Why Fixed Price In Dollars?

[CCmachined]

the guys are based in the UK. $330 was the price before - exchange rates change i know, but why fixed in dollars and not pounds? £210 is fair enough i guess, but why not fix it at that price and then convert to USD later?

also, is it confirmed that the next order preorders in december and ships in March? thats quite a waiting time and quite a short time to show off my Pandora to potential buyers... unless the preorder continues through janurary or something.

 

[mali]

the guys are based in the UK. $330 was the price before - exchange rates change i know, but why fixed in dollars and not pounds? £210 is fair enough i guess, but why not fix it at that price and then convert to USD later?

also, is it confirmed that the next order preorders in december and ships in March? thats quite a waiting time and quite a short time to show off my Pandora to potential buyers... unless the preorder continues through janurary or something.

P. ist entirely produced in northern America as Craig pointed out, that might be the reason for the USD dependency.

 

[Squidge]

Both Craigix and MWeston have stated that nothing is being made in the UK so the UK price means nothing. The US price is the one that actually correlates to the cost of making this thing.

Asked and answered in this thread.

 

[bartleby]

trouble is, at today's exchange rate, 339 usd would amount to 265 euros - excluding tax!

add german v.a.t., and the price for a 2nd batch pandora would be 315 euros - quite a stunning price increase compared to the 249 euros (including v.a.t.) price tag of the first batch.

i very much doubt that e.d. will be able to sell many pandoras at that price.

just for comparison: the price for a ds lite at german web stores is currently around 130 euos, an eeepc 900a is about 275 euros (all including v.a.t.). i don't think many people will pay that much more for a pandora. i know that i won't - and i was absolutely determined to get one before i learned about this price increase.

 

[kanzlr]

so € 66,-- is a dealbreaker for you? come on...

 

[CCmachined]

so € 66,-- is a dealbreaker for you? come on...

its a 27% increase. imagine if the Pandora now cost $419 or £254.

however i don't know how much other items cost over there in europe (netbooks, net tablets etc).

andora1:

 

[bartleby]

so € 66,-- is a dealbreaker for you?

absolutely. and i'm sure i'm not going to be the only person turned off by a 25% price increase. this might seriously damage pandora sales in europe. for many, 299 euros is a line they won't cross for handheld gaming device. escecially when the first few were sold for so much less. people are used to gadget prices continually going down - now up! i guess we can only hope that the euro is going to recover before the next batch is released...

 

[Lorkile]

Seems like people are getting bent out of shape because of the global financial situation hitting home by this. And I think I would be right there with you if I weren't living in the US, but this is a small business venture compared to other companies. So it shouldn't be so surprising that price fluctuations in currencies will always make an immediate impact on the cost.

I suppose the only positive I can find is that it's more likely people in my area will be interested in the second batch now, instead of if the price had jumped as much as it had for other areas.

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

I think the € 249 were chosen carefully in the first place. Spend more than that and it doesn't feel like a toy or gadget anymore but rather like a serious investment. There are people who do not want to spend much more than € 315 for their main desktop-pc or for a bicycle :lol: I think ED will set the price so that people still want to buy it.

 

[quadomatic]

Well I guess that means the price in Euros and in GBP will have to go up considerable since the price is based on the US Dollar.

Well at least the price stays the same for me.

US Treasury Bonds FTW!!!! Buy them and let the value of the dollar skyrocket.

 

[adamorjames]

You are getting the newest hardware and a great community.... if you don't like it go buy something that isn't nearly as good but is a little cheaper. :lol:
EDIT: Or you can always not buy anything and just watch in envy. I don't see why people can't work a little harder and earn a little more money unless they are really going all out and working 15 hours a day just to get get by.. in which case they shouldn't be buying a Pandora in the first place. Also (back to the former idea) if they can't work a little harder then the must not want it enough. :lol:
EDIT: No hard feelings

 

[hobbyman II]

IMO anyone with more than binary 10 braincells will buy, what would you buy instead of it?

people spend that a week in clubbing or finance for a car, Ive seen watches and mobiles at twice that price on the high street, not some exclusive shop for millionaires, anyway I already have a car and don`t socialise (hey! I got a family of PC`s to look after....full time job 24/7), please don`t order your Pandora......I may want 2

lol

hobbyman

 

[sdedalus83]

How can you blame the devs for your own country's artificially inflated currency values? It's hardly a price increase, just a reality check.

 

[hch]

the guys are based in the UK. $330 was the price before - exchange rates change i know, but why fixed in dollars and not pounds? £210 is fair enough i guess, but why not fix it at that price and then convert to USD later?

i guess this is because the thing will be manufactured in the us. whereever you are based you have to pay in $, so a fixed price in $ is perfectly reasonable and quite obviously the best choice.

 

[benjiro]

A price increase of that magnitude is definitely not a good idea. One of the points so many DS/PSP fan boys made in the Pandora topics, is the price difference of the Pandora vs the DS/PSP. Ofcourse, we know that the hardware is not sponsored with high prices on the software, but most of the general public ( a market the Pandora may want to tap in more ), does not know that ( or are to blind to see ).

QUOTE
so € 66,-- is a dealbreaker for you?


Remember, thats the price of 2 rather good brand class 6 ( 15MB/s ) 16GB SD cards ( at this moment in time ).

Don't forget:

339 dollar -> 264 euro's ( no tax inc )
+ Tax ( lets take 19% ): 50 euro's
=====
= 314 euro ( inc tax )
+ Transport! 14 euro's
+ 1 SD Card ( useless without one ): 30 euro's
=====
358 Euro ( thats 456 dollar, for you US people to compare ).

And thats just with one SD card, not two, and no extra's like the s-video cable etc.

For a portable gaming console, thats going to scare a lot of people off. Especially, when they compare the price with sponsored hardware like the DS/PSP, coming from a firm with no name/brand, and no "real" software portfolio of any meaning or brand recognition.

In other words, by that time, the Pandora already needs to have more trophies to get people to shell out that amount of money ( and a better PR focus ). Aka, if for instance Doom 3 ( or any other game with name recognition ) was running on it, now, thats going to bring the pandora to the attention to a lot of people, but they are still going to question such a big price.

For use "grownups" with cash to spare, it might not be as bad, but still, most of use will think twice

 

[bartleby]

How can you blame the devs for your own country's artificially inflated currency values?

i wasn't blaming anyone. i was only voicing my concern that a price increase like this may serioulsy harm pandora sales in the euro zone. it will not be as popular as it might have become at the old price.

IMO anyone with more than binary 10 braincells will buy, what would you buy instead of it?

god, the amount of fanboyism in these forums is nearing psp levels. some posts are beginning to read more like from some creepy sect than from a commuinty centered around a cool and innovative gaming gadget...

 

[mazza558]

I guess this price is reasonable considering we don't have to pay a dime for any software. However, what the team needs to do now is finish the first batch, get some decent software set up and ready to use, and redesign the website to explain the cost. Make it seem like a really, really premium product and people will want it more and more. Think of the iRiver website, for example.

 

[MiniSinisterMinister]

QUOTE
How can you blame the devs for your own country's artificially inflated currency values? It's hardly a price increase, just a reality check.


That's true. When I orderd the Pandora and compared my euro price to the dollar price, I felt that the latter was a little steep and almost felt sorry the people in the US I was glad that the euro was strong at the time. Now it seems this will backfire for the people who are going to order next.

In fact, there is a certain psycholgical barrier for a handheld price. You cannot succesfully sell a handheld for any price. Nintendo knows that, Sony knows that even Apple knows that. If the Pandora will really cost more than € 300, all the other popular handhelds will cost significantly less. And even if the commuity is great, people will still buy a hombrew handheld for the fun of it. And the fun ends somewhere above € 249 I guess.

 

[quadomatic]

The price is very reasonable when you consider that the team isn't even turning a profit on the first batch, even after all the shit they've gone through to get the product to you.

If you can't respect the idea that the price increase is to compensate for additional ram and nand, AND to compensate for the decreased value of the Pound and the Euro against the US Dollar, at least consider it a necessary price increase to make sure that the dev's actually get something out of doing this for all of us.

BTW: If anyone here complaining about a price increase is from the USA, you are an uber prick, since the price only goes up $9 for you. People in the UK and people on the Euro have much more of a burden.

 

[PoisonedV]

god, the amount of fanboyism in these forums is nearing psp levels. some posts are beginning to read more like from some creepy sect than from a commuinty centered around a cool and innovative gaming gadget...

+1 (funny considering all the hate of other people for being fanboys)