keithyang926 wrote:
Products with innovative and appealing designs relative to competing products can often command substantially higher prices in the marketplace. Because design innovations are quickly copied by other manufacturers, many consumer technology companies charge as much as possible for their new designs to extract as much value as possible from them. But large profits generated by the innovative designs give competitors stronger incentives to copy the designs. Therefore, the best strategy to maximize overall profit from an innovative new design is to charge less than the greatest possible price.
In the argument above, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?
(B) The first is a consideration that helps explain the appeal of a certain stragegy; the second presents an alternative strategy endorsed by the argument.
(C) The first is a phenomenon that justifies a specific strategy; the second is that strategy.
I only typed option B and C, coz' this is where my doubts are.
I chose B, but the correct answer is C. Here is how I think about B.
The words 'many consumer technology companies charge as much as possible for their new designs to extract as much value as possible from them.' following 'Because' clause, actually presented a strategy adopted by many companies. And then the author pointed out a flaw in this strategy in the 'But' sentence. Finally, he gave a the best strategy he believed, which has considered all the factors described above. The word 'Best' means a comparison involved. So, I say, the first part of boldface supports the strategy many companies use, and the second part is the author's conclusion, the alternative strategy(relative to the one many companies adopted) he thinks the best.
option B gives a more detailed and accurate description, compared to C, I think. So, where I have gone wrong?
Thanks!
I'll be totally honest here . . . I certainly see how B could be a very attractive answer. If you're not incredibly exacting, you could very well end up with B. The key to this one is breaking this argument down and determining what roles the two boldface sentences play. Let's do it!
Conclusion: The best strategy to maximize overall profit from an innovative new design is to charge less than the greatest possible price.
WHY? (the answer to why is the premise)
BECAUSE
Premise:
1) products with innovative designs can command higher prices in the marketplace AND
2) design innovations are quickly copied by other manufacturers
AND
3) large profits generated by the innovative designs give other manufacturers higher incentives to copy them.
Because of these premises, we should actually NOT try to make as much money as possible to discourage competition.
I admit that this argument has holes in it big enough to drive a Mack truck through. That is part of what is making this so hard! If we simply see that the first boldface is part of the support of WHY we should do the second boldface, we see that the answer is C). As for B, the first part is okay but the second part discusses an alternate strategy. There really is no alternate strategy in the second boldface; the second boldface is the *main* strategy (or conclusion) supported by the first part.
