$500-$100=$400.00... that's still $300 too much.
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The CEO of Commodore appears to be completely out of touch on people's perception of AI use, as they've been using it a fair amount in videos and the advertising for this phone (AI music and AI video generation) since buying Commodore, and poorly justifying it in the comments of their videos with links to their FAQ.
This is comical.
Commodore said that three factors were the primary cause of what consumers felt was a high price for the phone. At the top of the list is the one plaguing the entire industry: RAM pricing.
How much RAM could a phone like this use, anyway?
Also, saying that they "listened" is bullshit. They just got worried they were priced too high so it wouldn't sell. So they lowered it. If they listened they wouldn't have it locked in with WhatsApp, a Meta/Facebook product as the only IM option other than SMS.
The cynic in me is thinking this was an intentional marketing ploy.
- Price too high
- Outlets, outraged by the price talk about the features of the phone in detail, questioning how can this hardware cost cost so much
- Lower the price to your original (but secret) intent.
- Outlets now talk about how much more reasonable that is, how nice of the company to listen!
You get 2 rounds of media attention for the price of one.
Their info page says 4GB+64GB...so I assume that might be 4GB RAM and 64 internal storagr
I think the problem is that they grossly over estimated how many people actually wanted to buy a "legit" Commodore branded Commodore Ultimate when they came up with the idea to buy the Commodore brand.
Now they are trying to come up with ways to make it profitable but they don't really seem to understand Product Market Fit.
I think it would be a better idea to do some high quality branded merch.
AFAIK they've already fully paid off the commodore IP acquisition from C64 ultimate sales, but as you say, that cannot sustain them forever.
The phone is pretty much entirely just the CEO's personal opinion of what a phone should be, which he's been making videos about from before the acquisition, and they appear to have done almost zero market research what the customers would want and be willing to pay..
Yes, I think part of the trick is that the CEO is a great video producer and has a large fanbase for his yt channel who are very enthusiastic about his ideas even if they won't actually buy such a phone.
Fuck this shitphone, it's ai slop