Comment by sethrd_ | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sethrd_ | Hacker News Reader

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I've mentioned in other comments the difference between "hospital" style wheelchairs and full time use wheelchairs used by people with spinal cord injuries or other mobility issues. Full time wheelchairs are 1/3 or more lighter than the hospital style, more rigid which makes pushing more efficient, more comfortable, and easier to maneuver.

You cannot compare these wheelchairs to what you might sit in at the emergency room, as they are for different use cases and fill different needs. These wheelchairs aren't for "oh I broke my leg and have to use a wheelcahir for a few months". These are for "I will be spending 14+ hours a day in this chair."

Please do some research about rigid frame wheelchairs before saying you don't see how this is a big deal. Companies like TiLite and Quickie START at almost double this price point for similar products.

Amazing that a group of people who are generally the type to be sitting on $3000 ergonomic office chairs are insisting that $50 wheelchairs ought to be enough for anyone.

Well, I'm skeptic as I'm skeptic about 3k$ office chairs. Skeptic about the price, because well, research does have a price, but once you have profited to cover research fees you can't keep selling a not-anymore-new stuff at the same "pioneering phase" price.

That's the reason why Xerox have failed, IBM and Microsoft succeed, GNU/Linux succeed over other unices and so on. It's the same reasons why our EVs who are indeed a bit superior over Chinese ones can't succeed give a mean 4x price tags and their OEMs end-up with lobbying for stellar custom duty and alike to stop them.

Sure, design a light and rigid chair demand a significant research effort, but in the end you give a simple product, you can't count on warm welcome at certain prices. Like designed a road bicycle, it's expensive, you have used complex materials etc, but you can't count on big sales if you push your profit too high.

Currently in the west ALL the few who still produce something have climbed the prices claiming inflation so much that they are no more interesting, competitive respect of China. It's a lesson too many do not want to accept.

Even Walmart doesn't sell bikes for less than like $200 and everyone agrees that they're pretty awful. $1000 for a bike that's essentially custom to your measurements (which is the whole point of these chairs!) and assembled in the US doesn't seem like a ripoff at all.

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