--- Marlon Clark <marlonclark@...> wrote:

>
> Actually a corporate accountant might reply something like
>
> "Giving the game away as a demo has its merits in building
> market share and enticing customers to regularly subscribe.
>
> However, given that most customers have already spent an
> average of $1200 on a PC, and $40 a month on DSL, the additional
> investment of $20 is minimal.

That's why accountants should stick to adding and subtracting, not trying to
understand markets or economics.

The reason the mere two hundred million Microsoft gave Apple saved the latter
company's butt is that even though Apple was worth billions, most of that was
tied up in existing projects and expectations, so that any windfall gave them
a dramatic boost.

An actual economist would point out that the marginal costs are often the
most important, when looking across a broad marketplace. When the Fed
increases one of several minor interest rate facors by a mere quarter point,
not a single family in the entire US says "that's it...I heard the Fed raised
interest rates twenty five basis points, so I'm not going to buy a house
because my interest costs may increase by a tenth of a percent per year". Yet
tens of thousands, or more, fewer houses will be purchased in the next
eighteen to thirty six months because of it.

> The retail product placement fees are quite
> large, and lower retail sales would not make up for them.
>
> Additionally, the equipment and personnel to support 10,000
> customers a month downloading 600 MB of data is extremely
> expensive. Since the downloads are not spread evenly over the
> course of the day, extra equipment is needed that is idle
> during non peak hours."

This would not come anywhere near the packaging and distribution costs of
making hardcopies of the product. That is why Sony sold its most recent
expansion as a download, and only when demand was ridiculously high did they
consider even a very limited distribution of CDs.

=====
There are things in the Constitution that have been overtaken by events, by time...Inappropriate, anachronistic, it isn't done anymore...
-- Chairman Henry Hyde, who doesn't believe the Constitution needs to be followed or legally changed, just ignored.

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