Bob, I think there has been a minor production delay in the DFR-300, but it apparently is shipping now. The hardware price per unit for the DFR-300 in OEM quantities (10K and up) has been published (OEM quantity link was provided on this thread, I believe) at less than $20 per unit. Comparisons using the DFR-200 are obsolete.
I haven't seen a Secugen price list. What are they selling for? Less than $20? As to Veridicom, the last 'solution' price I saw was $149 (without ESAF) and more with ESAF. Just the chip alone is supposed to be about $50. That isn't competitive with IDX optical scanners, which will be priced at less than half that. As to the algorithm costs . . . the ESAF version will have to be priced at supplier cost + ESAF reseller markup, whereas the IDX version doesn't have that reseller cost. Price advantage to IDX, unless both ESAF and its algo supplier are cutting their profit margins. Your price comparisons don't work, because you are citing retail prices for IDX when their basic marketing approach will be for OEM sales. Given that the CPQ solution will be around $70, probably less, where can an ESAF solution be found for anything like that price?
Voice isn't going to be used by other than teenagers and geeks. And even they are going to find it less than satisfactory . . . so let's not waste time on voice biometrics yet. I keep coming back to the question of why anyone needs an ESAF solution when fingerprint-only does the job for professionals for less money than other biometrics (i.e., iris scans) or layered biometrics. Until ESAF actually gets some sales (incestuous HSN sales don't really count), that question continues to sound pretty good.
IDX and its OEMs are going to be approaching Novell users to sell hardware that integrates seamlessly with the end user's VPN. ESAF may be selling silly voice biometrics directly to high schoolers, or Home Shoppers, if they use Novell -- but I bet it is counting on Veridicom or Secugen trying to compete with the much lower cost IDX product. And the cost differential won't be helped by the fact that IDX algos will be embedded in the Novell OS, and the Veridicom or Secugen algos won't. (And how much would you like to bet that IDX algo's won't be in the Enterprise Edition when they are already in the Starter version?) |
