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> According to some reports, sales of Synology’s 2025 NAS models dropped sharply in the months after the restriction was introduced. What did NAS customers purc

by fasteo 1y ago

> According to some reports, sales of Synology’s 2025 NAS models dropped sharply in the months after the restriction was introduced. What did NAS customers purchase instead? I honestly can’t believe anyone at Synology thought this would turn out differently.

nicce 1y ago
Change Synology with HP, NAS with printer and HDD with ink cartridge. How does that sound like?
- baobun 1y ago
  The printer market is a cartel with everyone pulling the same bullshit. DIYing an affordable and performant printer is out of reach for the individual. Printer ink is not a commodity otherwise. Consumers don't really have alternatives. Desktop NAS market is very different.
  - nicce 1y ago
    > Desktop NAS market is very different. This was the first step or attempt to change that.
    - consp 1y ago
      How? You need to restrict the HDD sales and put them into the cartel.
      - nicce 1y ago
        Have you read the whole post...?
    - rcxdude 1y ago
      The thing is, you can't set up a cartel unilaterally. For this to work, they would need to get not only the other NAS appliance manufacturers on board (who clearly didn't and happily took the business that they were losing), but basically the whole PC and server hardware market. (I think some comments elsewhere in the chain got it right: they were calculating that they had enough brand lock-in and non-technical buyers who would not have much choice, as opposed to a largely technical userbase who could set up any number of options but were choosing them because they were both reasonable value and low maintenance)
      - nicce 1y ago
        > The thing is, you can't set up a cartel unilaterally. For this to work, they would need to get not only the other NAS appliance manufacturers on board (who clearly didn't and happily took the business that they were losing), but basically the whole PC and server hardware market. I understand the point, but HP's approach was not really based on cartel, while it might seem so. In the beginning, HP had great printers, and they used specific kind of ink. Back in that time, ink wasn't so complicated, so other manufactures started to sell it as well. So there was a moment, when you could get the ink from many different manufactures. But what changed, was that HP started to make their printers accept only very specific kind ink, which was controlled by the printers and HP, not by the ink manufacturers (compare to HDDs). They added one sort of digital signatures for the ink, so that printer reads signatures and does not otherwise accept it. So it does not matter whether these was cartel or not; it was just DRM lock-in. As long as the core product was desirable enough. I don't think this is a cartel in a traditional sense, because manufacturing of the ink cartridges wasn't that difficult otherwise, and it wasn't forbidden or highly regulated area. In Synology's case, this was just that they added similar checks for NAS. It does not matter if other manufacturers don't comply with, if core product is good enough. Synology thought that their product was good enough to play this, but apparently not.
  - rcxdude 1y ago
    You can do things like ink tank modifications and so on (I think there's even a few you can buy off the shelf with that option now), they're just rarely worthwhile unless you're doing quite a lot of printing.
  - lobsterthief 1y ago
    I don’t think it’s a cartel per se; that would require collusion to keep ink prices high. What seems to have happened with the 2D printer market is a race to the bottom to provide customers with the cheapest printers possible while hiding the high [recouped] costs of the ink. Many consumers are duped into buying a cheap printer and not realizing the high cost of printing that comes with it. This is why brands like Brother have been able to succeed, especially pushing their laser printers: higher upfront hardware cost and cheaper ink.
- numpad0 1y ago
  Printers don't take standardized cartridges. I think that was their mistake. They should have started with model specific HDD cartridges. Or just expanded models with USB enclosures.
  - AndroTux 1y ago
    > They should have started with model specific HDD cartridges. But that’s exactly what they did. Just in software.
- Telaneo 1y ago
  Like a good reason to not by an HP printer.
4fips 1y ago
Yeah, I was waiting for the DS1525+, but after it was announced and the HD restrictions were confirmed, I eventually decided to buy the DS1522+ instead.
throw_m239339 1y ago
Companies like that will always tried once they believe they are captured enough market shares. If I can influence that kind of decision, I will certainly advocate not to renew Synology gear parcs...
b00ty4breakfast 1y ago
I think they were hoping they had enough "appliance operators" in their userbase that they wouldn't be able to go elsewhere or improvise with gear on hand. Which, given the people most likely to buy a prosumer NAS device is silly
CamperBob2 1y ago
An older Synology model, in my case. I just bought a DS1522+ for this very reason. Haven't even provisioned it yet. So, thanks, guys, I guess.
Forgeties79 1y ago
> What did NAS customers purchase instead? I just settled for a budget QNAP unit. Been great tbh

by fasteo 1y ago

nicce 1y ago

Change Synology with HP, NAS with printer and HDD with ink cartridge. How does that sound like?

baobun 1y ago
The printer market is a cartel with everyone pulling the same bullshit. DIYing an affordable and performant printer is out of reach for the individual. Printer ink is not a commodity otherwise. Consumers don't really have alternatives. Desktop NAS market is very different.
- nicce 1y ago
  > Desktop NAS market is very different. This was the first step or attempt to change that.
  - consp 1y ago
    How? You need to restrict the HDD sales and put them into the cartel.
    - nicce 1y ago
      Have you read the whole post...?
  - rcxdude 1y ago
    The thing is, you can't set up a cartel unilaterally. For this to work, they would need to get not only the other NAS appliance manufacturers on board (who clearly didn't and happily took the business that they were losing), but basically the whole PC and server hardware market. (I think some comments elsewhere in the chain got it right: they were calculating that they had enough brand lock-in and non-technical buyers who would not have much choice, as opposed to a largely technical userbase who could set up any number of options but were choosing them because they were both reasonable value and low maintenance)
    - nicce 1y ago
      > The thing is, you can't set up a cartel unilaterally. For this to work, they would need to get not only the other NAS appliance manufacturers on board (who clearly didn't and happily took the business that they were losing), but basically the whole PC and server hardware market. I understand the point, but HP's approach was not really based on cartel, while it might seem so. In the beginning, HP had great printers, and they used specific kind of ink. Back in that time, ink wasn't so complicated, so other manufactures started to sell it as well. So there was a moment, when you could get the ink from many different manufactures. But what changed, was that HP started to make their printers accept only very specific kind ink, which was controlled by the printers and HP, not by the ink manufacturers (compare to HDDs). They added one sort of digital signatures for the ink, so that printer reads signatures and does not otherwise accept it. So it does not matter whether these was cartel or not; it was just DRM lock-in. As long as the core product was desirable enough. I don't think this is a cartel in a traditional sense, because manufacturing of the ink cartridges wasn't that difficult otherwise, and it wasn't forbidden or highly regulated area. In Synology's case, this was just that they added similar checks for NAS. It does not matter if other manufacturers don't comply with, if core product is good enough. Synology thought that their product was good enough to play this, but apparently not.
- rcxdude 1y ago
  You can do things like ink tank modifications and so on (I think there's even a few you can buy off the shelf with that option now), they're just rarely worthwhile unless you're doing quite a lot of printing.
- lobsterthief 1y ago
  I don’t think it’s a cartel per se; that would require collusion to keep ink prices high. What seems to have happened with the 2D printer market is a race to the bottom to provide customers with the cheapest printers possible while hiding the high [recouped] costs of the ink. Many consumers are duped into buying a cheap printer and not realizing the high cost of printing that comes with it. This is why brands like Brother have been able to succeed, especially pushing their laser printers: higher upfront hardware cost and cheaper ink.
numpad0 1y ago
Printers don't take standardized cartridges. I think that was their mistake. They should have started with model specific HDD cartridges. Or just expanded models with USB enclosures.
- AndroTux 1y ago
  > They should have started with model specific HDD cartridges. But that’s exactly what they did. Just in software.
Telaneo 1y ago
Like a good reason to not by an HP printer.

4fips 1y ago

Yeah, I was waiting for the DS1525+, but after it was announced and the HD restrictions were confirmed, I eventually decided to buy the DS1522+ instead.

throw_m239339 1y ago

Companies like that will always tried once they believe they are captured enough market shares. If I can influence that kind of decision, I will certainly advocate not to renew Synology gear parcs...

b00ty4breakfast 1y ago

I think they were hoping they had enough "appliance operators" in their userbase that they wouldn't be able to go elsewhere or improvise with gear on hand. Which, given the people most likely to buy a prosumer NAS device is silly

CamperBob2 1y ago

An older Synology model, in my case. I just bought a DS1522+ for this very reason. Haven't even provisioned it yet. So, thanks, guys, I guess.

Forgeties79 1y ago

> What did NAS customers purchase instead? I just settled for a budget QNAP unit. Been great tbh