Recently Aimpoint announced a new version of their Duty RDS, the MR variant. The Duty RDS MR features a multi-reticle system, allowing users to swap between a traditional single dot, a circle-dot, and circle-only reticle. This is a significant departure for Aimpoint, as previously the company has stuck with a single dot configuration, and touted the advantages of a simple reticle. The internet has taken notice, and has been quick to make their opinions known.
Almost immediately people began claiming that Aimpoint was simply copying Holosun, who has been known for their multi-reticle options for years. Some say that Aimpoint is playing catch-up, or acknowledging some sort of failure on their part. Many of these people have previously said that they would buy Aimpoint or other Western products if they offered similar features to what Chinese companies provide. Have any of these people placed orders, or made indications that they’ll be transitioning to Aimpoint? Not that I’ve seen.
Personally, I hate circle dot reticles, and I don’t think Aimpoint has changed their stance on them. Unfortunately this is what the market wants, and at some point you have to make some concessions if you want to stay competitive. I don’t think this will win many converts, as the people who said they wanted this will likely still give their money to China claiming just as good for half the price.
This isn’t to say that Aimpoint is wrong to do this, but I don’t think it’ll bring in as many customers as some hope. Much like companies bowing to mobs on Twitter and elsewhere, the loudest critics rarely become supporters, even after making the changes demanded of them. Hopefully the Duty RDS MR is a home run, and makes Holosun start to sweat a little bit. Time will tell if that is the case.
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What's not being addressed is the configuration management simplification. From a design and production standpoint, a single multi-reticle part now replaces 3 distinct different models with different reticle parts. Additionally, there might be additional parts for those specific reticle types. Common MR design simplifies configuration management baseline and production. The "public" is generally ignorant in a variety of things, and opining on those things absent relevant subject matter knowledge (not expertise, just knowledge) should be addressed.