3 ms·

a led flashlight isn't so expensive. if you could afford $120 for a smartphone, I think there's some room for a flashlight. I admit that led flashlight don't co

by jokoon 13y ago

a led flashlight isn't so expensive. if you could afford $120 for a smartphone, I think there's some room for a flashlight. I admit that led flashlight don't come with a rechargeable battery, but they last long. and a white screen is a good substitute. it's still a $120 device that allows you to go on the internet.

lmm 13y ago
> a led flashlight isn't so expensive. if you could afford $120 for a smartphone, I think there's some room for a flashlight. It's not about the price. It's about not having to put an extra thing in your pocket all the time.
- kamaal 13y ago
  In India, at one point of time Nokia phones sold like hot cakes for just having this one feature. Power cuts are very frequent here. So when there is a power cut in the night and its all dark. All you needed to do was to turn on that flash light in your phone, till you could find a candle. These days UPS have gotten cheaper and you can have a UPS at home for some thing like 17K(High end smart phones are 20K+), which will give decent back up for a ceiling fan and lighting for some hours. But yes, a flash light would be really helpful.
  - batmansbelt 13y ago
    noob question: why is the power always going out? Are the generating stations not making enough electricity, or is the grid in a state of poor repair?
    - JohnTHaller 13y ago
      India's overall infrastructure is pretty shoddy and there have been problems with coal shortages for the past few years. A quick Googling will turn up some good articles in The Economist and India Times about it. Even the US has its own power issues what with major blackouts over the years, rolling blackouts in major areas like California, etc. Heck, we lost all power in our whole neighborhood in NYC for a week during the summer several years ago when the feeder lines all burned out (barely maintained by ConEd for 50 years). And we regularly have explosions of underground transformers that occasionally catch cars on fire. One of the many joys of living in NYC. Still, it's NOTHING compared to what my colleagues deal with in India.
      - fps 13y ago
        Rolling blackouts in CA had nothing to do with infrastructure - it was a ploy by Enron to raise the price of electricity by artificially reducing supply during periods of high demand. I live in a Boston suburb, and haven't been affected by a power outage lasting more than 30 seconds in the 8 years I've lived here. Those have always been caused by lines being hit by trees during wind storms, and supply is always restored by backup lines within seconds. The US has a remarkably robust, high quality power grid. The biggest problem with it is that during peak demand we need to turn on coal fired power plants to supplement renewables and natural gas.
        JohnTHaller 13y ago
        Maybe Boston has a decent power grid. It varies quite a bit from city to city. NYC is aging fast. Hence our feeder lines blowing out several years ago taking out a chunk of Queens for over a week (fun fact: ALL of our ice cream shops went out of business as a result). Then there was Sandy that took out all of lower Manhattan when the power station near my old apartment flooded and blew up. We'll likely get hit with more of these as NYC will be more prone to flooding due to climate degradation. Don't forget the great northeast blackout of 2003, either. Living in a 12th floor walkup with completely dark stairwells and minimal/no running water for multiple days wasn't fun.
    - vertex-four 13y ago
      Having lived there: basically both. Entire towns would lose power regularly due to cables being damaged, and many parts of India have rolling blackouts due to not enough power being generated.
userbinator 13y ago
a led flashlight isn't so expensive That's exactly the reason why it's strange; the components needed to add one to a phone cost <$1 in the quantities they sell these at. If Motorola could afford to sell these at $120, they could afford to put one in. One of the things that I've always found odd about most of the big smartphone brands is their feature set - especially for basic things like a removable battery, SD card slot, camera, dual SIM, and now LED flash. It seems like you can't get a model that has all these features; there's always something missing. Meanwhile, the lesser-known Chinese brands are selling full-featured smartphones at similar prices or less, so it makes me wonder about the true cost of adding those features.
- jokoon 13y ago
  maybe it's not just the price of the component, maybe there are other costs of putting such a led. anyhow, I agree that it's a nice feature to have, but I would not complain as the price is already quite nice.
- sirkneeland 13y ago
  the BOM cost is just one element of the true cost of any feature. Every feature adds: -potential IP licensing costs -the cost of sourcing, integrating, testing (both initial engineering testing and QA in manufacturing)...and let's not forget that every single component has the ability to affect the RF performance in wacky and unexpected ways. Which means more testing. -another bit of complexity to the supply chain Not to mention other costs not included in the overall BOM for software, marketing, logistics, legal, localization, customer support etc. And on the other side, the $120 Motorola sells it for doesn't all go to Motorola. Much of that goes to distributors and retailers.

by jokoon 13y ago

lmm 13y ago

> a led flashlight isn't so expensive. if you could afford $120 for a smartphone, I think there's some room for a flashlight. It's not about the price. It's about not having to put an extra thing in your pocket all the time.

kamaal 13y ago
In India, at one point of time Nokia phones sold like hot cakes for just having this one feature. Power cuts are very frequent here. So when there is a power cut in the night and its all dark. All you needed to do was to turn on that flash light in your phone, till you could find a candle. These days UPS have gotten cheaper and you can have a UPS at home for some thing like 17K(High end smart phones are 20K+), which will give decent back up for a ceiling fan and lighting for some hours. But yes, a flash light would be really helpful.
- batmansbelt 13y ago
  noob question: why is the power always going out? Are the generating stations not making enough electricity, or is the grid in a state of poor repair?
  - JohnTHaller 13y ago
    India's overall infrastructure is pretty shoddy and there have been problems with coal shortages for the past few years. A quick Googling will turn up some good articles in The Economist and India Times about it. Even the US has its own power issues what with major blackouts over the years, rolling blackouts in major areas like California, etc. Heck, we lost all power in our whole neighborhood in NYC for a week during the summer several years ago when the feeder lines all burned out (barely maintained by ConEd for 50 years). And we regularly have explosions of underground transformers that occasionally catch cars on fire. One of the many joys of living in NYC. Still, it's NOTHING compared to what my colleagues deal with in India.
    - fps 13y ago
      Rolling blackouts in CA had nothing to do with infrastructure - it was a ploy by Enron to raise the price of electricity by artificially reducing supply during periods of high demand. I live in a Boston suburb, and haven't been affected by a power outage lasting more than 30 seconds in the 8 years I've lived here. Those have always been caused by lines being hit by trees during wind storms, and supply is always restored by backup lines within seconds. The US has a remarkably robust, high quality power grid. The biggest problem with it is that during peak demand we need to turn on coal fired power plants to supplement renewables and natural gas.
      - JohnTHaller 13y ago
        Maybe Boston has a decent power grid. It varies quite a bit from city to city. NYC is aging fast. Hence our feeder lines blowing out several years ago taking out a chunk of Queens for over a week (fun fact: ALL of our ice cream shops went out of business as a result). Then there was Sandy that took out all of lower Manhattan when the power station near my old apartment flooded and blew up. We'll likely get hit with more of these as NYC will be more prone to flooding due to climate degradation. Don't forget the great northeast blackout of 2003, either. Living in a 12th floor walkup with completely dark stairwells and minimal/no running water for multiple days wasn't fun.
  - vertex-four 13y ago
    Having lived there: basically both. Entire towns would lose power regularly due to cables being damaged, and many parts of India have rolling blackouts due to not enough power being generated.

userbinator 13y ago

a led flashlight isn't so expensive That's exactly the reason why it's strange; the components needed to add one to a phone cost <$1 in the quantities they sell these at. If Motorola could afford to sell these at $120, they could afford to put one in. One of the things that I've always found odd about most of the big smartphone brands is their feature set - especially for basic things like a removable battery, SD card slot, camera, dual SIM, and now LED flash. It seems like you can't get a model that has all these features; there's always something missing. Meanwhile, the lesser-known Chinese brands are selling full-featured smartphones at similar prices or less, so it makes me wonder about the true cost of adding those features.

jokoon 13y ago
maybe it's not just the price of the component, maybe there are other costs of putting such a led. anyhow, I agree that it's a nice feature to have, but I would not complain as the price is already quite nice.
sirkneeland 13y ago
the BOM cost is just one element of the true cost of any feature. Every feature adds: -potential IP licensing costs -the cost of sourcing, integrating, testing (both initial engineering testing and QA in manufacturing)...and let's not forget that every single component has the ability to affect the RF performance in wacky and unexpected ways. Which means more testing. -another bit of complexity to the supply chain Not to mention other costs not included in the overall BOM for software, marketing, logistics, legal, localization, customer support etc. And on the other side, the $120 Motorola sells it for doesn't all go to Motorola. Much of that goes to distributors and retailers.