Originally Posted by
freetors
Honestly I think this will be good. I can't even imagine the sheer number of SKUs on of all the components that cover at least a dozen different groupsets across road and MTB. At the end of the day I think a more focused product line will help keep prices lower and interchangeability high. Most of shimano's components have pretty trivial differences between groupsets anyway. In a perfect world, I don't really see the need to have more than four groupsets per product line.
You have to remember how Shimano got to this place to begin with. They didn't just wake up one day and decided to make groupsets in 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 speeds simultaneously. The 7 speed groupsets started when Shimano introduced the 7 speed Dura Ace with freehub/cassette and SIS indexed shifting. This was the groupset that propelled Shimano past Campagnolo and Suntour. With time they started making 7 speed groupsets in their lower ranked 600 and then 105 range. And so on and so forth, until today, when 7 speed still survives in the very humble Tourney groupset. It seems pathetic today, but it is the direct spiritual descendent of the world beating Dura Ace 7 speed groupset of yore. Likewise 8 speed got its start when Shimano managed to get the bike makers to widen their frames to 130mm to accommodate 8 cogs in the back. This was combined with the revolutionary Dura Ace brifters. Another blockbuster for Shimano. This time Shimano swept the pro tours leaving all doubters behind. With time the 8 speeds and brifters filtered down to 600, then 105, etc groupsets. Until now when it lives on in the modern Sora groupset. Again- a humble groupset that traces its lineage back to the old master Dura Ace of 1990. So all these lower groupsets are just continuation of older technology, when the upper groupsets goes on to chase the latest and greatest technologies.