I'm pretty sure that the much publicized "different customers see different prices on Amazon" debacle was just a simple A/B test, and not some complex scheme along the lines of, "Joe can afford to pay more!"
Amazon will also almost always ship their product within a day. I can almost always order something with my Prime membership Monday and have it on Wednesday with no extra shipping costs[1]. The 3rd party? Who knows. It might take them a day or two to ship. Or more.
[1] Ignoring the $75 annual fee for Prime, of course.
Yes there's definitely the prime vs non prime vs 3rd party price differences.
But are you sure there's no evidence of what he references? He seems pretty explicit, and it seems a very odd conclusion w/no specific evidence: "prices on offer to different customers varying for the same product, presumably on the basis of the customer's willingness to pay more for goods in prior transactions."
When I read an article linked from Hacker News, then read some comments that are generally not tearing it to pieces, I assume the author must have some credibility and therefore is not throwing out conclusions for fun. Also, I have a minor in inferring existence of fascinating undetected evidence.
I worked there for ~ 7 years until earlier this year, and we were expressly forbidden from doing any sort of A/B testing with prices. Simply not allowed. I think what people are seeing is one or more of:
different merchant offerings
prime discounts
limited availability offers disappearing
the "chosen" offer changing over time
multiple detail pages for the same item with different merchant offers
Apple is also a bad example of luxury and/or simplicity. They are nothing like a Gucci bag or an exotic car. At best they are an automatic transmission vs. a manual one (following his "simplicity" argument) but there are automatic transmissions from other companies too now, it's not the 1990s. Also their customer service is appalling, their failure rates have been proven to be middle of the pack.
I am not ignorant of using them either, I used OSX and iOS for years and I say Android ICS is better, Ubuntu is better and new iterations of Windows certainly don't seem to be worse (although I have less data there).
People like to compare the latest OSX to Win95 or even XP (2001) but don't compare as often to the most recent offerings. There is a total intolerance to criticism. Android ICS has been said to be better than the latest iOS by multiple reviewers, so it's at least neck and neck with the last bit probably depending mainly on personal preference, but say that here and you will risk a downvote. In fact it's almost certain to get downvotes and they will only sometimes be balanced out but people appalled at the abuse of the voting system being used to just hammer someone who doesn't belong to the group.
Nice, a classic example of witless fandroid drivel. An irrelevant comparison to Apple used to introduce a pro-Android rant along with the obligatory "I used to use IOS" and explaining any downvotes for this tosh as pro-Apple groupthink.
Nobody in the world of art, architecture or fashion thinks one company has a monopoly on good things. It's only a function of Apple being the only alternative to Microsoft's monopoly for a short time (which included MS propping them up) that instilled people with the idea they are magic. Anyone who knows the real history of computers knows they aren't magically inventive. Now as the market is healthier than before there is more competition. Some reviewers have handed victory to Android ICS devices. Far from being a "fandroid" I said that's more like it's neck and neck with personal preference coming into play.
But neck and neck is sufficient for my point, they don't have a monopoly on good design and they certainly aren't in some class of their own "luxury" above the normal products. They are just another computer company, as they always were. People who, in modern capitalism, have tied part of their egos and identities to the fate of one of the largest corporate legal entities in the world will no doubt be hurt by this.
I'm pretty sure that the much publicized "different customers see different prices on Amazon" debacle was just a simple A/B test, and not some complex scheme along the lines of, "Joe can afford to pay more!"