the software locally.
 
Damn this sucks.
Logitech makes the best mice and most of my PC peripherals are logitech as well.
I like how they support their products with a very generous warranty. I wonder how that will be affected.
 
BryanSTG said:
Yup, their Harmony products are AWFUL. They're all completely useless without an internet connection and an account since everything is done server-side. Additionally, they are designed for idiots, have limited functionality, and are not customizable in the least. The "software" is really just a web browser in disguise with a non-existant GUI, running some old version of java. If the software is blocked by a firewall instead of telling customers which ports to enable/unblock they suggest to disable the firewall completely; that's obviously the proper solution. Did I mention that these products are garbage?
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I have no complaints with the Harmony Remote software 7 which I was using to program my 670/676 Franken-remote (remains of two spliced together) until the remote finally went missing. Issues with Harmony remotes over the years include sticky/broken buttons (670), usb port gone bad on the 676 (baby food, don't ask), a refurb 720 that died after like 3 months (gray market purchase though).

My last one though was terrible - a refurb 610 from Logitech themselves. I cannot for the like of me get simple buttons like the OK button to press enter on my HTPC...just like my 670. I tossed it in the trash after telling myself last time that I was absolutely not trying to configure it again.

There's nothing better than a Harmony IMO but I hesitate to buy a One for $100-$150 because I'd hate to have it flake out on me, and the 610 is terrible. I love the Harmony but I've been through a lot of them over the years.

My MX1000 mouse is still rocking the house though - I had to replace the receiver once (bought a used MX1000 on ebay) but that's not bad for a decade. I still haven't found a mouse I like better.
 
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