As a courtesy, I have deleted my post relating to your translation, harmonix.
However, I stand by the remarks in my subsequent post.
One only has to look at the huge price increase of the ZX2, in relation to the ZX1, to see there has been a very substantial increase in profit margin.
With complete respect to everyone here, if anyone believes that a few fancy capacitors and a bit of gold-plated copper really justifies such a huge price increase, they're being rather naive.
I find it quite amazing that so many large companies fail to understand the most basic facets of the way this universe operates.
What goes around comes around. Grasping at fatter profit margins is a very short-sighted approach, if longterm business success is one's goal, because it is an imbalanced equation which cannot function indefinitely, and may eventually lead to catastrophic failure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony
Despite some successes, the company faced continued struggles in the mid- to late-2000s.
[14] It became known for its stagnancy, with a fading brand name.
[14]
I believe that Sony could sell the ZX2 at approximately 40-50% less, and, over the duration of the product life-cycle, make
more profit, but
in a balanced way that benefits both them and the customers on whom the business relies for its survival. The company has a legitimate right to earn a profit, but the company literally cannot exist without the customers, so the customers' legitimate right to a good value-for-money product should be treated with great respect. It is in any company's best interests to respect their customers, if they wish to remain in business. More and more people are becoming interested in Hi-Res and audiophile quality playback. Some of these people might consider buying a device as expensive as the ubiquitous iPhone ($600-$750), but anything greedily-priced substantially higher than that will be more likely to alienate them and turn their attention to other brands such as Fiio. I am well aware that iPhones have greater economies of scale than a ZX2, but Apple are already being very greedy at $600-$750, so there is little reason why Sony couldn't choose to be less greedy and still achieve a healthy profit margin at around $600-$700. Let's face it; Sony are not exactly small fry, themselves. Additionally, since Hi-Res is finally beginning to gain some momentum, the ZX2 is a golden opportunity for Sony to gain a serious foothold in the premium DAP market again, after several years of relative decline. Circa $600-$700 is still a big chunk of cash, but it's much, much more accessible than $1200. The latter takes the brand in the direction of stagnancy, which is not in their best interests,
or that of their customers. And it's not just about the ZX2 - if Sony can draw-in lots of new would-be audiophiles, to the ZX2, at a
reasonable price, then those very same customers may remain loyal to the brand when they seek their next Hi-Res audiophile DAP, in 2-3 years time.
Sony should be benefiting both themselves
and the customers upon whom their success is utterly dependent, by
using their manufacturing resources and economies of scale (esp. their in-house LSI silicon) to provide high-end hardware at a competitive price, rather than stagnating their own brand with high margins.
Amazing how Sony top-brass are so short-sighted...
They have a golden opportunity to gain new would-be audiophiles (possibly with long-term loyalty), at the beginning of mass-market ascendancy of Hi-Res, but instead, they're taking a glitzy marketing + greedy profit-margin approach which impresses a small hardcore minority, but alienates the majority, and thus stifles mass-market penetration.
If they think following A&K is a good approach, given A&K's success with their business model of shameless price-gouging, then they haven't done their homework - business models like that, which so severely stack the cards in favour of the manufacturer and dealers, and so severely stack the cards against the customers, are (to continue the metaphor) built upon a fragile house of cards, and a severely imbalanced one, at that. It cannot last, longterm, and when it falls, it may do so catastrophically. Sony, of all companies, should be painfully aware of how hard, and how far, even giant corporations like themselves can fall, what with their billions of losses, in recent years.
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