[access-uk] Re: Fw: [vicsireland] Digit-Eyes Audio Labeling System Advances Independence For Visually Impaired

  • From: "Mike Moore" <mikeis@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:33:44 +0100

Hi,

Taking point 4, the low volume of sales, the costs are in
the development and research, the end product is not the
total expense. Soooo by expanding outputs, gives the resources for research, but profits will suffer per item, but still could be good if there is volume.

As we were saying in the thread, if the costing could be
lowered, it would open a wider market of equipment.... I for one would like more equipment to assist me with my needs, but cannot afford it, or justify the price of getting it.

It's not banging a drum, just not sticking our heads in the sand and taking everything we are given at face value.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- From: "Terry Clasper" <terry.clasper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 11:52 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Fw: [vicsireland] Digit-Eyes Audio
Labeling System Advances Independence For Visually Impaired


Tris.
An excellent message which in my humble view accurately
removes the normal
drumb rhetoric from the thread and accurately presents the
truth!
Briliant!

-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Tristram Llewellyn
Sent: 24 June 2010 11:49
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Fw: [vicsireland] Digit-Eyes
Audio Labeling System
Advances Independence For Visually Impaired

I cannot comment on the product named in the subject line
but wished to
respond to the issues of price and development.  The rest
of this will have
me down as some kid of industry apologist but there you
go.

The context in which iPhone applications are being
developed is very
different from that in which Windows screen readers
were/are being produced
like JAWS never mind across other product sectors AT
related products.
People may have their issues with JAWS/FS or any other
facet of access
technology but one must not confuse what may be happening
and why with
respect specifically the iPHone and its apps.

When comparing screen readers like JAWS or System Access
with iPhone apps
one should bear in mind the following:
1 This software deals with an entire operating system that
at least
initially and is still in some cases difficult to make
accessible because it
was never designed to be.
2 JAWS and other screen readers on Windows deal with a
sometimes
uncertain and very diverse application landscape with
differing standards
and compliances across applications that are used.
3 There is far greater complexity in the desktop
environment than a
smartphone.
4 Finally most AT companies I can think of sell in volumes
of hundreds
of thousands at their very best and sometimes for hardware
items in the tens
of thousands worldwide.  Apple for its hardware deals in
the millions of
units.  The same is true of Microsoft and many of the
larger software
houses.

Selling software into the iPhone market is a completely
different
proposition:
1 Apple have already written in the access technology.
2 They fully control the platform end to end and provide
SDK for it
and therefore have been able to establish the rules by
which applications
that go on it play by.

In just those two points a lot has been built upon that
maybe did not work
out.  Had it not been for the work done for Symbian it is
doubtful that an
iPhone could have ever been made or thought of at all.

On the wider point about prices is that since Apple
control the platform and
the standards it has the effect of making the development
process far more
predictable and therefore its cost can be managed and
assessed in a way that
means a product could cost less to develop.  Development
cycles are measured
in a short number of months usually for all but the most
ambitious apps.
Apple further incentivise this by taking care of all the
costly
distribution, accounting and give the developer a certain
70 percent cut in
the sale which they can more or less guarantee from sales.
Effectively by
following down the app store route developers have
practically outsourced
everything except writing code and product development
tasks.

As for artificially high prices in AT industry as a whole,
I wouldn't buy it
because somebody new or existing suppliers would do
everything to try and
undercut to gain sales and expand their business.   For
the most part in the
past this has not happened, occasionally there are smaller
revolutions
though in technology.  However, the idea or even the
sentiment that everyone
in the AT industry is going to be up against the wall when
the revolution
comes I think it is misguided.  What will happen is things
will gradually
change where it is possible through the technology.  The
economics of the
things are generally much harder and longer term projects.

Regards.

Tristram Llewellyn
Sight and Sound Technology
Technical Support
www.sightandsound.co.uk

Mail:
Tristram: tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Technical: Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
General - info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Phone:
Support line: 0845 634 7979

Sight and Sound Technology Limited is a company registered
in England and
Wales, with company number 1408275.

Sight and Sound Technology
Welton House North Wing
Summerhouse Road
Moulton Park
Northampton
NN3 6WD

VAT Number - GB 860 2121 66.

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