Re: Accu-Vote Verion 2 (was Accu-Vote Beta Release 1.95d)

["Ian S. Piper" <ian@gesn.com>]

Ken wrote:
><< Ian, it would probably be a good idea to let Larry know the costs
involved
> so that a price scheme can be worked out in advance of the 2.0 release,
> rather than after. >>


Steve K. wrote:
>Excellent idea, especially for those not on maintenance program.

Ian writes:
Even for those on a maintenance program, this should be a billable upgrade.
We can give them a better discount, but it is an upgrade as opposed to a
fix.  As Guy has stated, Global will still be producing 1.94 or 1.95
revisions to fix bugs that haven't yet been discovered.  If a customer wants
to move up to a 2.x level, they should be charged for it.

Let's do some math here on the cost of replacing the Smartwatch chips and
ROM chips.  We won't consider the RAMs here because all of the visible light
units already have 128KB RAMs installed),

There are approximately 10,000 Accu-votes in existence today, (approx 7500
visible light and 2500 infra-red).  None of these units  has the BIG
Smartwatch chip or 128KB ROMs in any of them.

If Global were to replace, free of charge, the Smartwatch chip and the ROMs,
each Accu-Vote unit would use two (2) 128KB ROM chips for the firmware and
one (1) BIG Smartwatch Chip.

The BIG Smartwatch Chip costs Global $24.00 each
The 128KB ROM chips cost Global $2.75 each (material only/ does not
including any programming costs)

For each Accu-Vote, the cost would be $29.50

For 10,000 Accu-Votes, the cost to replace these items would be $295,000.--

These are Global's material costs.  Do NOT start quoting these costs as
prices.  Wait for Larry E. and others to generate a pricing for warranty and
non-warranty customers.

I hoping Global will decide not to eat these costs.

Sincerely:

Ian