3 ms·

Companies selling stuff much more expensive for the early adopters because they know the customers are willing to pay for it. As long as you're making profit, y

by jimmies 10y ago

Companies selling stuff much more expensive for the early adopters because they know the customers are willing to pay for it. As long as you're making profit, you should sell to everyone at the maximum price they're willing to pay for. Selling something = maximizing profit or sales, not "making it fair for everyone." You'll see it a lot of that in Kickstarter's tiered-reward structure or processors being sold nowadays. If a person values my software at $100 and 5 others value it at $20, I am better off selling it for all of them and get $200. If I had wanted to make it fair for everyone I have to set it at $100 which I will get $100, or $20 and get $120. To give people the impression that I am making it fair to everyone is not hard. I just produce different "editions" of the same software. But under the hood, I don't think it is about making it fair.

jcoffland 10y ago
Selling the same thing to different groups of people at different prices is called price discrimination and can be illegal.
- tormeh 10y ago
  No. It's called Windows Home and Windows Professional.
- waqf 10y ago
  That's true, but selling marginally different "models" or "editions" of the same thing, in the hope that people will self-select according to their budget, is called market segmentation and is ubiquitous across many different industries. It's not discriminatory, because you allow any customer to buy any product they wish.
- epistasis 10y ago
  Interesting, where is this illegal, and what aspect of it makes illegal? In the US it's extremely common in the form of student or senior citizen discounts. Nearly all airline tickets seem to be sold at very different prices for exactly the same good. As for most business to business transactions that involve a sales team, consistent pricing for identical products and volumes would be the exception to the norm for most industries.
  - jcoffland 10y ago
    https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/price-discrimination-robinson-patman https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-a... In order for substantive portions of the Robinson-Patman Act to be invoked, there must be: * two or more sales must have been consummated * in a reasonably close time period * of commodities of like grade and quality * with a different price * by the same seller * to two or more different purchasers * for use, consumption, or resale within the United States * which may result in competitive injury.
    - arkades 10y ago
      The key here is >which may result in competitive injury It is, in short, "you can't sell an apple to your favorite customer for 20% less than other customers just to help them kill off their competition." All the rest is just hurdle-clearing to address various defenses to the "this was pure competition-killing." It's an anti-trust law. Price discrimination without anti-competitive traits is legal ("Price discriminations are generally lawful, particularly if they reflect the different costs of dealing with different buyers or are the result of a seller's attempts to meet a competitor's offering.")
  - waqf 10y ago
    > Nearly all airline tickets seem to be sold at very different prices for exactly the same good. There's nothing illegal about the same product being sold at different prices at different times. Or at different prices from different retailers. Or about slightly different products being sold at wildly different prices (ticket allows changes or cancellations, for example). Airline ticket price variation is mostly due to those things, none of which is directly discriminatory in the sense of offering different prices to different people. Although they are all, to some extent, deliberate market segmentation (trying to encourage people with higher budgets to pay more).
    - jcoffland 10y ago
      Sometimes it's a matter of the law not being enforced. In the case of airline tickets, the price differences are mainly due to market fluctuation over time.

by jimmies 10y ago

jcoffland 10y ago

Selling the same thing to different groups of people at different prices is called price discrimination and can be illegal.

tormeh 10y ago
No. It's called Windows Home and Windows Professional.
waqf 10y ago
That's true, but selling marginally different "models" or "editions" of the same thing, in the hope that people will self-select according to their budget, is called market segmentation and is ubiquitous across many different industries. It's not discriminatory, because you allow any customer to buy any product they wish.
epistasis 10y ago
Interesting, where is this illegal, and what aspect of it makes illegal? In the US it's extremely common in the form of student or senior citizen discounts. Nearly all airline tickets seem to be sold at very different prices for exactly the same good. As for most business to business transactions that involve a sales team, consistent pricing for identical products and volumes would be the exception to the norm for most industries.
- jcoffland 10y ago
  https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/price-discrimination-robinson-patman https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-a... In order for substantive portions of the Robinson-Patman Act to be invoked, there must be: * two or more sales must have been consummated * in a reasonably close time period * of commodities of like grade and quality * with a different price * by the same seller * to two or more different purchasers * for use, consumption, or resale within the United States * which may result in competitive injury.
  - arkades 10y ago
    The key here is >which may result in competitive injury It is, in short, "you can't sell an apple to your favorite customer for 20% less than other customers just to help them kill off their competition." All the rest is just hurdle-clearing to address various defenses to the "this was pure competition-killing." It's an anti-trust law. Price discrimination without anti-competitive traits is legal ("Price discriminations are generally lawful, particularly if they reflect the different costs of dealing with different buyers or are the result of a seller's attempts to meet a competitor's offering.")
- waqf 10y ago
  > Nearly all airline tickets seem to be sold at very different prices for exactly the same good. There's nothing illegal about the same product being sold at different prices at different times. Or at different prices from different retailers. Or about slightly different products being sold at wildly different prices (ticket allows changes or cancellations, for example). Airline ticket price variation is mostly due to those things, none of which is directly discriminatory in the sense of offering different prices to different people. Although they are all, to some extent, deliberate market segmentation (trying to encourage people with higher budgets to pay more).
  - jcoffland 10y ago
    Sometimes it's a matter of the law not being enforced. In the case of airline tickets, the price differences are mainly due to market fluctuation over time.