Posted Thu Jul 29, 2004, 12:31pm Subject: Coffee pods tethered to the machine maker
Engadget has an interesting guest editorial on the increasing tethering of consumables to appliances (e.g. ink-jet cartridges), and notes this trend in coffee, specifically for the Senseo I think:
"What if we hate the coffee that the company supplies for the maker? What if the company goes out of business? What if they raise the prices of pods? We would no longer order pounds of unpadded coffee from Peet’s in Berkeley or run across the street to the deli for an emergency brick of cheap coffee. And my favorite New York coffee supplier, Oren’s on Waverly Place, would no longer get my business."
expobar Senior Member Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 3,003 Location: .
Posted Thu Jul 29, 2004, 7:17pm Subject: Re: Coffee pods tethered to the machine maker
Fortunately for pods and ink-jets, most people will warn you about "proprietary hardware." how odd is it to say that about coffee?
The problem used to be with low-end computers, they'd make you buy the computer for 500 dollars, but you couldn't upgrade stuff. RAM, Processors, Hard Drives, Power Supplies, etc. were all welded to the motherboard, and you have to buy a new computer sooner for the same price. Pretty soon buying a 500 dollar computer every year becomes more expensive than buying a 1500 dollar computer every 5 years.
However, I think pods in the form of Senseo, the Melitta one, etc. is a bad marketing move because people will think EVERYTHING Philips, Melitta, etc. makes has proprietary pieces. Take for example an inexperienced coffee machine buyer, say a newly married couple, looking at coffee makers for their new home. "I don't want to buy a Melitta coffeemaker because the filter is a #4, have you ever heard of #4?" After a bad experience with the Home Brew (it think its called)
Eventually, people will get sick of it, and start (hopefully) demanding everything to work with everything else. "What do you mean senseo pods wont work with my home brew? I really like maxwell house more than folgers"
maybe the companies will decide to use an ESE equivelant. So the people that want stale, individually packed coffee can use whatever they want.
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