Perceived value :-) Kind of like Sun hardware. Sometimes people feel more comfortable when they have paid more, and the market is quite to respond for the need for this warm and cozy feeling.
For the bandwidth solution - the first thing that comes to mind. If collocation is too expensive, get as many cheap 1.5 MBit/s lines as needed with different IP addresses and use iptables + round-robin DNS.
Near-perfect uptime is expensive, the closer you try to get to perfect, and in many cases overvalued. I would venture to say that for a regular web application, if your site beats the reliability of their desktop , most of your clients will be satisfied. Once you reach a certain point, it is wise to spend your resources on the things that matter more especially when those resources are limited.
-- Sasha Pachev AskSasha Linux Consulting http://www.asksasha.com
.===================================. | This has been a P.L.U.G. mailing. | | Don't Fear the Penguin. | | IRC: #utah at irc.freenode.net | `==================================='
