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Partly true, but you're forgetting customer retention. If a customer is dissatisfied with poor or no documentation it is likely to affect their choice to buy anything from the same company again. Canon and Apple are two companies that handle this well. Their products come with minimal printed documentation, but traditional printed-manual-style pdfs are available online, and they are of very high quality.
PS: note that I've taken the liberty of giving this thread a title. Sorry if that's out of order, but it seems silly to have an untitled thread.
On 16 Jan 2012, at 21:15, Cardimon, Craig wrote:
> People don't buy a product based on its documentation. They aren't going to refuse to buy something that isn't well documented, either. Documentation tends to get tossed into a drawer and forgotten. Documentation is considered a necessary evil that companies can reduce or eliminate altogether without much fuss.
>
> Craig
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