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The main reason why it's expensive is that it's almost always outsourced, which drive the cost up a lot. For instance IIRC a self cash-out machine costs around
by littlestymaar 3y ago
The main reason why it's expensive is that it's almost always outsourced, which drive the cost up a lot. For instance IIRC a self cash-out machine costs around $50k, for something that should cost less than $3k to manufacture with a trivial software stack. And many things are like that.
- pbhjpbhj 3y agoAre you saying the _cost_ of manufacturing is 17x (50/3) what it should be, or are you saying that the selling price is 17x the manufacture cost and the market isn't operating to reduce the price? Are you referring to a McDo ordering machine, or a generic [supermarket] self-checkout machine?
- littlestymaar 3y agoHere I'm referring to a supermarket self check-out machine. And what I'm saying is that the cost for supermarket is 17x higher than it would be should they internalize the manufacturing and software development process. Outsourcing incurs a lot of additional costs in addition to the actual production costs in addition to the manufacturer's margin. As long as big companies don't understand that technology is a key component of their business, whatever it is, they won't be able to leverage it to even a fraction of its potential (not holding my breath though…).