This may not be realistic, but I would love to see PLB's very inexpensive to buy, but you pay an annual fee for keeping the service and a premium for activating the beacon.

This could prorate the cost, making it more likely that people will have it in situations where they might need it and will use it to save their lives and not frivolously because of the back-end fee. To save your life, what price would you pay? If I couldn't get out of a situation safely and was faced with my death or that of my family, I would pay anything to get help. Well almost anything.

Do you think such a change in pricing structure might be workable. The PLB companies get less money up front but probably more over time. Maybe they won't even get less up front because of increased volume of sales. Plus additional ongoing subscription revenues. Plus a back end fee that hopefully no one ever pays because they prepared and do not need to activate the beacon.

Paying an annual subscription or registration fee could also keep preparation more in the forefront of peoples' minds.

An example of the possible math might be:

Current (most likely not accurate, but for illustrative purpose only):

$500 per unit
$0 registration
1 per 100,000 have one

Revenue $500 per 100,000 first year
Cost: I have no clue

Change in pricing:

$100 per unit
$100 per year registration
50 per 100,000 have one

Revenue $10,000 per 100,000 first year plus $5,000 per year
Cost: I have no clue

I have no idea how valid any of this is, but with such a drastic reduction in sales price plus media hype due to current events, depending on the costs and legality of such a marketting change, I think it could be financially feasible. Also due to economies of scale, I would imagine that the per unit costs would also go down making it more profitable for manufacturers.

When technology is updated, it is not as painful to chuck the old one and buy a new one and you still pay per year. Cheap insurance if you ask me.