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A comment on Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription. Parent comment

Re:Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid s... by Dylan16807 on Sunday August 17, 2025 @03:43AM (#44929710)
Going "back to the inefficient way" is wasteful, and artificial limiting is also wasteful. Nothing weird about two things both being bad.

In a competitive market they wouldn't be able to get away with either of those. Multiple companies that know how to make their lower end models better for free would do it, because they want more market share.

So we need to figure out how to get as close to that state as possible.

Also the proposed law wouldn't make multiple prices illegal.

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Re:Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid s... by koonsolo on Sunday August 17, 2025 @03:23PM (#44934139)
So what price point do you suggest for this non-limited, high end engine?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid s... by Dylan16807 on Sunday August 17, 2025 @04:24PM (#44934637)
I don't even know what engines cost now. No idea. Why do you ask?
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Re:Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid s... by koonsolo on Sunday August 17, 2025 @04:53PM (#44934860)
That's the whole idea of having 2 or more price points, because you have 2 or more types of customers. If you can only sell at 1 price point, I'm asking which one that is going to be? Or in other words, either as a company you start selling at a loss, or you lose your bottom tier customers.

If you don't understand this, there is no point in discussing this further.

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Re:Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid s... by Dylan16807 on Sunday August 17, 2025 @06:11PM (#44935368)
> If you can only sell at 1 price point

What was unclear about "the proposed law wouldn't make multiple prices illegal"

As for what would happen in a competitive market with everyone acting in their best interest, I'm not sure what exactly would happen. But they're allowed to have multiple prices. It's not the prices causing the problems. And there are other ways to distinguish products that aren't artificial limits.

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