[nabs-l] The technology in specialized notetakers

[Joseph C. Lininger]

Antonio,
I agree with you that note takers should have more features and probably 
that they
should be cheaper as well. The trouble as I understand it has to do with 
economics.
Specifically, market size. Let me provide the analysis that "officially" 
is used,
then at the end I'll provide a couple of my thoughts.
First, let's address new features. The reason the development of 
technology is so
fast paced in the non-adaptive world is because it quite literally has 
to be. There
are several companies, all of which are competing for business in a 
particular field
(web sites, phones, laptops, etc.). There are also tons of consumers who 
want to
purchase and/or use those products. They're going to purchase and/or use 
what ever
has the most market appeal, of course. The companies, in consequence, 
must continually
create new products and update existing ones to keep them relevant to 
the community.
When looking at adaptive technology, note takers specifically, the same 
situation
doesn't really hold. There are only a few products, and not a large 
market of people
who want them. If you want to purchase a note taker, you only have the 
option of
purchasing one of the two or three currently on the market. The 
manufacturers, then,
only have to compete against one or two others for your business. This 
problem is
further compounded by the fact that they probably don't have large teams 
of software
developers to add new features and such.
As far as price, it's a similar problem. The cost of main stream 
products drops because
as a product becomes better known in the market, more people purchase 
it. As more
people purchase it, the cost per unit drops and the company lowers the 
price in order
to bring in yet more people. This does not apply with technology which 
is only designed
to work for the blind community. There is a fixed market size, which is 
considerably
smaller than the main stream community. If the price is lowered to far 
under those
conditions, you end up with a situation where it costs more to design 
and build the
technology than you make selling it.
All of that being said, I think there is also the "this is always how 
it's been"
factor. It's always been the case that adaptive technology has developed 
slower,
and the technology costs over 10 times that of mainstream technology 
with similar
functionality. There is a hesitancy to move from a slower development 
cycle with
higher costs to one where development happens faster and you have to pay 
more often,
but the costs are lower. I also think there's a factor I refer to as the 
"agency"
factor. that is, the manufacturers feel that most of the time, this 
technology is
purchased by voke rehab or some other agency. Therefore, the price is 
not as big
a factor as it otherwise might be since the agency is likely to go ahead 
and pay
it without too much protest. I'm not saying voke rehab doesn't protest, 
but I am
saying that the manufacturers feel that eventually they will probably 
just go ahead
and pay so they can set the prices how they like.
I'm not sure how much of each factor plays into it; I'd have to collect 
market data
to figure that out and I'm a computer Scientist, not an economist. 
However, these
are the factors which I believe cause and sustain the problem.
Joe