maemo.org - Talk - Theory 1: only 30% of the cost of the N900 is "real" cost

Quote:

Originally Posted by christexaport (Post 439093)

Is this thread still alive? Has no one noticed none of the materials costs cover copyright, royalties, licensing, or distribution? If you expect retail prices to closely match the materials costs, you ignore the manufacturing, R&D, marketing, logistics, and warranty departments. All of those divisions are manned by people, humans earning a living. How much are those paychecks supposed to be? How do you pay for the three years of development research that went into the N900, iPhone, or other high end devices with a lower profit margin, and from a device that will be lucky to sell 1,000,000 individual units?

Case in point is a restaurant. Does the "Fall Off The Bone Rib Dinner" really cost $18.95? Or are there other costs to recover besides the ingredients?

I already gave a better analogy to counter arguments similar to yours: the iPhone 3GS is virtually identical to the 3rd generation iPod touch yet costs 3 times as much. That proves that the "real" cost has nothing to do with the market price.