Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Price / Quality Ratio
As people compare computers today vs. computers of thirty years ago, two things usually dominate the comments: 1) how much smaller and faster computers are today, and 2) how much cheaper today's computers and peripherals are. Of course, they mean "cheaper" in the sense of less costly. However, just like adjusting prices for inflation, with computers we need to adjust prices for quality, because computers also have become "cheaper" over the years in the sense of "shoddy." I can remember when a "Hard Drive" was an external device about the size of a microwave oven, had a capacity of 50 megabytes, and a price tag of about $5000.00. (These were the days before the PC - such a contraption typically connected to a "mini-frame", such as the DEC PDP11-23) These days you can't get a Hard Drive any smaller than 80 gigabytes (more than a thousand times larger), and the cost is only about a hundred bucks. We tend to be wowed over the price / capacity ratios of then compared to now. But some of the wow diminishes when we stop to factor in the price / quality ratio. That big, old, expensive, external Hard Drive would run forever. You connect it, configure it, and then it just runs. After years have gone by, it still is running. Now, I realize that there are a lot of the new, smaller, cheaper Hard Drives that also run reliably for years. But, there is a scene these days that is all too common, and which was a rarity in the old days. Anyone reading this blog probably is familiar with it: The damn thing doesn't work - spend hours on the telephone trying to convince the Vendor that it is defective - if successful, they will ship a replacement - all of which is assuming that it still is under warranty. If warranty has expired, then you simply shell out another hundred bucks or so for a replacement really-small-really-fast-super-cheap component. It seems that all the manufacturers are caught up in the price war. Maybe I am too old and nostalgic, but I have to wonder whether there just might be a market out there for some rather pricey but well-made and reliable computer hardware.
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Unfortunately I don't see any market for a higher priced product. Most everything is based on price. Everyone I talk to is only interested in how cheap can I get it? I talk to people all day every day. It could be a single home user all the way up to a corporate network user. Everything has to be quoted and it always is the "low bidder" that gets the job. You might remember the long standing client we had for years. We lost that client for one reason only. The Price! It didn't matter that our equipment was superior to Dell's. And it didn't matter that we were local and our competitor was from out of town. Nor did it matter that we had an 8 to 10 year history with that client with a proven track record. At the end of the day it doesn't matter who you are or what you have to offer but only "how cheap can I get it". This is why, as you mention, we have such problems today getting anything done or getting anything to work correctly. And when it fails its like pulling teeth to get it taken care of. Everything is sold so cheaply and therefore manufactured so cheaply that there is no room to support the product once it is sold.
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