Hacker News Reader

Comment by WiseWeasel | Hacker News Reader

No, it's whomever decided to set the price at $100 who should be fired. This excessive demand shows that they could easily have charged $150 or maybe even $200 for the 16GB version, and still gone through their supply, with less hassle for retailers, and less of a loss.

View on HN

There is a such a thing as a demand curve. I bought the $100 one.

Here's how I'd think about

$100 -- I'd Bite $110 -- I'd Bite $120 -- Okay $130 -- Uh, maybe. I'll flip a coin. $140 -- It's an okay deal. I might pass. $150 -- I'd probably pass.

That's my curve. Others have their own curve. If everyone is like me, which they're not, $125 is probably the right price point. I can't imagine spending $200 or even $150 for webOS.

Here's to there being an Android release in the next month or so!

I think the fact that 32GB models at $150 sold out just as fast supports the idea that your "demand curve" is the one that is different from the average consumer.

Also in support of this are the crazy prices people are paying on eBay for them right now, upwards of $250 for a 16GB model. It's pretty clear they could have sold them off quite briskly at $150/$200, possibly even just as fast. It seems the resellers nabbed most of them anyways.

Also, the $99 pricing got them a lot of good press because it was a very good deal. An average deal would have no press so no sales, the sales are not a linear correlation of the pricing.

When a cheap tablet is $300-$350, a $150/$200 price point would have netted them just as much press. Frankly, they could have done with a little less exposure.

I live in Canada, I ran out of my house and hopped on the subway the moment I heard the news and I posted the first comment on the TIMN article about the fire sale from my phone on the way. I checked the Best Buy, Future Shop & The Source. I also ordered two online, one from Best Buy and another from Dynamism.

I didn't get a single one, or even see one being purchased. They were all gone in the first 20 minutes from retail, employees bought up any remaining retail stock at smaller or less urban stores that night. Online stores sold out while I was on the subway.

That wasn't just high demand, that was completely insane demand. There is just not a snowball's chance in hell that a $50 bump would have a serious effect, other than possibly dragging the sell out process from minutes to hours. It may have also saved a little money in CSR wages, considering a bunch of businesses had to cancel hundreds and thousands of orders that Monday.

> the sales are not a linear correlation of the pricing.

This is true, likewise it's not this extremely clear line where $100 is absolute Black Friday-esque insanity and $150 is gathering dust on the shelf.

Not just that, on eBay and various Amazon retailers the prices seem to have stabilized at around 250 USD or even up to € 250 in Europe. If HP chooses this price point most of the current demand will still be there, especially if I could just walk up to an electronics store and get one!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com