LariSan

I'm a little afraid that I'll step into a big pile here, but I wanted to offer a couple of nuggets *please keep in mind that I usually only deal with University Partners, so I come from a slightly unique perspective. 
 
The LaunchPad has pretty much changed TI's place in the Microcontroller market and especially in Education. 
For me, I've been able to open up a lot of educational doors with the price point and what the kit could offer. However, the past year I've been watching it slow down a bit as the "4.30" on it's own isn't as compelling. The requests started to come in that I find ways to bundle the LaunchPad + Breadboard + Wires or , LaunchPad + BoosterPack combo or LaunchPad + Book + Training material... 
So, I went to look and see how I could get some of these requests fulfilled. 
Turns out--
The eStore can't do much than stock TI Standard kits, nor can they really bundle. 
DigiKey, Mouser, Newark -- have bundling options, but it's horrific to set these up, let alone have to manage the paperwork associated with the bill backs for services. 
I didn't even try with Arrow and Avnet because they weren't interested in anything that didn't generate serious money (e.g. Big Customers)...
 
So, I turned to some of the "hobby" distributors (e.g. Sparkfun, some local ones in India and Europe), went to a couple of conferences, met with some of the decision makers...
and asked them, "What can I do to get you to stock LaunchPads and offer "bundles" and trainings/services.?" All of them were interested, but when they saw that they would be buying the LaunchPad at the same price that TI was selling it for... backed out. 
There was absolutely no money in it for them. 
It costs money to inventory, stock, manage paperwork-- and time. (that's not even developing training and marketing) Sure, some universities would pay for value added services, but what was incentivising someone to buy from them (person providing the service)? Plus, the amount of effort + the pay out... for most of them wasn't worth it. 
I talked to no fewer than fifteen different educational distributors... and got a similar story. It started to become really clear that TI was indirectly competing against the same people that we needed to offer more/better services (at least in Education). 
 
To make sure I didn't give up on the 4.30 model... I tried a few things. (A little lengthy story, but I think this illustrates the best one)
I donated the entire LaunchPad inventory to a few of my partners (IEEE groups who were doing ebay purchases and bundles). 
Great for the first semester, but come re-order time-- I had run out of budget. 
So, the IEEE group had to switch and instead used the Arduino... and found students were willing to pay the 50.00 (when the previous was 24.00). 
When semester came around and I had budget, I called asked them if they wanted to try again... and they declined me. They would rather set up the store to not have to manually switch everything over just because I couldn't donate the kits!
So, I asked, how about buying them? I'll make sure that you can always purchase them at a discount, (which was almost nothing because $4.30 was pretty much rock bottom). 
Declined again-- with the Arduino the IEEE group was able to get them at 21.00 and reselling the boards for 30.00. That was 9.00 of extra margin they could use, if I wasn't giving them the LaunchPads free... all the time, there was absolutely no incentive for them to move over. (Insert "using Industry tools blah blah blah" argument, still couldn't switch them over). 
 
Granted, one IEEE group is NOT everyone else, but the concerns were similar. 
It showed me (at least in my space) that the only way I could push LaunchPad was through my program-- which is limited by my budget and what other things that I wanted to accomplish that year. The only way that I could grow LaunchPad in Education--> was increasing the level of service and offerings around LaunchPad--> which was beyond what TI could do on our own and  I could only accomplish by getting good partners-->and the only way to get good partners... was frankly-- help them make money. Successful Partner with LaunchPad meant Successful TI University Program. 
 
So, although it sucks right now, I really see this as a good idea-- for a long term strategy. 
We really could have done a much better job communicating the price change... it is never fun to find out on your own. 
There were always be TI Deals, half off coupons, Tech Day incentives.... heck, come visit me at any of my University visits, write a request, or our trade shows and you will be able to get a LaunchPads for free or a discount. We owe a lot to the community and want to continue to support it, but at the same time we're fairly realistic that a community is a lot more than just cheap hardware, that's what got us up and running and started, but now we really need to focus on enabling the very people that helped build it up-- enabling them to potentially create a business model around all the work that is being put in. Take a look at the Arduino, it was an open sourced hardware, intuitive user experience platform (the LaunchPad is also Open Hardware and now has Energia), but what really differentiates the Arduino from LaunchPad is the fact that people can make money by being part of the ecosystem-- through their own Hardware, Software contributions, Training, Bundling... etc. etc. 
 
I'm by no means the official LaunchPad communication channel,  but I'm a rather large constituent of it-- we're working hard on the next few steps we need to take on finding ways to grow -- and how honest, vocal and engaged everyone is critical for that (WE ARE Listening), so please keep letting us know what you think. 
 
Anyways, that's just my 2 cents... 
-Larissa

I'm a little afraid that I'll step into a big pile here, but I wanted to offer a couple of nuggets *please keep in mind that I usually only deal with University Partners, so I come from a slightly unique perspective. 
 
The LaunchPad has pretty much changed TI's place in the Microcontroller market and especially in Education. 
For me, I've been able to open up a lot of educational doors with the price point and what the kit could offer. However, the past year I've been watching it slow down a bit as the "4.30" on it's own isn't as compelling. The requests started to come in that I find ways to bundle the LaunchPad + Breadboard + Wires or , LaunchPad + BoosterPack combo or LaunchPad + Book + Training material... 
So, I went to look and see how I could get some of these requests fulfilled. 
Turns out--
The eStore can't do much than stock TI Standard kits, nor can they really bundle. 
DigiKey, Mouser, Newark -- have bundling options, but it's horrific to set these up, let alone have to manage the paperwork associated with the bill backs for services. 
I didn't even try with Arrow and Avnet because they weren't interested in anything that didn't generate serious money (e.g. Big Customers)...
 
So, I turned to some of the "hobby" distributors (e.g. Sparkfun, some local ones in India and Europe), went to a couple of conferences, met with some of the decision makers...
and asked them, "What can I do to get you to stock LaunchPads and offer "bundles" and trainings/services.?" All of them were interested, but when they saw that they would be buying the LaunchPad at the same price that TI was selling it for... backed out. 
There was absolutely no money in it for them. 
It costs money to inventory, stock, manage paperwork-- and time. (that's not even developing training and marketing) Sure, some universities would pay for value added services, but what was incentivising someone to buy from them (person providing the service)? Plus, the amount of effort + the pay out... for most of them wasn't worth it. 
I talked to no fewer than fifteen different educational distributors... and got a similar story. It started to become really clear that TI was indirectly competing against the same people that we needed to offer more/better services (at least in Education). 
 
To make sure I didn't give up on the 4.30 model... I tried a few things. (A little lengthy story, but I think this illustrates the best one)
I donated the entire LaunchPad inventory to a few of my partners (IEEE groups who were doing ebay purchases and bundles). 
Great for the first semester, but come re-order time-- I had run out of budget. 
So, the IEEE group had to switch and instead used the Arduino... and found students were willing to pay the 50.00 (when the previous was 24.00). 
When semester came around and I had budget, I called asked them if they wanted to try again... and they declined me. They would rather set up the store to not have to manually switch everything over just because I couldn't donate the kits!
So, I asked, how about buying them? I'll make sure that you can always purchase them at a discount, (which was almost nothing because $4.30 was pretty much rock bottom). 
Declined again-- with the Arduino the IEEE group was able to get them at 21.00 and reselling the boards for 30.00. That was 9.00 of extra margin they could use, if I wasn't giving them the LaunchPads free... all the time, there was absolutely no incentive for them to move over. (Insert "using Industry tools blah blah blah" argument, still couldn't switch them over). 
 
Granted, one IEEE group is NOT everyone else, but the concerns were similar. 
It showed me (at least in my space) that the only way I could push LaunchPad was through my program-- which is limited by my budget and what other things that I wanted to accomplish that year. The only way that I could grow LaunchPad in Education--> was increasing the level of service and offerings around LaunchPad--> which was beyond what TI could do on our own and  I could only accomplish by getting good partners-->and the only way to get good partners... was frankly-- help them make money. Successful Partner with LaunchPad meant Successful TI University Program. 
 
So, although it sucks right now, I really see this as a good idea-- for a long term strategy. 
We really could have done a much better job communicating the price change... it is never fun to find out on your own. 
There were always be TI Deals, half off coupons, Tech Day incentives.... heck, come visit me at any of my University visits, write a request, or our trade shows and you will be able to get a LaunchPads for free or a discount. We owe a lot to the community and want to continue to support it, but at the same time we're fairly realistic that a community is a lot more than just cheap hardware, that's what got us up and running and started, but now we really need to focus on enabling the very people that helped build it up-- enabling them to potentially create a business model around all the work that is being put in. Take a look at the Arduino, it was an open sourced hardware, intuitive user experience platform (the LaunchPad is also Open Hardware and now has Energia), but what really differentiates the Arduino from LaunchPad is the fact that people can make money by being part of the ecosystem-- through their own Hardware, Software contributions, Training, Bundling... etc. etc. 
 
I'm by no means the official LaunchPad communication channel,  but I'm a rather large constituent of it-- we're working hard on the next few steps we need to take on finding ways to grow -- and how honest, vocal and engaged everyone is critical for that (WE ARE Listening), so please keep letting us know what you think. 
 
Anyways, that's just my 2 cents... 
-Larissa

I'm a little afraid that I'll step into a big pile here, but I wanted to offer a couple of nuggets *please keep in mind that I usually only deal with University Partners, so I come from a slightly unique perspective. 
 
The LaunchPad has pretty much changed TI's place in the Microcontroller market and especially in Education. 
For me, I've been able to open up a lot of educational doors with the price point and what the kit could offer. However, the past year I've been watching it slow down a bit as the "4.30" on it's own isn't as compelling. The requests started to come in that I find ways to bundle the LaunchPad + Breadboard + Wires or , LaunchPad + BoosterPack combo or LaunchPad + Book + Training material... 
So, I went to look and see how I could get some of these requests fulfilled. 
Turns out--
The eStore can't do much than stock TI Standard kits, nor can they really bundle. 
DigiKey, Mouser, Newark -- have bundling options, but it's horrific to set these up, let alone have to manage the paperwork associated with the bill backs for services. 
I didn't even try with Arrow and Avnet because they weren't interested in anything that didn't generate serious money (e.g. Big Customers)...
 
So, I turned to some of the "hobby" distributors (e.g. Sparkfun, some local ones in India and Europe), went to a couple of conferences, met with some of the decision makers...
and asked them, "What can I do to get you to stock LaunchPads and offer "bundles" and trainings/services.?" All of them were interested, but when they saw that they would be buying the LaunchPad at the same price that TI was selling it for... backed out. 
There was absolutely no money in it for them. 
It costs money to inventory, stock, manage paperwork-- and time. (that's not even developing training and marketing) Sure, some universities would pay for value added services, but what was incentivising someone to buy from them (person providing the service)? Plus, the amount of effort + the pay out... for most of them wasn't worth it. 
I talked to no fewer than fifteen different educational distributors... and got a similar story. It started to become really clear that TI was indirectly competing against the same people that we needed to offer more/better services (at least in Education). 
 
To make sure I didn't give up on the 4.30 model... I tried a few things. (A little lengthy story, but I think this illustrates the best one)
I donated the entire LaunchPad inventory to a few of my partners (IEEE groups who were doing ebay purchases and bundles). 
Great for the first semester, but come re-order time-- I had run out of budget. 
So, the IEEE group had to switch and instead used the Arduino... and found students were willing to pay the 50.00 (when the previous was 24.00). 
When semester came around and I had budget, I called asked them if they wanted to try again... and they declined me. They would rather set up the store to not have to manually switch everything over just because I couldn't donate the kits!
So, I asked, how about buying them? I'll make sure that you can always purchase them at a discount, (which was almost nothing because $4.30 was pretty much rock bottom). 
Declined again-- with the Arduino the IEEE group was able to get them at 21.00 and reselling the boards for 30.00. That was 9.00 of extra margin they could use, if I wasn't giving them the LaunchPads free... all the time, there was absolutely no incentive for them to move over. (Insert "using Industry tools blah blah blah" argument, still couldn't switch them over). 
 
Granted, one IEEE group is NOT everyone else, but the concerns were similar. 
It showed me (at least in my space) that the only way I could push LaunchPad was through my program-- which is limited by my budget and what other things that I wanted to accomplish that year. The only way that I could grow LaunchPad in Education--> was increasing the level of service and offerings around LaunchPad--> which was beyond what TI could do on our own and  I could only accomplish by getting good partners-->and the only way to get good partners... was frankly-- help them make money. Successful Partner with LaunchPad meant Successful TI University Program. 
 
So, although it sucks right now, I really see this as a good idea-- for a long term strategy. 
We really could have done a much better job communicating the price change... it is never fun to find out on your own. 
There were always be TI Deals, half off coupons, Tech Day incentives.... heck, come visit me at any of my University visits, write a request, or our trade shows and you will be able to get a LaunchPads for free or a discount. We owe a lot to the community and want to continue to support it, but at the same time we're fairly realistic that a community is a lot more than just cheap hardware, that's what got us up and running and started, but now we really need to focus on enabling the very people that helped build it up-- enabling them to potentially create a business model around all the work that is being put in. Take a look at the Arduino, it was an open sourced hardware, intuitive user experience platform (the LaunchPad is also Open Hardware and now has Energia), but what really differentiates the Arduino from LaunchPad is the fact that people can make money by being part of the ecosystem-- through their own Hardware, Software contributions, Training, Bundling... etc. etc. 
 
I'm by no means the official LaunchPad communication channel,  but I'm a rather large constituent of it-- we're working hard on the next few steps we need to take on finding ways to grow -- and how honest, vocal and engaged everyone is critical for that (WE ARE Listening), so please keep letting us know what you think. 
 
Anyways, that's just my 2 cents... 
-Larissa

I'm a little afraid that I'll step into a big pile here, but I wanted to offer a couple of nuggets *please keep in mind that I usually only deal with University Partners, so I come from a slightly unique perspective. 
 
The LaunchPad has pretty much changed TI's place in the Microcontroller market and especially in Education. 
For me, I've been able to open up a lot of educational doors with the price point and what the kit could offer. However, the past year I've been watching it slow down a bit as the "4.30" on it's own isn't as compelling. The requests started to come in that I find ways to bundle the LaunchPad + Breadboard + Wires or , LaunchPad + BoosterPack combo or LaunchPad + Book + Training material... 
So, I went to look and see how I could get some of these requests fulfilled. 
Turns out--
The eStore can't do much than stock TI Standard kits, nor can they really bundle. 
DigiKey, Mouser, Newark -- have bundling options, but it's horrific to set these up, let alone have to manage the paperwork associated with the bill backs for services. 
I didn't even try with Arrow and Avnet because they weren't interested in anything that didn't generate serious money (e.g. Big Customers)...
 
So, I turned to some of the "hobby" distributors (e.g. Sparkfun, some local ones in India and Europe), went to a couple of conferences, met with some of the decision makers...
and asked them, "What can I do to get you to stock LaunchPads and offer "bundles" and trainings/services.?" All of them were interested, but when they saw that they would be buying the LaunchPad at the same price that TI was selling it for... backed out. 
There was absolutely no money in it for them. 
It costs money to inventory, stock, manage paperwork-- and time. (that's not even developing training and marketing) Sure, some universities would pay for value added services, but what was incentivising someone to buy from them (person providing the service)? Plus, the amount of effort + the pay out... for most of them wasn't worth it. 
I talked to no fewer than fifteen different educational distributors... and got a similar story. It started to become really clear that TI was indirectly competing against the same people that we needed to offer more/better services (at least in Education). 
 
To make sure I didn't give up on the 4.30 model... I tried a few things. (A little lengthy story, but I think this illustrates the best one)
I donated the entire LaunchPad inventory to a few of my partners (IEEE groups who were doing ebay purchases and bundles). 
Great for the first semester, but come re-order time-- I had run out of budget. 
So, the IEEE group had to switch and instead used the Arduino... and found students were willing to pay the 50.00 (when the previous was 24.00). 
When semester came around and I had budget, I called asked them if they wanted to try again... and they declined me. They would rather set up the store to not have to manually switch everything over just because I couldn't donate the kits!
So, I asked, how about buying them? I'll make sure that you can always purchase them at a discount, (which was almost nothing because $4.30 was pretty much rock bottom). 
Declined again-- with the Arduino the IEEE group was able to get them at 21.00 and reselling the boards for 30.00. That was 9.00 of extra margin they could use, if I wasn't giving them the LaunchPads free... all the time, there was absolutely no incentive for them to move over. (Insert "using Industry tools blah blah blah" argument, still couldn't switch them over). 
 
Granted, one IEEE group is NOT everyone else, but the concerns were similar. 
It showed me (at least in my space) that the only way I could push LaunchPad was through my program-- which is limited by my budget and what other things that I wanted to accomplish that year. The only way that I could grow LaunchPad in Education--> was increasing the level of service and offerings around LaunchPad--> which was beyond what TI could do on our own and  I could only accomplish by getting good partners-->and the only way to get good partners... was frankly-- help them make money. Successful Partner with LaunchPad meant Successful TI University Program. 
 
So, although it sucks right now, I really see this as a good idea-- for a long term strategy. 
We really could have done a much better job communicating the price change... it is never fun to find out on your own. 
There were always be TI Deals, half off coupons, Tech Day incentives.... heck, come visit me at any of my University visits, write a request, or our trade shows and you will be able to get a LaunchPads for free or a discount. We owe a lot to the community and want to continue to support it, but at the same time we're fairly realistic that a community is a lot more than just cheap hardware, that's what got us up and running and started, but now we really need to focus on enabling the very people that helped build it up-- enabling them to potentially create a business model around all the work that is being put in. Take a look at the Arduino, it was an open sourced hardware, intuitive user experience platform (the LaunchPad is also Open Hardware and now has Energia), but what really differentiates the Arduino from LaunchPad is the fact that people can make money by being part of the ecosystem-- through their own Hardware, Software contributions, Training, Bundling... etc. etc. 
 
I'm by no means the official LaunchPad communication channel,  but I'm a rather large constituent of it-- we're working hard on the next few steps we need to take on finding ways to grow -- and how honest, vocal and engaged everyone is critical for that (WE ARE Listening), so please keep letting us know what you think. 
 
Anyways, that's just my 2 cents... 
-Larissa

I'm a little afraid that I'll step into a big pile here, but I wanted to offer a couple of nuggets *please keep in mind that I usually only deal with University Partners, so I come from a slightly unique perspective. 
 
The LaunchPad has pretty much changed TI's place in the Microcontroller market and especially in Education. 
For me, I've been able to open up a lot of educational doors with the price point and what the kit could offer. However, the past year I've been watching it slow down a bit as the "4.30" on it's own isn't as compelling. The requests started to come in that I find ways to bundle the LaunchPad + Breadboard + Wires or , LaunchPad + BoosterPack combo or LaunchPad + Book + Training material... 
So, I went to look and see how I could get some of these requests fulfilled. 
Turns out--
The eStore can't do much than stock TI Standard kits, nor can they really bundle. 
DigiKey, Mouser, Newark -- have bundling options, but it's horrific to set these up, let alone have to manage the paperwork associated with the bill backs for services. 
I didn't even try with Arrow and Avnet because they weren't interested in anything that didn't generate serious money (e.g. Big Customers)...
 
So, I turned to some of the "hobby" distributors (e.g. Sparkfun, some local ones in India and Europe), went to a couple of conferences, met with some of the decision makers...
and asked them, "What can I do to get you to stock LaunchPads and offer "bundles" and trainings/services.?" All of them were interested, but when they saw that they would be buying the LaunchPad at the same price that TI was selling it for... backed out. 
There was absolutely no money in it for them. 
It costs money to inventory, stock, manage paperwork-- and time. (that's not even developing training and marketing) Sure, some universities would pay for value added services, but what was incentivising someone to buy from them (person providing the service)? Plus, the amount of effort + the pay out... for most of them wasn't worth it. 
I talked to no fewer than fifteen different educational distributors... and got a similar story. It started to become really clear that TI was indirectly competing against the same people that we needed to offer more/better services (at least in Education). 
 
To make sure I didn't give up on the 4.30 model... I tried a few things. (A little lengthy story, but I think this illustrates the best one)
I donated the entire LaunchPad inventory to a few of my partners (IEEE groups who were doing ebay purchases and bundles). 
Great for the first semester, but come re-order time-- I had run out of budget. 
So, the IEEE group had to switch and instead used the Arduino... and found students were willing to pay the 50.00 (when the previous was 24.00). 
When semester came around and I had budget, I called asked them if they wanted to try again... and they declined me. They would rather set up the store to not have to manually switch everything over just because I couldn't donate the kits!
So, I asked, how about buying them? I'll make sure that you can always purchase them at a discount, (which was almost nothing because $4.30 was pretty much rock bottom). 
Declined again-- with the Arduino the IEEE group was able to get them at 21.00 and reselling the boards for 30.00. That was 9.00 of extra margin they could use, if I wasn't giving them the LaunchPads free... all the time, there was absolutely no incentive for them to move over. (Insert "using Industry tools blah blah blah" argument, still couldn't switch them over). 
 
Granted, one IEEE group is NOT everyone else, but the concerns were similar. 
It showed me (at least in my space) that the only way I could push LaunchPad was through my program-- which is limited by my budget and what other things that I wanted to accomplish that year. The only way that I could grow LaunchPad in Education--> was increasing the level of service and offerings around LaunchPad--> which was beyond what TI could do on our own and  I could only accomplish by getting good partners-->and the only way to get good partners... was frankly-- help them make money. Successful Partner with LaunchPad meant Successful TI University Program. 
 
So, although it sucks right now, I really see this as a good idea-- for a long term strategy. 
We really could have done a much better job communicating the price change... it is never fun to find out on your own. 
There were always be TI Deals, half off coupons, Tech Day incentives.... heck, come visit me at any of my University visits, write a request, or our trade shows and you will be able to get a LaunchPads for free or a discount. We owe a lot to the community and want to continue to support it, but at the same time we're fairly realistic that a community is a lot more than just cheap hardware, that's what got us up and running and started, but now we really need to focus on enabling the very people that helped build it up-- enabling them to potentially create a business model around all the work that is being put in. Take a look at the Arduino, it was an open sourced hardware, intuitive user experience platform (the LaunchPad is also Open Hardware and now has Energia), but what really differentiates the Arduino from LaunchPad is the fact that people can make money by being part of the ecosystem-- through their own Hardware, Software contributions, Training, Bundling... etc. etc. 
 
I'm by no means the official LaunchPad communication channel,  but I'm a rather large constituent of it-- we're working hard on the next few steps we need to take on finding ways to grow -- and how honest, vocal and engaged everyone is critical for that (WE ARE Listening), so please keep letting us know what you think. 
 
Anyways, that's just my 2 cents... 
-Larissa

I'm a little afraid that I'll step into a big pile here, but I wanted to offer a couple of nuggets *please keep in mind that I usually only deal with University Partners, so I come from a slightly unique perspective. 
 
The LaunchPad has pretty much changed TI's place in the Microcontroller market and especially in Education. 
For me, I've been able to open up a lot of educational doors with the price point and what the kit could offer. However, the past year I've been watching it slow down a bit as the "4.30" on it's own isn't as compelling. The requests started to come in that I find ways to bundle the LaunchPad + Breadboard + Wires or , LaunchPad + BoosterPack combo or LaunchPad + Book + Training material... 
So, I went to look and see how I could get some of these requests fulfilled. 
Turns out--
The eStore can't do much than stock TI Standard kits, nor can they really bundle. 
DigiKey, Mouser, Newark -- have bundling options, but it's horrific to set these up, let alone have to manage the paperwork associated with the bill backs for services. 
I didn't even try with Arrow and Avnet because they weren't interested in anything that didn't generate serious money (e.g. Big Customers)...
 
So, I turned to some of the "hobby" distributors (e.g. Sparkfun, some local ones in India and Europe), went to a couple of conferences, met with some of the decision makers...
and asked them, "What can I do to get you to stock LaunchPads and offer "bundles" and trainings/services.?" All of them were interested, but when they saw that they would be buying the LaunchPad at the same price that TI was selling it for... backed out. 
There was absolutely no money in it for them. 
It costs money to inventory, stock, manage paperwork-- and time. (that's not even developing training and marketing) Sure, some universities would pay for value added services, but what was incentivising someone to buy from them (person providing the service)? Plus, the amount of effort + the pay out... for most of them wasn't worth it. 
I talked to no fewer than fifteen different educational distributors... and got a similar story. It started to become really clear that TI was indirectly competing against the same people that we needed to offer more/better services (at least in Education). 
 
To make sure I didn't give up on the 4.30 model... I tried a few things. (A little lengthy story, but I think this illustrates the best one)
I donated the entire LaunchPad inventory to a few of my partners (IEEE groups who were doing ebay purchases and bundles). 
Great for the first semester, but come re-order time-- I had run out of budget. 
So, the IEEE group had to switch and instead used the Arduino... and found students were willing to pay the 50.00 (when the previous was 24.00). 
When semester came around and I had budget, I called asked them if they wanted to try again... and they declined me. They would rather set up the store to not have to manually switch everything over just because I couldn't donate the kits!
So, I asked, how about buying them? I'll make sure that you can always purchase them at a discount, (which was almost nothing because $4.30 was pretty much rock bottom). 
Declined again-- with the Arduino the IEEE group was able to get them at 21.00 and reselling the boards for 30.00. That was 9.00 of extra margin they could use, if I wasn't giving them the LaunchPads free... all the time, there was absolutely no incentive for them to move over. (Insert "using Industry tools blah blah blah" argument, still couldn't switch them over). 
 
Granted, one IEEE group is NOT everyone else, but the concerns were similar. 
It showed me (at least in my space) that the only way I could push LaunchPad was through my program-- which is limited by my budget and what other things that I wanted to accomplish that year. The only way that I could grow LaunchPad in Education--> was increasing the level of service and offerings around LaunchPad--> which was beyond what TI could do on our own and  I could only accomplish by getting good partners-->and the only way to get good partners... was frankly-- help them make money. Successful Partner with LaunchPad meant Successful TI University Program. 
 
So, although it sucks right now, I really see this as a good idea-- for a long term strategy. 
We really could have done a much better job communicating the price change... it is never fun to find out on your own. 
There were always be TI Deals, half off coupons, Tech Day incentives.... heck, come visit me at any of my University visits, write a request, or our trade shows and you will be able to get a LaunchPads for free or a discount. We owe a lot to the community and want to continue to support it, but at the same time we're fairly realistic that a community is a lot more than just cheap hardware, that's what got us up and running and started, but now we really need to focus on enabling the very people that helped build it up-- enabling them to potentially create a business model around all the work that is being put in. Take a look at the Arduino, it was an open sourced hardware, intuitive user experience platform (the LaunchPad is also Open Hardware and now has Energia), but what really differentiates the Arduino from LaunchPad is the fact that people can make money by being part of the ecosystem-- through their own Hardware, Software contributions, Training, Bundling... etc. etc. 
 
I'm by no means the official LaunchPad communication channel,  but I'm a rather large constituent of it-- we're working hard on the next few steps we need to take on finding ways to grow -- and how honest, vocal and engaged everyone is critical for that (WE ARE Listening), so please keep letting us know what you think. 
 
Anyways, that's just my 2 cents... 
-Larissa

A light bulb went off in my head tonight and I got my booster pack design done
Now I need to find some on-shore fab to make my PCB ASAP :-(

I'm so happy that it got to you (I got a little nervous that the shipper didn't get it out on time).
It's one of the books I'll never get rid of and it looked like you were starting to go beyond just programming and into designing boards :-)
I hope you enjoy it!

Hey,
 
sorry for being way too late, though about fixing my camera first, but this will not happen so i will present to you stock images
 

 
I've already read a few chapters of this wonderful book and cannot imagine anything better suited for me then this book [ finally understood opamps ].
But who was my secret santa? Thank you alot, as a beginner and Computer Science rather then Electronics student, this is really helpful.
 
 
sorry for being so late, 
 
lastaid
 
@bluehash hope you like it. I fixed up the screen and might even added an slightly improved soundport. Did it arrive unharmed? I could even imagine a project for you, reverse engineer the External Port Protocol and implement an AI enemy ;-)

Thank you Larisan for this wonder, as well as thoughful gift A friend, studying electronical engineering, took a look at it and said "If you have the knowledge in this book, you are an engineering god".
 
Thank you

Thank you to my Secret Santa :-)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laraswanland/8342549077/'>
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laraswanland/8342549077/'>secret santa by http://www.flickr.com/people/laraswanland/'>laraswanland, on Flickr
After finally getting off my butt to go to the post office, this lovely package was waiting for me.
Even better... it's slightly LaunchPad coloured :-)

Thank you to my Secret Santa :-)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laraswanland/8342549077/'>
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laraswanland/8342549077/'>secret santa by http://www.flickr.com/people/laraswanland/'>laraswanland, on Flickr
After finally getting off my butt to go to the post office, this lovely package was waiting for me.
Even better... it's slightly LaunchPad coloured :-)

I love the Serenity!
 
Just one more to go right? :-)

Hahaha! Yes! I got a Gameboy.. Never had one before. It has the Tetris cartridge. Thanks LastAid!
 
Here is it next to Serenity.
 

 
 

Hahaha! That is so thoughtful. Good going Santa. Since we are a small group, we know who gave what and we might have given that away in the comments. Your Santa was JWoodrell.
Good job!

Thank you to my Secret Santa :-)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laraswanland/8342549077/'>
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laraswanland/8342549077/'>secret santa by http://www.flickr.com/people/laraswanland/'>laraswanland, on Flickr
After finally getting off my butt to go to the post office, this lovely package was waiting for me.
Even better... it's slightly LaunchPad coloured :-)

Thank you to my Secret Santa :-)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laraswanland/8342549077/'>
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laraswanland/8342549077/'>secret santa by http://www.flickr.com/people/laraswanland/'>laraswanland, on Flickr
After finally getting off my butt to go to the post office, this lovely package was waiting for me.
Even better... it's slightly LaunchPad coloured :-)

I am sad that the store will need to close, but understand completely if its taking a lot of time.
I've always been curious about Amazon store fronts if they would manage the shipping.
You have been so amazing managing the store all of this time. I know it's very much appreciated!
 

I am sad that the store will need to close, but understand completely if its taking a lot of time.
I've always been curious about Amazon store fronts if they would manage the shipping.
You have been so amazing managing the store all of this time. I know it's very much appreciated!
 

Thanks for the links! I've had my eye on the SparkFun stuff for a while - since most of them run @ 3.3v, they'd probably be compatible too.

From TI Microcontroller's facebook profile:
 
 
And from the Event page:
 
https://event.on24.c...cepage=register

Yes, also known as the absolute BEST USB Expansion port ever. I had to fight a few people in my office for that at the white elephant a few years ago :-)
 
Turns out the segments missing weren't from the tube not being soldered right, but rather my inability to solder surface mount correctly. One of my co-workers let me use the lab's microscope to check the connections and I was slightly horrified how ugly it looked... needless, it's been repaired and now all the segments work. (if anyone is missing segments, it's probably the driver, not the tube). I'm getting him to post his tube when he's done, he got frustrated with the through-hole tube wires and ended up just surface mounting the tube (not sure it was any easier, but it worked and looked really good, could be a solution for anyone that messed up thier tube).
 
Here's the working clock with all of the segments, I took it home and had it running last night off of my extra kindle charger. I love it!

2012-11-14 00.44.13 by laraswanland, on Flickr
 
*some changes*
I loved Cube's idea of having headers instead of the buzzer, so I put a 2 pin female header there.

2012-11-14 09.37.22 by laraswanland, on Flickr
I have another project that uses a motor that I'm trying to figure out the mechanics so raises my blinds in the morning.(We'll see how that works out).
 
I also put 1 pin on the power supply so I can disconnect the board from the LaunchPad easily. (not sure if you can see the photo).
 

2012-11-14 09.28.43 by laraswanland, on Flickr
I am getting a couple of issues (I think Cube mentioned it) when I try and set the time. Maybe I don't know the right sequence of buttons to press... but, I can't seem to get the time on it correct. I'll wait to see the code update if it will fix it.
 
*btw*We have three of these floating around the MSP430 office :-) Lots of excitement. AdrianF is still waiting for his inductors to make it through the belly of the TI mail system, but couple of our interns/trainees have already put orders on OSH Park for extra boards, so Thank you Cube for designing something that got everyone excited over here!

It's great to see these start coming together!
 
I should have a software update coming out early next week as well - the major features are almost complete.

Can we just order a full panel? What's the shipping cost?
 
I want to just frame it to decorate my work area.

I got it to light up!After a while and some CCS "No Emulator Found" errors the clock is running + and not over heating (thank you bluehash and GeekDoc for the inductors).Now, I get to go and fix my faulty soldering work on the tube pins that didn't connect (missing segments) and I'm ready to go.

Photo Nov 13, 5 23 37 PM by laraswanland, on Flickr