They can only make a profit if people are willing to buy what they're selling
> Their business is selling hard drives.
Then either they or you are confused. They make the NAS, not the drives. The drives are interchangeable and upgradable, that's the whole point of a hot-swap NAS system.
> I bet a large portion of profits come from that
I think they wanted a large portion of profits to come from that, but most NAS purchasers know that hard drives are a commodity/standardized and won't pay a premium for ... no benefit.
I don’t think that’s true. They apparently thought that was their business, but it’s not what their customers think it is. And having that much of a mismatch between what you think you’re selling and what everyone else thinks you’re selling often ends very badly.
For example, Kodak thought they were in the business of selling film. Their customers thought they were a company that sold ways to take photos. Kodak ignored what their customers wanted, the ability to take photos easily, in favor of their desire to sell more film. That cost them dearly when digital cameras took over.
Their business is selling NASes. They don't make special hard drives that no one else makes. Anyone can sell hard drives. Their value in their business is the NAS, not the drives. If they can't survive on their NAS without scamming their customers with marked up hard drives, then they're not really a viable business.
Companies should create value, and capture a fraction of that value.
What Synology did was trying to significantly increase the fraction of value they captured, at the cost of their customers, who would have to pay that, and without providing extra value for their customers.
This is not only a a bad deal for customers, it also triggers our sense of injustice.
The best companies create value, and capture only a part of it, and leave other parts of the value for both customers and partners/suppliers.
tristanperry|4 months ago
bapak|4 months ago
[deleted]
leakycap|4 months ago
They can only make a profit if people are willing to buy what they're selling
> Their business is selling hard drives.
Then either they or you are confused. They make the NAS, not the drives. The drives are interchangeable and upgradable, that's the whole point of a hot-swap NAS system.
> I bet a large portion of profits come from that
I think they wanted a large portion of profits to come from that, but most NAS purchasers know that hard drives are a commodity/standardized and won't pay a premium for ... no benefit.
kstrauser|4 months ago
For example, Kodak thought they were in the business of selling film. Their customers thought they were a company that sold ways to take photos. Kodak ignored what their customers wanted, the ability to take photos easily, in favor of their desire to sell more film. That cost them dearly when digital cameras took over.
timbit42|4 months ago
perlgeek|4 months ago
What Synology did was trying to significantly increase the fraction of value they captured, at the cost of their customers, who would have to pay that, and without providing extra value for their customers.
This is not only a a bad deal for customers, it also triggers our sense of injustice.
The best companies create value, and capture only a part of it, and leave other parts of the value for both customers and partners/suppliers.
internet101010|4 months ago
michaelsshaw|4 months ago
If you want to get technical, their business is dogshit, and I'll be glad to never buy from them.