We've all "heard it before" as so many people point out. But we are now hearing from a team with a track record of doing what they say. This is no longer a lip service management team. Maybe a quick history lesson is due, especially for newcomers to this message board.
The old team had great vision and honestly, they made a tough call when they dropped Amadeus and switched over to SPORT. Amadeus may have been too similar to da Vinci to meet patent scrutiny in court. Option 2, the Senhance design (or something similar to circumvent ISRG's patents) - one big arm per gigantic pod, turning an OR into an obstacle course. Option 3, SPORT - minimalist design, minimal patient intrusion, minimal floor space required, great mobility and quick turn-around time for cases, minimal scarring, half the per-case costs of ISRG, and able to build and sell machines at a better price point than any competitor. As much as we seem to love to bash the old regime, there was a bit of visionary thinking in that decision, and that is why we aren't TRXC - floundering on the market today. The shortcomings of the old team were that they didn't bring on people who could get a design across the finish line.
So the first "Heard it before" was due to a necessary major design philosophy overhaul. The second set of "heard it befores" were because the old team couldn't keep it on the schedule; they never did anything like it before so they were treading new ground and made promises they couldn't keep. From here on in, "heard it before" means "heard it from someone else in the past who is no longer relevant." What you hear today is a new message about new schedule from a new team, and 6 months into a 2.5 year schedule, they are still on schedule. And that means we are 20% of the way to the finish line with this team.
Watch these guys deliver. They've done it before. It's all they have ever done - deliver successful projects to the medical device marketplace.
Unrelated note: I agree with TheMint on the 24 month charts. If anything, they are counter-productive at this juncture.
