On Jun 24, 4:36*pm, Michael Ash wrote:
In rec.aviation.student Peter Clark wrote:

On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:15:05 GMT, wrote:
When will it get through your thick skull that avionics software, and
especially IFR avionics software isn't cheap?

Well, let's call a spade a spade. *This is technology that's already
in the G1000 system but Garmin/Cessna are selling "unlock chips" which
turn on the functions that are hiding ($7500 for TAWS-B, I haven't
seen the SB for the SVI yet). *Paying another $18,000 to get that
stuff on an aircraft that lists at $283,500 (for a Skyhawk SP) seems
somewhat hefty on Cessna/Garmin's part when that functionality is
there whether it's turned on or not. *It's not like we're talking
about another $1200 for a remote indicator to IFR certify a 430/530
install in those cockpits that need a remote indicator to qualify for
more than the VFR-only install.

This kind of thing is standard practice. Look at all of the "pro" software
out there with a "basic" or "home" counterpart. It actually takes
significantly *more* effort on the part of the software maker to create
these two distinct versions of the software, but they anticipate making
enough money to make it worthwhile because they're able to better extract
more revenue from people who can pay.

Yep, price-stratification.

The ISP's are kicking themselves right now because they feel that
Internet-Access Service was commoditized and price-homongenized far
too prematurely. They know that some users would be willing to pay
much more than others, for certain patterns of usage, but it is
difficult for them to find a way to stratify the service, now that cat
is out of the bag. They are currently trying to come up with pitiful
excuses to justify the action, even thought it is no secret that the
utilization of existing cable plant is frighteningly low, so low that
companies like http://www.level3.com stays afloat by charging large,
somewhat indifferent customers between 10-100x what those customers
would pay with smaller vendor Level3 sees red on P&L statement every
quarter in hunreds of millions, with a glut of capacity.

Usery occurs at all levels, for both rich and poor. We used to joke
about customers shrieking at outrageously exhorbitant prices for a
large hardware company near Boston. Their salesman standard reply
was..."But it comes with mints!"

It's grating when the functionality is there but disabled because you
haven't paid for activation, but on the other hand if they couldn't get
extra money for the fancier features then they might not develop them at
all. If they did, then they would probably simply charge the full price
for the unit so you'd be out the same amount of money in the end, just
without the option to spend less for fewer capabilities.

I heard frrom a friend who worked a Certain Computer Corporation that
back in the 1980's? they cleverly achieved price stratification for
their new line of mini-computers. They were selling each machine for
about $42,000. They discovered, long after market planning and device
design and just before release that there was an unanticipated market,
customers who wanted the machine at $30,000, but not much more. But
there were already customers willing to pay $42,000, and to make a
seperate product would have taken too long. Instead of redesigning the
machine, they sold the same $42,000 machine, but just before it was
shipped, opened each and filled some of the expansion slots with an
insulating undissolvable glue to prevent expansion-card upgrades by
lower-paying customers. Not very pretty, but it worked.

As the saying goes:

Customer: "How much does it cost?"
Vendor: "How much you got?"

-Le Chaud Lapin-