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I've had a little insight into this world. To make the BOM costs work at the retail prices they charge for things like common set-top streaming boxes (e.g. Roku
by alabastervlog 2y ago
I've had a little insight into this world. To make the BOM costs work at the retail prices they charge for things like common set-top streaming boxes (e.g. Roku) and, now, TVs themselves since they incorporate the same stuff, they have to be selling data. Otherwise they're selling at a loss, once you factor in middleman margins and such.
You can try to compete by charging a reasonable amount for your hardware and software, but you'll be competing against economy of scale and wrestling for shelf-space with products that are (don't forget retail percentage mark-up) at least 30% cheaper than yours, which means your units don't move, which means you don't get (or keep) shelf space, and hello death spiral. Also if you somehow manage to make it despite that, as soon as an MBA gets in charge you'll just switch to selling data, too.
- lukevp 2y agoOr you buy an Apple TV, that’s priced appropriately with its capabilities and doesn’t thieve everything from your network and your house.
- izacus 2y agoYou'll be plugging your AppleTV into that data collecting TV device because you won't pay more for it.
- K0balt 2y agoI don’t allow my smart tvs on the network. They complain a bit but they work.
- alabastervlog 2y agoI only didn’t mention that because I’m not sure how much spying they do. I’d bet it’s a lot less, but probably still too much. But yes, that’s what I have, two of them in fact. Tried a Shield, sucked, should have just gone straight for Apple TV instead of trying to pinch pennies.
- ge96 2y agoA follow up question is, what does the transaction look like. Bulk DB dump or JSON files per person, spreadsheet, that would be interesting like race, interests, budget...