2015-03-05, 16:18
(2015-03-04, 22:22)Tinwarble Wrote: Why would they need to come down on the price? If it does what it says it does on paper it will be like no other device available.
What would you pay to get everything it offers on the most powerful ARM box available and that does it without a bunch of hacks to get it to work? I'd say it would be well worth the price......I mean come on, it's $140 for just the box. That's just $40 more than the most powerful ARM box currently available and it stomps those on the benchmarks.
EDIT: And the controller uses WiFi Direct, which means it connects directly to the box and doesn't need access point (like a router). Basically it's like bluetooth, but it connects using WiFi.
I'm not saying they need to come down on price, just offer different packages. The cost of the system with controller is $199 ... the controller is $59, so they are saying the system itself is $139. In the presentation itself they have a whole segment basing the Shield as a SmartTV and compared in a graph its power to the AppleTV, Roku 3, FireTV, Nexus Player ... which all cost around $99. You aren't directly competing with a product if you cost $100 more. By having that graph, they are acknowledging that streamers are part of their target audience. I think the price point has to be closer for the Shield to be considered over the competition. Sure, our crowd might see the benefits and think the price premium is worth it, but a mom & pop going to Best Buy who primarily want Netflix and HBOGo streaming are not going to spend $100 more for a Shield over a Roku/AppleTV, no matter how much more powerful they are told it is by a sales rep, especially if it only comes with a controller and no media remote.
I think to appeal to the streaming crowd they need a media package, which is the Shield with the media remote for around $150. They might actually shift streamers at that point, but right now I can only see our niche crowd and people buying it with gaming as a purpose.
I'd like a base unit alone for $140 if possible because I only use a DS to game (ps4 and computer), and I wouldn't use their controller, and I already have a Harmony so I wouldn't really need the remote, but that wouldn't be a deal breaker. Yes I could always buy the unit and sell the controller but who wants that hassle if it can be avoided. I'd buy a media package day one, $50 is $50, especially when I know the controller would be useless to me.