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Subject:Re: PDF versus HTML From:"Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 10 Sep 1999 19:44:43 -0700
At 12:55 PM -0700 9/10/99, Brierley, Sean wrote:
>Is sending a PDF "customer hostile." Yes and no. For example, printing costs
>are huge. In the software industry, the most expensive part of the packaging
>is the books. For smaller-volume companies, that don't print 10,000 copies
>at one time but only print a couple of hundred, sending PDF instead can save
>costs. Is saving costs and making a product more price-competitive
>customer-hostile?
Well, sure it is, since you're just dumping those costs onto the customer.
The customer furthermore does not benefit from the economies of scale that
let a manufacturer print a few hundred copies of a book at a lesser cost
per copy than the customer with a laser or inkjet printer; and the printout
is not going to be as nice as a book in a number of ways.
The cost is shifted. That doesn't mean it goes away; in fact, it's likely
to have increased. (It's true that many customers won't realize this when
they order the software.)
