For some reason this thought does not register, but it is a bit silly to immediately adjust the dollar price to any movement in BTC/$ ratio.
Why not price it in BTC, then?
Agreed. That was the original thought process behind these bitcoin companies. It used to be fun thinking you were getting a deal because the price was set in bitcoin, and $/btc went higher. Hard the believe the companies that gain the most from bitcoin won't use it as the currency.
If only they could buy parts in BTC and pay their employees in BTC (and not just BTC equivalent to yuan or USD). The problem is that they have to pay their bills in fiat.
Thats not the problem, since it is the price in dollars they are increasing, first they remove the discount, and today after the discount was removed price was increased for a second time in just a few days.
At current price the sp20 is a much better choice, it is a cheaper product.
after shipping for 3, each costs:
sp20 $400 1.7 GH/s
s5 $410 1.15 GH/s
My guess is that greed has taken over, since at their low price they were still making a huge profit, as proof of that I will point out as spoondolies releases new tech at lower prices eventually bitmain will have to lower their prices below their low price that they had a few days ago.
what I think is happening they probably figure they can make more by mining themselves since the btc price went up, well for us it is a good thing we have a choice, since the sp20 has not gone up in price it makes it a better choice for us.
it is all in the business strategy used by each company:
bitmain sees that as an opportunity for them to mine and do not care about lost sales since the probably feel mining is better for them at current prices, if I am correct at a latter time we will see a lot of used s5 from them at a lower price, when they decide it is better for them to sell instead of mine. maybe bitmain is gambling that the sp20 will sell out and the only choice will be the s5, or maybe the know something we do not know, but increasing the price does not make much sense if the s5 is expected to be sold.
spoondolies probably sees this as a good opportunity to make money by selling their hardware and as long as bitmain continoues to increase the prices the sp20 sales will keep increasing.
it is sad because competition is a good thing, but in this case we will be left out with the sp20 as the only choice since one of the reasons we buy a miner is to make ROI.
Lets hope bitmain does not become the new knc or bfl, if they do someone will take their place, just like knc or bfl is now irrelevant and most miners will never buy a product from them.
I will not be buying used mining hardware from the hardware vendors directly, because it only helps mining hardware companies compete against us the small miners in mining.
I was planning on buying some mining hardware for sometime in march, I guess I wont have a choice, it will most likely be the sp20 unless something better is released by then.