Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by cstross 5318 days ago
It's a razor model. The handle is free, but you pay for the blades. In this case, the blades are the (non-standard width, thermal) paper.

Meanwhile it doesn't give the user anything useful that they can't already read on their smartphone, does it? So what is it for? It's not a substitute for the existing multifunction printer. It's an inferior substitute to the existing RSS reader or equivalent. There's no value proposition I can see for the consumer, so they must be looking at some other source of income, which means there must be some value proposition for the information suppliers. But what is it?
2 comments
scraplab 5318 days ago
Non-standard? You can buy the paper in any Staples. It's standard width.

They're selling physical products for more money than it costs them to make. That's the business model.

link
joezydeco 5318 days ago
Where did you see a price (or lack thereof) on the site? I can't find anything.

I could see companies giving these away to employees for free, just so we can get closer to the Corbin Dallas universe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjLO_CrZRmM

link