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In both the phone and PC space I do not understand the need to do this at all. There is commoditization of the market on the low end, but high end products that

by zanny 7y ago

In both the phone and PC space I do not understand the need to do this at all. There is commoditization of the market on the low end, but high end products that compete with iphones and macbooks are definitely not commodity and there is ample differentiation to be had on quality where mindshare can reap substantial margins on a smart investment of good design.

flattone 7y ago
do not understand the not understanding that businesses seem to exist to monetize every possible aspect of their existence.
- cryptonector 7y ago
  Any business (individual persons too!) has at least some conflicting goals and trade-offs to make. E.g., profit now, or profit later? The one in this thread is exactly that sort of trade-off: monetize consumer data vs. optimize for reputation. It's not like reputation has no value. Reputation is an intangible. You'll be able to put a fairly accurate dollar value on reputation after ruining it, but you should be able to estimate it before trying to ruin it. Problem is, intangibles have an out-of-sight, out-of-mind effect going on: because you don't see them when putting a dollar value on tangible things, you tend to ignore the intangibles. Companies often find this out the hard way and end up taking tremendous PR damage. Remember United's PR damage when they had to have cops drag a passenger off the plane because they wanted to "bump" him? Yeah. That sort of thing. Or perhaps the 737-MAX saga. Or any number of such events.
naikrovek 7y ago
There is no need for this stuff, of course. It's added because marketing want to improve the company's image in the eye of Joe/Jane Consumer, and probably someone in a support organization was honestly trying to make a customer's life easier. It was just implemented poorly. The day that hardware vendors get over the idea that they need to "add value" to software that they resell will be a very good day for everyone.
- cryptonector 7y ago
  Hear hear!

by zanny 7y ago

flattone 7y ago

do not understand the not understanding that businesses seem to exist to monetize every possible aspect of their existence.

cryptonector 7y ago
Any business (individual persons too!) has at least some conflicting goals and trade-offs to make. E.g., profit now, or profit later? The one in this thread is exactly that sort of trade-off: monetize consumer data vs. optimize for reputation. It's not like reputation has no value. Reputation is an intangible. You'll be able to put a fairly accurate dollar value on reputation after ruining it, but you should be able to estimate it before trying to ruin it. Problem is, intangibles have an out-of-sight, out-of-mind effect going on: because you don't see them when putting a dollar value on tangible things, you tend to ignore the intangibles. Companies often find this out the hard way and end up taking tremendous PR damage. Remember United's PR damage when they had to have cops drag a passenger off the plane because they wanted to "bump" him? Yeah. That sort of thing. Or perhaps the 737-MAX saga. Or any number of such events.

naikrovek 7y ago

There is no need for this stuff, of course. It's added because marketing want to improve the company's image in the eye of Joe/Jane Consumer, and probably someone in a support organization was honestly trying to make a customer's life easier. It was just implemented poorly. The day that hardware vendors get over the idea that they need to "add value" to software that they resell will be a very good day for everyone.

cryptonector 7y ago
Hear hear!