Quote:
Originally Posted by murraypaul
Costing an extra $5 less would sell more units than a meaningless spec number.
We are comparing the lowest end units from each manufacturer. If you are buying these, price is a big factor.
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Entry level readers today go increasingly to kids and first-timers.
So yes, the most important number is price.
(Even the smallest RAM goes unfilled almost all the time. There's no 256/512MB models out there anymore.)
Anybody who won't care about a $10 increase (because the added cost snowballs: everybody in the distribution chain boosts their cut) is more likely to move to the next higher model. And those are typically a minority of entry level shopper.
In fact, it is common to make the entry level barely adequate to encourage people to upgrade as soon as possible or skip it altogether. That is why they're called entry-level, after all.
That is why the Basic Kindle stayed unlit so long and why most entry level models run lower resolutions. Usable but no threat to the more profitable models. It's the same everywhere: catch their attention with the low end and then upsell them the next model up. But to do that, you need enough of a difference between the two models. Make the low-end too good and you'll end up killing the mid-range.
Because price *always* matters.