[Open-graphics] OGD1 pricing

[Timothy Miller]

On 2/28/06, Attila Kinali <attila at kinali.ch> wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Feb 2006 07:39:19 -0500
> "Timothy Miller" <theosib at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> > I don't NEED to sell more than a few thousand/year.  Selling a few
> > thousand would be huge and prove our value to a partner.
>
> Then we'll need some good marketing. I don't know how many
> those FPGA board manufactorers sell, but i doubt it's a lot.
> On the other hand, i know at least 3 of them and i did not
> even search for them. So, given that we can do a good marketing,
> a good support from our side (ie fast turaround cycles for problems,
> good support "hotlines" etc), then we should be able to reach
> thousands a year. But that's a big if. And noone can say anything
> about the volume unless we have some idea of the market size.

So, we need to see how many people intereted in the OGP would be
willing to do pro bono sales work for Traversal.  :)

> > Actually, volume pricing is what would do it.  If one sold for $1000,
> > but 50 sold for $650, someone would buy a batch and resell them.
>
> Good idea. Distribute the work of selling the card to retailers.
> If the margin is high enough, resellers will beat each other
> to be able to sell OGD.
>
> On the other hand. Is it possible to build a distribution channel
> ourselves? Saving those 20-30% of margin?

Now, you're thinking.  We'd still do volume pricing.  But we'd find
ways to discount less often.

> > > After OGD became a viable (ie a self supporting) product,
> > > then we can think about selling it cheaper to developers.
> >
> > I'm already thinking of selling it cheaper to developers.  If it
> > retails for $1000, but you can get one for $600, how would you feel?
>
> Quite good. Knowing that those 600 are just barely
> over the production cost (if at all)

The price isn't totally determined yet.  We know the cost of the BOM,
but the assembly cost isn't settled.  And there are other things that
are hard to anticipate.

> > > BTW: have you tried to estimate how big the various
> > > markets are?
> >
> > No.
>
> First thing to do then. I'd ask some universities and
> R&D labs on how many they would buy if the price is
> 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000USD...

I need to go back over to the EE department and ask for datasheets and
price lists on the boards they use.

> > >
> > > > But OGP makes it a different animal.
> > >
> > > How do you mean that ?
> >
> > Its association with the OGP makes it harder to think of it purely in
> > terms of being an FPGA board.
>
> Then we have to work against that. If we want to sell
> it as an FPGA development board, then those people have
> to think of it as such, ignoring the analog part completely
> (unless of course they want to do some analog output for
> machine control or whatever)

You may have noticed that we are already observing the confusion that
arises because of this distinction.

Somehow, it needs to be made clear that OGD1 was going to be built
anyway as a step towards OGC.  We were going to build 10 and use them
ourselves.  When corporate backing went away, we decided to make as
many as we could sell.

>
> > > [1] Side note: i'm still a student and thus have to be
> > > rather conservative on how i spend my money until i get
> > > a decent job.
> >
> > Don't worry about yourself.  You'll get one you can afford.  That is
> > not the concern here.
>
> Don't worry about me. I will buy one if i have the money.
> Though i'm not sure whether i should apply for a developer
> price, as i cannot say whether i can really spend some
> time on developing.

Before I let anyone have developer pricing, I'm going to search the
list for participation.  If they're participated much, they qualify. 
Therefore, you qualify.  If they're new, they've got to prove their
interest in some other way.

I have to come up with some reasonable way to judge if someone's only
pretending to be interested just to get a lower price.  It won't be an
exact science, and some people will fool us into thinking they're
seriously interested in the project.  We'll survive that.  :)