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You'd make this change alongside others that would require recertification and retooling anyway, and presumably a lot of those engineers have a full-time contra

You'd make this change alongside others that would require recertification and retooling anyway, and presumably a lot of those engineers have a full-time contract so that's not an additional cost. Overall assembly cost may be higher or lower depending on those other changes. It really is just that $0.0273 for the switch, which compared to the very steep marketing and branding challenge of convincing privacy-minded folks that Amazon isn't evil, is nothing. I love how people on HN can rationalize every imaginable bad thing, and figure out reasons why the good thing is really, truly impossible. Qwerty is superior to any alternative, healthcare in the US is completely rational, we can't build cheap tunnels but at least we build the best tunnels, English spelling is a feature not a bug, as are Imperial units by the way, and college education is optimally priced.

deleted 6y ago
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ovi256 6y ago
Engineers, with contracts or not, have about 2200-2500 hours to spend per year. Those hours can presumably be allocated to this task (that doesn't add any new capability) or to a task that adds capabilities (which will bring in new revenue).
- bald42 6y ago
  2200-2500h? Where did you pull that number from? That's like 6 days per week with no vacation.
- stdbrouw 6y ago
  Clearly it does add a new capability: it gives people an additional assurance that the mic is muted in a tamper-proof way whenever the switch is toggled, which is something that according to the article many are currently wary of.
sokoloff 6y ago
I agree with you on excluding certification costs if you’re going to respin the device anyway, but part, assembly, and NRE labor are real costs of this change.
- dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
  Which should remind companies releasing similar products in the future that it's cheaper to design them with built-in privacy features rather than patch them as an afterthought.
  - Kalium 6y ago
    You're absolutely right. That said, I think companies also have to consider the saleability of privacy features. How many Echos would you, personally, buy if they had a mechanical switch? How many people do you think would make the same decision? How does this stack up against the change in failure rates from a physical switch? Again, you're completely correct. It's cheaper to design in privacy features up front. I can see some wrinkles that make the question more subtle, though.
some_random 6y ago
>It really is just that $0.0273 for the switch, which compared to the very steep marketing and branding challenge of convincing privacy-minded folks that Amazon isn't evil, is nothing. Looking at this thread, there is no amount of money nor action they could take that would convince people here to buy an echo, so honestly why bother?

deleted 6y ago

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ovi256 6y ago

Engineers, with contracts or not, have about 2200-2500 hours to spend per year. Those hours can presumably be allocated to this task (that doesn't add any new capability) or to a task that adds capabilities (which will bring in new revenue).

bald42 6y ago
2200-2500h? Where did you pull that number from? That's like 6 days per week with no vacation.
stdbrouw 6y ago
Clearly it does add a new capability: it gives people an additional assurance that the mic is muted in a tamper-proof way whenever the switch is toggled, which is something that according to the article many are currently wary of.

sokoloff 6y ago

I agree with you on excluding certification costs if you’re going to respin the device anyway, but part, assembly, and NRE labor are real costs of this change.

dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
Which should remind companies releasing similar products in the future that it's cheaper to design them with built-in privacy features rather than patch them as an afterthought.
- Kalium 6y ago
  You're absolutely right. That said, I think companies also have to consider the saleability of privacy features. How many Echos would you, personally, buy if they had a mechanical switch? How many people do you think would make the same decision? How does this stack up against the change in failure rates from a physical switch? Again, you're completely correct. It's cheaper to design in privacy features up front. I can see some wrinkles that make the question more subtle, though.

some_random 6y ago

>It really is just that $0.0273 for the switch, which compared to the very steep marketing and branding challenge of convincing privacy-minded folks that Amazon isn't evil, is nothing. Looking at this thread, there is no amount of money nor action they could take that would convince people here to buy an echo, so honestly why bother?