I just went out and priced a replacement light bulb for our PC multimedia projector here at work (I’ve never looked into this before). The projector itself costs around $1,500. Anyone want to guess what a new light bulb for it costs? I was thinking it would be around $75 which I thought would be quite expensive but just the sort of thing you get with PC equipment.
Boy was I wrong…WAY wrong. The bulb retails for $388.92!
I nearly fell out of my chair and after recovering I mentioned this to our database engineer sitting near me. His guess was about $100-150 for the bulb and he too was astounded at the cost.
I admit I am not a light bulb engineer but I cannot imagine these bulbs cost this much to make (granting price increases through the supply chain we are probably looking at something like $100/per bulb to manufacture if the cost of the thing at retail is a straight indication of its value and not a money grab as I think it is). I realize these bulbs are more advanced and powerful than what I have in my lights at home but I find that price hard to swallow…it’s still just a light bulb even if a somewhat advanced one.
The point of all the setup above is how do manufacturers manage this sort of rape at retail? I seem to remember (very vaguely so correct me if I’m wrong) that IBM got busted with restraint of trade on its Selectric typewriters. IBM had their own ribbom cartridge they used and when others tried to manufacture a ribbon for less that would fit the Selectric IBM sued them. To IBM’s mind they had a patent on the ribbon configuration and no one else was allowed to make one without paying IBM. IIRC the courts saw this as a restraint of trade and opened the market. Notions of a product being patentable but not a process are dancing through my head but admittedly I don’t know if that is relevant (i.e. IBM could patent the typewriter but not the consumables).
The only way I see such a hideous price being allowed for the bulb is if Epson (in this case) has a lock on the replacement bulb market. This seems along the lines of what printer companies do. Sell you the printer cheap and rape you on the toner costs (another pet peeve of mine…not sure how they manage that either).
Anyone know how this works?