Arno Hautala <[email protected]> squaked out on Wed 03-Aug-2011 10:52 > On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 12:34, objectwerks inc <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I am betting that thumb drives SW distribution is in the same order of >> magnitude as optical media distribution. When you consider how many free >> thumb drives I have received (even as junk mail by snail mail) as marketing >> devices (Nissan sent me a 1GB one not long ago to show off some new vehicle) >> they cannot be that expensive and I bet the equipment necessary to "produce" >> the recorded device is cheaper than the stamping of optical media. > > There is no chance that thumb drives are cheaper to produce and > distribute than it is to burn and distribute a DVD. > > Even the bulk prices that I've seen for a 4GB drive are around $7.
You don’t need to go with a full fledged thumb drive with a cover and a case around it. You need a USB connector and a bit of Flash memory and that’s it. You can get those made for about $1 I’d bet. Even if you’re Apple and you want to to it ‘right’ and make it look like an Apple thing, you’re probably not looking at more than $2. > Let's say Apple can get a ridiculous discount and drop that to $2. I > can buy a 100 pack of DVDs for $30. That is going to go down further > for bulk orders, but it's already at $0.3 Right, but 1) they are not buying ‘blank’ DVDs, they are buying DVD blanks (Sound like the same thing, isn’t at all the same thing) for a pressing machine (that is, the drives aren’t burned like a DRD writer, they are pressed) and those machines are EXPENSIVE. They then have to be packaged in a 5.5” box that could hold 10 thumb drives, if not 20. Once the discs are pressed, they are useless for anything else. the software cannot be updated. Excess inventory must be destroyed. > And I seriously doubt it's cheaper to assemble USB media than it is to > press a disc. There’s a lot more costs involved that the simple manufacturing costs: shipping, storage, warehousing, distribution, and shelf space are all considerations, not to mention the WORM aspect of the DVD pressing. > Sure, a 1GB drive might be around $0.5 for a large bulk order, but > there's no way they've got anything on optical. Any company that > decides to follow Apple and ditch optical media is not going to > consider USB distribution when they can offer network as a primary > avenue. Sure, network is going to be the best option. But now that you’ve moved everyone you can to network distribution, what is the best option for everyone else? Is it a DVD pressing or a USB stick? I say the many advantages to the USB thumb drive outweigh the cost factor for DVDs. -- Yeah, Nick. Nick's the kinda guy you can trust. Nick's your buddy Nick's the kinda guy you drink beers with. The kinda guy that doesn't care if you puke in his car. Nick. _______________________________________________ MacOSX-talk mailing list [email protected] http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk
