Re: the Papenmeir device that was supposed to be coming out

[Brent Harding <bharding@doorpi.net>]

Probably all of it, the braille display of course. The way it's designed
and what's in it. Blazie probably developed 99% or more of theirs from the
ground up, the oS, the processor, all the chips in it, quite a lot for a
niche market.
At 05:39 PM 11/13/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Tommy, what did Papenmeier/Alva develop on this product? The OS? The 
>telecomm progs that talk modem and ethernet? Maybe the word fileformat 
>converters? Perhaps the calendars? What?
>
> On Tue, 13 Nov 2001, Tommy Craig 
>wrote:
>
>> Well I guess I didn't make my point very well. The reason prices on
>> computers are dropping is because they are sold by the hundreds of
>> thousands. For example, Dell computers sells more computers in one hour
than
>> A blindness company is likely to sell in five years. When a manufacturer
>> develops a new product it cost a lot of money in or&d. It takes months if
>> not years to developed a new product line and it takes a team of dedicated
>> and talented people to do it. These people don't work for free. As a matter
>> of fact they usually get paid very well. It also cost an amazing amount to
>> make test models and to developed a case to put it all in. If Dell spends
>> $800,000 to developed a new product and it sells 100000 of them, it only
>> cost them $8 per unit to developed it. If on the other hand a blindness
>> company spends $800,000 to developed a new product and only sells a
thousand
>> of them, then it cost $800 per unit to developed it. Also manufacturing
cost
>> are much less when you produce tens of thousands of something than when you
>> produce hundreds of units.
>> 
>>     The next area of course is sales and support. If you go to Office Depot
>> and buy a computer, the salesperson spends maybe ten minutes with you,
takes
>> your money and you go home and will probably never see that person again.
>> When I sell a product, It is usually after making a trip to see the
>> individual, in many cases tens or hundreds of miles away. Once I get to the
>> person, I usually spend at least a couple of hours showing the product,
>> answering questions and teaching the person at least the basics of how to
>> use the device. Then once I make the sale, I usually spend time on the
phone
>> answering questions and helping the user get the most out of their product.
>> I'm not complaining. I believe that I owe it to my customers to make sure
>> they have the best experience possible with my products, but it is still a
>> far different relationship than people have with their department store.
>> 
>>     You also state that the price of Braille displays is not dropping
but is
>> instead increasing. This is certainly not the case. When I first started
>> working with Papenmeier displays, the IB-80 cost around $18,000. Now a
>> comparable model sells for around $10,000. It's still not cheap, but it is
>> certainly less expensive than it used to be. We have also increased the
>> reliability of our products. For example, back then you got a one year
>> warranty, now our displays come with a three year warranty. This is also
>> just the opposite of what most companies are doing. For example, Dell used
>> to provide a three year warranty with all of their systems. They now
offer a
>> one year warranty and charge extra for additional years.
>> 
>>     Don't get me wrong. I do wish the products I sell were much cheaper. I
>> would love to see the price cut in half or even better. I don't believe it
>> will happen anytime soon though. You also ask about the statement
concerning
>> Linux software. The point is that with the ELBA you will be able to run off
>> the shelf software that is free or very inexpensive. You can download a
>> title and use it instead of or in addition to what we provide.
>> Tommy
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>
>-- 
>	
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>
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>
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