Yes, it should be cheaper, I presume they don't have the research and design costs built into their product, & probably inferior materials. If all we do is buy the cheap rip-off products, who is going to be bothered designing good new toys ?
I suppose the same applies to photographers... why pay for an expensive one when there area lot of ones around with less R&D input ?? You may find a good one, but I'd test that first!
David
I really wouldn't assume that the materials are "inferior". Considering that when I get stuff engineered I actually can choose what material I to make it out of, it is biased to assume that a knockoff company would use cheaper materials. In fact perhaps they would consider better quality materials due to the fact that their manufacturing costs are lower. That could be a possibility.
Actually to take it to the context of photography, the fact that people could easily copy my pictures forced me to find a unique point in my craft to sell.
This is the same for a multitude of fields. information is so freely available now. People can hire an inferior one who's good at copying, but you don't see Art & Commerce's photographers crying about that.
It's a good idea to figure out a way to continually have something that makes you better value than someone else to convince a consumer.
You can do this by overhyped marketing like many high-end audio brands, peer pressure word of mouth like MFDB manufacturers on online forums like these, by paying magazines to put up ads,
or more positively you could create a great user experience and quality at a reasonable price that leads people to recommend you to others.
I find Profoto expensive but invested in the system ultimately because I felt the premium was worthwhile considering their continual upgrades to the system, the positive user experiences, the relative ease of getting servicing, etc etc.
two trains of thoughts, I do wish everything was more open but from a business point of view, one has to fight hard to sustain their $$$
it's a small world, if someone in korea's making something cheaper and equally good, as a consumer I will buy the cheaper one
Ethics will differ from person to person however ethics are a whole other can of worms.
This brings to mind the Briese vs Broncolor Para debate.
