Re: The Cost Of Braille Displays

  • From: "Bryan Schulz" <b.schulz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 09:32:58 -0500

tell that to chris h.

Bryan Schulz

----- Original Message ----- From: "Jacob Kruger" <Jacob.Kruger@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 3:43 AM
Subject: RE: The Cost Of Braille Displays


Target market size...as in they know they won't be selling too many of them this side in the first place, so they ship less, so it costs more per unit, etc. Etc.

My initial jaws licence I bought through a friend of mine in the USA, using his name and address, since it cost me around two thirds of what it would have cost me this side, and he just brought the package over to me when he came to visit his family, and while the local distributors know I handled it this way, they have never really complained, and quite happily then sold me my SMA a little while ago, using my same licence number, but they have, I suppose, taken over the distributor status of my specific licence number/package now...

Same way, and not related to programming at all, but I think that while we pay a subsidised price for a cane, they get supplied free to members of groups like the AFB etc. - I might be confused, but anyway...

OTOH, at least we can buy different colours of canes...LOL!

This also relates to when I bought my KSonar, the nearest distributor to Africa, from Malaysia, wanted literally double what I paid for it, when I bought it directly from the manufacturing company in NZ - they understood, agreed with me, and they even modified the power plug for the recharge unit for me before shipping it, but anyway...like said, that doesn't relate to programming, whereas the Braille display can/does. (the other joke is that in Malaysia, VI guys aren't allowed to make use of credit cards either, so they would have wanted me to go into a bank to do a foreign exchange funds transfer as well - wonder how their one VI deputy government minister at the time felt about that one...?)

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
jacob.kruger@xxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kerneels Roos
Sent: 15 October 2010 10:22 AM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: The Cost Of Braille Displays

 Hi Everyone,

I couldn't help but notice a post in which a claim was made that FS can
manufacture and ship a 40 cell Braille display for around $400.

In South Africa where I live, a new Focus 40 Blue is about the most
affordable 40 cell display one can find and it sells for around
R 27,000which is about
$ 3,857  given a exchange rate of R to $ of 7 to 1.

What is going on here?

But let's double the initial cost to $ 800 just in case, and somewhere,
somehow you still have:
$ 3,857 -  $ 800
= $ 3,057
which is 79.25 % of the final cost.

What is going on here?

The average price however for a 40 cell display is nothing less than
R 31,000 which is
$ 4,428
and the FS Focus 40 Blue is just a really good value item one (in our
market of course) i if you can call it such...

What is going on here?

The system is broken and the system is not benefitting the majority,
therefore the system must change.
The system can only change if the end users exert pressure.

Notice "the system". It's no individual's company as such.

What can we do??

--
Kerneels Roos
Cell: +27 (0)82 309 1998
Skype: cornelis.roos

"Common Sense" is not "Common Practice" .

"The Strawberry Jam Law:
  The wider you spread it, the thinner it gets..."
   -- from the Java Specialist Newsletter, from a book on consulting.

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