

Ask HN: MacRumors Buyer's Guide for all gadgets? - zackblum

I bought my dad a Kindle for Father's Day last year. One week later, the Kindle 3 comes out. Needless to say, I'm unhappy about this. But instead of getting mad I decided to get even: my best friend and I have been working nights on a MacRumors Buyer's Guide for ALL gadgets these past couple weeks [1]. (It's almost ready to open up to private-beta http://isitnewyet.com)<p>The idea is what if you could see into the future and know in advance when gadgets were going to be updated and released?<p>Would a MacRumors Buyer's Guide for all gadgets be useful to you? We would love all the feedback and insight we can get. Thanks HN!<p>[1] buyersguide.macrumors.com—The key to the MRBG is their product cycle-based buying recommendation. For example, say you want to buy an iMac. As of today, the iMac has not been updated in 206 days. The iMac's average refresh cycle is 226 days, so MRBG recommends "Buy only if you need it - Approaching the end of a cycle." It's not perfect, but now you've got a more complete picture before you make you make the purchase.
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speckle
It would definitely be a useful factor in deciding new purchases.

I think I would use it as a quick check and hope that no login is necessary.

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zackblum
Thanks--ya no logins needed. Would an alert where you choose the product
you're interested in, put in your email address, and then get an email the day
it's released help? Or would you only want to check it right before a
purchase?

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speckle
The former :)

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fakelvis
Agreed; the former.

However the option to also receive alerts in exchange for my email address
would be a nice additional option (emphasis on additional... main use would be
the former).

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iuguy
Are you planning on monetising it via affiliate links?

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mcchicken
Yup there will be affiliate links, but might also consider either a credit
system/plan like Dropbox uses, or a freemium model where features like alerts
would be paid for. If we did use some sort of payment model, we'd consider
offering free credits to reward purchases made through our affiliate links.

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iuguy
If you haven't already seen it, you might want to look at
<http://www.ilounge.com/> an ipod site that started off as a blog, built a
community, then sold advertising for a free buyers guide amongst other things.
As I understand it, it is (or rather at least was a few years ago) quite
profitable.

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zackblum
Thanks! will have a look now

