How often do companies introduce new pens?

[itsame]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how often companies introduce new pens into their inventories? I understand that this varies from company to company (clearly there aren't going to be any new Esties ) but I just want to get a general idea.

 

I began thinking about this when I noticed the huge hubbub over the Lamy Dialog and started thinking about some famous models: the 149, Duofold, Townsend, 2000, these popular offerings from popular manufacturers have been around for decades. Now clearly, if it ain't broke don't fix it, and by no means am I suggesting to get rid of these iconic pens, but it would be nice to hear something new.

 

Is that the purpose of limited editions? The fact that they allow pen companies to offer unique designs laid over their flagship models, thus giving the illusion of offering something new without actually doing so (I'm not criticizing LE, but just wondering on why there aren't that many new models introduced)?

 

Edit: Perhaps a followup should be how often do companies redesign their pens? I understand that the Lamy 2000 just went through minor readjustments, but that is 40 years after its launch.

 

Edit 2: I do want to point out that my curiosity isn't limited to flagship models, I do wonder if companies replace their less popular or their more expensive/cheaper pens on a more frequent basis.

Edited July 31, 2009 by itsame

[I am not a number]

It's a fairly rare event and when it happens with the major manufacturers (leaving aside some of the more prolific Chinese brands) it is usually brought to our attention here.

[FrankB]

I have never seen an actual pattern to the introduction of new pen models.

 

As for the "standard" models like the Duofold Centennial and International, the MB 146 and 149, Pelikan's Souverain line and Stipula's Etruria, I love their consistency. I find it comforting that there are benchmark models like these against which to judge other pens, including new models from the same companies. I think Bexley is an example of a company that makes very good quality pens, but has no benchmark model that is in continuous production. I find that lack of a standard model to be soemwhat disorienting. It also causes me too often to not include Bexley when making recommendations to other FP users because there is no one model to cite for Bexley's quality.

[welch]

Through the mid-50s, companies introduced new models when a competitor had a popular feature -- hooded nib or "clean filling", and Parker, at least, introduced models to make currnt models obsolete or out-dated. Something like automobile companies releasing new models, but less frequently.

 

Sometime in the '50s, the fountain pen makers found themselves competing with each other and also with ball-point makers (sometimes other FP companies) and with the typewriter. As best I remember, electric typewriters were big and expensive machines used only in a company office; portables were rare.

 

That changed during the '60s, as portable electric typewriters became affordable (Smith-Corona was the "off-to-college" present), and people tried ballpoints and fiber-tips and such.

 

In the '80s, personal computers killed the typewriter.

 

By now...I don't think there is any easily identifiable reason behind model introduction. It is infrequent, but why or when Parker introduces a new model is known only to the MBAs who run the Parker division of the Sanford Fine Writing division of Newell. I still can't understand why Parker went to the trouble of designing and manufacturing the PARKER 100 and dropped the line after about three years.

 

[ZeissIkon]

I still can't understand why Parker went to the trouble of designing and manufacturing the PARKER 100 and dropped the line after about three years.

 

If the question begins with the word "why", the answer is most likely "money." -- Robert A. Heinlein, in the voice of Lazarus Long