I had friends who worked on a very popular consumer electric device before who revealed the ugly economics of it to me. Cost to build, around $7. Retail price,

I had friends who worked on a very popular consumer electric device before who revealed the ugly economics of it to me. Cost to build, around $7. Retail price, over $30. Profit for the company, around $3. Distributors and retailers took the remaining. Selling stuff in physical stores is a nasty business. I remember these numbers whenever I see people complain about app stores taking a 30% cut.