An interesting article on product crimping and price discrimination, detailing ways that vendors (computer manufacturers, airlines, etc.) artificially reduce “feature sets” when marketing lower cost versions of their product. For example …
In May 1990 IBM introduced the LaserPrinter E, an inexpensive alternative to its very popular and successful LaserPrinter. The LaserPrinter E was virtually identical to the original LaserPrinter, except that the E model printed text at 5 pages per minute (ppm), while the LaserPrinter could reach 10ppm. The slower performance of the LaserPrinter E was accomplished by adding five chips to the E model. According to Mitt Jones (PC Magazine): “… IBM has gone to some expense to slow the LaserPrinter in firmware so that it can market it at a lower price.” The LaserPrinter E sold for about 60% of the price of the original LaserPrinter… IBM has reduced the incentive of high-end customers to buy the low-end device by slowing down the low-end device.
This isn’t necessarily evil — the customer gets what they pay for — but it does seem wasteful (which, some would argue, is evil). It depends, I suppose, on whether you see the higher value version as a benefit to those who choose to pay for it, or the “crippled” version as an injury to those who can (or will) only pay for that.
(via BoingBoing)