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Wi-Fi Pricing Droping in U.K.--DebatableWi-Fi Pricing Droping in U.K.--DebatableWi-Fi Pricing Droping in U.K.--Debatable 11/13/2003 01:34 PM This article points only to anecdotal evidence from a journalist to claim that the price of using public hot spots in the U.K. is dropping: In any developing market, service providers walk a tight rope between charging enough to cover their startup costs and failing to attract customers because of sky high prices. At the moment, the price of a subscription for Wi-Fi services is too high for most except the serious traveler, especially because there aren't yet enough hot spots. Hopefully a greater number of hot spots will attract more customers, which will in turn lead to lower prices. Maybe that's already starting to happen in the U.K. Interestingly, this intrepid traveler rants about how insanely high the cost of Wi-Fi is in Europe. He visited nine cities in the U.S. and had Wi-Fi access in eight. Just one of those charged a mere $9 a day for access. He then stayed in seven hotels in Europe and one offered Wi-Fi, for $60 a day and it never worked. Two of the hotels in Europe didn't have phones so no Internet connection was available from the room. To be fair, this traveler doesn't mention which cities he stayed in so maybe he was pretty far off the beaten path. Still, I've stayed in decent hotels in Europe that have these ancient phone systems through which you can't even dial up. By contrast, just last week I took a road trip from Seattle to northern California and even cheap hotels in tiny towns at least had dial up while some had broadband wired access. Since the wired access in European hotels is generally poor, hotel managers there might see a great opportunity in Wi-Fi. Wireless networks will be much easier for them to deploy in a building that isn’t already wired.... This is a GrokNews Entry: (what is grok?)Wi-Fi Pricing Droping in U.K.--DebatableGrok Headline matches for Wi-Fi Pricing Droping in U.K.--DebatableDroping down to D town whereDroping down to D town where 12/20/2003 10:58 PM Smeagol get's midevil. Me wants its....Hobbitits stole its... The Towers Are The Players...Yall. Differential PricingDifferential Pricing 02/01/2005 09:33 PM Sometime last year we bought some games in a GameStop store and got a free subscription to GameInformer. It's running out now and with the magazine came a card (actually, the "card" was wrapped all around it) telling "just $10 for 10 issues!". Not so bad. Except that's "in store only". If I renew by mail it's $20. I don't want to go to the store and I don't want to pay more than the "best price", so to the... What is fair pricing for MT3What is fair pricing for MT3 05/13/2004 05:03 PM Their are a few articles out there saying that some of us only want something if it is free. Personally... The Art of Pricing a T1 LineThe Art of Pricing a T1 Line 09/26/2004 03:48 AM While some people may enjoy a trip to the local shopping mall, shopping for telecommunication services like a T1 line has never been fun... until Anyion Services came along. [PRWEB Sep 26, 2004] Pricing CrazinessPricing Craziness 01/09/2004 09:54 PM I’m visiting the Valley next week in connection with the what-next project, flying on some of the hundreds of thousands of points I’ve built up on some bankrupt airline or another, but I needed to rent a car out of SFO. A bit of Internet shopping produced what I thought was a fairly mind-boggling result... Apple over-pricing?Apple over-pricing? 06/29/2004 07:18 AM More Pricing CrazinessMore Pricing Craziness 02/11/2004 09:51 PM Down here in Oz, we’re making quite a few calls home over this and that, and while both of our cellphones work fine, even God couldn’t afford the roaming charges. But you can call Canada from halfway around the world for 2.8¢/minute, here’s how:... looking for a best pricing in Mumbailooking for a best pricing in Mumbai 09/10/2004 01:32 AM TechTree Sep 10 2004 5:47AM GMT Out-of-Control PricingOut-of-Control Pricing 02/13/2004 01:14 PM Swisscom and some other European hotspot operators are charging pretty insane prices for access: Swisscom charges over 5 EUR for 30 minutes, almost 28 EUR for a day pass, 145 EUR for one month and a whopping 1079 EUR for a year subscription. Seems like an odd way to try to make a business as I can't imagine many people are paying those rates.... First Opteron PricingFirst Opteron Pricing 03/21/2003 11:24 AM Sun tries new pricing modelSun tries new pricing model 06/01/2004 06:40 PM Sun to offer more subscription pricingSun to offer more subscription pricing 02/13/2004 04:04 PM Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to offer subscription pricing for more of its products as part of an effort to ensure a steadier flow of revenue into the company, Sun executives said this week. AMD's Pricing PuzzleAMD's Pricing Puzzle 06/03/2004 11:36 PM Opinion: In theory, competition between two major CPU makers should to be good for consumers. But the upward pricing curve on AMD's new Athlon 64s is an enigma wrapped inside a mystery. Does the company smell blood--or are they having yield problems? Zombie Network PricingZombie Network Pricing 09/08/2004 08:51 AM Going price for network of zombie PCs: $2,000-$3,000: Here's a look into the economics of spam hackers. One indication of the going rate for zombie PCs comes from a June 11 posting on SpecialHam.com, an electronic forum for spammers. The asking price for use of a network of 20,000 zombie PCs: $2,000 to $3,000. Such networks typically are used to broadcast spam and phishing scams and to spread e-mail viruses designed mainly to create yet more zombies. Click here to comment on this entry Pricing big question for new PlayStationPricing big question for new PlayStation 09/25/2004 11:54 PM Thestate.com - Sat Sep 25, 01:12 pm GMT Problems With Broadband PricingProblems With Broadband Pricing 01/08/2004 08:42 PM Interesting article at PC Magazine taking on the issue of broadband price gauging. He points out that, unlike with dialup, you generally only have a very few choices for high speed internet access to your home. The providers (usually cable or telephone companies) are doing everything they can to prop up prices - even though, like most digital things, the price should start to drop after a certain point. On top of that, MSN and AOL are trying to get people to pay more money for additional services that really aren't necessary - but many consumers think they need AOL or MSN on top of their cable/DSL connection in order to reach the internet. The writer agrees that, for some people, some of the services offered by AOL or MSN might be useful, but not on top of the always rising price of a high speed internet connection. He's hoping that more competition comes to the broadband world and forces down prices. Some of that seems to be happening already, as DSL providers have been dropping their prices to compete with cable - but it remains to be seen if there's really enough competition in the marketplace. Pricing software by meansPricing software by means 01/09/2004 09:51 PM Among the many responses to my post on piracy was one which suggested I price my software by country. The general idea is that it's unfair that someone in the United States is charged the same price as someone in, say, Russia, where economic conditions are much harsher. I have to say that I agree with this sentiment. Russia isn't such a warez capital because it's a dishonest country - it's a country with many skilled people thrown into chaotic times. In order for some of them to maintain these skills, they may need to stay up-to-date with the latest software. But in order to be ethical, they need to shell out a week's pay to register one measly program. I've actually talked with other shareware authors about this in the past, and a number of them shared my belief that charging a lower price in certain countries would be a better way to do business. Several of us discussed ways to handle this, but in the end it was decided that it would be so hard to manage that it wouldn't be feasible. Verifying the country of origin and weeding out fraud would simply require too much time. There are ways to automate this, of course, but most of us need to rely on third-party ordering services so we don't have much control over the purchasing process - so it would be up to us to handle the extra work. Most shareware companies are one-person outfits such as my own, and we all find it difficult to balance the many demands of running our businesses. We tend to shy away from anything that's time-consuming simply because we often have no time left at the end of the day. In my case, I'm not going to implement something if it means I have less time to spend with my kids. One possible solution is to skip charging by country and instead ask each customer to pay what s/he believes the software is worth. A minimum price would be required to make sure the order processing fees are covered, but the final price would be determined by the customer. This sidesteps the need for any verification, and could potentially even increase earnings since I'd get orders from those who previously couldn't afford our software. On the surface I really like this idea, but the more you think about it the more it seems just as problematic. First there's the fear factor: I rely on software sales to feed my family, so I'm scared to try such a thing. But even if I ignore this (not to mention the issues involving third-party ordering services), there are still a boatload of issues involving corporate sales, etc., that would eat away at my time. I'd like to hear other thoughts on this so I've enabled comments for this post. However, I'm going to disable them once the comment spammers hit, so if you have your own blog you'd be better off posting there and sending a trackback ping. BTW, I should add that my posting about this does NOT mean that I'm about to implement such a system, since the ordering services for both TopStyle and FeedDemon are already in place. I'm simply thinking out loud about how such a system might work in case I want to try it with future software. Server Pricing SurpriseServer Pricing Surprise 03/06/2004 02:06 AM I’ve been a little out of touch on computer prices, so I took the time to browse through the Dell leaflet that showed up in the mail. I got a surprise... BT unlikely to be fined over broadband
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