Yes there is something wrong, however correcting it would require more than anyone will most likely accomplish. How many PDAs would you imagine Hewlett Packard sells? And, no matter how many they sell, how many other devices, e.g. personal computers, scanners, plotters, printers etc. do you believe they sell?? The bottom line is that HP or any other major company has more capital to invest, and can afford a much smaller profit margin per item since they will be selling considerably more of whatever they manufacture. Therefore, the only way that products which are specifically designed for blind or visually impaired persons are going to come down substantially in price is for their sales to increase dramatically. I cannot see how this would happen. For better or worse, we live in a capitalistic world. No one creates and markets products as a service, they do it in order to make money. If PDI could sell several hundred thousand Braillenotes, they could afford to reduce the cost to you and I considerably. Having said all that, I believe that all of the companies in this field could afford to cut prices somewhat, but not beyond a certain point. You must pay engineers, software developers, you must pay for molds, refreshable Braille cells, etc. There are likely millions of pounds and/or dollars invested in such devices. If PDI doesn't get some of that investment back, (in other words, if they don't make a profit) they won't be in business long. It isn't fair, it isn't easy to understand (apparently) however it is the way it is. I realize that most of us can never afford such devices. However, most of these devices are not purchased by blind individuals, at least here in the United States. They are purchased by components of either state or Federal government. Therefore, the economy that is created is an artificial one. Once upon a time there was only one line of note taking devices. They had no competition and they sold quite well. Then there came competition. Has this caused a serious reduction in price? No! Has it meant that the devices that are available contain more functionality? Yes. However, as long as state and Federal agencies purchase the majority of these products, there will never be any real financial reason for the price to come down. If the market cannot support high prices, they drop. If it can, they don't. I do not believe that it would be realistic to assume that the cost of PDAs for blind persons will ever be as low as they are for sighted people, again nobody would make enough money to make such investments worth their while. The bottom line, unfortunately is the bottom line. People don't create and engineer devices because of their deep and abiding love for the blind, they do it to make a buck. I wish there were ways to change this, and if any of you can suggest some, I commend you!
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Doug Lawlor Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2004 12:24 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: RE: [Braillenote] USB port on BN? At 04:03 PM 29/07/2004, you wrote: >The Braillenote is not and never has been marketed as a lap top. The >pocket pcs >That are used by sighted persons are not lap tops. >A pocket PC does not cost a quarter of the price of a Braillenote. > >One of the things that makes the Braillenote the device it is the fact >that a person with limited computer skills can learn to do many tasks >with the Braillenote that would seem daunting were this same individual >to attempt such work on a PC. >Lap tops are not note takers, or for that matter, PDAS. >I never stated that we would have to loose the functionality that we have >all come to love about the BrailleNote family. I would like to see the >ability to connect standard hardware such as usb printers, scanners, and >so on. I can not see why the Braillenote could not run something like >Windows XP Embedded so we then could have functionality such as OCR >scanning. Sure this hardware as it stands now is useful to a lot of people >including me. but it does to little for the price we have to pay for it. >If I could not have gotten a grant to buy my BN I would not be able to >have one. On the other side of the coin if something major happened to my >BN tommorrow I could not afford to fix it and would be stuck with a >useless paperweight. There is clearly something wrong when a sighted >person can buy a PDA to meet their needs for about $600 and we as blind >people have to pay over $8000 for less functionality. Doug >-----Original Message----- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Doug Lawlor >Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2004 9:59 AM >To: Braillenote List >Subject: RE: [Braillenote] USB port on BN? > > >I have to disagree that the braillenote will never be a pc or a laptop. >Todays new motherboards are getting very small. Sure we won't see a >CD/DVD >rom drive but I can't see any reason why we can't have a hard disk, USB >Port, VGA monitor port, and conventional memory. I think for the price >we >pay for these machines we should expect laptop functionality and no >less! > >Doug > >At 06:31 PM 28/07/2004, you wrote: > > >We can say that the BN family should have been more mainstream, should > >have USB, should be better organized, should be perfect. It's still >just > >a notetaker, it isn't, and never will be, a PC or laptop. There's only >so > >much room in the machine, and only so much we can afford to > >pay. Something had to give somewhere, and not everyone is satisfied >with > >what we have. It's still a great little machine! > > > >-----Original Message----- > >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Victory > >Associates LTD, Inc. > >Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 3:58 PM > >To: Braillenote List > >Subject: Re: [Braillenote] USB port on BN? > > > > > >Hello Richard: > > > >In my opinion, hind sight should have been 20-20!! How so? Before the > >advent of the BrailleNote, PulseData knew that USB ports were in vogue. >The > >company should have incorporated them into the BrailleNote from the >onset. > >However, there is always a reason to charge more, so we'd constantly go >to > >the drawing boards to re-do all the evaluations again. > > > >Sincerely, > >Olusegun > > > > > >___ > >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 > > > > > > > >--- > >Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. > >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > >Version: 6.0.725 / Virus Database: 480 - Release Date: 19/07/2004 > > >___ >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 > > > >--- >Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). >Version: 6.0.725 / Virus Database: 480 - Release Date: 19/07/2004 ___ 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
