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How Much Are You Paying For Electronics Labels?
An anonymous reader writes "Interesting article on CNET about different consumer electronics brands selling identical OEM products, often at wildly different price points. The author also examines the phenomenon of manufacturers releasing "consumer" and "industrial" versions of the same product -- with the cheaper version aimed at businesses. Probably old news for the slashdot crowd, but it's worth reading to see how much Middle America is overpaying. Caveat emptor, indeed." And there are also product lines where the expensive version is aimed at business buyers, because a higher price implies greater credibility.
The price difference might be caused by the different level of services attached to a product.
On the other hand, businesses are more likely to buy in bigger quantity, or at least buying more regularly.
Uselessful technology (Air-Charged
... but this is not a big deal. The example cited in the article should come as no surprise to anyone: a "business class" plasma TV without speakers or a tuner would naturally be cheaper than the "consumer" version which has these features.
The extra $330 dollars is the value to the consumer for not having to go and buy a separate tuner and sound system.
This is one of those "filler" stories you see on websites when there isn't enough real news for real journalism.
about the same as those Nike trainers,starbucks coffee,Gap Shirt,Armani Trousers
its called branding, the selling of dreams
For example, the Panasonic 42" plasma had a "consumer" and an "industrial" version. However, the article pointed out that the industrial version was $350 lower than the consumer version while glossing over the fact that the industrial version lacked an HDTV tuner, and built-in speakers. Clearly, the addition of those items justifies some increase, and 2-400 is reasonable given the cost of HDTV tuners as separate components.
In addition, he neglected to mention the difference in warranty duration (and the difference in customer service you might expect between a "name" brand such as RCA and a "generic" such as Coby).
No, really! I'm one of the *good* lawyers!
This whole article seems rather pointless. So much to the fact that any high school student who has took an economics class (required at many high schools) will know this simply as price disrimination. It happens in many different markets. Why would the technology market be any different?
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Brendan
People like to think there exists "out there" some "objectively correct" price.
That's a complete myth. The "correct price" is what the seller is willing to take and the buyer is willing to give. Everyone is different.
Some people value a product more than others and are willing to pay more. By creating different versions of essentially the same product, the maker can get appropriate compensation for those differences in value.
What's interesting is that something can be uneconomic at all single price points but profitable to all with discriminatory pricing.
When marginal cost is considerably lower than average cost it is possible to consrtuct scenarios with counter-intuitive properties, including competition being bad for consumer prices.
but the practice exists in many fields.
A good example is medical devices and products. All you need to do is slap the term "medical" ona product and double or triple the price. Cheap rolls of 22" wide paper become exam table covers, manila folders become medical chart binders, and medical billing software companies always try to force you to buy their own equipment, all for a little extra lagniappe.
Don't even get me started on the price of a tablet of acetaminophen given in the hospital.
Seriously. CmdrTaco: hire a graphic designer. Now. If you're too cheap to get a real one, hire an intern.
The fact that someone with the title "CIO" would utter such an abominably stupid thing is an affront to everything I hold dear. I bet he knows his politics damn well, though.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
The lack of contrast in the design elements is rather difficult on the eyes. On the default scheme, my eyes can easily track through each individual comment. Now they have to hunt more to find the comments and subjects.
This theme is pretty (good job with the gradient logo!) but it's too low-contrast. White text on light brown/gold and light brown/gold text on white are both tough to read. Slashbots: please fix!
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
" I noticed a similar phenomenon when buying light bulbs. In comparing the store brand with the name brand (philips I think) I noticed that not only were the packages were almost identical in feel & construction, but the packages had the location of manufacture printed on them. Both brands were manufactured in the same city."
You know? I just had a thought. Why doesn't someone complie a database of equivalency for products, and put it online?
Well, it's not like you can go to the clerk and say : " Hey, I know your ISO 400 is not really more expensive to process. I want it cheaper."
So the conclusion is not: "they charge what people are willing to pay."
It's : "they charge what they want and we don't have any choice but to pay, or do it ourselves."
Wise men make proverbs, but fools repeat them. - Samuel Palmer
Don't bitch; just benefit. Every time you buy the cheap version, remember you're getting a discount because you were subsidized by other people who were too dumb to realize the products are the same and paid more. Do a bit of research, apply a bit of brains, save money. Think of it as a tax on stupidity which benefits you even though you're not paying it, like a state lottery being used to fund public works.
I've been eyeing this combo CDRW & DVD drive for my CD burning / DVD watching needs. I was in Futureshop about a month back, and noticed the same exact drive in their computer section, above a sign that read this price. I assumed that this was wrong, and pointed it out to the guy behind the counter.
"No," I'm told, "that's the correct price."
"But I can buy that exact same drive for about $75 online - don't you think that $120 is a little expensive?"
Once the guy finds out that it was NCIX that had this price, he starts ranting - yelling basically - about authorized distributors, and how as an authorized distributor, Futureshop doesn't have to match that price - besides, NCIX doesn't guarantee their products!
"Yes they do," I tell him, "plus they don't yell at their customers for asking questions."
At this point I walked away to pay for my purchase, and the cute girl at the register asked me how my visit to Futureshop was - I replied that it would have been great except for the jerk in computers, who I pointed out to her.
"That's the manager, sir."
In-effing-sane. Like I said to my buddies when I recounted this story, there's a serious problem somewhere in the supply chain when the same product costs 50% more at one location than another - somebody is getting screwed, and given the choice between the two retailers, I'm going for the one that causes less damage to my wallet.
I don't need to be made to look evil. I can do that on my own. - Christopher Walken
We are entering an age of shitty quality everywhere. Look at mercedes, their cars used to last 10 years. Now they are being recalled a year after manufacturing. It's getting to the point where even brands don't really matter. No quality is associated with the price. We're just chucking up cash cause marketing said so.
I have that camera. The electronics are by Panasonic, the lens by Leica. As far as I know, both cameras are the same product, just sold under different brands. There may be some small differences, I don't know for sure, but I doubt it. I think they just decided to team up and both come up a product that they can sell seperately, but where they're each in their core competencies.
I wonder how old you might be. I'm 55 and, since first perusing Usenet in 1979, I have periodically seen posts expressing the exact same sentiments at pretty much regular intervals throughout those 25 years. Recent years have not particularly increased their frequency.
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
Hmm. Sucktastic is not exactly accurate, and neither is the parent.
Sager does not make laptops for Alienware. The truth is that both Sager and Alienware obtain their laptops from the same Asian supplier, Clevo Computer Co. of Taiwan.
And speaking as an owner of a Sager8886, I think that the Clevo products have their niche. They are not designed to be ultra-portable notebooks for business roadwarriors. They are supposed to be fairly mobile workhorses. They make some sense for power gamers who frequent W/LAN parties and for developers who need every last scrap of processing power. I bought mine originally, because I work with large client-server apps. I used every bit of CPU. The performance was very good, and the only problem I encountered in 18 months of 10+ hours of hard use was a shoddy backlight for the LCD. This problem happened twice though and was pretty goddam annoying.
However, I have recently shifted my thinking. My workplace purchased a stacked IBM ThinkPad T40P for me. It's light and wonderful. My Sager8886 is now becoming a heavy (8.5 lbs) computer that I don't want to use. If it were lighter, I'd lend it to my girlfriend, or it could be my Linux road companion. If it were a desktop, I'd upgrade it and use as a file server or testbed. But it fits in some middle-ground.
From now on, I'm going to buy the lightest, slimmest laptop that will accomplish what I need it to do. In 30 months, when that laptop is no longer able to play the fastest game and might not be a good development environment, it WILL still be a useful, convenient laptop for word processing or web browsing.
That's my opinion.
This is essentially the #1 reason why you won't see me out shopping, expect on very rare occasions... Shopping, comparing specs and prices is difficult enough without having to look-up the circuit diagrams for each product to make sure you're not getting crap from someone else.
I bought a Sony CD-RW that turned out to be a Lite-On... If I had wanted a Lite-On, I would have got one, for less... Instead, I try to go with a halfway decent brand, and get screwed. Not just because it's rebranded, but I avoid no-name junk because it typically has problems. Without going into details, Audio-CDs have to be burned at 4X, and you can't get it to burn at any speed other than 4X or 40X.
So, what's the end result of rebranding???
I'm not buying ANYTHING from Sony EVER AGAIN. I don't trust any name brands, so if I'm going to get crap, might as well be the cheapest, from a no-name. I don't have any way to know I'm not getting crap, so I buy nothing from anyone until I REALLY need it. I don't have a DVD-RW yet because of this.
Basically, I'm avoiding buying anything until I find some way I can know I'm not getting junk. I would go on a shopping-spree if there was a store around here that made sure they don't carry junk. Instead, absolutely every store has given-in to the Made-in-China junk market, and sells whatever is cheapest, even if it doesn't work as advertised. I would stick to a certain brand if they were consistently good, and reasonably priced (not necessarily cheap, just not insanely expensive).
Okay, I'm more or less ranting now, but it's true. Companies are all to happy to sell-out their long-term future in exchange for a short-term jump in revenue, just long enough that they can sell-off their stock, or find a job at another company they can pump and dump.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Those ads in the sunday paper where they promise to give you the product free/10% cash back/whatever if you find the same product at a competitor for less? They can do this because the manufacturers make essentially identical products but sell them with different model numbers to competing electronics stores -- so the models are unique to the chain carrying them. Usually this is called price protection and it's something the supplier will often guarantee in a specific market.
While manufacturers will give a store a special model #, that's not common nor the reason for price match promise. Stores do the price match because:
1. It convinces customers to buy now because it "protects" them from seeing the same thing elsewhere for less - in economic terms, it lowers the search cost because you don't have to check every store fo rthe best deal before you buy, making it rational to buy now.
2. More importantly, it keeps prices higher without collusion. Why? Beacuse each store nows if it lowers its prices, their competitors will not only match them but give the buyer an extra 10% - which drives the sale to the competitor unless the lower priced store drops it price to match the 10% extra - reducing the return even more. Even then, you can often still go to the competitor, show the receipt and get yet another 10%. As a result, both store wind up with less revenue - and one not only loses a sale but has the return costs as well.
It also prevents stores from dropping prices unilaterally, because if they lower their price, they also have to refund the diference to their customers as well - ever notice the "even if it's us that is cheaper" wording - that enforces maintaining price points (and predictablity in pricing for stoires) because to lower them is to reduce your revenue retroactively.
The net result is that it makes sense to keep prices higher and match them rather than engage in a price war. Everyone makes more money that way.
So why do special model #'s? Well, imagine you are a chain of electronic stores who has a major discount chain as a competitor. The discount chain can sell DVD palyers as a loss leader or at lower prices to drive business or because they have a more efficient supply chain. If they have a different model number you no longer compete with them directly - anyone who wants a price match is informed that they sell a different model - and you can expalin why yours is better and you should buy it here.
Sales is all about psychology and economics, and your best bet is to convince women the product will make them prettier / slimmer / younger looking and men that it will help them get laid.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Actually, I'm responding to your sig.. Republicans == Democrats, or didn't you know? I mean, they're all paid by the same lobbyists.
Smeghead every day of the week.
Good lord, indeed. I work where they build (or have built, in the case of Olds) versions of all those names. Buick offers thicker glass, and an engine/bodystyle combination that's available individually on the other models, but can only be combined with Buick. That's the complete list of substantial differences. Same chassis, same engines, same transmission, same assembly line, same people putting it together.
Price Discrimination is fairly common in almost all industries. But it is extremely common in industries where there are large initial capital requirements in R&D, compared to the marginal cost of production (such as microprocessors, automobiles, and pharmaceuticals).
Before 200 years ago or so, price discrimination was standard operating procedure, as most products were haggled for. The seller would haggle to determine the highest price the buyer is willing to pay.
The industrial revolution, telecommunications advances, and the rise of the catalog store (such as Sears) made it less advantageous to haggle with every customer, and the standard price became popular. Imagine haggling with your checkout clerk at the local grocery store.
But price discrimination never went away. "Price skimming," charging higher prices to early adopters, is standard with consumer electronics. Brand and off-branding is another means of price discrimination, as is pricing by region or country.
I'd rather have someone who can admit his mistakes and adapt to new situations.
Dubya's going to get us all killed if he doesn't start trying to win the war of ideas with the Muslim world.