Why is it so expensive?

M

monkeyboy

New member
I'd love to get a Remote Wonder, not only for home use but to use for Powerpoint presentations too. I'm just a little confused as to why this thing is so expensive, especially for Canadian users. $79 plus $15 shipping plus tax comes to over $100cad! The All-In-Wonder 7500 (complete with remote) is only $286cad street price including tax!

I think it actually works out cheaper to buy it from Hercules in France, have it shipped to friends in Switzerland and then have it shipped to Canada!!

What does this remote offer that the competition doesn't? I'm a bit bewildered how the price is justified.
 
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I dunno I paid only$50 + S&H total around $65.

I don't think it's expensive. Rather cheap...

PS: Prices are in US dollars.
 
It's not just about brand name

It's not just about brand name

Yes. And is that 'so expensive'?

Othewise I've never seen any remote control with functional mouse control. And ATI's has 6 free programmable buttons - besides 37 preprogrammed and the 8-directions mouse pad.

I think it's more than enough for any kind of purpose.
 
Compared to similar devices, yes, it is quite expensive.

What I was getting at though was the fact that the remote alone costs over 1/3 the price of the All-in-wonder 7500 board w/remote. Kinda hard for me to beleive it's actually worth that.
 
It'll come down with time - they always do.

It'll come down with time - they always do.

I'd imagine the Research & Development costs for the Remote Wonder would have been a factor. Even though the X10 developers made it, someone has to pay for the ATI software customisations and to provide all that extra functionality users are requesting. As with any new bit of hardware, if you cant afford it now, wait a while and the price *will* come down. I think the price is slightly high but not outrageous. For once though, European customers aren't paying way more than US/Canadian customers (through the French Hercules website) - that's got to be a good thing.
 
It's expensive if you compare to IR remotes. This is an RF remote however, which means you can use it even if you are in a different room from your computer. It much handier than an IR remote, really. The only RF remote I know is the X10 Remote Mouse which also cost $50. Oh yeah, there another one that I've been using that consists of a laptop and wireless LAN, that one cost > $1000. :)
 
Editorial

I think I would agree that the remote was a tad expensive when it mainly controlled the MMC with little support for non-ATI applications.

With the current SW that limitation was removed. I think (assuming plug-ins start showing up in numbers) the value equation has shifted a bunch.

Stephen

(P.S. I am in engineering, not marketing. I don't set prices, I just deliver SW :-).
 
Thanks everyone for your opinions. I appreciate of your points of view.

My main beef though, regardless of features, why is it that I can get a friend from europe to order one of these things from Hercules and have it shipped over to Canada for much the same cost (if not actually cheaper) than buying the thing in Canada?

Hercules is selling the remote for 29.98 Euros, which is only $43.47CAD. ATI is selling it for $79.99! Convert that Euro price to $US and it's only like $29! Shipping costs are stupid too - $15 for mainland Canada? I've get a Motherboard, CD-RW, Soundcard and a stick of memory shipped across the country for less than that!

The least ATI could do is release this to the retail channel in some kind of limited fashion and let market competition beat the price down a little. Right now it smells a little like trying to fleece potential buyers.

I dunno. The Remote looks a GREAT product. I'd love to own one but I just have this horrible gut feeling that ATI are taking N.American customers for a ride with the pricing and exclusivity on this product.

Sigh.....
 
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They're not the same

They're not the same

Having bought one of these French Remote Controls, you should be aware that you're not comparing apples with apples if you consider the ATI Remote Wonder package. For one thing, the French version is a white box OEM product - with the consequent differences on tech support. It also doesn't contain any drivers/media or batteries at all. In terms of functionality, it works the same and looks the same (except for the "Remote Wonder" printed on the mouse control button of the retail product).

I like the idea of Hercules getting in these items in OEM form to keep the price down. If you look at other products sold in Europe compared to the Canadian equivalent, Europeans consistantly end up paying much more. If you like the French price, by all means buy one from there - at least it will be compatible UNLIKE the idea of buying a (much cheaper) Canadian NTSC All In Wonder product for use in a PAL country. If you don't want to feel uncomfortable about buying from ATI in Canada then buy the French one, at least since you have a friend there you have the choice. Europeans can't buy the Retail product from ATI's "headquarters" website even if we wanted to.

PS I agree with you Stephen, the latest additional software options available now are making this product more valuable and will continue to do so in the future after further refinment and if more plugins are released.
 
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Kiwi, I couldn't agree with you more about the difficulties for British people trying to get computer gear from the states or canada. I am actually British and have only lived over here for the last three years so I know your pain well.

Now I've seen both sides of the coin though, with the exception of the prices for Music CD's (which are DIRT cheap in Canada!) you really have to understand that whilst prices may seem low to people in British, they still work out to much the same percentage of the average salary over here. It essentially still costs us the same amount to buy stuff here as it does for you to buy stuff in Britain. It just seems much cheaper to Britains 'cause the Pound is worth something like $1,000,000 Canadian :).

Canadians get screwed too - prices in US dollars ending up being twice that in Canadian - so you're not alone there!

Getting back to the remote for a moment, I really couldn't care less if the device is a white box OEM. If you can download the drivers from the net, buy the batteries from the local store and *cough* live without ATI's support (ok, really it is getting better!) then why not?

Come on ATI - get a few OEM remotes into the retail channels over here!!! :)
 
i agree with everything that's been said, and inflated prices do suck, but i think even $50 + shipping is too much. perhaps i'm just another lazy american but i'd get it today if it was like $20-$25, but $50 ............... there are people that have to make money off this to keep their jobs and be compensated for the work they do, i know, but it still seems like a lot. sorry all you guys that get even worse deals. on a side note does anyone know if a OEM version is available for less anywhere? or if the retail is available anywhere but ati.com [especially for less than $50]? thanks all.

i've taken a single C class in college so far but i found it easy. course, it was only an entry level class. since i'm going into computer engineering i think it'd be great for me to get some experience coding something real. is there any better way to start writing than to just check out the SDK and start snooping/coding?

finally, if rage3d is going to host remote wonder plugins, where are they at. it doesn't seem like there's too much out there right now but we need a place to start.
 
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