Spolsky's argument is that the sale will typically go through without a discount and thus it is not a real problem.
"Big companies often have purchasing departments actually do the purchase. They are trained to expect discounts and the people in the purchasing department know a lot more about asking for discounts than they know about software, because that is their specialized role in the organization. If you politely tell them that you have one price for everyone, they'll still purchase, because the purchasing department ususally doesn't have the power to stop the purchase."
From a technological point of view, is there any reason this is only possible now? Or would it have been possible decades ago, if only there had been enough interest in it or someone had had the idea earlier?
This seems like a really smart feat of thermodynamical engineering, but it does not reference explicitly any technology that would not have been available 30 years ago. I could imagine that being hidden in the subtitles of getting the process efficient enough - e.g. in computer-based component design and CFD simulations.
"Big companies often have purchasing departments actually do the purchase. They are trained to expect discounts and the people in the purchasing department know a lot more about asking for discounts than they know about software, because that is their specialized role in the organization. If you politely tell them that you have one price for everyone, they'll still purchase, because the purchasing department ususally doesn't have the power to stop the purchase."