This seems less like BMW offering the customer flexibility in pricing and more like BMW trying to find a way to extract cash from the used car market.
The option is they sell you the same car without the hardware that the second-market buyer doesn’t want, and then it’s harder to resell
I don't think any used car buyer will install additional feature in a car. Maybe a new car radio, but even that has become difficult. In our 2nd gen Berlingo the radio is connected to the multimedia "lever" and the digital dashboard ... the aftermarket radio that worked fine in the previous car does not even use the same connectors :-/
Of the to of my head: * Intel xeon processors have software defined feature sets that are unlocked by a license. * Nvidia low hash rate GPUs * Nvidia vGPU on consumer GPUs (there are hacks to enable it) * hardware video / audio encoders in mobile processors that require licensing to use. * Sony cameras have licenses that allow you to unlock extra features * Cisco do this all the time with their router HW.
Features that are locked off permanently are less scummy. It's a bad way of emulating different production lines, but at least it doesn't let them charge ongoing rent.
If I am not mistaken sometimes this is due to yield rates in chip manufacturing. Iirc there were 3 core pentiums at some point that were basically faulty 4 core chips where one core did not pass QC.
Pretty sure it was "say McDonald's to end commercial" from https://patents.google.com/patent/US8246454B2/en
I remember them being both around the same time. Was looking like we were on the verge of some absurd tech dystopia. Which was partially true, but it wasn't as weird as always on kinect and the mcdonalds patent.
The McDonalds one ended up happening, just as variants of "retweet for a 10% discount".
Abusive business practices are not "good" no matter whether they harm the people you dislike or not.
The argument is about harm to the general populace, not about harm to a specific group they dislike. Are indoor smoking bans good? The justification is that second-hand smoke has significant negative impacts on the general populace. Are tabacco taxes good? They encourage the same thing that smoking bans do, a reduction in smoking leading to better health for the population. The parent commenter is just saying the sam…
> Are tabacco taxes good? They encourage the same thing that smoking bans do, a reduction in smoking leading to better health for the population.
As a smoker, that is absolute bullshit. Exhorbitant tobacco taxes only piss off people who are going to buy the product anyway. They disproportionately punish poor people for being poor, and they don't put as much of a dent into the amount of smoking that happens as you think they do.
I literally just saw a BMW advertisement yesterday that says it comes with 8 years of adaptive cruise control/driver assist, which then disables itself after the timer runs out (presumably unless you pay to license it again).
For a while now, the KTM motorcycle company has been selling bikes with a Demo Mode. For the first 1,500 km, you get access to all of the electronic features of your new bike; then they get disabled and you have to pay to re-enable them. https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/ktm-demo-mode
I don’t think there’s a convincing argument that car manufacturers are current running a price cartel, sorry
Why not? Your floor is the base cost of the BOM. Since they absolutely and pathetically have to prioritize shareholder value there is strong impetus to drive prices up or extract additional value some other way. Remember if you're not showing cancerous levels of growth you are dying, if not worthless! The only time prices ever come down is when one tries to undercut the other, or they feel they can make more money by…
Can I ask something as an Old Guy(tm)? I thought games were supposed to be fun and entertaining. If the developer makes it un-fun, then why keep playing? why not finding something else fun to do? e.g. play another game? learn a new skill? do something IRL? etc. Serious q, please don't bash.
It doesn't have to be fun if it's addicting enough https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning_chamber
"Okay, but couldn't we at least make the game fun anyway?"
"No! It has to be just barely fun. If the game was TOO FUN then there would be no reason to MICROPAY in order to make it MORE FUN!"
I literally just saw a BMW advertisement yesterday that says it comes with 8 years of adaptive cruise control/driver assist, which then disables itself after the timer runs out (presumably unless you pay to license it again).
I think I am in a minority group of 1 for thinking that features that are payable extras are a good thing, actually. I guess people who don't like it see it as losing features, and talk about _owning_ their vehicle, where I see it as the ability to fine-tune the cost of a vehicle depending on what features you do or do not want to license. With any luck, competition should end up giving a market price to each of thes…
yeah, but the extra features don't cost extra money for the manufacturer. For example, BMW sells a subscription for heated seats. But... EVERY BMW has the hardwere in place, seat heaters and everything installed on the car, even if you don't have the subscription. it's not some cost savings passed on to you, it's cheaper for them to put seat heaters in every car!!! They're just going to charge you more to unlock it. Hence, subscription services are not value added, they are value extracted, and understanding that difference is what drives the outrage here.
Why not? Your floor is the base cost of the BOM. Since they absolutely and pathetically have to prioritize shareholder value there is strong impetus to drive prices up or extract additional value some other way. Remember if you're not showing cancerous levels of growth you are dying, if not worthless! The only time prices ever come down is when one tries to undercut the other, or they feel they can make more money by…
> Your floor is the base cost of the BOM Plus R&D, licensing and other vital expenses.
Which are all somewhat nebulous and open to interpretation.