Buy none, get one free

Sounds too good to be true eh? I found this article really interesting of how the "digital world" makes such a difference to companies today. Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine claims the costs in the digital world are so low that both the companies and their customers are winners.
"There are really two kinds of free," says Mr Anderson.
"There's fake free, which is just marketing -the buy-one-get-one-free model, the invocation of the word 'free' to grab consumer attention, but it does not change the underlying economics." "For the first time in history, [this has] created an industrial model where everything gets cheaper over time, as the underlying costs get cheaper." Mr Anderson refers to Moore's Law, which states that computer power doubles every 18 months. The economic reciprocal of that, he says, is the cost of a net unit of computer power falls by 50% every 18 months, which means that everything gets cheaper by 50% or more every year and a half".
"At the moment, people are still suspicious of 'free' and are right to be so. They often pay further down the line or pay with their time or reputation."
"People are right to think that somewhere, somebody is going to have to pay."

In my opinion I think that consumers will always think there is an underlying cost somewhere hidden. In the article he talks about how airline companies may offer a free flight, but you pay for your baggage to be taken on board. There is still a cost that the consumer must pay. He also states, "maybe cargo pays the way and the passengers ride for free? Or we're actually a tourism arm of these destinations who are paying us to bring (people) to them."
I think its a really creative idea that may take a lot of time to draw the consumers in and actually believe that this concept is true. It's a great way of attracting consumers and making them test out your service or product.
Check out the article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7811481.stm