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

[Janina Sajka <janina@afb.net>]

I don't buy it. Once upon a time Kurzweil scanning systems cost $10,000 
U.S. My employer, American Foundation for the Blind, worked with Kurzweil 
to develop a loan program whereby blind people could buy this wonderful 
technology. Fortunately, before we issued very many $10K loans, Arkenstone 
came along at about $5,000. Immediately, Kurzweil figured out how to sell 
its systems at the lower price. Of course, this was many years ago, but I 
don't believe things have changed that muhc.

For years, Blazie was the only game in town. So, they sold and sold, and 
neglected to innovate. Thus, today's Blazie based devices are still little 
more than mid-1980's technologies. Yet there prices have not dropped. 
Regretably, the newer crop of devices seem to prefer holding the line on 
price. I don't accept that. It's a travesty, in my view, as proven by the 
Blazie folks who managed to get a couple of company Lear jets before 
selling to Freedom Scientific for $15 Million.

I've heard this all before, but what's so darned proprietary in these 
products? The processors? Heck no. The memory? No, again. Perhaps the 
ethernet and modem and parallel ports? No, again. Maybe the software? Not 
speakup, which is free, or brltty, which is free, nor the os, which is 
free, nor, likely, most of software inside the unit. 

So, I'm left with the box itself and its keys, and the marketing. But, the 
parts involved cost less, and the price hasn't come down. That's wrong, 
just plain wrong.
 On Tue, 13 Nov 2001, A. R. Vener wrote:

> 
> Janina,
> 
> He gave you one. Assistive technology aims for a low quantity 
> market.  If there were milions of blind people pounding on the
> doors to buy this product, competition would pick up, prices would drop
> and market forces would determine the cost.  This doesn't happen
> with assistive technology. The market is small, the prices must
> be set to allow the small customer base (which is businesses and
> rehab programs, NOT the end user) to cover research and development
> costs, marketing costs, business overhead and a profit.  
> 
> Yes, that ugly old P word. Much as some people gnash their teeth and
> raise their voices in fury, nonetheless profit is the only real market
> motivator that allows assistive hardware technology to be developed.
> 
> There's a lot that goes into any commercial product. The fact that they
> use Linux probably helps keep the price down, but there are still
> software development costs, hardware development costs, packaging costs,
> marketing costs, administrative costs.   
> 
> This isn't Woz and Jobs in their garage selling a hand made 
> gizmo that they packed into an aluminum hobby box they got from
> radio shack. It is a commercial product that required physical design, electrical
> design, UL Lab testing, FCC Class B RF emission certification, marketing
> support, administration support, engineering supprot and so forth and
> so on.  All of it pricey. All of it having to be recovered from sales. 
> 
> And not very many sales at that.  
> 
> Computer prices have done down because they sell in the
> tens of millions, even hundreds of millions these days. 
> 
> This product is not going to sell a million.
> 
> 
> Rudy
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Nov 13, 2001 at 04:23:48PM -0500, Janina Sajka wrote:
> > Tommy, wait a minute here, computers cost less today across the board. If 
> > we believe what you say, that we get what we pay for, then they should be 
> > poorer computers, not more powerful ones. This just isn't the case.
> > 
> > So, why are computer prices coming down everywhere except assistive 
> > technology, where they're going up? I understand about refreshable braille 
> > displays. I don't understand at all about the rest of it. The 
> > Papenmeier/Alva web page points out that much linux software is free or 
> > low cost. So, are you guys packaging free software and charging more for 
> > it? Please, this price needs an honest explanation.
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
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