I think this is a marketing problem, where selling the 3080 at $1200 would hurt future sales once supply meets demand, even if the price is lowered later. Maybe the optimizing solution would be something (awful) like a car dealership where the price is negotiable based on volatile local factors.
As a complete layperson when it comes to economics, I’m curious if someone has extensively analyzed ‘market value’ vs MSRP over the lifecycle of a product rollout and come up with a workable formula for calculating the optimal price.
I actually was thinking about this after failing to acquire 3080. Maybe for limited launches like this it would make sense to auction off the supply? It would be arguably fairer system for consumers than selling out in seconds, and potentially both more profitable and less stressful for nvidia. Of course the auction system needs carefully designed, but maybe something like uniform price sealed auction with last accepted bid pricing (with reserve) would work here? Sealed auctions seem especially well suited because they feel less timing critical.
As a complete layperson when it comes to economics, I’m curious if someone has extensively analyzed ‘market value’ vs MSRP over the lifecycle of a product rollout and come up with a workable formula for calculating the optimal price.