[AZ-Observing] What's Happening to Meade

In the recent issue of S&T I couldn't help being struck by Meade's 
sparsity of ads and the numerous ads that have the banner name 
Celestron. Meade has a full page ad for the new six inch ETX-LS for 
$1300 and then another 1/4 page ad for some of their other telescopes. 
In contrast, there were many ads of retailers showing the Celestron 
telescopes. If I were in the market now and a novice I would be 
influenced to buy Celestron just because of the number of ads. What's 
happening? I know Celestron can also make a good telescope, but what is 
causing the sudden (relatively speaking) proliferation of Celestron. I 
can see two causes: The Celestron telescope has a higher profit margin 
(because they are Chinese telescopes)  for retailers and so they are 
pushing Celestron, or because of the financial troubles Meade is going 
through, maybe there is not enough a supply of their telescopes for 
retailers. Any other ideas? Also, do you think Meade has the right 
strategy by hanging their hat on the 6" ETX-LS? $1500 for the ACF 
version which seems pretty expensive for a 6".
Stan
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