Seth Godin recently posted an piece on his blog called Razors and blades, about trouble with an HP printer. Like razors, printers are a money-losing business. The profit comes from the blades and the cartridges that people keep coming back … Read More
Monthly Archives: April 2006
2 Articles on Drug Pricing
Forbes has a couple of interesting pieces on drug pricing. A Primer on Drug Pricing discusses the inherent inefficiencies of an industry driven by huge R&D costs but low marginal costs. The basic point is that the price that maximizes … Read More
Price Confusion as a Skimming Strategy
Slate posted an article recently that suggests that cellular carriers offer confusing plans to make extra money off people who aren’t willing to dig around for bargains, rebates, and better plans. There is a good deal of merit in the … Read More
Pricing Error: Bill Off by about $200 Trillion
Yes, that’s “t” as in “trillion.” A Malaysian man received a phone bill for $218T (or 806,400,000,000,000.01 Malaysian ringgit) after disconnecting his deceased father’s phone line. If your calls cost $1 per minute (perhaps some kind of international dialing), you’d … Read More