The NEC Parafield: A Value-Subtracted Product
I once heard the iPod Shuffle referred to as a “value-subtracted product.” The Apple marketing division was able to sell a lack of a feature (the screen) as a benefit (”You never know what’s coming next!”). Now, I’ve found another great example of an attempt at a value-subtracted product:
NEC has announced their new Parafield product: A laptop without a hard drive. Sales price: Almost $4,000.
NEC’s target market is large corporations. The idea is that a lost laptop represents a huge breach of security, because sensitive documents that your competitor might use against you are stored on the computer. So, NEC’s designed a computer that you can’t store files on. Instead, you have to save your files to another computer on the network (the corporate file server) or to a USB thumbdrive.
Programs–like Windows XP and Office–are stored in 3 gigabytes of flash memory in the computer. Otherwise, it’s not much different from an ordinary laptop. The specs listed on the site are actually inferior to this $1,400 laptop from Gateway, which has a higher-resolution screen among other things.
So, NEC’s marketing is trying to sell the lack of a feature (no hard drive) as a benefit (supposedly better security–personally, I think that a USB thumbdrive is mucheasier to lose or steal than a laptop).
The one advantage I can see to this is that the corporation doesn’t have to worry about viruses or spyware on these machines, but I think that that advantage will be outweighed by the disadvantages: Among them, inconvenience and lost work if the network goes down and you don’t have a USB key handy in the office.
Not to mention the price: three times as much as you would for a normal laptop!
Executives, don’t be swayed by the word “security”: This product isn’t worth the price.
(via Gizmodo)