Comment A new business model for hardware? (Score 2) 230
What we might be seeing here is a new business model in the hardware industry.
Previously, as all wintel boxes were pretty much the same, profit margins had to be pretty low. Raise your price by $100, and the consumer will buy a similar box from someone else.
But with the iMac, the Z1, the Palm V, and the funky-looking prototypes that are coming out, manufacturers are giving consumers a reason to spend an extra $100: differently shaped plastic. Before, they only had "latest" and "fastest" to achieve the "wow" factor, but everyone else can sell the latest and fastest too. Only you can sell a case you've copyrighted. And, if I'm reading the Z1's specs right, you can bilk the hell out of the customer for it.
We might even be entering a time like the '50s of Big Iron. At the time most U.S. auto profit came out of large, overpriced cars that people didn't really need. If this _is_ the beginning of a trend of cute, chic, overpriced computers that people don't really need...
...well, suffice to say that despite all the iMac's comparisons to the VW beetle, within their respective industries they would be absolute opposites.
-crazy uncle dave
Previously, as all wintel boxes were pretty much the same, profit margins had to be pretty low. Raise your price by $100, and the consumer will buy a similar box from someone else.
But with the iMac, the Z1, the Palm V, and the funky-looking prototypes that are coming out, manufacturers are giving consumers a reason to spend an extra $100: differently shaped plastic. Before, they only had "latest" and "fastest" to achieve the "wow" factor, but everyone else can sell the latest and fastest too. Only you can sell a case you've copyrighted. And, if I'm reading the Z1's specs right, you can bilk the hell out of the customer for it.
We might even be entering a time like the '50s of Big Iron. At the time most U.S. auto profit came out of large, overpriced cars that people didn't really need. If this _is_ the beginning of a trend of cute, chic, overpriced computers that people don't really need...
...well, suffice to say that despite all the iMac's comparisons to the VW beetle, within their respective industries they would be absolute opposites.
-crazy uncle dave
