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Where are you getting the figure "$30"? The components of an active cable are not that expensive. You and I may pay premium markups at retailers because of par
by KirinDave 7y ago
Where are you getting the figure "$30"?
The components of an active cable are not that expensive. You and I may pay premium markups at retailers because of parasitic incentives, but that doesn't mean folks sourcing their own cables would.
- anbop 7y agoThere’s no way to make a physical cable that carries 100w and hundreds of gigabits as cheap as a cable that carries 1 amp at 5 volts.
- colejohnson66 7y agoGP didn’t say they’d cost the same. They said $30 is too expensive
- mosselman 7y agoThat doesn’t mean the cable that can will cost $30
- asark 7y agoConsidering the way the middle of the market (for lots of products, not just cables, and not just electronics) seems to evaporate and the options become "cheap and shitty and may not work at all", "mid-priced but still shitty", and "actually built correctly and will actually survive normal use but way more expensive than it seems like it should be, thanks to a combination of economies of scale and price discrimination" I wouldn't be surprised if a full-capability USBC cable that doesn't break the first time you unplug it "wrong" or trip over it, and doesn't glitch out or fail to work correctly in some situations, and is of a useful length, does end up around $30.
- londons_explore 7y agoA large part of cables is patents, licensing, research and R&D. All those costs don't have to scale with the number of cables produced.
- michaelt 7y agoRight now you can pay: * $40 for an Apple 40 Gbps 100W 2.6ft cable [5] * $30 for an Anker 100W 40Gbps 1.6ft cable [1] * $20 for a Nekteck 100W 40Gbps 1.6ft cable [4] * $12 for an Anker 60W 5Gbps 3ft cable [2] * $9 for an Anker 60W 480 Mbps 3ft cable [3] So, $30 isn't the cheapest full spec cable on Amazon, but it's not too far off. [1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076D76DRQ/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076D76DRQ/ [2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EMIIFCU/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EMIIFCU/ [3] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A6G0CTQ/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A6G0CTQ/ [4] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072HMHZ7D/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072HMHZ7D/ [5] https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MQ4H2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb‑c-cable-08-m https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MQ4H2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-u...
- KirinDave 7y agoBut these are retail prices in a discussion of manufacturers and distributors deciding what to include? Having cut open such a cable recently to help me understand the spec and having ordered parts and integrated a USB-PD board into my project recently, I can tell you the actual costs if you're not in retail-markup land are substantially less. We're more or less past the point where "USB-C smart cables are $40" is informed by anything but retail markup, in my opinion. But I guess I'm only doing the bare minimum on the data side?
- ineedasername 7y agoAre these all reliably full-spec? I'd like to know so I can purchase accordingly. Honestly before this I didn't even know some were not full spec.