Re: TECH: 3D Printers == Santa Claus machines

From: Jeff Davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Jan 10 2003 - 23:25:47 MST


Then there's the 'immediate' obsolescence aspect. If
it breaks right away, ie while still in warranty, then
you exchange it. The factory might test it to see if
it's a simple fix, in which case they may refurbish,
or they might just throw it on the 'failed units'
pile. They'll have a certain percentage they expect to
fail early, cause they know it's going to happen, and
no doubt they figure in to the overall cost/profit
equation. Woontcha think?

Then those that last through the warranty, should last
long enough to reach the next generation of that
product type. At that point the customer really has
no options. Repair unlikely to be available--except
perhaps at a price so high that it's ridiculous, so
the culturally accepted norm becomes "time to
replace/upgrade". So you toss it, and upgrade.

Just musing.

Jeff Davis
    

 
--- Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:
> Robert J. Bradbury <bradbury@aeiveos.com> wrote:
>
> > The interesting thing (at least to me) is that if
> something
> > built this way breaks, there is no way in hell you
> are going
> > to be able to fix it.
>
> And this is different from current practice in what
> way?
>
> Have you ever opened up and looked at the internals
> of electronic
> gadgets from, say, the last ten years? Have you
> looked at the
> circuit boards? It's all surface mount technology
> and ASICs.
> You are not going to fix anything there. Neither
> will customer
> service. If the device is sufficiently complex, it
> will consist of
> several separable modules which can be exchanged
> independently.
> Otherwise the whole thing is thrown away.
>
> --
> Christian "naddy" Weisgerber
> naddy@mips.inka.de

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