Comments on: BMW – Risk on.

By: RICHARD WINDSOR

RICHARD WINDSOR — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 06:34:05 +0000

This is true in the AAA gaming industry but this has been hugely eclipsed in scale and size by mobile gaming where this sort of practice is quite common. I think the jury is out on whether this will work for hardware but for software based features its a much easier sell.

By: Andrew Brown

Andrew Brown — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 18:15:42 +0000

I would argue that consumers are willing to pay for hardware-based upgrades today because they understand there is a difference in manufacturing cost that BMW or whomever needs to recoup. But I think there will be a strong psychological aversion to the idea that the hardware is already in my car and working, but that I have to pay a separate fee to “unlock” it.

While not apples to apples, I follow the gaming business pretty closely and have seen real backlash over charging customers for content that is already “on the disk”. It doesn’t seem to matter than the content cost the same to produce either way; it just seems to feel wrong to many customers that they already possess something at some level but can’t use it without paying more.

By: RICHARD WINDSOR

RICHARD WINDSOR — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 04:55:59 +0000

in car advertising likley to be a factor as drives are made with intent and intent is very valuable for monetisation.

By: Graham

Graham — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 09:56:05 +0000

There are clearly some options that cannot be enabled by software – like leather seats – but if OEM’s can balance the savings from reducing the complexity of manufacturing, with the incremental costs of fitting (potentially) unused functions then this goes some way to further commoditize the platform.
“Unused options” is a major challenge, and one that other sectors (PC’s and Phones) have faced – Feature Discovery.
It’s often said that vehicles are increasingly smart phones on wheels – I wonder if the trend you describe, along with the need for feature discovery drives us towards “in-car” advertising and an apps-store for options?