[asterisk-biz] PBX Functionality for Less than the Price of a KeySystem (3Com Asterisk IP Telephony Appliance)

[Andrew Kohlsmith (lists)]

On June 3, 2008 10:45:17 am Trixter aka Bret McDanel wrote:
> > Computer people, and in my experience even Asterisk people, tend to
> > forget how high the markup is on packaged telephony gear -- and more to
> > the point, *why* it's that high.

> ok, why not providing some information since we all forget why its that
> high, can you provide some information regarding that?

I'm late to the flame, but $3000 for a little system and 5 phones is not 
expensive to most businesses.  Hell, what's Digium's appliance going for?  
Without phones?

I've been in manufacturing for 12 years, and nothing surprised me more than 
the amount of markup the sales guys were able to "get away with" -- list 
price is the idiot tax, sure, but even so, working for the "little company" 
in the sector I was in showed that we were routinely getting away with 50% 
margin, and we simply would not sell for less than 40%.  And that price at 
50% margin was probably 70% of list!!

I have absolutely NO doubt that the cost of goods on 3Com's product is nowhere 
near the MSRP.  What's the point of being in business if not to make a 
profit?  This isn't just an off the shelf PC; it may not be MUCH more than 
that, but it's still a relatively niche product, and thus they should charge 
appropriately.  What idiot prices a niche product based on cost??  You charge 
what the market will bear, or at the end of the day you're just leaving money 
on the table.

There is a lot to pay for to professionally support a product: customer 
service, sales and marketing literature, having a few sales critters running 
around selling the stuff, lease, electricity, heat, water, phone and 
internet... and let's not forget the cost of hiring some people just to sit 
around and think shit up... Research is not a cheap expense, let alone the 
actual VERY expensive Development side of R&D!

It was an eye opener for me, but it makes total, perfect sense now.  Sure, 
Dean may think it's pricey because he's a competitor, and he may charge less 
for a similar solution, but maybe he's got less overhead, or feels 
comfortable taking less of a profit?  Where I worked we thought the 
competition was INSANE for charging what they did.  We were making a tidy 
profit on what we sold, and we were usually a good 15% below their discounted 
price!

It's no secret that any hacker with spare parts can come up with something 
cheaper and have it work pretty much the same.  That doesn't mean that a 
company is willing to sell such a product, is able or willing to support it, 
or that they are willing to take less of a profit than they're used to when 
selling high-volume cookie-cutter solutions.

Is it honestly worth the flame war?  Big company offers value-added product 
built on open-source, charges big-but-not-megabucks... have we not seen this 
a hundred times already?

-A.