FINALLY! we can buy Staria

[Adam Shostack]

On Wed, Oct 24, 2001 at 04:27:25PM -0700, Lucky Green wrote:
| I don't understand why one would pay $1000 for a Starium device when
| comparable devices are available in the market place for less than half
| of that. The design goal for the new Starium boxes was sub-$100 retail.
| I doubt that design goal was met, but I would not pay a penny over $350
| for one device. Which will still leave the seller with a nice profit.

$249 is a magic price for consumer electronics, and I won't pay a
penny over that.  Not because it makes a huge difference to me, but I
can't see them selling well enough to be widespread and have a network
effect at $350.


Adam

| > -----Original Message-----
| > From: owner-cypherpunks at lne.com 
| > [mailto:owner-cypherpunks at lne.com] On Behalf Of Dr. Evil
| > Sent: Monday, October 22, 2001 8:06 PM
| > To: cypherpunks at lne.com
| > Subject: FINALLY! we can buy Staria
| > 
| > 
| > (is that the correct plural of Starium?)
| > 
| > http://www.tactronix.com/s100.htm
| > 
| > NOW TAKING PRE-ORDERS FOR DELIVERY IN DECEMBER 2001/JANUARY 2002
| > 
| > Very Limited Quantity Available
| > 
| > A 50% Deposit Will Reserve Your Units Today!!
| > 
| > 1-10 Units  $995 USD Each
| > 
| > 11-20 Units $936 USD Each
| > 
| > 21-50 Units $884 USD Each
| > 
| > 51 Units+ Call For Price
| > 
| > What do people here think of this?  My initial thoughts are:
| > 
| > Pros:
| > 
| > 1. Voice encryption is great.  It's the Last Great Encryption Taboo
| >    (the other is file encryption, but that's not nearly as taboo as
| >    voice).  I'm glad to see something on the market which addresses
| >    this.  Obviously, all traffic, including saying hi to grandma,
| >    should be encrypted.
| > 
| > 2. The unit looks very easy to use.  I could travel anywhere in the
| >    world with it (well, anywhere that it's legal) and plug it in and
| >    press one button and it works.  That's great.
| > 
| > Cons:
| > 
| > 1. I would like to see an open source reference software
| >    implementation, or some way to verify that there are no "naughty
| >    bits" in this thing.  I know, open source isn't much of a business
| >    model, but with encryption products, it seems almost essential.
| > 
| > 2. It's expensive.  It costs more than a PC.  However, $2k for two
| >    units is small compared to the value of data it could be securing,
| >    so for many users, the price will be fine.
| > 
| > 3. A minor nitpick: It uses 3DES.  What's wrong with AES?
| > 
| > I think I would like to buy some of them, but I can't decide 
| > if I want to be an early adopter, or wait for cheaper and 
| > better versions to come out.

-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume