Monday, June 26, 2006

Happy to pay more for greener PCs?

BBC News are reporting that we'd be happy to pay an extra £64 - £108 / $117 - $197 for an environmentally friendly PC with fewer chemicals. People in the UK were willing to pay the £64 extra, whilst people in China were willing to pay an extra £108 according to a Green-Peace report.

Okay, this raises some questions, 1. What were the base prices for PCs. Ie were the UK PCs £400 to start with meaning people would be happy to pay £464 total price? In China, what is the base price of a PC, £200? Less? More? 2. Can people in the UK / China afford to pay this much extra for a PC, ie, the study is a theoretical study, when it actually comes to the crunch when people are handing over money for a new PC, will they be as happy then to part with the extra dosh? 3. Poor US people can't afford cheap PCs, how can people in China afford an extra £108 for a PC when wages for a lot of people are around £15 per month?

Even if there are environmentally friendly PCs available for an extra £64/£108, what will stop budget manufacturers continuing to produce the cheapest PC possible? (You know the people who try market £300 / $300 PCs in Walmart / Dell Newspaper Offers) - And how about paying more for products that aren't manufactured in sweatshops?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey people! What's with no comments on this thought-provoking post? Guilty consciences?...