Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!apple!amdahl!pccuts!tat
From: tat@pccuts.pcc.amdahl.com (Tom Thackrey)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Ethics of crippler circuitry
Message-ID: <750@pccuts.pcc.amdahl.com>
Date: 10 Feb 89 00:16:28 GMT
References: <7143@pyr.gatech.EDU> <11630010@hpsmtc1.HP.COM> <4602@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Reply-To: tat@pccuts.pcc.amdahl.com (Tom Thackrey)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale  CA
Lines: 22

In article <4602@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> jackg@tekirl.LABS.TEK.COM (Jack Gjovaag) writes:
>
>The ethics of adding "crippling" circuitry to an otherwise high
>performance machine to fill a gap in a product line is not at all
>clear to me.  It certainly seems absurd if we expect that the
>price of a machine is directly related to its manufacturing cost
>but if we assume that what a customer is purchasing is functionality
>with no regard to how it is obtained, then cripplers make some
>sense.
>
Price is a function of supply and demand, not just manufacturing 
cost.  If a manufacturer can "cripple"
a fast machine to make a slower and CHEAPER machine and still make
reasonable margins, where's the problem?  In the case of computers, the
manufacturing costs of such machines may be far less than the design
costs of creating a new machine with the lower performance.  Many large
computer models only sell a few hundred copies in the life of the product.

-- 
Tom Thackrey sun!amdahl!tat00

[ The opinions expressed herin are mine alone. ]