The attach rate of a product represents how many complementary goods are sold for each primary product. For example, the average number of DVD-Video discs (complementary product) purchased for each DVD player (primary product) sold, or the number of console-specific video games purchased for each console sold.
The attach rate is one measure of popularity for a given platform, since it is an indication of how quickly sales for the complementary products will grow as the installed base of the platform grows. For example, imagine the following situation:
- Platform A has sold 1,000 hardware units
- Platform B has sold 10,000 hardware units
- Publishers have sold 5,000 titles for Platform A
- Publishers have sold 10,000 titles for Platform B
In absolute terms, Platform B is outselling Platform A by a factor of 10:1, but Platform A has a much higher attach rate (5:1 versus 1:1). Thus for a content provider, Platform A may be more attractive, since at current attach rates the platform only needs to sell another 1,000 units for publishers to match their sales on Platform B.
Nevertheless, the attach rate can be skewed early on in a product's life-cycle due to the effect of early adopters whose consumer behavior may not be representative of the general populace. Attach rates also fail when considering a product late in its life-cycle. Using the DVD player example above, the adoption of the DVD-ROM format in computers and software would have a dramatically negative effect when the complementary product is DVD movies because many of these multi-use devices rarely are used to play videos.
Famous quotes containing the words attach and/or rate:
“The physicians say, they are not materialists; but they are:MSpirit is matter reduced to an extreme thinness: O so thin!—But the definition of spiritual should be, that which is its own evidence. What notions do they attach to love! what to religion! One would not willingly pronounce these words in their hearing, and give them the occasion to profane them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Unless a group of workers know their work is under surveillance, that they are being rated as fairly as human beings, with the fallibility that goes with human judgment, can rate them, and that at least an attempt is made to measure their worth to an organization in relative terms, they are likely to sink back on length of service as the sole reason for retention and promotion.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)