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Nice. Saw the price and that threw me right into SharkTank pitches, “cost me $39.99 and I sell it for $199”.

by tzury 2y ago

interludead 2y ago
Yeah, price is quite big
- bigiain 2y ago
  Really? A Kindle is ~$80, and the Paperwhite without ads is $180. A cheap Android tablet is ~$70 without an eInk display. Just a 4 or 5 inch eInk display would cost me ~$70 or so. This is a finished product, in a gorgeous timber case (if you like that sort of thing) with a beautiful knurled knob. And a bunch of custom written software and a collected database of quotes. I reckon it'd sell - at least to the right crowd - at 4-5 times that price. Those of use who are capable of making their own probably wouldn't buy one anyway - but as a high end gift or executive toy, I could see them selling these at $700 or $800. (And yeah, I'm considering grabbing a 2nd hand Kindle and firing up my CNC mill or laser cutter to make a case for it, but people like me are very much in the 0.1% or 0.01% of all the people who'd like to own one of these.)
  - georgesimon 2y ago
    To be honest, the wood feels plasticky and the knob feels unfinished. There's also a significant gap between the wood and the bezel. The screen is too small, and battery life is poor. It looks like a premium product, but it doesn't feel like one. I have one, and if it broke I wouldn't pay more than $20 for a replacement.
    - bigiain 2y ago
      That's sad. I haven't seen on in real life, just the pics on their website (although I did find out yesterday a friend bought one in their original kickstarter, so I'll be able to hold one soon.) I do have a bid in on a spare Kindle and plan to make my own though. I really like the _idea_ of it.
- Ekaros 2y ago
  I have no doubt it is also pretty expensive to make. Eink screens of that size have certain price. Other parts likely are not cheapest possible options either. Volume is likely also pretty low, so tooling etc. isn't shared over that many units. Not that it isn't expensive for what it does. Just that it probably isn't cheap to make.
jacknews 2y ago
And this is not far off most hardware. Retail price will be about 5x BoM cost, or about 3x overall cost of goods, though of course it can vary wildly depending on volume and market. HP famously aimed for a markup of pi (3.14x cost, ie gross margin > 60%), or e (2.71..) if they wanted to be especially competitive.

Nice. Saw the price and that threw me right into SharkTank pitches, “cost me $39.99 and I sell it for $199”.

by tzury 2y ago

Nice. Saw the price and that threw me right into SharkTank pitches, “cost me $39.99 and I sell it for $199”.

interludead 2y ago

Yeah, price is quite big

bigiain 2y ago
Really? A Kindle is ~$80, and the Paperwhite without ads is $180. A cheap Android tablet is ~$70 without an eInk display. Just a 4 or 5 inch eInk display would cost me ~$70 or so. This is a finished product, in a gorgeous timber case (if you like that sort of thing) with a beautiful knurled knob. And a bunch of custom written software and a collected database of quotes. I reckon it'd sell - at least to the right crowd - at 4-5 times that price. Those of use who are capable of making their own probably wouldn't buy one anyway - but as a high end gift or executive toy, I could see them selling these at $700 or $800. (And yeah, I'm considering grabbing a 2nd hand Kindle and firing up my CNC mill or laser cutter to make a case for it, but people like me are very much in the 0.1% or 0.01% of all the people who'd like to own one of these.)
- georgesimon 2y ago
  To be honest, the wood feels plasticky and the knob feels unfinished. There's also a significant gap between the wood and the bezel. The screen is too small, and battery life is poor. It looks like a premium product, but it doesn't feel like one. I have one, and if it broke I wouldn't pay more than $20 for a replacement.
  - bigiain 2y ago
    That's sad. I haven't seen on in real life, just the pics on their website (although I did find out yesterday a friend bought one in their original kickstarter, so I'll be able to hold one soon.) I do have a bid in on a spare Kindle and plan to make my own though. I really like the _idea_ of it.
Ekaros 2y ago
I have no doubt it is also pretty expensive to make. Eink screens of that size have certain price. Other parts likely are not cheapest possible options either. Volume is likely also pretty low, so tooling etc. isn't shared over that many units. Not that it isn't expensive for what it does. Just that it probably isn't cheap to make.

jacknews 2y ago

And this is not far off most hardware. Retail price will be about 5x BoM cost, or about 3x overall cost of goods, though of course it can vary wildly depending on volume and market. HP famously aimed for a markup of pi (3.14x cost, ie gross margin > 60%), or e (2.71..) if they wanted to be especially competitive.