Price is high compared to what?

[Neil Barnfather - TalkNav]

Yes but we've had this conversation before about Mac Voice Over, it is fine
for paying nothing for it, but when compared side by side to either Jaws or
Window Eyes, it is what it is, i.e. a free application.

Yes it does do the job, yes it is slightly more responsive as it's part of
the OS, but it has none of the bells and whistles associated with a
mainstream screen reader.

Regards. 


Neil Barnfather
WF Access List Administrator
TalkNav is a Nuance Accessibility software reseller and authorized
distributor of Wayfinder products. 

www.talknav.com
www.wayfinderaccess.com 
Telephone: - +44 (0) 870 351 7532
MSN: - neil at ehosting.com
-----Original Message-----
From: blindphones-bounces at mosenexplosion.com
[mailto:blindphones-bounces at mosenexplosion.com] On Behalf Of Cy Selfridge
Sent: 31 January 2008 19:53
To: 'The Accessible Phones Discussion List'
Subject: RE: Price is high compared to what?

Stephen,
Do not forget about the newer Mac computers. They *do* come with a screen
reader built into the operating system. You can get a mini Mac for around
$6000 and you are ready to go for speech.
Cy, the Ancient okie... 

-----Original Message-----
From: blindphones-bounces at mosenexplosion.com
[mailto:blindphones-bounces at mosenexplosion.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Giggar
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 4:19 AM
To: The Accessible Phones Discussion List
Subject: Re: Price is high compared to what?

That goes to show how some blind people think they are getting a good deal!
<chuckle> Talk Ultra if I'm remembering correctly is a Mini PC and screen
reader all built into one unit? If that is correct! That is why I would use
a PC or Laptop it is cheaper if you already own a copy of a screen reader.
Even then buying a PC and a screen reader would still be cheaper then the
Talk Ultra. So far I do not know anyone who has gotten one of them. I guess
their is a few people who have them.

But even then; You can not compare the price of one software package to a
device that has USB ports along with a screen reader and other
functionality.

$5,000/$6,000 for what? A PC $500-$800 with a screen reader Window eye's
$nnn. Even if you leave out the screen reader and add a OCR package your
talking about maybe another $900? Now you have a full computer and a OCR
package for at least $1,400! Some PC come with all in one printer/scanner
combos.

If you look at other Symbian software packages James you will see; This
KNFBReader Software is so far above what other packages sell for; It isn't
even close. To me, you can tell that the NFB has no idea what Symbian
software sell for. If they lowered the price to a $100 or so and put it on
MySymbian.com and sold to the normal market! They will sell many more copies
then what they would just to the blind market. They would still make a
profit in a few months to a year.

Also their was no need for them to make it a stand alone package. They could
have let the people who have a screen reader use their screen reader and
enlargement software and by doing that; lowered the price of the KNFBReader
even more. Being they wouldn't need a TTS or any software to enlarge text. 
So yes it looks like in this case; They are trying to write their own
software and go after a very limited market and did not do any research on
Symbian based software and pricing. But I wouldn't be shocked the NFB people
probably had no idea what a Symbian based phone could do and what pricing
was already out on the open market. As far as that goes; Some of them
probably never even knew their was a screen reader available for cell phones
to start with. LOL

Sorry; No afence to those NFB people who do know about screen readers and
other tech stuff.

This last summer; I seen a bluetooth 12 cell Braille display and it was
$1,995. Needless to say; I wouldn't buy it and thought it was asking to
much. But again I do not use Braille.

As far as books! If you can convert  books to MP3 format; Then you can use a
tool from Nokia to convert the books along with the Nokia audio book player
for free on your Nokia 3rd Edition cell phone.

Signed: Stephen Giggar
sgiggar at sbcglobal.net
Skype: dr-phone.

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Aldrich" <jkaldrich at qwest.net>
To: "The Accessible Phones Discussion List" <Blindphones at mosenexplosion.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 9:32 PM
Subject: Price is high compared to what?


> Hello!
>
> Well, a Voice Sense has gone up from its introductory price of $1795 
> to $2395.  A Small Talk Ultra is close to $2600.  This is certainly 
> better
than
> the $5000 and $6000 and more we have been paying for some of these
products.
> When one considers the KNFB Reader has many of the features of the 
> above mentioned products complete with Book Share and being able to 
> read translated braille files, well, I'd say the KNFB reader is well 
> into the price range of many of these products I mentioned!  Yes!  If 
> one has any number of these products, it adds up fast!  But then, $500 
> for a phone
isn't
> exactly a low cost phone either!  This brings me to one of my questions!
> Will Talks be able to allow one to download and read book Share files?  
> If not, Mobile Speaks would have the edge for me.  I think when one 
> considers all the notetaker capabilities these newer phones have 
> thanks to the software in question, I'd say the price isn't all that 
> out of line and it could go down.  The price for the original KNFB 
> Reader has dropped but
maybe
> this is due to the present cell phone unit.  Okay!  It is high when 
> comparing cell phone products only but not so high when considering 
> all possible choices!  I think the idea of a portable product is to 
> have everything in one package since we also are talking about surfing 
> the web, Email and text messaging!  So how high is too high?  I'm 
> afraid we won't solve this issue for some time to come but I think 
> competition is slowly moving these prices down!  Of course, a braille 
> display will always bring the price up but a number of the newer ones work
with bluetooth!  Okay!
The
> Icon or Braille Plus is around $1300 to $1400 but it uses Linux and it
isn't
> a scanner nor does it have a camera!  I understand they may 
> incorporate a phone into this device as well as GPS so who knows what may
come of it!
>
> I can't speak for FS since I no longer use any FS products myself.
>
> Just some food for thought!
>
> Jim Aldrich
>
>
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