Hacker Read

samstave · 2012-03-27 15:53:16+00:00

I thought users had to buy buttons for $1. That is what it said in the article...

But the article was poorly written, so I am not sure if I was missing something.

aquadrop | karma 1170 | avg karma 1.93 · | 2016-05-13 10:02:46+00:00

I can't believe they do it either. It's a button. Its main purpose is to be pressed. They literally say it will cost you 2 cents per button push.

jellicle | karma 8960 | avg karma 4.41 · | 2011-07-13 09:00:18

Cute. I think the main market is for promotional items - freebies, giveaways.

Have to bring the price down as low as possible for that to take off. A regular button costs maybe 10-25 cents.

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tempestn | karma 12792 | avg karma 3.12 · | 2016-01-21 08:29:28

Then why would they sell the 3-cent buttons?

dagw | karma 25328 | avg karma 2.79 · | 2015-03-06 10:11:32+00:00

I guess that's why the version with buttons has to costs more. To compensate for the loss of IAP and ad revenue.

hulitu | karma 3686 | avg karma 0.58 · | 2022-12-14 10:30:44

Buttons are expensive.

bryanlarsen | karma 33883 | avg karma 3.16 · | 2024-06-13 14:41:56

Buttons are surprisingly expensive; not just the button itself but the wiring and the labor. Let's WAG at $20 per button. $20 * a few dozen buttons is real money.

morpheuskafka | karma 3444 | avg karma 3.46 · | 2019-06-29 15:05:03

Was it really to expensive to add a cheap button? It's not like it needs to be pressed more than once or twice per product lifetime.

Linosaurus | karma 106 | avg karma 1.29 · | 2022-04-04 02:15:02

That sounds plausible.

So if they want to upsell this feature in the future, the actual cost of installing the physical button (five minutes in a workshop) would dwarf the cost to install the hardware (0, already there).

And so they decided to apply asshole interface design towards these customers. That's not a great solution.

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codeflo | karma 8309 | avg karma 6.35 · | 2024-03-31 17:10:10

The actual constraint here is that every additional button costs 0.1 cents extra in production. Whatever great UI scheme you come up with, if there’s a ridiculously contrived way to do it with one button less, that’s what will be chosen.

bryanlarsen | karma 33883 | avg karma 3.16 · | 2024-06-14 12:07:22

Buttons are a lot more expensive than they used to be because they are require human labor for writing.

pclmulqdq | karma 14222 | avg karma 3.64 · | 2022-07-06 20:59:35

Those buttons are expensive and fail relatively quickly. It's a good idea, though.

StavrosK | karma 1 | avg karma 0.0 · | 2014-09-03 16:46:48+00:00

Err, I feel you are missing the point. The button itself costs $5. Removing the vowels is the expensive part. Bttns take research, you know.

Freak_NL | karma 12342 | avg karma 4.04 · | 2021-11-25 08:59:13

Kind of silly how that article doesn't show the actual button.

mike_hock | karma 2593 | avg karma 2.59 · | 2024-02-07 00:09:55

The wording on the buttons leaves that somewhat unclear.

bobthepanda | karma 14124 | avg karma 2.45 · | 2023-10-27 16:52:16

there used to be buttons for that but then they figured out providing less buttons and instead horrible menus for button things was cheaper.

atonse | karma 11460 | avg karma 4.51 · | 2018-01-12 02:32:58+00:00

Wow that article was low on substance.

Basically the author wanted more physical buttons. Everything else was a compliment.

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detaro | karma 40664 | avg karma 1.79 · | 2022-08-17 10:18:34

I doubt design cost is relevant, and software stacks also don't really care. Support for hardware buttons is a very thin layer, and widespread.

azakai | karma 7684 | avg karma 3.12 · | 2015-06-06 01:23:06+00:00

I wouldn't say a lot, it's just one button.

Is there a cost to adding even a button? Yes. But that has to be weighed against the benefit. And a significant amount of users benefit from having the button.

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paxys | karma 66162 | avg karma 7.18 · | 2020-10-02 17:55:49+00:00

Yeesh $35 for a single button presser?