Why no one competes with Hobie on using mirage drive?

Hobie has so many products now that I'm sure it's one of the reason why improvements to their kayaks are kind of slow. I think patent expires. When? What do you think will change if there are multiple suppliers of kayak with mirage drive? Hobie makes a good product but I cannot tell they are the best as there's currently no competition.

The better a product gets, the longer it takes to improve it further.

While there are several prop driven kayak units, none come close to the efficiency of the Hobie Mirage Drive. If the patent did expire and other companies could build similar units, I suspect some would.

All mechanical devices have weaknesses, an established and extensively operated product has had most of these either resolved or "fix its" developed. A newer product will still have to have these ironed out in use. It will take a good price saving incentive to be a guinea pig. This price saving will mean less company profits to put back into developing the product.

Not saying hobie will be top dog forever but it is in a strong position for sometime to come, especially as the reverse feature is now available for those who needed it.

Some of the established prop drive systems are now being copied. It will be interesting to see how this affects the reputation of that system.

My understanding is, when you have a patent on something and you revise or improve it, you extend the life of the patent for x amount of years. I believe the new Mirage Drive with reverse will buy them more time.

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2013 Revo 13
2014 Outback
2016 Outback
2012 Oasis
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