Hi Jonathan, Doesn't it seem to you that while the cost of a 40 sell braille display has fallen by half to 2 thirds in the past 5 years or so, the cost of an 80 cell braille display remains high? I mean, the cost of a focus 80 has been about $8550 Canadian forever, and the cost of a brand new nrailliant BI 80 is 9 grand Canadian, even as the 40 cell ships for about $3200. It also seems to me, as I wrote in my last post, that no one is really doing anything new in the braille display field. The two best feature sets seem to be on the alva bc640 and bc680 which I can't recommend because they fail so much, and on the handytech activebraille which I don't think comes in an 80 though I could be wrong.
I've been asking for an 80 cell that is two lines of 0 for years and being laughed at. As for cost, you may have read this infamous article. http://chrishofstader.com/the-death-of-screen-reader-innovation/ I don't know how much of that article I agree with. For example, it seems to me that the first virtual buffer for web pages was in ardic win vision, but one thing that caught my attention. Chris reported that a packmate 40 cell note taker costed $400 to manufacture back in 2004. I don't know if that's just the hardware or if that takes into account the cost of jaws CE, windows mobile licencing, development of proprietary applications and so on, but either way, if true that's still a significant number. Personally, I have always felt that while comparitively few braille display units are made and the cost of proprietary bords and chasseys comes somewhat into play, the actual cost of making a braille cell is actually really small. This is because you make that one component 40 to 80 times more often than a bord or a chassey. That makes the volume of actual braille cells rendered vast compaired to the number of finished braille displays. Considering all that, I would like to postulate that the manufacturing cost of a braille display actually has a lot less to do with the drop in price than companies like humanware and freedom scientific would like to have us believe. I think it has a lot more to do with real market factors. The paradigm shift for one thing. Given the increasing prevalence of very real and highly effective technologies with accessibility features built in, such as mac, IOS, android, and various distros of linux and taking into account the robustness of products such as NVDA for many consumer needs, funding providers such as governments, insurers, and schools are spending less on some of the basics. Now we can get a viable OCR reading aid for $300 in stead of $1200 which meets the needs of a significant number of users. Now we can get robust screen readers built in or for free bolt on in stead of paying $900 and up. Now we can get robust communication aids for the mute for $300 where we used to spend 2 grand and up. This is forcing the primary target markets of these technologies, IE funders, to take stock and seriously re-evaluate their spending practices. At least as far as ontario is concerned, funding for special needs is being slashed and hacked with no regard for adequacy, service delivery, or user experience. Could it be that manufacturers rode the government gravy train for a long time and are increasingly finding themselves in a position where their product will sit in a warehouse if they don't demonstrate a commitment to cost efficiency? ANother factor as I see it is the emerging mobile market. For once, all these high end companies who claim to be in touch with our needs actually are in touch. IE, they are making a significant number of braille displays in the 12 to 18 cell range that companion with a smart phone. The idea isn't new, but look how many of them have cropped up in the past three years. We're starting to see a significant number of people who have no need for a computer for day to day use. There are also a community of braille users who aren't fast or proficient enough to justify the high cost of a 40 cell display, but who either require braille to communicate or who prefer the benefits of braille on the go. Either way, we suddenly have a userbase with a need for portable braille and a lot of us can actually afford $1200 or so for a device like that which meets our needs. Even high end braille users find that they have a use for a 40 cell display attached to their desktop computer and an 18 cell display attached to their phone, and they find that they can justify the cost at least of the smaller display if a funding agency will help them pay for the larger one. So the 40 cell now has a serious new competitor in the 18 cell or less niche. IE, the focus 14 competes directly with with the focus 40. Manufacturing may have a bit to do with it, but don't you think all these market factors have a lot more impact on braille display pricing than the cost of making one? Best, Erik Burggraaf Ebony Consulting toll-free: 1-888-255-5194 or on the web at http://www.erik-burggraaf.com On 2014-02-25, at 11:21 AM, Jonathan Mosen <[email protected]> wrote: > I think it's also important to remember that there has been downward pressure > on Braille display prices over the last decade. In 2004, you'd be looking at > at least $5,000 USD for a 40 cell display. Manufacturing processes have > improved and you can now get a 40 cell display for $2800 USD. I realise > that's still a lot of money and it would be good to see prices drop further > if manufacturing costs allow, but when you take inflation into account, > that's one massive reduction and manufacturers are not keeping the cost > savings to themselves and making higher profits. > Jonathan Mosen > Mosen Consulting > Blindness technology eBooks, tutorials and training > http://Mosen.org > > On 25/02/2014, at 3:38 am, Eugenia Firth <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi there >> I don't think it's realistic for us to expect braille displays to go down >> that much in the foreseeable future. There's just not that many of us, >> relatively speaking, who need or want them. Even if braille once again >> became the hottest thing for us the way it should be, we're a highly >> specialized crowd and there's a lot of braille displays out there. In my >> case, I actually make more money by spending the money on the braille >> displays. This is because one of my customers can use email for sending me >> work instead of brailling it all up. So, I get the work faster from them. >> This means I can turn in more work as well. >> >> The fewer cells the braille displays have the less they are going to cost. >> The smallest I ever heard of lately is 12 cells, and I don't think it'd want >> one that was less than that. >> >> You might be able to get some used displays. I did once when I needed one >> but didn't have much money. When I bought the used one, I ended up getting >> several hundred dollars off the price. Not only that, but the display has >> lasted and is still going for several years. >> >> Regards, >> Gigi >> >> On Feb 24, 2014, at 8:13 AM, alia robinson <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> I have always wanted a braille display, but imo it is nearly impossible to >>> afford one. I can't see paying *that* much for something, I just can't. I >>> keep reading about cheaper options soon, but cheaper has simply seemed to >>> mean less useable, imo. >>> >>> Alia >>> On Feb 24, 2014, at 8:54 AM, Justin Mann <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Yes it does absolutely. You will need to get the feature pack with it >>>> however in order to get the braille keyboard. However, it is well worth >>>> the investment. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to [email protected]. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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