#CDTV in my Vehicle
3 messages in this thread
Don,
You said earlier (I'm eavesdropping) that the nav unit seemed like a silly
waste of funds to you. FOR you, with your two audio cd players, Library of
Congress map section, and seemingly small wander-lust, this would be a
silly purchase.
I capitolize "for" (at the risk of shouting {=-}) 'cause this would be a
silly purchase for *you*. It is not, necessarily, a silly purchase in and
of itself. There are plenty of people around who would love to know where
to go when they get to the Smithsonian, and in fact, *how* to get to the
Smithsonian from the wilds of northwestern Montana. Perhaps with a good
astrological CD, they could navigate successfully.
It would be nice if you labled things that you would not do as things that
you would not do because they don't fill a need/desire for you. By
phrasing your comment "I think it's a silly…" you imply that the product
itself is silly. If you would not buy it (yourself) until it had an
astrogator's handbook inc. in its sale price, perhaps the product isn't
silly, but "currently impractical for you."
{=-} Paul
Paul,
I express opinions here….quite obviously, they are my opinions.
Just as you expressed your opinion about my message. That's what the forum
is for.
I do think it's silly for anyone to pay $1200 for a system to
replace $10 worth of maps (or even $100 worth of maps). If you think
differently, fine. If you have difficulty reading maps (that's not a
slam…many folks have difficulty reading maps) then that $10 worth of maps
is worthless to you, and a $1200 system may well be justified.
However, even that is besides the point….my point that I have
been trying to get across, is that for CDTV to be a commercial success, it
must have wide appeal. It must have applications that can't be matched on
any other device (other than a competitors CD ROM based device), it must
have at least one application that will allow its cost to be justified.
Joe Average Buyer likes toys, but Joe must justify the cost based
on some real or perceived need. A major part of that justification must be
cost effectiveness. If I can go into a book store and buy an encyclopedia
for $800 or go into Toys-R-Us and buy a CDTV unit for $1200…then the
majority of folks will opt for the $800 set of books. If I can take a
modified CDTV unit and stick it in my car for $1500 (that's a guess for a
mobile HUD based unit as we've been discussing) or buy $100 worth of
maps…guess what Joe Average Buyer is going to opt for.
Not very many folks are interested in astronomy, so an application
that would catch my eye…probably wouldn't catch other's eyes. But I
brought that up, because such a system would replace a few hundred dollars
worth of books, would replace an astronomical calculator and a planetarium
all at once.
It's unique, nothing like that exists on the market today although
separate programs to do some of it do exist (total cost about $500 for the
programs). Not only would that particular applications replace that set of
programs, it would go far beyond them.
continued…
continuation…
In other words, it is cost effective, it is unique and it'd open up
a currently untapped market (although it's a small market).
That's the type of application that's needed. It wouldn't be a
success on just one such application…it needs many such applications to
tap a large group of markets.
Replacing road maps, shelves of encyclopedias, or playing games
isn't unique or cost effective. Sure, some units would be sold with that
as the primary use…but my opinion is that market would be very small,
certainly not enough to make CDTV a success.
Don