An innovative way of selling cheaper computers or a way of selling computers twice?

Now you may or may not have heard about this:
Intel unveils controversial PC upgrade scheme

Quite simply you can pay for a card which enables you to go online and download a code to ‘unlock’ parts of your computers ‘brain’ to make it go faster.

WHAT!?!?!?!?!

Ok – So I decide to buy a middle of the road car.
I do the deal, I pay my money, I do the extensive reams of paperwork required and I get a shiny new motor.
Cue masses of pride, and driving around in it aimlessly for a while…

Then I learn that it’s only performing at 75% of its capabilities.
Would I be happy to PAY again to get my nice new shiny car to 100% performance – or would I feel totally conned and return to the garage with anger in mind?

In Intel’s defence, they are saying it’s a way for customers to get an easy upgrade, and that they are simply offering ‘flexibility’ when it comes to choosing your processor.

Now that really doesn’t stand to reason – I can say that because, in my limited 15 YEARS at this job, I have only ever upgraded processors on my own PCs. Never as a commercial operation.
Also, upgrading a processor isn’t always the best option – again, in my experience PC vendors sell PCs without enough memory, not slow processors.

I must ask too ~ what percentage of the buying public actually know what this ‘processor’ is, does and would choose it specifically?
Pretty much all my clients neither know or want to know! It’s not going to impact their lives after all…
The guys that know about this kind of thing will simply go and buy a different processor, or be savvy enough to get the unlock codes from some dodgy Internet site somewhere…

And, as usual, the industry pundits join in – this was one of my favourites:

Steven Mostyn of the Tech Herald noted that Intel is not the first tech player to charge its customers for locked content.
“Major publishers within the video games industry have long since adopted the profit-wringing strategy of locking game play content on disc until players shell out extra for ‘downloadable’ access.”

Mostly true – but the down loadable content (usually referred to as DLC) usually only contains cosmetic changes (new pretty items) or items which have a balanced effect on the game play (selling someone an uber killer death swatter would only ruin the game – AND once everyone gets one then it’s pointless).
Games NEVER run at throttled speeds until you get the DLC! How many people would simply get it illegally??
Bad analogy then… 

Just another money making scheme then?

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Coincidence or con - 50p on the line rental...

Now its no secret that I hate post.
The thought of getting something nasty through the post disturbs me immensely.
It’s mainly due to the fact I seldom get anything good through the ‘snail mail’, just the usual junk, bank stuff, and demands for money (bills).
Only within the week of my birthday do I get interested – for obvious reasons…
Yep – I hate the mail.

So I get a letter from BT.

Reading said letter gives me advanced notification of our telephone line rental being increased by 50p per month.

Now some of you reading this might recall a few articles I posted about the proposed ‘Broadband Tax.‘
For those uninitiated, it was a government tax of 50p per month added to fixed phone lines, and paid to BT, ostensibly to pay for getting broadband to the masses. ← For this read “grossly unfair”

Now is it coincidence that BT have raised the line rental by the exact same amount?
Personally the cynical side of me thinks not – have BT simply decided that this is a good idea and done it anyway, or is something more sinister going on – that the proposal was not dropped by the government at all…

Sadly the masses won’t even blink at this raise, and BT’s profits will once again exceed the GDP of some countries.

All hail capitalism

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