Well, jaws was always way overpriced here, too. I'm surprised to know that
jaws and window eyes are the same price, now. Jaws used to be way over a
thousand dollars, and window eyes was closer to 700 dollars or so. Pam.
-----Original Message-----
From: David via Talk
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2016 6:21 AM
To: Sky Mundell ; 'Grant Metcalf' ; 'Window-Eyes Discussion List'
Subject: Re: Response to Dve about WindowEyes and and the Shark
Might be so, at least in certain places around the globe. I only could
talk from locale perspectives.
The Jaws screen reader has for long been a headache for the paying
authorities, due to its strictness in copyright and licensing. Besides,
one official told me - and note that this is a few years old info, that
Jaws was way overpriced locally. At the time, I think Jaws was just
about 1000 dollars, in the USA. Locally here, the price without further
explanation was near 6000 dollars. Like he expressed it: "Somewhere
across the Atlantic, that price multiplies nearly by six."
Since the licensing policy of GW was not yet as strict, and though
pricing is a bit higher here than in the States, still Window-Eyes turns
out the cheaper alternative, it has been the prioritized screen reader
of several officials locally.
One valid question of course now is, what VFO will do with all the
dealers. As it stands, one dealer sold Window-Eyes and SuperNova, the
other sold Jaws. Are they both going to be in business outperforming
each other? Or, will the one have to leave, and the other be the only
alternative on the locale market? If the latter alternative will happen,
people will not be able to even make a personal choice, since screen
reader manufacturers do not sell directly to end-users outside their
home-market. That would definitely force a number of people to leave
Windows machines, simply just to get an alternative.
I do not know conditions all over the globe, of course I don't, and I am
not arguing anything of what you said. But I am ready to claim that
business might differ a bit from one part of the world to the other. And
the "We are the only ones" idea, might not necessarily be the one that
leads to the highest market-share. For many people and local faculties,
the end-question is a matter of economy. That, at least, will stay the
same all over the planet. What has happened in the past, with several
manufacturers, and a number of products to choose from, cannot
necessarily be transfered into a situation with one huge actor, and some
small ones. It might be smarter to phase things out over a period of
time, than to simply just pull the plug. Given enough time, the market
might adjust more smoothly. And I am by no means the one to predict what
kind of business model will be the one chosen by VFO, or any other
actor. I am just making a few observations, doing a bit of general
reasoning, and letting you all know that things might have more than one
perspective. What seems to be the case from your local perspective,
might seem totally different from another perspective.
For instance, you claim that they sued the State Agencies, if they did
not buy their product? That will work in the States, maybe. Doubt they
could get much far with that approach in Europe. There is even laws that
are meant to prevent such business activities. Besides, Europe has had
their own screen reader manufacturers up through the years, and so is
the case with hardware like Braille displays and speech synthesizers.
Once they are going International, a company will have to deal with
totally different laws and practices from one place to the other. What
works in the US, might not even work in Canada, or in Brazil. That's why
I am not sure if we should do too much of specculations. Let's face the
facts, and discuss them.
Scene of this world is rapidly changing. In two years, our screen reader
has been sold twice. How long will the new owner keep it? Or, how long
will any screen reader even stay in business? Are you totally sure you
really want to insist on a screen reader with tomorrow's technology?
What if you could have a graphical display - somehow similar to a
Braille display, with pins that came up - which gave you a tactile and
correct copy of the screen contents? You know longer would need a screen
reader to do any interpretation. What you could touch and feel, would be
exactly the shape that formed on the visual screen. Sure, were you to
have one pin for each pixel on the screen, your tactile display would be
tremendously huge and clumsy. But you are already trained to only
concentrate on a small part of the screen, and build a complete picture
of it all in your brain. Besides, even sighted people now aday, love to
stare at their tiny cellphone display, with far less pixels. Imagine you
were offered a display, the size of a CD cover, holding a matrix of
something like 50 by 60 pins. It would not amount up to anything more
pins than what is inside a 40-cell Braille display currently; so the
price might not even be all that scarry. The whole unit might be under a
pound, or less than half a kilogram.
Each pin on the unit, would represent one pixel on the screen. Small
buttons would let you scroll up, down and sideways on the screen; moving
the unit round the screen contents. Since it would make a true copy of
the shapes on the screen, you don't even have to bother learning
Braille. You would not be stopped by undefined graphics, and if the pins
could have been raised to different hights, you might even have a way of
simplified color notion. What you feel, is what they see! Do you still
want a screen reader? Still want to risk that new updates from your
software manufacturer will break the screen reader's functionality? Or
having to chance on the fact that next generation of soft- or hardware
will be compatible with the interface and programming language your
screen reader was manufactured under?
OK, till now, this all has been a dream. One big show-stopper has been
the pricing of Braille cells, or any technology that would resemble such
cells. Recently though, we have heard of the neww Braille displays -
which apparently will sell for a fraction of the traditional ones. That
must mean, that prices on the pins to pop up and down, likely have been
greatly reduced. Or, was there anyone manufacturer out there that highly
over-priced their traditional units? I only can observe that the pricing
issue might not be the biggest issue any longer. Furthermore, I recently
read about some interesting development that is currently going on,
which might bring things closer to realization, than what we have been
used to think. And that was even about a unit that would be the size of
a standard PC mouse.
For those of you, who happen to be familiar with the old-time product
named Optacon, you will have a clue what I am talking about. The rest of
you, will have to think a bit non-traditionally here, but still you
might want to consider if screen readers is the ABSOLUTE answer for
tomorrow.
On 11/23/2016 8:02 AM, Sky Mundell wrote:
Hi Grant. Your absolutely right. The reason why JAWS got the government
agencies was because they sued any state agencies who did not
purchase JAWS.
In other words, they threatened the agencies to either buy JAWS or be
sued
and that scared the agencies so much that they began purchasing only
JAWS.
As a result, many of the earlier windows screen readers, like Slimware
Window Bridge, all went out of business.
-----Original Message-----
From: Talk [mailto:talk-bounces+skyt=shaw...@lists.window-eyes.com] On
Behalf Of Grant Metcalf via Talk
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2016 10:42 PM
To: David; Window-Eyes Discussion List
Subject: Response to Dve about WindowEyes and and the Shark
Hi dave,
You have many good points with respect to business expenses and
compotition.
Unfortunately, The Shark got the government involved in purchasing their
product and so made it difficult for other screen reader programs to
be as
well funded as VFO is. I suspect that because the government is so
involved
with JFW it will be the primary product for VFO dispite our preferences.
Grandpa DOS will never purchase the Shark, but if I change, it will
probably
be to NVDA or perhaps Narrator should I have the money to spend. The
other
unfortunate thing is that all those who have taxable income will be
paying
for the Shark anyway. To often big business and government work
hand-in-hand. Weep out loud!
Grandpa DOS
O
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