Re:Intel wants to charge $50 to unlock stuff your CPU can al...
by VikingCoder on Tuesday June 04, 2013 @01:15PM
(#5820727)
Let's really do this conversation from step one. Write down the words you'd like me to say, that would satisfy you. I think you want me to say, "They have a right to sell this product." I've already said that. What more do you want from me???
I declare it's an awful way to relate to ME as their customer to build an amazing chip, and then hobble it. It makes me resent them, and want to seek out their competitors.
Now, explain to me how those emotions they've instilled in me help make them a successful business.
It is absolutely infeasible for them to design and manufacture individual chips at every one of those tiers. They cannot set aside entire factories and supply lines for every level of consumer need. If they were to do so, the price of 700MHz chip would start at $300+, and only go up from there. That's the nature of the economy of CPU design and manufacturing.
Now, instead of doing that, they only design four or five chips, each at the top end of their respective tier, and build into each of those chips a means of "hobbling" them to fill the dozens of tiers in between. This allows them to spread the total cost of the chip across several segments of the market, particularly into those segments that would otherwise be unable to afford to purchase a chip at all.
This does not mean they put additional effort into hobbling those chips, it means they saved a great deal of effort by not explicitly designing and manufacturing a chip that would otherwise fill that specific niche.
What you're asking for is that they only offer chips that include features X, Y, and Z. Those chips cost $600, and there are no other options, because it would not be cost-effective for them to design a chip that only included features X and Y.