I still think that if bowling balls were in the lineup longer, the companies would make more money. Less money spent on R&D, less money making new molds, and shops and distributors would buy more because they know they're not going to be closed out in less than a season, unless they were a DUD. A longer shelf life for a lineup wouldn't hurt sales, it would help them. Imagine if every year, car companies came out with a WHOLE new line of cars, and got rid of the old ones. "What? They discontinued the Camry for something else?" Don't worry, next year, this car will be gone, and a new one will replace it, I promise.

That isn't the way to make more money all around in the business. Put good products out, keep them in the line long enough to make money for everyone, and away you go!

Also the R and D cost isn't as much in many cases when your reusing the same cores and modifying covers.

Look at how many times they will use a core in some cases and maybe change the density a bit for different specs to match a "new" coverstock. Smaller runs, and slight modifications are the way of the game today.

If someone doesn't buy a new release in the first few months of a release they will either pick another brand and its new release or wait a little longer for the "next" thing to come along.

Most of the lower tier products only have new color releases/ Example look at how long the Power Groove then the Slingshot were around. The Freeze is another example. It just like the Grooves used some different coverstocks along the way but still primarily stayed the same with just the color change.

 I have said it before, and I will say it again. The manufacturers have created an ARTIFICIAL market. One that is being financed on the backs of the consumers whom they have foisted their loads of bulls**t on.

 They DO NOT want balls lasting very long. They have PURPOSELY designed them not to, then LIED to us, telling us it was the only way to make them work the way we wanted them to. "They have to soak up the oil to be able to hook" has got to be one of the biggest, steamiest piles I have EVER tripped over.

 Ball manufacturers should be REQUIRED to put out good, quality products that both have a good performance level AND a good durability level. If some of them start going out of business because there just isn't enough demand for their product, I'm sorry about your bad luck, but it would just be a correction for the HIGHLY OVER-INFLATED, ARTIFICIALLY CREATED market that was created by their propaganda like lies, and should've never existed in the first place.

 As an example, I offer the original Blue HAMMER. When that ball came out, most of the higher average bowlers couldn't even throw it on THS because it created so much friction that it hooked too much. Thing is, the dumpers, droppers, and fluffers LOVED the thing because "Hey, look, I can finally hook the ball" syndrome kicked in, and it didn't take long for the ballcos to take notice and start the "modern era" of the "Ball of the Week" bowlers.

 That was really the beginning of the "hook in a box" era, and it has continued to this day.

I don't mind them putting out new equipment, but I still think eventually people are going to slow down and stop buying as much. Why? Every year the difference seems to get smaller and smaller from one year to the next and eventually people just won't need it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to getting my Hammer First Blood and Arson Low Flare on Wednesday, but it won't bother me one bit to go back to my old Beast if I like the reaction and the way it rolls better 

Only reason I buy new balls is to replace ones that have worn out or lost reaction, I don't get excited about new stuff because it all acts like the old stuff, everything's just shuffled around.  Now, Motiv has a different look than a lot of stuff, and so does DV8, but people have interpreted "different" as "better."  Does a ball glowing under a blacklight make it strike more?  Not that I can tell.  We don't sell ugly balls, plain and simple.  The Radical Reax is a really great ball, but it's solid black, how many of those do we sell? 

I'm with ArmourBoy and LGD, and especially on the rg and diff.  People will come in and get all excited about a ball, and it's hard for us to satisfy their excitement.  "What's the best ball in here?"  All of them, just depends on what you're wanting it to do.  "What hooks the most in here?"  All of them, just depends on what condition you're bowling on.  "Do they come in any other colors?"  White Dots do, and if color is what you're basing your decision on, why are you looking at the performance balls? 

Now naturally nobody can say it that way, but that's the underlying point.  Every new ball can be compared closely to an older ball, or when somebody says, "Yeah, I had one of those, it was just called a -" they actually aren't far off.  The changes they make aren't going to be noticed on the vast majority of house patterns, and the vast majority of bowlers that they're marketing to bowl on house patterns.  Or somebody will see a ball on tv and go buy it and think it's going to do the same thing, then they're disappointed when it doesn't.  Companies keep shooting balls out because people keep buying them. 

And the thing that people fail to realize too is that there's only so much they can do.  There's not going to be some magical ball in the future that's going to go 40 feet and turn left no matter what.  There's not going to be a ball that isn't affected by track burn or carry down.  That's why nothing changes much anymore because I think they're already at the point where they've got it all figured out.  Maybe they can increase durability, maybe they can find a few more niches to carve out, but by and large, this is it.  Just like tvs, you can only go so high on definition, what do you do then?  After you get it as good as 20/20 vision, what's next?  Bowling is there, they've figured it all out, or at least all the key important things. 

Nobody is forcing anyone to go out and buy bowling balls.  You could still bowl with your Manhattan Rubber, LT-48, Yellow Dot or Blue Hammer if you choose.  If you want high performance ya gotta pay to play.

The perfect example is the tires I put on my car.  High performance summer rear tires last 8000 miles.  Could I buy lower performance summer tires that are cheaper or all-season tires to last longer?  Of course.  But they wouldn't perform the same.

By you saying that manufacturers should be REQUIRED to have performance and durability is like me saying that Goodyear should be required to make a tire that I can get 40k miles out of that performs like the ones Jimmie Johnson uses for 30 laps.

 I'm sorry. I have tried for hours now to think of a way to respond to you, but every time I try, it turns into some warped dissertation on how bowling has changed. That and a detailed description of why your tire analogy fails.  Long boring story.

 I guess that, ultimately, the credit/blame for the way technology has so drastically changed the sport of bowling falls on the A.B.C./U.S.B.C. and its lackadaisical attitude towards their responsibilities of actually governing the sport they were supposed to regulate. I guess I just wish that the ballcos wouldn't have exploited that to the degree that they have.

 And, even though I don't agree with what has happened, I'm not dumb enough to think that I could still compete without using the tools available to me to do so. If everybody else is going to use the reactive resin, gyroscopic bombs of the day, I am going to have to use them as well, so I do.

 While I am no "ball whore", I do tend to buy at least one new ball every season, more out of curiosity than anything else, and am currently perusing the available market for the next purchase. Who knows, it might even be one of the ELITE brand, especially with some of the prices they've got over at bowlersparadise right now.

Look at how many times they will use a core in some cases and maybe change the density a bit for different specs to match a "new" coverstock. Smaller runs, and slight modifications are the way of the game today.

If someone doesn't buy a new release in the first few months of a release they will either pick another brand and its new release or wait a little longer for the "next" thing to come along.

i feel like manufacturers did that to themselves. whenever they thought to release more often the public consumer got used to it and now that is their mentality. if the manufacturers release fewer balls for 2-3 years in a row people will get used to it and not expect the next big thing 4 months later