Subject:
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Re: Customer service
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Mon, 10 Feb 2003 15:19:12 GMT
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Reply-To:
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Rob Hendrix <(rob@)avoidspam(msltc.org)>
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Viewed:
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903 times
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I wouldn't mind paying up to $250-$300 (depending on wether it has a case or
is bare) for the initial core product. Enough parts would need to be
included in the "basic" set to hook up a small number (4?) of motors and
same number of sensors and allow a dongle to hook it up to a pc for
programming. I would also expect the programming environment to be supplied
on a cd and and instruction manual. I would expect to pay $30-80 for
additional add-on boards. Here is where companies normally make up their
loss for selling the initial product cheap or below cost (IE - Microsoft
Xbox). They get your interest and allow easy purchase of the main unit, and
then charge 2-3x cost for peripherals and add-ons.
1 RIS kit ($200 form Lego) + 1 RCX ($60 from Lego Outlet) = $260 (6 motor
outputs/6 sensor inputs). This is what you are competing against in this
particular market Bruce.
-Rob
"Bruce Boyes" <lego-robotics@crynwr.com> wrote in message
news:5.2.0.9.2.20030209080218.019cee80@mail.xmission.com...
> At 02:00 AM 2/9/2003 -0500, Rob Limbaugh wrote:
>
> > The article has to do specifically with the fast food business, not
> > traditional product manufacturing or retail sales. It talks about how
> > fast food places pull customers in with gimmicks and then push them out
> > the door, so to speak.
>
> But the quote was about customer service, and I think it matters not
> whether it's a hamburger or a new car, people expect the same quality of
> service. We learned this years ago selling software. It didn't matter if
> the package was $50 or $500, people have almost identical expectations
> about customer service and support. I know that may sound crazy, but we
> found it to be true. What this taught us is that the support on a $50
> product can kill you. This is why there is an industry trend to reduced
> support, customer "call centers", endless waits on hold, etc. It's hard to
> provide $20 worth of support on a $50 network card.
>
> As engineers, we can't and won't do that to our customers, since we don't
> want to be treated that way.
>
> > The passion you have for your creation is great, and truly admirable. I
> > applaud your strong belief in your product. And no, I don't think you're
> > nuts for making the JCX. I just think you're nuts for wanting $500 for a
> > base system that controls 8 sensors and 4 motors in real-time when that
> > same goal can be accomplished with a much, much cheaper solution.
>
> That also includes a CPU which can natively (meaning Java byte codes are
> its 'assembly' code) execute 3,000,000 Java byte codes per second. You can
> plug in boards for 8 or 16 more sensors or 4 or 8 more motors and have the
> resources to handle it. Plus add vision sensors, etc.
>
> > It doesn't matter how good/bad your service/support is if you are the • only
> > place the JCX comes from and supports it.
>
> What do you mean -- Lego Mindstorms come from one place and they seem to
> be doing fine, and Bill Gates has done pretty well with Windoze.
>
> But we want a lot of people to adopt the JCX system and that is why we • are
> supporting so many open standards. The JSimm bus is a version of the
> widely used SimmStick. You can get schematics and source code online. • There
> are already numerous open source projects for our CPUs - XML, IrDA,
> databases, etc are already available. Part of this is due to the wide
> popularity of Java. There are hundreds if not thousands of projects
> available which you can leverage.
>
> > My job involves supporting computer systems. I see people/places willing
> > to throw away computers just because they upgraded to something
> > newer--nothing wrong with the 2-year-old system.
>
> With a modular system like JCX you can just plug in new or additional
> boards from any vendor. It never becomes obsolete. The backplane is • passive
> so there's no "motherboard" that becomes obsolete. The CPU board plugs in
> too. The backplane is even designed to support multiple CPUs - you can
> isolate signals of any slot from any other slot as the photos show:
> http://jcx.systronix.com/backpanel.htm
>
> Or make your own backplane out of SimmStick connectors and boards:
> http://www.simmstick.com/
> Or use your own PIC or Atmel CPU (you won't have all the premade Java
> software, but you could use it as a "coprocessor" on the backplane).
>
> > I'm sure that in your world of dealing with college funded projects, what
> > you ask for the JCX seems reasonable.
>
> Comparable robots are $1500-$2000 and are nowhere near as open and • modular.
>
> > You'll start getting my attention when the JCX drops to around $200.
>
> We will probably never be *price* competitive with 20-year old 8-bit
> technology. An assembled 68HC11 HandyBoard is $300... It's more likely the
> price will stay the same but power will go up. That seems to be the case
> with PCs. I just bought my third or fourth notebook and it was about the
> same price as all the others, only a lot nicer in capability.
>
> We're a small company and don't have a lot of resources, so we can't do
> this all overnight. It's already gone more slowly than we'd like. But • we're
> getting there.
>
> Bruce
>
>
>
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Customer service
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| (...) But the quote was about customer service, and I think it matters not whether it's a hamburger or a new car, people expect the same quality of service. We learned this years ago selling software. It didn't matter if the package was $50 or $500, (...) (22 years ago, 9-Feb-03, to lugnet.robotics)
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