Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Region coding consumer electronics
So, you thought DVD players that only played discs from a certain region and not from others was annoying? The Wall Street Journal has news for you in a story titled Electronics Without Borders. Apparently, a lot of firms including HP and Apple have taken region coding to heart and have implemented measures that disallow usage of electronics across borders.
Some consumer-electronics companies are designing products so they will work only in the U.S. H-P has quietly begun implementing "region coding" for its highly lucrative print cartridges for some of its newest printers sold in Europe. Try putting a printer cartridge bought in the U.S. into a new H-P printer configured to use cartridges purchased in Europe and it won't work. Software in the printer determines the origin of the ink cartridge and whether it will accept it. The company introduced region-coding on several printers in the summer so it won't have to keep altering prices to keep pace with currency movements. H-P eventually plans to introduce the concept across its entire line of inkjet printers.
Similarly (ed), the new iMac G5s sold in the U.S. are designed to work only with the electric power systems in the U.S. and Japan, which pump out a lower number of volts than in most other countries. The iMac G5s Apple sells everywhere except the U.S. and Japan are dual voltage, meaning they can cope with the electrical systems in Fiji, Europe and most of Asia, as well as those in Japan and the U.S. Nintendo Co.'s latest hand-held game machines are sold in the U.S. with power adaptors that don't work in Europe.
Such measures prevent thrifty foreign consumers and gray marketers -- traders who sell goods through channels that haven't been authorized by the manufacturer -- from taking advantage of the decline of the dollar against the world's major currencies to buy lower-price products in the U.S. In terms of euros, pounds or other strong currencies, U.S. retail goods are much cheaper today than they were two years ago.
Consumer groups make an excellent point in response to these moves by the electronics majors.
"Manufacturers don't like global commerce when it doesn't line their pockets," says Phil Evans, principal policy adviser at Which?, a British consumer watchdog. "In the long term, it's not a clever thing to do from a customer-relations standpoint."
Spot on. Globalization is wonderful as long as it doesn't hurt the firm seems to be the way they understand globalization.
Some consumer-electronics companies are designing products so they will work only in the U.S. H-P has quietly begun implementing "region coding" for its highly lucrative print cartridges for some of its newest printers sold in Europe. Try putting a printer cartridge bought in the U.S. into a new H-P printer configured to use cartridges purchased in Europe and it won't work. Software in the printer determines the origin of the ink cartridge and whether it will accept it. The company introduced region-coding on several printers in the summer so it won't have to keep altering prices to keep pace with currency movements. H-P eventually plans to introduce the concept across its entire line of inkjet printers.
Similarly (ed), the new iMac G5s sold in the U.S. are designed to work only with the electric power systems in the U.S. and Japan, which pump out a lower number of volts than in most other countries. The iMac G5s Apple sells everywhere except the U.S. and Japan are dual voltage, meaning they can cope with the electrical systems in Fiji, Europe and most of Asia, as well as those in Japan and the U.S. Nintendo Co.'s latest hand-held game machines are sold in the U.S. with power adaptors that don't work in Europe.
Such measures prevent thrifty foreign consumers and gray marketers -- traders who sell goods through channels that haven't been authorized by the manufacturer -- from taking advantage of the decline of the dollar against the world's major currencies to buy lower-price products in the U.S. In terms of euros, pounds or other strong currencies, U.S. retail goods are much cheaper today than they were two years ago.
Consumer groups make an excellent point in response to these moves by the electronics majors.
"Manufacturers don't like global commerce when it doesn't line their pockets," says Phil Evans, principal policy adviser at Which?, a British consumer watchdog. "In the long term, it's not a clever thing to do from a customer-relations standpoint."
Spot on. Globalization is wonderful as long as it doesn't hurt the firm seems to be the way they understand globalization.
