More like the pay phone
The Doc Searls Weblog : Wednesday, March 5, 2003
Plenty of hotels, coffee shops, libraries, universities and whole cities are already providing free wi-fi for the same reason they provide street lights and public restrooms. None of those are free either — except to the users who expect them for exactly that price.
So here's your take-away quote: Think of pay-fi as the Net's equivalent of the pay toilet.
Yeah, but I have the feeling that if Starbucks starts giving away Wi-Fi, all they're going to do is just add a quarter onto coffee prices. That money's going to come from somewhere. And in NYC at least, you don't use the restroom without making a purchase. Though Starbucks in this case might actually be the exception; I think you can duck into theirs for free.
Comments
" That money's going to come from somewhere."
I dunno... $39.95 for earthlink DSL and a one-time hit of $300 for an AirPort base station... really doesn't cost Starbucks much worth measuring, and in exchange they get a lot of walk-in business. If they add a quarter to the cost of coffee on account of wi-fi, it's a gouge job (which wouldn't surprise).
Posted by: Scot Hacker | March 10, 2003 4:18 AM
"doesn't cost Starbucks much worth measuring"...
But multiplied by HOW MANY shops...?? Thaz the same theory that says if Ya add a penny or two to each transaction, Ya can give away ONE MILLION DOLLAR prizes fer "free", flood the market with multi-million dollar ad campaigns to pay for "free" TV..
..and basically EVERYthing can be "for free"....
....if Ya jes make the added cost HIDDEN amongst a large enough number of eyeballs.
Don't much cotton to that theory, but advertising does sell people a lotta stuff. Fer example, I buy Starbucks at grocery when it's red-tagged and close enuf in price to Millstone brand which I consider of very similar quality. If the WiFi adds too much to a bag-a-joe-beans..
..then Starbucks loses a happy consumer of their product. But thaz jes me. They won't notice the hit of one individual customer.
Btw, balancing price with sales and profits is a little trickier than what geeks would like-ta imagine it is...!!
http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/techwrapper.jsp?PID=1051-250&CID=1051-031303B
Thank You, (and You know who You are and I don't...;-), fer Yer time in reading...!
Posted by: jt | March 14, 2003 2:45 AM