Note: I posted this to your posterous blog as well, but I want to hear what HN has to say about this.
When I first read about Emokit, I was really excited because the biggest barrier to entry in BCI research was being lifted. However, Emotiv is a startup, they're practically giving away the headsets for free because they expect to recover the expenses from the SDK licences they sell. Which is a good strategy since developers are the ones buying this thing right now. If Emokit becomes sufficiently mature and reliable, the number of licences that Emotiv sells will reduce, and I think we can count on the price of the headset going up.
What daeken is doing is great. As a relatively poor BCI nut, I am grateful for the work he has started. However, in this case, his work is breaking the business model of an innovative startup. Should emotiv just suck it up and adjust?
Edit: Of course, the piracy claims are just bullshit.
> However, in this case, his work is breaking the business model of an innovative startup.
I would argue that an innovative startup has bet on a broken business model. I didn't feel bad when the Xbox got hacked and Microsoft was selling us all (relatively) cheap PCs. I don't feel bad for the media industry that is trying to hold on to a broken business model. If Emotiv knew what they were doing, they knew they were taking this risk, and it's part of the initial cost to get their business going.
If they don't know what they're doing (on the business side), they're doomed anyway.
We should note that the subsidy is just speculation at this point, inferred from their knee-jerk reaction to daeken's work.
That being said, I was just thinking that Emotiv could stand to make a lot more money by removing the subsidy(if there is one) and embracing Emokit. The existence of a FOSS SDK would lead to drastically improved sales for Emotiv, despite the(possibly) higher price. Their manufacturing seems to be saturated, however-the EPOC is significantly back-ordered.
From my perspective, Daeken's work made me more likely to buy one of these devices, not less likely. It sucks that Emotiv chose a poor business model; and it's really too bad that they're too short-sighted to see how a passionate community of tinkerers and makers can be the road to their success.
Sounds a bit like the CueCat business model. It sounded bad back then, and it sounds bad now. It's cool that such a consumer device has come to market, and kudos to the clever folks who designed it, but everybody knows (or should know, anyway) that subsidizing hardware in this way is shaky ground to base a business upon.
When I first read about Emokit, I was really excited because the biggest barrier to entry in BCI research was being lifted. However, Emotiv is a startup, they're practically giving away the headsets for free because they expect to recover the expenses from the SDK licences they sell. Which is a good strategy since developers are the ones buying this thing right now. If Emokit becomes sufficiently mature and reliable, the number of licences that Emotiv sells will reduce, and I think we can count on the price of the headset going up.
What daeken is doing is great. As a relatively poor BCI nut, I am grateful for the work he has started. However, in this case, his work is breaking the business model of an innovative startup. Should emotiv just suck it up and adjust?
Edit: Of course, the piracy claims are just bullshit.