Realistically, there are a number of reasons why products for blind individuals cost more. Unfortunately, none of the reasons why this is true will go away any time soon. First, the market share is so small. Second, development costs are high. If you wish to develop software or hardware for a highly specific market with its own set of needs, and you want it done right, you've got to pay developers and engineers a decent wage or you can't expect to get good people and this would mean you wouldn't get a good product. Finally, the market for our products is an artificial one. The majority of the products for blind persons which are purchased (at least in the United States) are purchased with funds that come from state and Federal money. Either a state agency or a Federal one is making the purchase. Certainly, there are blind individuals who scrimp and save and make such purchases on their own, but compared to the number of products that are purchased with state or Federal funds, such individuals (again, at least in the United States) represent a small drop in the bucket. Let me give you an example. I want to develop a screen reader. I want to make it affordable for blind people. I hire some crack programmers, some folks to handle shipping, others to handle marketing, some to handle sales. I want to charge $50 for this screen reader. I know that most blind individuals could most likely afford $50. So, off we go. I have had to borrow a significant sum of money in order to begin this project, and I am now finally ready with a decent product that is packaged well and that is quite functional and perhaps innovative. So, how many will I sell? If I sell in a year's time 5000 copies, how much money will this leave me to pay all of my employees? How long will I remain in business? Obviously, what I have written is extremely simplistic, I am merely attempting to illustrate in a small way what developers like PDI and others deal with. Could prices come down? I believe they could. I don't think they will ever be inexpensive, but I believe that all of the companies out there who are creating software and hardware for the blind could cut a small amount off their prices and get along just fine. Mainstream software, on the other hand, sells millions of copies. Microsoft sells copies of Windows with every computer that happens to use its operating system. There are numerous complex licensing schemes, and this message is off-topic enough and long enough that I see no reason to go into these. However, Microsoft is selling millions of dollars worth of software each and every day. They can easily provide free updates, and therefore they do. Not to mention the fact that the majority of the updates which Microsoft is in fact providing are updates that correct security issues that their development teams never should have overlooked! I am not in favor of the high prices, however I am not optimistic when it comes to a significant price drop. Thanks for reading, and sorry for the length of this post.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rhonda Clark Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 10:41 AM To: Braillenote List Subject: [Braillenote] changing places Hi List, it's Rhonda Clark. First of all, having taught the blind, I'd hate to see more blind people just so we could have cheaper equipment. It is correct, the more users you have, the cheaper the equipment. I'd hate to see the price of people being blind so that this could happen. I'm excited about the compact flash coming down. I've been hearing for quite a while, since my teaching days in Utah, that it won't be long until the floppy disk is a thing of the past. It's hard to say, but I imagine that's correct. We will all be using the compact flash, and that will make a cheaper price. Rhonda Clark. > ----- Original Message ----- >From: "Sarah Cranston" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: "Braillenote List" <[email protected] >Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 10:30:25 -0500 >Subject: RE: [Braillenote] ,*ang+ ,places >It does sound great, and in a perfect world that's exactly how it would be. Unfortunately it's not a perfect world and one reason for this is that there are relatively few blind people, compared with the numbers of sighted people. If there were more blind people, there would be a larger market for our specialized products and they would cost less. > Another point on this subject is that prices for all kinds of equipment, both specialized and mainstream, are coming down. Rumor has it that there will soon be a sharp decrease in the prices for CompactFlash cards, and this will benefit all of us when it happens. >Incidentally, I have a suggestion for anyone who uses a BT to write Email. When writing a subject line, it is necessary to write in uncontracted Braille so people who are using a PC will not be confused by strange symbols showing up instead of letters. For example, an s h sign will show up as a percent sign, an i n g will show up as a plus sign, c h will show as an asterisk, e d will show up as a dollar sign, t h e will show up as an exclamation mark, and so on. Please try to understand that I am not trying to be rude or mean with this suggestion, only that I am trying to prevent confusion for those who use a computer to retrieve Email. >Sarah >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of charles and >sharon campbell >Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 9:53 AM >To: Braillenote List >Subject: [Braillenote] ,*ang+ ,places >Hi List, >Here's an interesting concept to chew on. >Suppose our so-called "Specialized Equipment", BrailleNotes, updates, caller ID's, well, any equitment, were to be reduced in price by half, and the so-called "unspecialized equipment" for the sighted, such as computers, updates, caller ID's, etc. were raised in price? The economy would flourish, visually impaired persons would smile, sighted people would grumble, but maybe learn how it feels. Doesn't that sound great!! >___ >To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit >http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote >___ >To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit >http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
