Comments on: A Digression on Marketing

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:33:20 +0000

Price discrimination I understand, but the usual idea is that the customer willing to pay more gets a little bit more, even if it’s at a ridiculous mark-up: $0.70 for whipped cream, $80 for gold-plated cables, $600 for undercoating, etc. Not being able to run HP-UX, a 220 volt power requirement, a bigger box – by any physical measure those are minuses, not something you normally pay more for (the random blinking lights, of course, who wouldn’t pay more?). I just like how perceived worth can get so out of line with reality and “fashion” of a sort even applies to business computers.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:26:33 +0000

> Have you heard the one about the difference between Marketing and Sales?

One with a similar punchline: “What’s the difference between a used car salesman and a computer salesman?”

By: Art Scott

Art Scott — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:07:26 +0000

One of Ivan’s advisors was Steven A. Coons. See SIGGRAPH.

I always wondred if that makes Steve the grandfather of Computer Graphics?

Good blog Eric.

Have you heard the one about the difference between Marketing and Sales?
Marketing knows when it’s lying.

By: François Bertel

François Bertel — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:52:05 +0000

You can apply the story about HP to nVidia for their marketing difference between a GeForce and a Quadro chipset. You can even turn a GeForce into a Quadro with the following Soft-Mod technique: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=539

By: mattnewport

mattnewport — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:48:05 +0000

The HP story is a classic example of price discrimination and isn't really an example of irrational marketing so much as rational profit maximization. You see an awful lot of examples of price discrimination in the computer industry.