Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!sco!seanf
From: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Ethics of crippler circuitry
Message-ID: <2259@scolex.sco.COM>
Date: 10 Feb 89 20:28:58 GMT
References: <7143@pyr.gatech.EDU> <11630010@hpsmtc1.HP.COM> <4602@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Reply-To: seanf@scolex.UUCP (Sean Fagan)
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Lines: 23

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.

The idea is that the company spends x millions on development for the
machine, and then has to price the machine at y dollars to make a profit.
However, by selling a slower one for z dollars, the company can sell more of
them, and thus help recoup the cost.  Also, they can sell upgrades for alpha
dollars, which also help.

Does it work?  I don't know, but I think it does.  If people don't like it,
competitors can come and try to force the price down (Amdahl has done this,
I think, and so have the "crayettes").

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world,
seanf@sco.UUCP   |  the master calls a butterfly."  -- Richard Bach
(408) 458-1422   | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'.