As someone who has worked behind the scenes of pricing a product more times than I can recount, here are some things to note:
1. Price almost never depends on cost anymore. Pricing is more likely to be a variable of "What the market will bear." If Apple found out tomorrow that customers were only willing to pay $101.95 for an iPod Nano, that's what they would price it at.
2. What is the breakdown of cost for most products that involve creativity and many individuals:
The initial brains to bring the product together: translates into salaries for top talent
Bunch of CEOs, marketing analysts and other number crunchers to assess profitability of product (more salaries)
The look and feel of a product (more salaries to designers)
Packaging (all that paper that the iPods cost in are printed paper with sparkly bits and pieces attached)
Marketing (salaries for marketing and advertising firm plus the cost of advertisements across various media platforms)
Storefront (montly rental of those prime real estate spots Apple occupies is pretty hefty)
Sales force (that goes and sells into outlets outside of Apple storefronts; more salaries)
So, in the final analysis, much of the money after the initial salaries to the brains that developed the product goes into salaries for other people who package, market, advertise, sell and merchandise the product.
I must be suffering a case of outdated values.
Having many friends who teach Humanities, one of the largest complaints they have is getting their students to engage in a discussion. A professor is not merely a lecturer but someone who acts in a dynamic relationship with his students. Slides, notes and a video is not the value of an education, in my humble opinion.
Rather, I contend that the valud of an education still lies in learning how to think critically, whether one takes notes with a pencil or on a laptop. And in order for students to learn this valuable life-enriching activity, it's important that they think about what is being said by their professor, their fellow-students, process the knowledge and then respond to it.
While computers might be able to faciliate such an activity, I doubt that watching a series of powerpoint presentations is really what is needed in universities.
Slashdot Mirror
As someone who has worked behind the scenes of pricing a product more times than I can recount, here are some things to note: 1. Price almost never depends on cost anymore. Pricing is more likely to be a variable of "What the market will bear." If Apple found out tomorrow that customers were only willing to pay $101.95 for an iPod Nano, that's what they would price it at. 2. What is the breakdown of cost for most products that involve creativity and many individuals: The initial brains to bring the product together: translates into salaries for top talent Bunch of CEOs, marketing analysts and other number crunchers to assess profitability of product (more salaries) The look and feel of a product (more salaries to designers) Packaging (all that paper that the iPods cost in are printed paper with sparkly bits and pieces attached) Marketing (salaries for marketing and advertising firm plus the cost of advertisements across various media platforms) Storefront (montly rental of those prime real estate spots Apple occupies is pretty hefty) Sales force (that goes and sells into outlets outside of Apple storefronts; more salaries) So, in the final analysis, much of the money after the initial salaries to the brains that developed the product goes into salaries for other people who package, market, advertise, sell and merchandise the product.
I must be suffering a case of outdated values. Having many friends who teach Humanities, one of the largest complaints they have is getting their students to engage in a discussion. A professor is not merely a lecturer but someone who acts in a dynamic relationship with his students. Slides, notes and a video is not the value of an education, in my humble opinion. Rather, I contend that the valud of an education still lies in learning how to think critically, whether one takes notes with a pencil or on a laptop. And in order for students to learn this valuable life-enriching activity, it's important that they think about what is being said by their professor, their fellow-students, process the knowledge and then respond to it. While computers might be able to faciliate such an activity, I doubt that watching a series of powerpoint presentations is really what is needed in universities.
I wasn't aware of the First Amendment guaranteeing that intellectual property is free to the people.