To: Drew Williams who wrote (5526 ) 7/3/1999 10:42:00 PM From: Maurice Winn Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 29987
*Handset Prices* Drew, good scheme. There is room for many marketing methods to ensure maximum revenue. One size fits all is NOT the way to make huge sales. Qualcomm would quickly boost capacity, even if it meant swapping terrestrial handset production to Globalstar if there is sufficient demand and profit per handset. No need to license to more people to boost production. Just get some orders! Qualcomm could soon boost production to 1m per year if the profit is there - same as they did for terrestrial production. It doesn't take all that long. Anyway, with the three suppliers, Q! will only need about 500,000 per year to keep the demand filled [the way Globalstar plans to sell it they won't need more than a bit of that]. When you buy a Volvo, you do it for safety [wives generally care much less about cost than husbands do, especially where safety of children is concerned, or hygiene, or aesthetics etc] and if that's what she wants, that's what you buy. Forget about saying that something else does a better job cheaper. It's the image. Volvo = safe. To be seen to be a good Mum, being seen in a Volvo shows a safe attitude. You buy it because you value your identity as Mr Provider. Social belonging and all that stuff. The salesman was probably a decent guy too. So that made it nice too. I'm not one to suggest that price is the factor that sells. It is ALWAYS the benefits, identity and other aspects - the price is ALWAYS just the measuring stick. When buyers negotiate the price HIGHER, then price is the identity factor which matters. Even in high priced purchases, not many will ask to pay more. Sure, a tip might be offered, and a generous one at that, or the most expensive product selected to ensure the right image is given. Neither in my years at the sharp end of selling did I sell by discounting. I got the best prices. Gave the best service. Sold the most stuff. Had the best credit record. Don't mistake my philosophy as simply 'cut the price to sell things'. Sometimes though, cutting the price is the variable which is most important to make the most money. Especially when we have 10bn minutes rotting in space with competitors who need to be skooshed. Incidentally, BP is almost certainly better than the Merit gas. Your car will know the difference, though you might not. Your fuel consumption is probably higher. There are many variables in gasoline which justify higher prices. For example: research octane number, RON [good performance, efficiency, no knock] motor octane number [with RON, no engine damage, no knock, efficiency] volatility [good cold start, and similar to the next two] vapour pressure [don't want vapour lock, fires, or loss of fuel] distillation curve [good performance, efficiency] aromatics level [dirty exhaust, dirty oil, stink, cancer] gums [sticks things up, such as rings and valves] density [value for money - covered by distillation curve mostly] sulphur content [engine and oil wreckage, H2S stink from catalytic converters] oxygenate content [less efficient] benzene content [causes leukaemia - until catalytic converters get hot after a bit of driving, the unburned molecules of this go into the air and give your children myeloid leukaemia - only a couple in LAX per month, but if those two are yours, Oh! Oh!] Then there are the things such as whether the vapour return line only takes vapour back and leaves the gasoline to all go into the tank. Plus some gas stations provide nice restrooms, friendly helpful staff, a canopy to keep the rain and snow off [or sun out of your eyes]. Don't forget you might want to get decent advice on valve seat recession and what products are needed [if any] to prevent it. Which engine oils are good and will not harm the catalytic converter. Advice on which octane quality is best to choose. You want a brand that will back their product, is trustworthy and you can sue for billions if your children die in a high vapour pressure fire which wouldn't have happened if it had less butane in it. Higher octane might save you more money than it costs - or then again, it might be a waste of money and your car will operate most economically on low octane gas. But in summer you might be better to choose the high octane for more knock resistance and a better tuned engine - engines tune themselves these days meaning they advance and retard the spark on individual cylinders according to whether there is knock or not. In winter choose low octane because the cooler air means the engine suffers less knock and the spark won't need to be retarded so much by the engine management system. Especially if you are travelling in the mountains - you can go down about an octane number for each kilometre you go up since less air pressure means less air in the cylinder which means less knock which means more spark advance and improved efficiency. Stuff like that. Try asking Merit and see what they tell you! Jeez, fancy buying gasoline on price....now, minutes, they don't get knock even if you use them at low altitude in summer! Maurice [I bet you're glad you mentioned petrol/gas]