Anyone notice that Apple iPods are more expensive than digital cameras?
I was browsing the web sites when it occured to me that an MP3 player might be more over-rated and over-priced than a digital camera. If one looks at the R&D costs involved with making a digital camera, I was wondering if its more than R&D costs incurred over making an MP3 player? I was comparing a Nikon Coolpix with a iPod mini.
I think a digital camera should be priced more than a MP3 player when looking at R&D costs, but what do I know? One would think the comparative costs of both items would show this, but it clearly does not. Interesting, eh?
No wonder Konica Minolta left the camera business. Sad day ...
Apple iPods are more expensive than cellphones too. Not sure I see the relevance :)
From a purely economics perspective though, you do not set price by cost. There are exceptions, but if you're setting the price of a product based purely on the cost then you're not understanding the market. In this case the margin on iPods appears to be slim (as can be seen by reviewing Apple's financial performance over the last few years).
I haven't seen any firm numbers on the R&D costs of either Kodak (for example) or Samsumg/Toshiba and the other big storage vendors. But again, I think the relevance of R&D cost vs. price is fairly loose.
And if we look at DSLRs for example, then quite clearly the pendulum swings strongly the other way. They're considerably more expensive then the iPod or other portable digital audio players.
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It could be way worse. A low end 5MHz oscilloscope costs about $100, when it probably has about $20 of parts inside. I could also buy a video capture card for $10 that has a high speed ADC inside it. Or I could buy a HDTV card for $70 and get a very good high speed ADC, high speed DSP, and a nice RF front end.
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Originally Posted by A friend of mine who has a Linux kernel named after his girlfriend.
If I was VirtualBox, I could load my virtualization module into Hannah and boot up another kernel in the same address space.
No relevance. Just something I was pondering when buying a digital camera for my mum, when the iPod advertisement and price caught my eye.
From just an economic view of the engineering costs involved, and I'm looking simply at the costs involved to develop a digital camera (regardless of SLR or not) to that of a MP3 player. Not even selling the devices yet, and we all know that most cameras/MP3 players are considered "old" after 6 months on the market.
I only know what the costs are of having hardware and software engineers to develop even a simple device, and they can be incredibly costly depending on which part of the continent they are.
Like you say margins on iPods are slim and Apple makes their money on selling songs thru iTunes, at least that's what Apple says. For digital cameras, customers can go anywhere else to develop their digital film. They're not tied down to the camera manufacturers other than for SLR lenses. So, the margins must be somewhere to keep their hardware and software engineers paid and happy, else more and more companies would go the way of Konica & Minolta.
To get a product successful nowadays, everything has to be efficient, from designing->testing->manufacturing->supply chain->sales->support->customer feedback. I'm sure there is many more facets, but to get the margins as high as possible, all facets must be running as efficient as possible.
I'm no economics expert, just a plain old engineer. I like to keep things simple. If I need an economics expert, I call on Warren Buffett... heheheh!
aka the oracle of omaha. he is a big time venture capitalist.
Pretty much the biggest venture capitalist. As Chairman of Bershire Hathaway he has his hands in many businesses. Most notably American Express, which he bought at a damn cheap price back in the 80's when their stock was plummeting and brought back to life.
Started when he was a teenager, running pinball machines around town. Quite the self made man, and one of the few venture capitalists that didn't get fudged in the internet bubble.
very true frenchy. and i would say that a big part of the cost of mp3 players is their storage devices. something you don't think about figuring into the cost of a digital camera as well.
No wonder Konica Minolta left the camera business. Sad day ...
WHAT??? Have I missed some news? I HOPE not...not after spending a BIT on a new 8 mp camera. Those firmware updates can come in handy!!!
Tell me thats wrong!!!
very true frenchy. and i would say that a big part of the cost of mp3 players is their storage devices. something you don't think about figuring into the cost of a digital camera as well.
You just nailed it Eric. Add a 2GB storage card to the cost of a camera and the total figure goes up $200. MP3 has storage included already.
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WHAT??? Have I missed some news? I HOPE not...not after spending a BIT on a new 8 mp camera. Those firmware updates can come in handy!!!
Tell me thats wrong!!!
Hope your camera is still supported by someone. I was browsing on another website and the Konica Minolta cameras were dropping in prices like hot cakes. I was not sure if I was going to buy one as what kind of support would there be? Still tempting.
Add a 2GB storage card to the cost of a camera and the total figure goes up $200. MP3 has storage included already.
2GB doesn't cost that much. I bought a 2GB USB flash drive for about $70. The actual Flash memory costs less since I paid for the Flash, USB interface chip, case, and manufacturing cost and markup.
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TCPA would take your freedom! Say NO! To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
HDTV the way it should be: To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Originally Posted by A friend of mine who has a Linux kernel named after his girlfriend.
If I was VirtualBox, I could load my virtualization module into Hannah and boot up another kernel in the same address space.
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