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That makes two postings of yours on this thread not worth reading.
When you start to formulate an opinion, then you get to tell others to do the same.
I did. My opinion was that the article was obviously biased because it was taken directly from a BLOG posted on the HERITAGE foundation website. That's two strikes against the OP's information literacy skills.
Just because you disagree with my opinion doesn't magically make it invalid.
Wait, are you the poster who likes to argue with people by calling them worthless? You know that's not actually a valid argument, right?
Not paying more than retail price? Someone need to tell those in government that when you buy in bulk, you get HUGE discounts
Furthermore, if you read the stories, the cost was for more than just the Kindle device. So saying they wont pay more than retail is ridiculous when the cost per unit is 30 times the retail price.
Did you read the original report?
The government is buying kindles for $163 a unit
Do you have poor reading comprehension? The $16 million dollar order is for kindles that have currently been bought PLUS for kindles over the next 5 years. and for maintenance/support
The only thing you got right is that the govt did indeed get a discount for buying in bulk (10%).
You can read the justification for the purchase here, and the reasons are pretty valid--they need an integrated system for “push”-deployment of DoS in-house documents as well as licensed 3rd party commercial content, worldwide, via WiFi *and* 3G for in-the-field use:
i already laid out a cheap plan for them to use.
also most of those places should have their own tech support. their tech support from amazon will likely be only for over the phone support rather than if anything goes wrong.
thats called the warranty service then.
so that type of support is all but POINTLESS.
9/10 times the tech support team if they knew what they were doing can fix all of them without needing anything from amazon.
that better also cover all battery changes as well.
7k kindle tablets per year for 5 years = 35000 + initial 2500
that is total of 37500 potential buys if they buy it of course. but question why buy it in bulk if they did not need it right away.
for your info technology quickly depreciates in price immensely as I said 20-30% per year. and if product is new technology possible 30-40% per year in depreciation.
in 5 years their tablets will be worth 50 dollars or less.
the tech support can easily be replaced by their own staff or anyone that knows anything about technology.
and the app is already developed.
so their 16 million to amazon is a total and utter waste if any of them have technology departments. and likely they very will do.
especially if any of the places they are servicing have a type of server. any IT person can service tablets.
also the free wifi = trash any place already has internet and wireless routers so its pointless waste of money.
which library does not have a wireless router for the internet i wonder eh? stupid if they actually asked for wifi support.
so lets say that the tablets dont go down in price and stay at 189 dollars.
that is 37500 x 189 = 7,087,500
of the 16.5
9.4125 million is used for support during that 5 years.
9.4125 for service they dont need.
the software is already made and they ask amazon to develop it?
fine lets say the software cost 100 per tablet then 3.75 million then.
(that's over pricing it already btw)
still 5.6625 needed to compensate the amount of wasted money.
that is already over compensating them btw.
5.6625 million for support basically that they are already suppose to have.
if you go with the real cost.
depreciation of tablet 20-30% per year.
then you would get
lets say 20% depreciation:
2500* 189 =472500 = 94500 depreciation next year but it is retail price so this is fine
not counting depreciation for this.
lets say
buys an additional 7k
7k bought = for 189 = 1.323 million = 264600 depreciation next year
not counting this as wasted money
next year
7k bought = for 189 = 1.323 million = 264600 depreciation wasted
real price per tablet 151.2 in the market in 2 year
next year
7k bought another = for 189 = 1.323 million = 264600x2 = 529200 depreciation wasted
real price per tablet 120.96 in the market in 3 year
7k bought another = for 189 = 1.323 million = 264600x3 = 793800 depreciation wasted
real price per tablet 96.77 in the market in 4 year
7k bought another = for 189 = 1.323 million = 264600x4 = 1058400 depreciation wasted
real price per tablet 77.42 in the market in year 5
contract ends so the real waste of money per tablet = 2,381,400 out of the 7 million
so that is a total hardware waste of 34%
service waste as well because they dont need the amazon service at all.
i already laid out a cheap plan for them to use.
also most of those places should have their own tech support. their tech support from amazon will likely be only for over the phone support rather than if anything goes wrong.
thats called the warranty service then.
so that type of support is all but POINTLESS.
9/10 times the tech support team if they knew what they were doing can fix all of them without needing anything from amazon.
that better also cover all battery changes as well.
7k kindle tablets per year for 5 years = 35000 + initial 2500
that is total of 37500 potential buys if they buy it of course. but question why buy it in bulk if they did not need it right away.
for your info technology quickly depreciates in price immensely as I said 20-30% per year. and if product is new technology possible 30-40% per year in depreciation.
in 5 years their tablets will be worth 50 dollars or less.
the tech support can easily be replaced by their own staff or anyone that knows anything about technology.
and the app is already developed.
so their 16 million to amazon is a total and utter waste if any of them have technology departments. and likely they very will do.
especially if any of the places they are servicing have a type of server. any IT person can service tablets.
also the free wifi = trash any place already has internet and wireless routers so its pointless waste of money.
which library does not have a wireless router for the internet i wonder eh? stupid if they actually asked for wifi support.
so lets say that the tablets dont go down in price and stay at 189 dollars.
that is 37500 x 189 = 7,087,500
of the 16.5
9.4125 million is used for support during that 5 years.
9.4125 for service they dont need.
the software is already made and they ask amazon to develop it?
fine lets say the software cost 100 per tablet then 3.75 million then.
(that's over pricing it already btw)
still 5.6625 needed to compensate the amount of wasted money.
that is already over compensating them btw.
5.6625 million for support basically that they are already suppose to have.
if you go with the real cost.
depreciation of tablet 20-30% per year.
then you would get
lets say 20% depreciation:
2500* 189 =472500 = 94500 depreciation next year but it is retail price so this is fine
not counting depreciation for this.
lets say
buys an additional 7k
7k bought = for 189 = 1.323 million = 264600 depreciation next year
not counting this as wasted money
next year
7k bought = for 189 = 1.323 million = 264600 depreciation wasted
real price per tablet 151.2 in the market in 2 year
next year
7k bought another = for 189 = 1.323 million = 264600x2 = 529200 depreciation wasted
real price per tablet 120.96 in the market in 3 year
7k bought another = for 189 = 1.323 million = 264600x3 = 793800 depreciation wasted
real price per tablet 96.77 in the market in 4 year
7k bought another = for 189 = 1.323 million = 264600x4 = 1058400 depreciation wasted
real price per tablet 77.42 in the market in year 5
contract ends so the real waste of money per tablet = 2,381,400 out of the 7 million
so that is a total hardware waste of 34%
service waste as well because they dont need the amazon service at all.
Perhaps you should first read what the contract calls for, its clearly more than just a hardware with generic support contract.
3. The Contractor shall deliver the latest generation devices that have audio and video capabilities and include 3G and Wi-Fi services.
4. The Contractor shall provide 3G services globally. The Contractor is responsible for all costs associated with 3G services globally (i.e., downloading content and access to the Internet Browser).
6. The Contractor shall provide an exclusive, private online document repository from which the Department of State may distribute USG public domain material accesible via 3G or Wi-Fi from the locations listed in Attachment A.
1. USG published materials, as well as third-party content, shall be disseminated by the Contractor to all or some of the purchased or supported devices as requested by the Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs so that our overseas Missions will be provided with efficient, effective, instant access to all our content along with the latest updates.
3. The Contractor will supply content to the device delivered under this contract, but shall also support the delivery of content to the following other devices currently utilized by the Department of State: Apple iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle, RIM Blackberry, PC, and MAC.
7. The Contractor shall provide a dedicated 24/7 help desk to support inquires from the Department of State and its partners in countries specified in Attachment A.
just a question why the heck do they need 3g support when they are using them in a english classroom?
anyway thanks for finding the whole link for the contract william reading it without the whole contract made me cringe
at least they are getting the latest generation of kindles then. so that saves them my depreciation estimate.
but still they dont need 3g at all. wifi support is good enough because all those places already have wifi from their routers. if they dont already have internet I seriously question what the heck type of organization are they.
but anyway.
I did a quick run down from the real contract.
the main service they wanted to distrubute material from a central server lets just say.
books and such can already be accessed by all amazon devices so that is a moot point.
ahem amazon market.
if they need specialized distribution then amazon market is not the way to go.
umm i already know a solution. ahem something like dropbox.....
come on government people you have got to know already....
sorry man i have a cheap solution for all their demands already.
service call is wasted money for me because I know all the cheap solutions.
but thanks william seeing the real contract made me reassess their total waste.
at least it is not as much as I thought it would be. at least it is the newest version of the tablet.
if the 3g was actually useful then maybe it would lower the total waste down to about 30-40% but as of now 50% of the total is still
waste.
done just send all the documents to the target location server make a share folder done.
I would imagine all of those places at least have a central server correct? then that means they have an IT staff to watch over the servers which means they dont need any amazon help desk for this as well.
they dont even need drop box type apps then.
sharefolder from servers to get specialized documents(ps you should not be outsourcing sensitive gov documents anyway idiotic government trying to leak more info intentionally then blame it on people?)
Do you have poor reading comprehension? The $16 million dollar order is for kindles that have currently been bought PLUS for kindles over the next 5 years. and for maintenance/support
The only thing you got right is that the govt did indeed get a discount for buying in bulk (10%).
You can read the justification for the purchase here, and the reasons are pretty valid--they need an integrated system for “push”-deployment of DoS in-house documents as well as licensed 3rd party commercial content, worldwide, via WiFi *and* 3G for in-the-field use:
There really is no story here, just another fraudulent headline like the $10 muffins to get people all fired up over nothing.
If you need a round-the-clock help desk to use a Kindle, you're too stupid to work.
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