"... then we are entering a golden age of hardware ...
It can also herald an era of 'mom and pop' hardware companies."
Exactly!
I never understand bloggers and pundits who analyze these things from the perspective of the stockholders or owners of the large players instead of the consumers/small players.
Why the hell would you cheer about the high margins charged on the products you are paying for? Is marketing getting so good that consumers are now complaining about too much competition among those they buy from?
Why the hell would you cheer about the high margins
charged on the products you are paying for?
I don't cheer high margins, but in some industries cheap medium-low quality products crowd more expensive higher quality products out of the market.
Consider inkjet printers; there are many cheap products on the market, but the consensus opinion among techies seems to be that there's no suppler with a good product.
It would be a shame if more of the technology industry went in that direction.
I'm not sure inkjet printers are a good example, although you can say that since the cheap printers flooded the market there are fewer "good" printers and they lost the economies of scale so they are more expensive.
This example is so polluted by the whole ink cartridge "sell the razor blades" business model and the legal challenges around 3rd party cartridges that I would be very hesitant to generalize from the printer example.
With that said, the kindle business model is that same model so maybe there is something to it.
More referring to the general trend, even among commenters.
This is not a perfect example, since you can make the argument that the audience is other investors who want to some trend forecasting and have a generally conservative mindset.
But it does bring up another possible reason for this behaviour: for those with a stake in maintaining the status quo it now makes sense to attempt to fight commoditization through marketing/lobbying disguised as journalism now that ethics in journalism is ebbing and the cost to publish a blog is low.
I personally think it's a result of the success so many brands have had in tying brand choice to personal identity and tribal affiliation, but that doesn't apply to the writer of this piece obviously.
It can also herald an era of 'mom and pop' hardware companies."
Exactly!
I never understand bloggers and pundits who analyze these things from the perspective of the stockholders or owners of the large players instead of the consumers/small players.
Why the hell would you cheer about the high margins charged on the products you are paying for? Is marketing getting so good that consumers are now complaining about too much competition among those they buy from?