Steven Brooks wrote:
> Gaz got me thinking...
It's good to know not everyone reads my mails and falls about laughing. Hey
guys, a lot of them are deadly serious but are usually ignored, unlike a lot
of my silly mails.
On a semi-private aside did you notice David how I was referred to above?
Feel free to check the original email if you must, but that blows apart your
theory.
> I could not believe my eyes Sunday morning when looking in the paper and
> saw (I think) Circuit City selling the Rio for $99 (!!)
>
> Are they trying to copy Gillette in marketing this, where Diamond takes a
> loss on the equipment --but makes up for it selling flash cards (or
> something equivalent) for it? This *really* is not good for MD if Diamond
> is going to try and use what basically is predatory pricing against Sony.
It is quite possible Diamond would make the unit a "loss-leader", knowing
that many customers will shell out megabucks over and over for the flash
memory cards. After all, supermarkets across Britain sell, for instance
Baked Beans at about 7pence per 440gram tin (roughly 10 US cents). The
tin probably costs almost that much to manufacture, before distribution and
retail outlet costs are added, however if along with your dozen tins of
beans,
you buy a trolley load of other goods it makes sense for the store.
The question is, do most Rio owners actually buy additional flash storage
media, or do they stick with recording whatever they want that day on the
same card? My guess is a lot of Rio owners *do* buy additional cards
at the ridiculous cost compared to MD storage. After all, you've got the
unit, now you want some accessories and what better than extra storage.
Since you've got a computer [or access to one] if you've bought a Rio,
they know you're the sort of guy who will soon be thinking of the extras.
Can I say now that my experience of the computer industry tells me solid-
state cheap mass-storage will always be arriving shortly. Maybe next year.
Always next year or the year after :-)
MD owners, we have nothing to fear from the Rio so long as memory prices
remain anything like their current levels. The main threat to MD is lack of
publicity of it, certainly in Britain except for guys who like to walk
around
with pigeons on them, etc. and I can't help thinking the guys who made that
ad were on drugs. Sony should have binned it, and them.
The Rio is nothing more than a techno-freak's toy, it doesn't give real hifi
quality music, is not viable for storing your music collection (unless
you're
Bill Gates and have tin-ears), it's only advantage is small size and the
ability to shake it like anything on the move-- something you might want to
do if it sounds really c**p :-P
Cheers,
PrinceGaz --"amazed that in 30 years, we still don't have a permanent moon
base, and haven't had a manned landing since 1972 (if there was ever one)"
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