[Galaxy Note II Accessories] vectron:
Well, here we go again, my friend. 59 posts on XDA-Forum and EVERY SINGLE about Mugen battery. I guess it doesn't matter, you are defending your company, I understand that. XDA-Dev has millions of users, great place to get people's attention. So let me continue this discussion with you as someone who represents Mugen and me as someone who reviews a ton of accessories from companies who send me their products.

Let me first start with Amazon. In the last few months I created merchant account because I was advised it's the best way to sell my old cell phones. So, I have sold in there my Fascination, Droid X, and both of my kids iPot Touches. Merchant account is no different then any company account, and Amazon takes 8% commission. Maybe it's higher for official registered vendors, and I'm not in a position to confirm. 30% sounds a bit too high to me.

Regarding other brands, you have only one serious competitor in A/B comparison of double capacity batteries - Anker. You can buy their N2 battery on Amazon in US and UK. Or for example you can buy their external batteries from Amazon in US, UK, Germany, Italy, France, and Canada. Doesn't get any more global than that. Following Anker, there is Hyperion. That's about it when it comes to double capacity extended battery. For triple capacity nobody touches ZeroLemon even with a 10ft pole. That battery is insane in performance and quality.

OK, so about quality. Let's just talk about Anker, Zerolemon, and Hyperion. They all use grade A quality cells, all offer a very good warranty (Anker goes up to 18-months), all guarantee a significant amount of charge cycles, all have been confirmed to deliver their actual capacity. When it comes to pricing, they all follow the same price formula of about $20+ for double capacity and ZL doing 3x capacity for $40 which includes TPU case. Do they make a big profit of selling these? Not really, but they sell probably in quantities of 100x more than Mugen. It's a basic economy.

At the end of the day the truth is that people don't hold on to their phone for more than a year, a normal cycle of phone manufacturers to refresh their models. People realize they spend too much money on accessories. I have no doubt that Mugen stands a few notches higher in quality than other companies, but its not a whole head above them. People look at performance/quality/price ratio and I'm sorry to say - in that formula Mugen fails miserably because you can not justify $80 premium for a slightly better quality. You don't have to admit it, but I know you guys buy your main competitors batteries. And I know you take those apart and study everything to find out any shortfalls. And I'm sure we would hear a lot more from you and your other Mugen colleagues who post on this forum promoting the battery about problems with other batteries, other than "ours has a better quality and we ship globally". So you have to admit that competition stepped up to the plate ;)

You can always argue there are people who buy Toyota and those who buy Lexus, or the market for Nissan and Infiniti. But those are justified by a significantly better luxury quality and performance. I'm sorry, but I'm failing to see price justification of $105 dollar Mugen extended battery versus $17-$18 competition. You can go so far with mentioning of a better battery cover with a kickstand or finally offering a leather case, but I fail to see anything else.

I'm not bashing you guys. I'm not telling you how to run your business. I work directly

with

marketing departments of probably most of the US accessory companies who send me their samples for review, and ask me for my feedback from a user perspective. I don't work

for

those companies or get paid

from

those companies. I'm always honest and tell you how it is. So, perhaps you can take this opportunity to get back to Mugen team and ask them to read my reply. Feel free to contact me through PM as well.

I hope you don't take my reply in a negative way, that wasn't my intention.

Alex/Vectron/Twister6