Query : Price Drop = Quality Drop ???

[thrash_metal]

Well heres a simple question running in through my mind ... whenever hardware prices drop does their quality also drop ??? I had a DVD writter purchased a long time back (round 4 to 4.5 years ago approx) for quite a sum ... burnt a huge amount of discs ..... total disc faliures would be hardly 10-15 in its runtime of 3 - 3.5 years ... whereas after that I've been through 3 DVD writters in 1.5 years !!! All of them failing one after the another ...these ones were bought very cheap (yea with bill and warranty) for less than 2k ...... (Sony / LG) .... as the warranty sucks and they do nothing bout it .. nways ..... does this mean quality drops with price ??

[blacklight]

no way ... if that was the case most of the stuff would be out of range for everybody.
prices fall because there's always something new and better coming up
take for instance the core 2 duo processors ,they are good in performance and overclock great..yet there were price cuts recently .and there will be more .this is coz u have the quad core coming in.
Another reason could be competition - AMD which too has an impressive lineup. they were cutting prices like mad so that users go for AMD instead of Intel.

In today's gaming world , u mainly have 2 categories - the enthusiast and the mainstream markets.
the enthusiast is one who looks for performance and cost is not a deterrant for him .
once the product becomes old/newer product comes in , the same product moves to the mainstream market (by price cuts )

in your case of DVD drives , its just a case of u getting bad stuff

[Sourabh]

I don't believe it is so. Price cuts happen on same products coz newer products are announced/launched. In case of optical drives, we are stuck with DVD writers for quite some time. Nothing has replaced them as such. They have just got cheaper and faster. Their fast nature could be the culprit here. A few years back, we had 8x writers or slower. Now, it is hard to get a 16x, all are supporting 18x. Not that it means anything, but it's better and we write faster.

The case you've mentioned doesn't exactly deal with the usual meaning of price drop on a short term basis. Optical drives are an exception IMO, because they have their own life cycle of limited writes in a way. We burn more DVDs today than we did a couple of years back, right?

As for other things - processors, graphics cards and usual computer peripherals, price drops never means quality drops. Those products are not manufactured separately on a 'cheaper' budget or they are just at the end of their production cycle.

[damnthenet]

When a product comes out initially, the production costs (keeping in mind the huge capital involved) are quiet high.
But later, as the number of good products to the number produced exceeds, the cost starts coming down.

[janitha]

Originally Posted by damnthenet

When a product comes out initially, the production costs (keeping in mind the huge capital involved) are quiet high.
But later, as the number of good products to the number produced exceeds, the cost starts coming down.

Yes, first of all it is a matter of "economy of scale".
See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale

[deathvirus_me]

Originally Posted by thrash_metal

Well heres a simple question running in through my mind ... whenever hardware prices drop does their quality also drop ??? I had a DVD writter purchased a long time back (round 4 to 4.5 years ago approx) for quite a sum ... burnt a huge amount of discs ..... total disc faliures would be hardly 10-15 in its runtime of 3 - 3.5 years ... whereas after that I've been through 3 DVD writters in 1.5 years !!! All of them failing one after the another ...these ones were bought very cheap (yea with bill and warranty) for less than 2k ...... (Sony / LG) .... as the warranty sucks and they do nothing bout it .. nways ..... does this mean quality drops with price ??

Its not the burner .. its the media ... ... and the media in turns hurts the lens and so on ..

[thrash_metal]

So far i've only used Moserbaer / Sony discs ...... they r supposed to be the good ones right ? ...... must be my bad luck then

@janitha

I'm bad in economics ......

[samanvya_ad]

Originally Posted by thrash_metal

Well heres a simple question running in through my mind ... whenever hardware prices drop does their quality also drop ??? I had a DVD writter purchased a long time back (round 4 to 4.5 years ago approx) for quite a sum ... burnt a huge amount of discs ..... total disc faliures would be hardly 10-15 in its runtime of 3 - 3.5 years ... whereas after that I've been through 3 DVD writters in 1.5 years !!! All of them failing one after the another ...these ones were bought very cheap (yea with bill and warranty) for less than 2k ...... (Sony / LG) .... as the warranty sucks and they do nothing bout it .. nways ..... does this mean quality drops with price ??

very true... the CD writer i bought 5 years ago in 4000 works so great that i just cant leave it.... but i have a totally failed Samsung combo drive(1 year old) and 1 sony DVD writer which is with company only since last 20 days (2 months old including the 20 days)

[Kniwor]

Originally Posted by thrash_metal

Well heres a simple question running in through my mind ... whenever hardware prices drop does their quality also drop ??? I had a DVD writter purchased a long time back (round 4 to 4.5 years ago approx) for quite a sum ... burnt a huge amount of discs ..... total disc faliures would be hardly 10-15 in its runtime of 3 - 3.5 years ... whereas after that I've been through 3 DVD writters in 1.5 years !!! All of them failing one after the another ...these ones were bought very cheap (yea with bill and warranty) for less than 2k ...... (Sony / LG) .... as the warranty sucks and they do nothing bout it .. nways ..... does this mean quality drops with price ??

u purchased a DVD writer in 2002, how much for, what brand is it??

[janitha]

Originally Posted by thrash_metal

@janitha

I'm bad in economics ......

To be frank, I am even worse in economics. Only that I know the usage and what it means.

[thrash_metal]

I've also seen that happen with a monitor !! LCD one though .

[damnthenet]

For those devices which have already embraced the optimization level in terms to manufacturing and still in production (esp. DVD writers etc), there's many a chance for quality to drop. This is because the manufacturers may prefer low quality components to make low cost devices.

[blackpearl]

Competition my dear, competition!!

[samanvya_ad]

but its not healthy competition cos when all brands start manufacturing low quality products to keep the lowest price then its a failure of economics as well as trust....

i used to think samsung as a good brand but never ever has its optical drives proven themselves good...

[blackpearl]

They aren't manufacturing low quality products. Its the same quality. They are just compromising on their profit to get a bigger market share, which in the long run would bring more profit. This competition is perfectly healthy and very profitable for customers.

[gcbeldar]

Yes, I found same. 3 years back, quality is different. But, I am unable to quote wether it is because of media quality, price of media also droped.

[thrash_metal]

So far I've used only moserbaer and sony discs ....... considering (they r good products .... i think) ... it might be some hardware related problem then !!

[samanvya_ad]

Originally Posted by blackpearl

This competition is perfectly healthy and very profitable for customers.

i bet ... get a blue ray disk reader now n it will give u better performance after 3-4 years too when blue ray disks will be like around 2000 only....

[thrash_metal]

^^^ good one

[ax3]

yes, i totally agree with u .........

more cheaper = very very less reliable ..............

Competition = cheaper products = duplicate media\products = FRUSTRATION !!!

[xbonez]

^i beleive that drop in prices does not translate to drop in quality. it simply means higher demand, so lower production costs. if drop in prices meant drop in quality, then you would find dvd writers for rs2000 in the market but also there would be more expensive dvd writers in the market (in case someone doesn't mind spending more for a better quality writer). but since thats not the case, it obviously means quality doesn't drop

[pannaguma]

Originally Posted by ax3

more cheaper = very very less reliable ..............

Competition = cheaper products = duplicate media\products = FRUSTRATION !!!

LOL . agree to some extent.

even i have experienced this when buying USB2.0 PCI CARD. i got one for 150/- in jan 2006 and it took 25 mins to transfer 1GB thru it.

now in may 2007 i bought another card for rs.250/- and i get speeds like 1GB per minute.

and both cards have same design, even same chip no, but diff companies and vast price difference.

[janitha]

Originally Posted by pannaguma

LOL . agree to some extent.

even i have experienced this when buying USB2.0 PCI CARD. i got one for 150/- in jan 2006 and it took 25 mins to transfer 1GB thru it.

now in may 2007 i bought another card for rs.250/- and i get speeds like 1GB per minute.

and both cards have same design, even same chip no, but diff companies and vast price difference.

So you mean
more competition -> less quality -> almost double price ?

[cynosure]

Price Drop = Quality Drop ???
Might be.
Given the fact that my CD-ROM that came with my PC (back in 2K1) worked fine for around 4.5years. Then I bought LG Cd burner and it died after 1 year. Now I am using Sony CD burner from the last dec.

And there are problems faced by many people that the CD drive goes weak after 1-2 years of working

[pannaguma]

Originally Posted by janitha

So you mean
more competition -> less quality -> almost double price ?

NO !!! i mean that for getting good QUALITY & good PERFORMANCE products one must be ready to pay a higher price.

and it doesnt always translate into twice the price. here, the card's worth is in the hundreds, so rs.100/- seems like double, but say in a rs.2000/- dvd-rw even rs.100-200 will go a long way in ensuring a good quality product.

That said, HIGH PRICE = HIGH QUALITY is not always true.

[janitha]

The discussion is interesting, but why not think in a lateral way, De Bono style?
Suppose we bought a CD writer/DVD writer for Rs. 10K and having paid a lot we take too much care in handling it.

Now when we get it for Rs.1.5K, we don't handle it as something precious and delicate.

@pannaguma
Yes, at times a diff of Rs.100 makes a lot of difference.

[thrash_metal]

Well ... I handle everything with care !!!

[prasad_den]

To some extent, price drop correlates with quality drop.. NOt always though..! Products are priced lower not just because demands have increased, but also because of competition.. and so manufacturers also try to lower production costs by using low quality raw materials..!
Also, I feel that in the frenzy to introduce more and more new products, the R & D aspect is very much ignored nowadays.. Lab testing and quality control have taken a beating, I guess..

@janitha.. your lateral thinking concept is fine, but I'm not sure how much its applicable to some internal components that you don't handle directly..! Like, you just use a S/W for writing DVDs and you can use lens cleaners, other than that you have not much control over the writer..

[pannaguma]

Originally Posted by janitha

Suppose we bought a CD writer/DVD writer for Rs. 10K and having paid a lot we take too much care in handling it.

Now when we get it for Rs.1.5K, we don't handle it as something precious and delicate.

Agree. But like prasad says, it does not completely explain decrease in quality and performance. and in some case the defect is there right from the first time we use it.