Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!ts
From: ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Why are CD-ROMs so expensive?
Message-ID: <25495@cup.portal.com>
Date: 30 Dec 89 07:47:17 GMT
References: <829@tijc02.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 28

< making a killing on these disks!  (Especially when you
< examine the costs of shipping and printing which will be
< MUCH higher for the book format, which, by the way, costs
< much less than $3000.)
< 
...
< less?  The small technical schools and state schools can't
< afford these prices, and are depriving the students with
< one of the best breakthroughs in research.  (It would be
< quicker for me to drive to the nearest school that does
< have the disk than to do the research using the books,
< and that school may be 6 hours away!)

[ enter off-the-wall speculation mode ]

Hmmm.  Maybe this is why they charge so much.  If one school buys
the disk, then it's quicker for people within six hours of that
school to drive there and use the disk rather than use the books
at their own school.

So when they sell one disk, they risk having all schools within six
hours stop buying the books, so maybe they price the disk high enough
to make up for lost book sales?

Maybe they should drop the books and price the CD-ROM at what the
books now cost.

					Tim Smith