tivoboy
Active Member
Nearly 20 years ago, every OEM that sold cars in the USA/CA decided to just build Sat Radio into the car at their cost..almost every car and model. it was actually cheaper to just build for it to be included in every car than to make it an option that required a charge to the build of materials or inventory or manufacturing process. at the time, XM and Sirius gave them MONEY per car to do it. It wasn't much, but the hope was that XM / Sirius and the OEM could upsell the buyer on the MRR of sat radio. that was just the way it was. For a NEW OEM, like tesla, I guess they didn't want to play that game too long or the revenue incentive changed. But frankly, it would have been much better for the customer just to build it in. It really doesn't cost anything to RECEIVE sat radio (with a subscription, which at this point costs about 5$ a month), but for the car manufactuerer, other than a subsidized hardware inclusion, it doesn't have a variable cost. Why they wouldn't just put in a small flat hockey puck receiver and Sirius integration is beyond me. It must have been 1 part aesthetic, and 1 part not willing to part with ANY MRR. putting an AUX IN in would have been almost as good, but yeah there is some cost or aesthetic impact to that too.
I've seen OEM shoot themselves in the foot for not willing / wanting to up 1$ (literally ONE DOLLAR) of extra cost into the build, that could potentially yield 250-750$ in upsell (AT THE TIME OF SALE) to the customer.. and product dev/mgmt would say NO, NO WAY, NO HOW.
I've seen OEM shoot themselves in the foot for not willing / wanting to up 1$ (literally ONE DOLLAR) of extra cost into the build, that could potentially yield 250-750$ in upsell (AT THE TIME OF SALE) to the customer.. and product dev/mgmt would say NO, NO WAY, NO HOW.
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