The current Pandoras price tag


Just my 2 cents.

I would also like to see a Pandora "Lite" without any unnecessary new features, just cheaper. Perhaps now after the flood of ARM based single board computers, there should be cheaper off the shelf components available to built a 100% Software compatible Pandora. Just a cheaper "shrink" with some hardware problems fixed.

Just to get more units sold and to get a broader audience.
 
There is not a whole lot "special" about the actual chipset of the Pandora. The specific SoC was even shared in several phones and tablets around the same time the Pandora actually hit the market. With some modifications to those devices software should be mostly compatible with some minor modifications or recompiles. The hardware as in form factor and stuff like the keyboard are what makes the Pandora unique. The OS isn't in my opinion optimal for a tablet or touch screen, or else you would maybe see it on a nexus 7 or something as cheap and more powerful (2012 model can be had for $100 USD NiB) because it has a Linux compatible kernel and USB OTG. There shouldn't be anything architecture wise stopping it. Its just lack of either interest or skill.

I have a suspicion that the price is as high as it is to make up for craigs abandonment and default on his preorders, recoup on additional costs for more expensive manufacturing, recoup losses during initial development (nub company bankruptcy, CC negligence and faulty hardware etc), pay for private investment, and hopefully to fund development on the successor. ED says they still sell at an acceptable sustainable rate so maybe that's where it needs to be to ride it out till R&D is done on the successor and keep the lights on at home.
 
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Just my 2 cents.

I would also like to see a Pandora "Lite" without any unnecessary new features, just cheaper. Perhaps now after the flood of ARM based single board computers, there should be cheaper off the shelf components available to built a 100% Software compatible Pandora. Just a cheaper "shrink" with some hardware problems fixed.

Just to get more units sold and to get a broader audience.
The price has not even been thought through let alone announced yet - and you want it to be cheaper.

That or you want a new edition, smaller and better 1.Ghz Pandora, with a whole new set of case & component development costs only cheaper than the existing one.

Clearly Sir, you're high.
 
I have a suspicion that the price is as high as it is to make up for craigs abandonment and default on his preorders, recoup on additional costs for more expensive manufacturing, recoup losses during initial development (nub company bankruptcy, CC negligence and faulty hardware etc), pay for private investment, and hopefully to fund development on the successor. ED says they still sell at an acceptable sustainable rate so maybe that's where it needs to be to ride it out till R&D is done on the successor and keep the lights on at home.
And I have a suspicion that ED's claims that it literally costs ~300€ (IIRC) to make one is more reliable than your hunch.
 
I have a suspicion that the price is as high as it is to make up for craigs abandonment and default on his preorders, recoup on additional costs for more expensive manufacturing, recoup losses during initial development (nub company bankruptcy, CC negligence and faulty hardware etc), pay for private investment, and hopefully to fund development on the successor. ED says they still sell at an acceptable sustainable rate so maybe that's where it needs to be to ride it out till R&D is done on the successor and keep the lights on at home.
And I have a suspicion that ED's claims that it literally costs ~300€ (IIRC) to make one is more reliable than your hunch.
AFAIK, it costs about 250 EUR upfront, however there's an additional 50 EUR margin to handle problems like broken units or widespread issues like he had recently with the LCDs. You'll note that 300 EUR is still quite a bit less than the current list price of 419.33 EUR. Those aren't very high margins for a business actually trying to make a profit, mind you (which he needs to make one day to pay back his investors). This price has come down quite a bit since the 1GHz unit was first announced.

I do think that 250 EUR for Pandora's parts and manufacturing is quite steep though, there are probably a few areas where the cost could be reduced if it were redesigned into something similar. No idea what the costs would be for a hypothetical successor.
 
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300€ would be fine with me and would leave plenty of financial room for accessories and some donations in my case.

I may never buy another kind of mobile tech device anyway, if ED stays in business,

for I am perfectly happy with clamshell-handy and in addition to that Pandora as allround computer.
 
300€ would be fine with me and would leave plenty of financial room for accessories and some donations in my case.

I may never buy another kind of mobile tech device anyway, if ED stays in business,

for I am perfectly happy with clamshell-handy and in addition to that Pandora as allround computer.
You don't think ED should sell Pandora 2 at cost, do you?
 
Oh, I misunderstood, sorry.

450€ would be fine with me too, I have spent something over 630 on the first one over the years (including upgrade), so...

I'll see what I can afford, because this device it worth a lot for me.
 
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German-made stuff is not cheap.  So don't be surprised to pay around €500 at least. P-Successor won't come out in probably 1.5 to 2 years from now.  So I say you put away 1.5 to 2.0 a day (starting now), you will have more than enough for P-Successor when it comes out :)  That's what I am doing now :)
 
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I think if it's going to continue to be made in Germany, the cost will remain high.  The only alternative to bring the price down would to have it made in China (PCB Population etc) . I doubt ED will do that.
 
I think if it's going to continue to be made in Germany, the cost will remain high.  The only alternative to bring the price down would to have it made in China (PCB Population etc) . I doubt ED will do that.
Mmmm... I think you're making one leg longer than the rest on that chair.

German production may raise the price of PCB population and assembly by 20-30%. It doesn't change anything with the costs of components. It saves quite a bit on cross-shipping. So, my guess is that it might raise the overall production costs by 10-15%, which if he gets better quality and more control over production is entirely worth it.

The 'high' cost is far more related to the low volume production than it is to where the device is built.

Price per unit for electronics components go up when the purchased volume goes down. Using the z3770 SoC as an example since I'd looked that up recently...

From Intel it is $37ea in trays of 1000. Intel won't sell smaller quantities - for that you have to go to a supplier that breaks the trays down.

From Mouser: http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Intel/FH8065301455604S-R1M3/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMsOUZO1TdTlbCfCOPX0baJLaCrP2XKjIVE%3d

1: $49.30

10: $47.30

50: $46.67

100: $45.46

All of the components and even the board population and assembly themselves would be effected by this type of pricing differential.

Build 200 of a gizmo or doodad and the per unit manufacturing cost may be 100% higher than if you'd have built 10,000 of them. To build 10,000, though, you need to have all of the components pre-paid and know 100% that none of them have issues.

Quit quibbling about the price of a device that has no market competition and isn't making the creator rich.
 
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German production may raise the price of PCB population and assembly by 20-30%. It doesn't change anything with the costs of components.
Actually, it does.

In Germany, wages and payments for the social system raise the price a lot.

Each company involved raises these costs.

There's the German distributor for the parts. There's the company that manufactures everything. There's my own company.

Each company has to pay higher wages than any company in China, and they also have to pay a lot of taxes and social stuff.

So they need to make more money to be able to pay that, thus raise their prices.

Usually, when something costs 100 USD, it costs 100 EUR in Germany.
 
That's surprising - a Euro has been worth less than a dollar for about ten years now, so I'd expect things to cost a bigger number of euros even before factoring in the taxes that US companies don't have to pay (and assuming that wages are roughly comparable between the US and Germany).
 
a Euro has been worth less than a dollar for about ten years now
Why do you think that? oO

A Euro was always more worth than a Dollar, it just recently dropped,

now 1 € is only worth 1,35885 $, but it was way more a few years ago.
 
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German production may raise the price of PCB population and assembly by 20-30%. It doesn't change anything with the costs of components.
Actually, it does.


In Germany, wages and payments for the social system raise the price a lot.


Each company involved raises these costs.


There's the German distributor for the parts. There's the company that manufactures everything. There's my own company.


Each company has to pay higher wages than any company in China, and they also have to pay a lot of taxes and social stuff.


So they need to make more money to be able to pay that, thus raise their prices.


Usually, when something costs 100 USD, it costs 100 EUR in Germany.
It's also worth noting that doing anything in China tends to be substantiallly more expensive than it would appear ahead of time. You've got the renegotiable contracts that seem to get renegotiated when it's most convenient for the factory. The fact that factories themselves have to pay a lot more than the local offices in order to get employees. And that ever time there's a holiday there may or may not be enough workers return after the days off.

So, it is true that it's still cheaper at times to have things done in China, the difference isn't as large as what people generally think it is. And in the last couple of years, we're starting to have businesses moving production back to the US because it's not affordable to have the work done in China.

And that's not even to get into the issue of industrial espionage which is absolutely rampant in that part of the world. Assuming they aren't operating an additional shift making knock offs to sell.

As much as I loved China, the way they conduct business over there is incredibly ruthless and unless you're in a position to keep a close eye on everything, you can easily wind up with serious problems.
 
I'm ok with pandora's price as long as it remains below the 800 break point. (at where I would consider having it or buying any game at all for that entire year.)

We are used to buy a new cell phone every year (which is not cheap), paying microsft for new software, getting newer cameras, tablets. 

Pandora has brought me more fun than any gudget ever had,  so I'm ok with what ever decision ED would be making. 

But, if ED can lower his production cost, hell yes. I don't see how he's a proud german, so he must make everything in Germany sort of mentality. 

Most factories in China are like plantations powered by slaves a few hundreds years ago, obviously they don't care much about their reputation and they don't enjoying doing what they do. That doesn't speak for everyone, I feel. There gotta be some good apples within that big pit of worms. 

Blaming problems on resources rather than management itself is easy, see Craigix for example. He has all the things in the world for that little project of his, he can still fail out of nowhere and leave a bad taste in everyone and their mom's mouth. Craigix's management skill is worse than a 5 years old, I don't see how anyone can fail without getting anything done on a project this big. (buying trash and ordering them to be populated does not count as any skill)

I see ED as much more competent, as soon as we can nail down the fine details of the first batch of p2s, the issue will become clear. 
 
We are used to buy a new cell phone every year (which is not cheap), paying microsft for new software, getting newer cameras, tablets. 
I highly doubt, that you can speak for anyone here in this regard.

My cellphone is 4 years old, WinXP was the last from MS I baught indirectly with a PC, my Camera is 6 years old and I never had a tablet.
 
I highly doubt, that you can speak for anyone here in this regard.

My cellphone is 4 years old, WinXP was the last from MS I baught indirectly with a PC, my Camera is 6 years old and I never had a tablet.
Sorry, :p  I was not thinking staight. You are definitely right valid.

No offense here, but how would a person who doesn't like cuttingedge electronics much justify spending a fortune on pandora?
 
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