Word: xilion
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Competing for our attention, on the table is a giant, 33-lb. version of the company's new star product, the Xilion, which in its oversize form suggests a fortune teller's ball. The commercial version is pea size, perfect for necklaces and dangling earrings. True, it's brilliant, throwing off hundreds of sparkles?but unique? Exactly how unique can a rhinestone...
Langes-Swarovski explains that the Xilion is cut with 14 facets instead of the usual eight. "But it's not actually the number that's the most important; it's the angle of the facets," says Buchbauer, pointing out a pattern in which sizes and shapes alternate. "Several years back, we looked around the marketplace and saw our competitors getting stronger and advancing technically. There was market demand for a new, more brilliant stone. We had always claimed to be the innovation leader, so we knew it was time to bring out the next generation...
Competitors could certainly copy the Xilion, but building the machines to produce high volumes?Swarovski says its loose-stone production is in the double-digit billions?is the obstacle. "You could hire 200,000 people in China, and they would do the same quantity for probably a lower price," says Buchbauer. "But you could never, ever come out with the same quality. You could never achieve the same standardization...
Besides new cuts like the Xilion, the company innovates by developing coatings that produce various effects to make the beads more pearl-like or more metallic looking, for example. New colors or even variations in coloration make the stones milkier or more opaque in appearance. Recently the company has experimented with new materials, applying crystal glazes to silicon or weaving the tiniest crystals into mesh...
| 1 |