Sorry, I wasn't attempting to argue their value at all. I also was not aware of the many multiple drive cost mark up discussions that have come before this one. I have run a small business and had to defend my markups many times before so I was not attempting to make any assumptions or judgements on their prices.We can certainly speculate about the costs, and I cannot argue with your numbers, like mine they're hypothetical. I used $1,000 as a cost just to do the math to indicate why I don't think we'd see those sized drives available as add-ons, your numbers are just as valid and further support that point.
We can do the drive cost mark up thing for the 1000th time, we seem to come to this whenever larger drives are introduced, and usually with those relatively new to K, but Kaleidescape is not a drive retailer, they're not an IT supply store either, they're a niche business with a lot of skilled personnel that don't work for minimum wage. Their pricing takes all of their operational costs into consideration, so yes, they're not cheap, never have been, and each individual decides for themselves whether they're willing to pay the price to own a K product. That's just the way it is, and it's unlikely any of this will change, so we either believe it's worth the cost of ownership, or we move on.
Jim
I was merely adding in my $0.02 into the speculation about a standalone product that, as you have said, does not exist and may not exist for quite some time, if ever. I was not trying to decry the costs just having a bit of fun with math since you had professed it not to be a strong suite, so I ran the numbers for my own thoughts and wanted to share the results. Storage is always an area in which companies can cover their expenses but there is also a huge amount of volatility, especially now with Chia, in that space.
I'm still planning on saving up for a 72 TB Terra, and was just having some fun with the math. I apologize for lunging headfirst into a obviously well-marked minefield despite no ill intentions.
I too have stretched myself to get into this market as I believe in this product and so far it hasn't let me down and I plan on supporting it further. (Purchased 5 more movies this morning)
So again, sorry for treading somewhere where I meant in just a fun thought exercise and not to start a pricing war or company value discussion.