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I’m fairly confident they usually raise prices through new generations of compute instances.

chockchocschoir 5y ago
That's like saying Apple raises the prices of the iPhone through new generation of iPhone models, which is not true at all. If the same service gets a higher price, then it's a praise raise. If a new service gets a higher price, it's just a new service.
- remus 5y ago
  > That's like saying Apple raises the prices of the iPhone through new generation of iPhone models, which is not true at all. If the same service gets a higher price, then it's a praise raise. If a new service gets a higher price, it's just a new service. I don't think the distinction is that clear: you could just rebrand an existing service and raise the price. "Try our new v2 APIs, guaranteed compatibility with our v1 API and only 10% more expensive!" I think the reality is somewhere in between, where companies will use new product launches to add stuff for customers and raise prices to protect their margin.
- Spooky23 5y ago
  Apple margins are pretty consistent. Assuming the assumption that intergenerational go up is true, in general compute only gets cheaper over time, so escalating prices implies increasing margin.
- oblio 5y ago
  > That's like saying Apple raises the prices of the iPhone through new generation of iPhone models, which is not true at all. I don't know if I'm reading your comment right, but the average selling price of iPhones has been climbing steadily from the start.
sciurus 5y ago
It's actually the opposite! To pick a representative example Current generation: m6i.large: $0.0960 m6a.large: $0.0864 m6g.large: $0.0770 Previous generations: m5.large: $0.0960 m4.large: $0.1000 m3.large: $0.1330 m1.large: $0.1750
- la64710 5y ago
- Graphguy 5y ago
  https://rbranson.medium.com/rds-pricing-has-more-than-doubled-ef8c3b7e5218 https://rbranson.medium.com/rds-pricing-has-more-than-double... is a good example of using the generation abstraction to improve margins. Obviously, this source is not a price increase. It’s just increase in premium over EC2. https://redmonk.com/rstephens/2021/12/17/iaas-pricing-2021/ https://redmonk.com/rstephens/2021/12/17/iaas-pricing-2021/ Is also great and shows a flatness in price
chrisandchris 5y ago
They also don't discontinue any service as long as at least 1 customer* uses it. Which means: you will have the old (in your opinion probably lower) price forever, as long as you don't upgrade. That's a very important distinction: increasing prices for users who can't go away and increased prices for users which migrate on their own to the new pricing structure. As far as I know, Google does the former which always has a "fader Beigeschmack" (DE; dulm aftertaste?) IMHO. * = whatever that means :)
- _puk 5y ago
  "We are reaching out to inform you that we will be retiring EC2-Classic on August 15, 2022. This message contains important information about the retirement and steps to take before the retirement date How does this impact you? Your AWS account currently has EC2-Classic enabled for EU-WEST-1 Region".. To be fair, "EC2-Classic is a flat network that we launched with EC2 in the summer of 2006", so I'm not complaining, but thought it was an interesting counterpoint.
  - deanCommie 5y ago
    It's not a counterpoint, though. They're retiring a product that's been deprecated for half a decade. No prices are being raised... edit: I misunderstood, I thought we were still talking about prices.
    - alasdair_ 5y ago
      The GP said “ They also don't discontinue any service as long as at least 1 customer* uses it.” The person you are replying to gave the counterpoint that AWS is discontinuing a service that the person is currently using. This seems like a valid counterpoint to me.
  - nl 5y ago
    I thought that at the time I got that notification. But it turns out I don't have any EC2-Classic instances, and was really just a notification I wouldn't be able to create new one.

That's like saying Apple raises the prices of the iPhone through new generation of iPhone models, which is not true at all. If the same service gets a higher price, then it's a praise raise. If a new service gets a higher price, it's just a new service.

remus 5y ago
> That's like saying Apple raises the prices of the iPhone through new generation of iPhone models, which is not true at all. If the same service gets a higher price, then it's a praise raise. If a new service gets a higher price, it's just a new service. I don't think the distinction is that clear: you could just rebrand an existing service and raise the price. "Try our new v2 APIs, guaranteed compatibility with our v1 API and only 10% more expensive!" I think the reality is somewhere in between, where companies will use new product launches to add stuff for customers and raise prices to protect their margin.
Spooky23 5y ago
Apple margins are pretty consistent. Assuming the assumption that intergenerational go up is true, in general compute only gets cheaper over time, so escalating prices implies increasing margin.
oblio 5y ago
> That's like saying Apple raises the prices of the iPhone through new generation of iPhone models, which is not true at all. I don't know if I'm reading your comment right, but the average selling price of iPhones has been climbing steadily from the start.

sciurus 5y ago

It's actually the opposite! To pick a representative example Current generation: m6i.large: $0.0960 m6a.large: $0.0864 m6g.large: $0.0770 Previous generations: m5.large: $0.0960 m4.large: $0.1000 m3.large: $0.1330 m1.large: $0.1750

la64710 5y ago
Graphguy 5y ago
https://rbranson.medium.com/rds-pricing-has-more-than-doubled-ef8c3b7e5218 https://rbranson.medium.com/rds-pricing-has-more-than-double... is a good example of using the generation abstraction to improve margins. Obviously, this source is not a price increase. It’s just increase in premium over EC2. https://redmonk.com/rstephens/2021/12/17/iaas-pricing-2021/ https://redmonk.com/rstephens/2021/12/17/iaas-pricing-2021/ Is also great and shows a flatness in price

chrisandchris 5y ago

They also don't discontinue any service as long as at least 1 customer* uses it. Which means: you will have the old (in your opinion probably lower) price forever, as long as you don't upgrade. That's a very important distinction: increasing prices for users who can't go away and increased prices for users which migrate on their own to the new pricing structure. As far as I know, Google does the former which always has a "fader Beigeschmack" (DE; dulm aftertaste?) IMHO. * = whatever that means :)

_puk 5y ago
"We are reaching out to inform you that we will be retiring EC2-Classic on August 15, 2022. This message contains important information about the retirement and steps to take before the retirement date How does this impact you? Your AWS account currently has EC2-Classic enabled for EU-WEST-1 Region".. To be fair, "EC2-Classic is a flat network that we launched with EC2 in the summer of 2006", so I'm not complaining, but thought it was an interesting counterpoint.
- deanCommie 5y ago
  It's not a counterpoint, though. They're retiring a product that's been deprecated for half a decade. No prices are being raised... edit: I misunderstood, I thought we were still talking about prices.
  - alasdair_ 5y ago
    The GP said “ They also don't discontinue any service as long as at least 1 customer* uses it.” The person you are replying to gave the counterpoint that AWS is discontinuing a service that the person is currently using. This seems like a valid counterpoint to me.
- nl 5y ago
  I thought that at the time I got that notification. But it turns out I don't have any EC2-Classic instances, and was really just a notification I wouldn't be able to create new one.