[Open-graphics] OGD1 pricing

[Patrick McNamara]

In some ways, I think it depends on what $X is.  If it's $50US worth of 
parts, selling it for $300 is a 6x markup and would probably still be 
considered really cheap.  On the other hand if $X is $250US, a 6x markup 
is $1500 which is probably more that you want to target for as it may 
put it out of reach folks you really want to have it.

Here is another way of looking at it.  Assume you need $2M US to do the 
ASIC run.  Assume also that if you can fund half the cost, you can 
attract investors for the other half.  That means you need to raise $1M 
US.  If you make $250 net profit per OGD1 board, you need to sell 4000 
boards to make your target.  Do you think you can make that target?  Do 
you want to add more in to help offset the developers cost (time, 
effort, etc)?  This is really a business proposition.  Do a bit of 
research if you can.  Do you know anyone in university engineering 
programs?  Find out what they would be willing to pay for a board of 
this type.  Also, compare it to boards already on the market with 
similar specifications.  If you can undercut them substantially, great.  
But, remember, this is a fund raiser.  The boards will be more expensive 
to begin with and yes, you will here some grumbling from some folks 
about the price.  Prices go down over time.  If someone who is going to 
be a really productive developer can't afford one, there will be people 
who will donate them.  Those that just want a cheap card to play with 
will either have to wait, or save up their hard earned money.

Also, remember that the higher the price, the higher the expectation for 
a "flawless" product will be.  We all know there are bug in hardware and 
software, but if you are flogging a $1000 development board, people will 
expect the thing to work (rightly or wrongly).  Be sure and set peoples 
expectations for what they are getting (i.e.  A raw development board 
with no image and very little provided tools).

Just my somewhat long $.02.

Patrick M

Timothy Miller wrote:
> I really cannot go into details, but I'm trying to get some sense for
> how to price OGD1 boards.
>
> On the one hand, we don't want to price it too high, making it hard
> for developers to get it (although we can sell it cheaper to 'signed
> up' developers).
>
> On the other hand, this is also a fund-raising product.  We are
> selling it so that we can raise money to do things like work more
> hours on OGA and produce the ASIC.
>
> I was talking to someone who says that products like this are often
> marked up quite dramatically, like, say, a factor of 6 over their
> parts costs.
>
> If OGD1 costs $X, what should we sell it for?
>
>
> We need to take into consideration not just OGP developer discounts
> but also bulk discounts.  And we still need to raise a load of money.
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