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> So making a crappier product, with more profit per unit, yet having sales drop somewhat, can mean better profit overall.

This will never work in a competitive market like for NAS. The only thing that will get you higher profit margins is a good reputation. If you're coasting by on your reputation, sales and customer experience matter. Less sales one quarter means less people to recommend your product in the next one, which is a downward spiral. A worse customer experience obviously is also a huge problem as it makes people less likely to recommend your product even if they bought it.

They went for a triple-whammy here from which they likely won't recover for years. They now have less customers, less people who are likely to recommend their product, and their reputation/trustworthiness is also stained long-term.

Crappier products at higher margins only works if you're a no-name brand anyways, have no competition, or have a fanatical customer base.



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