russell@imtec.co.uk (Russell Brown) (10/11/88)
There have been a number of articles talking about the (lack) of high speed modems in the U.K. Although there are now a few sites using trailblazers and V.32 modems most folks still use V22 or V22.bis beasties. Why? Well maybe the price of these exotic modems has something to do with it. Until (very) recently, the standard V.22bis modem in the U.K. was the Dowty Quattro - this retails at #795 (:bc -l..... $1300 ish). Exotic devices like trailblazers (also sold by Dowty) retail at around the #1395 mark ($2300). Reading between the lines these seem to compare with $400 for a V22bis and $1500 for a trailblazer in the US of A. Why a price differential of 50-300% ? A friend ( :-) ) has used unmodified US sourced modems in the U.K. so there are no great technical changes required. It seems that the prices were initially fixed high and the other manufacturers have just jumped on the bandwagon. How do these prices compare with others around the world? PS. We don't even get the special offers for BBS sysops or usenet registered sites - sniff sob :-( -- --------------------------------------------------------------- | Russell Brown | Voice: 0733-66852 | | Imtec plc | EMAIL: russell@imtec.co.uk | | 7 Fitzwilliam Suite, | UUCP: | | Broadway Court, Peterborough, | ...mcvax!ukc!imtec!russell | | Britain, PE1 1SQ | | ---------------------------------------------------------------
andy@acorn.UUCP (Andy Ingle) (10/12/88)
In article <752@imtec.co.uk>, russell@imtec.co.uk (Russell Brown) writes: > There have been a number of articles talking about the (lack) of high > speed modems in the U.K. Although there are now a few sites using > trailblazers and V.32 modems most folks still use V22 or V22.bis > beasties. > [disscussion about UK/USA price differences for high speed modems] > Why a price differential of 50-300% ? I wonder if this whole USA price cutting business is simply a game in which modem manufacturers battle to gain the majority share of the market. Remember when there were three types of VCR format? Today there is only one - the one that sold the most. Us UK users loose out on this, the total market is much smaller and many sites use packet-switched networks such as JANET or PSS for file transfers. High speed (and therefore higher priced) modems are of course wasted on interactive terminal to computer link-ups. I bought a Trailblazer a year ago so we could talk to the USA more cheaply than by International PSS and now use it to talk to cam-cl and ukc as well. The list price one year ago was #1800 but has now come down to #1300 or less. It has already paid for itself in Telecom charges and I consider it an excellent modem for anyone needing to ship large volumes of data (ie news) around using UUCP. --Andy Ingle
jpdres10@usl-pc.usl.edu (Green Eric Lee) (10/15/88)
In article <752@imtec.co.uk> russell@imtec.co.uk (Russell Brown) writes: >There have been a number of articles talking about the (lack) of high >speed modems in the U.K. Although there are now a few sites using >Until (very) recently, the standard V.22bis modem in the U.K. was the >Dowty Quattro - this retails at #795 (:bc -l..... $1300 ish). Exotic >devices like trailblazers (also sold by Dowty) retail at around the >#1395 mark ($2300). > >Reading between the lines these seem to compare with $400 for a >V22bis and $1500 for a trailblazer in the US of A. Trailblazers sell for $1300 in the USA, and I have seen V22bis (2400 baud, right?) for $95, via mail-order ($150 from retail outlets). It seems that everything sold by American companies in the UK is very expensive. For example, back in the olden days, Commodore sold their C-64 home computer for the equivalent of $300 in the UK -- at the same time that they were selling it here for $150. Part of it is the distributor/dealer network in the UK, which is almost as bad as that in France or Japan (middlemen, middlemen, here there everywhere). Other culprits may be: the balance of payment problems that the UK has had for lo so many years, and import tariffs (sort of a response to those problems). And, finally -- they just don't sell much product in the UK. The UK isn't a Third-World nation yet, but it's not exactly wealthy, either. There are no economies of scale to bring down the price of shipping across the sea and certifying with local authorities. The USENET needs an economics newsgroup, for discussing issues like this, but, alas, it doesn't seem it'll happen. Eric Green {well-connected-site}!killer!elg
pfh@pai.UUCP (Peter Hill) (10/15/88)
In article <752@imtec.co.uk>, russell@imtec.co.uk (Russell Brown) writes: > devices like trailblazers (also sold by Dowty) retail at around the > #1395 mark ($2300). When we bought ours, the Trailblazer Plus listed for US$1345, quantity one. I think that's still the US price. I worked at one UK computer site where I heard that US manufacturers adjust their prices for the UK by replacing the dollar sign with a pound sign. I thought it was a joke but I have seen several examples since then. Coincidence, of course. -- ______________________________________________________________________________ Peter Hill pfh@pai.mn.org +1 612 894 0313 Prime Automation, Inc. ...{sun!tundra,umn-cs!hall,bungia}!pai!pfh