Price is high compared to what?

[James Aldrich]

Well, as far as I can say, speak with Mr.  Kurzweil or anyone at the NFB 
about this.  I can tell you my notetaker can be ready much more quickly than 
my PC when it comes to writing something down quickly!  That assumes my PC 
or notetaker isn't on at the time.  I'm certain I could turn on a phone much 
more quickly than my PC before taking something down.  I think time will 
tell as to how many people will go for the KNFB Reader in this 
configuration.  It certainly is possible I may not be able to use the phone 
where I am but I could have the KNFB reader however.  Perhaps NFB members 
will get a discount on the reader as they have other products.  For now, 
this is the price, take it or leave it!  Your choice!  I do have two screen 
readers and JFW isn't one of them.

Jim


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Giggar" <sgiggar at sbcglobal.net>
To: "The Accessible Phones Discussion List" <blindphones at mosenexplosion.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 3:19 AM
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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