MSRP is $200. Dealer/retailer pays $120. Distributor pays $80. Apple makes a typical 4-5X markup, not 12X as intended. There are more steps in the chain than most expect... For most CE products, you can assume a 10-12X markup between COGM (not COGS which would be higher than COGM) and MSRP.
So how much do those $5 MSRP headphones cost to make?
I have yet to see a set of Bluetooth headphones, at any price, that can adequately replace wired headphones for my use case. The battery doesn't last nearly long enough.
I recently bought some Siberia 840's for gaming, one of the best bluetooth headsets you can get ($330USD). I didn't like them and went back to my $50 Logitech G430's (wired).
I also have a pair of $400 Bose Noise cancelling headphones (wired) for the same reason. Bluetooth headphones are crap.
I get the point you're making, but it's worth pointing out for others that it doesn't just unlock when it thinks it sees you. Rather, it waits for you to focus your attention on it first.
I sometimes use the blank black screen as a mirror to check for stray hair after I take my motorcycle helmet off, this means my phone will now turn on when I don't want it?
It's also worth mentioning that the false positive rate on Touch ID was 1 in 50,000
According to the salesperson right?
My daughter has an iPhone which I have a touch ID profile for. I've used her phone maybe 20 times in the last year and it's failed more than once, closer to once every 2 or 3 times I try to use it. This is a much higher fail rate than a tactile button which I push on my phone that seems to work at least 99 out of 100 times.
I have actually been that poor and remember it. When you're that poor, the extra $100 for a phone just isn't there. Even an extra $40 isn't there. That's why you're on food stamps.
I've been there too and the phone was my highest priority since it the thing that can get me out of the situation I'm in.
$100 for a handset and prepaid up to $20/month was enough to get me off the street.
But the government is clueless, so it works out as usual. I agree they are mostly terrible ideas, but because the government should be minding it's business, not picking winners.
This explains why countries with no government have much higher standards of living than those with....
That's a nice, far-away target date that lets people feel good about themselves without actually having to do anything.
China went from the equivalent of the 16th century to the 21st in about 30 years. They are the most doingest government in human history.
Sure they have a lot of internal issues too, but doing stuff isn't one of them.
They probably have about 10 models, compact, mid, large, SUV, Sports, Van, commercial etc, then 30 variants of each. And across the entire range they probably only use about 5 engines with multiple variants of. So effectively they have about 5 models to worry about.
Those school buses are used to transport school football teams to away games, which in some places is 100 miles away.
So here's a novel idea, outsource the bus fleet to professional bus companies.
The bus company will own many different types of buses for various use cases of their customers. For city based short runs they'll have an electric fleet, for longer trips a fossil fuel version. For small loads they have minibuses, for large they have a full sized coach.
It's not a technical problem, it's all politics.
It's also a lot easier to get things done when you can just boss everyone around and not have to worry about little niceties such as democracy and literacy.
It just so happens that literacy is also one of the things they want done. So they have that, on-time trains, and superior EV charging networks, but sure they don't get to shoot up your kids at school, so that's a point off...
So let's settle on 100%. You're saying that to construct a building in a place where the building is likely to be wiped away and rebuilt, It's better to build it twice for half the cost than once properly?
And that's not taking into account the issues of displacement, loss of life, income etc.
You know, for a mere 20% increase in the cost of construction, houses in Florida could be made to withstand these storms... it's what's done in the islands, but that would be bad for the construction industry, so we build with sticks and paper instead.
Indeed. I Iived in Hong Kong for a while where they have regular Typhoons (Asian word for Hurricane) and the place doesn't skip a beat because of the higher building standards created specifically to deal with them.
It's update fatigue. If you only ever use one or two apps then regular continuous updates sound like the right idea, keeping you up to date on top. But since most people have dozens of apps they regularly use, the constant updates overtake your life. It's at the point now where I stop using apps because the update fatigue is not worth it.
Developers need to understand that their app is only one of millions that we use and should take that into account when introducing change.
You know when I wrote that I wrote 'non computer literate' the first time, then when I quickly reviewed I only saw 'computer literate', thought that was wrong and changed it and hit send.
I need to learn to slow down...
Mechanical fuel injection 'caught on' during WWII. For aircraft, basically as soon as it was feasible. EFI caught on as soon as it was feasible, for racing. 10 years later for emission control.
And other technology that hasn't caught on for decades may also catch on once they become feasible too.
To counter the GP's claim, just because something didn't catch on first time it was invented doesn't prevent it from catching on at some later stage when other external factors change.
If there's a good reason why this won't work I'm happy to hear it, but saying it can't work purely because it was tried once ages ago and failed is a bit short sighted.
Slashdot Mirror
That status of that tells the world I know nothing about headphones...
Only if they have an rainforest sourced hardwood timber volume knob for greater fullness and resonance of sound reproduction...
MSRP is $200. Dealer/retailer pays $120. Distributor pays $80. Apple makes a typical 4-5X markup, not 12X as intended. There are more steps in the chain than most expect... For most CE products, you can assume a 10-12X markup between COGM (not COGS which would be higher than COGM) and MSRP.
So how much do those $5 MSRP headphones cost to make?
I have yet to see a set of Bluetooth headphones, at any price, that can adequately replace wired headphones for my use case. The battery doesn't last nearly long enough.
I recently bought some Siberia 840's for gaming, one of the best bluetooth headsets you can get ($330USD). I didn't like them and went back to my $50 Logitech G430's (wired).
I also have a pair of $400 Bose Noise cancelling headphones (wired) for the same reason. Bluetooth headphones are crap.
I get the point you're making, but it's worth pointing out for others that it doesn't just unlock when it thinks it sees you. Rather, it waits for you to focus your attention on it first.
I sometimes use the blank black screen as a mirror to check for stray hair after I take my motorcycle helmet off, this means my phone will now turn on when I don't want it?
It's also worth mentioning that the false positive rate on Touch ID was 1 in 50,000
According to the salesperson right?
My daughter has an iPhone which I have a touch ID profile for. I've used her phone maybe 20 times in the last year and it's failed more than once, closer to once every 2 or 3 times I try to use it. This is a much higher fail rate than a tactile button which I push on my phone that seems to work at least 99 out of 100 times.
Down .42% for the day! Holy crap! Sell, sell, sell!
Indeed. Had you sold yesterday and bought Trig Tokens you'd be up 78% instead of down 0.42%. Stupid Apple....
So the correct % of GDP controlled by the government is 100?
No. But I see that didn't stop you jumping to all sorts of your own conclusions to have a little rant...
Calculus was funded by subsidies?
Newton was funded externally so yes.
Telescopes were funded by subsidies?
As was Galileo
Determining Longitude was found by a government prize.
As were the global explorers
The steam engine was funded by subsidies?
A lot of it yes...
How about the cotton gin?
Probably. I don;t know anything about it, but I highly doubt it was completely void of external financial and government assistance
No. Somethings, at sometimes were aided by subsidies.
Maybe, but to get any major piece of technology mainstream some external public assistance was required.
how about all those companies and ideas that were subsidized that didn't pan out.
Nothing is life is free, but the concept of subsidies generally produces a net benefit to society.
How about all the government corruption that occurs as a DIRECT RESULT of subsidies.
As above. Like Venture Capital, there's all sorts of sins associated with it but the practice still produces a net gain overall.
The copying-est one also.
True, but the tech already exists so they don't need to invent anything to achieve the goal.
Now I wished I had some mod points left....
EBT won't allow you to purchase non-food items with it. This includes things everyone needs, like toilet paper.
I see a market here. Edible toilet paper!
I have actually been that poor and remember it. When you're that poor, the extra $100 for a phone just isn't there. Even an extra $40 isn't there. That's why you're on food stamps.
I've been there too and the phone was my highest priority since it the thing that can get me out of the situation I'm in.
$100 for a handset and prepaid up to $20/month was enough to get me off the street.
But the government is clueless, so it works out as usual. I agree they are mostly terrible ideas, but because the government should be minding it's business, not picking winners.
This explains why countries with no government have much higher standards of living than those with....
I mean if electric vehicles are the future then just let it happen, no need to force it along with bans and subsidies.
So your argument is that subsidies don't work, despite every major boost in human progress being funded in someway by subsidies?
That's a nice, far-away target date that lets people feel good about themselves without actually having to do anything.
China went from the equivalent of the 16th century to the 21st in about 30 years. They are the most doingest government in human history. Sure they have a lot of internal issues too, but doing stuff isn't one of them.
They probably have about 10 models, compact, mid, large, SUV, Sports, Van, commercial etc, then 30 variants of each. And across the entire range they probably only use about 5 engines with multiple variants of. So effectively they have about 5 models to worry about.
Those school buses are used to transport school football teams to away games, which in some places is 100 miles away.
So here's a novel idea, outsource the bus fleet to professional bus companies.
The bus company will own many different types of buses for various use cases of their customers. For city based short runs they'll have an electric fleet, for longer trips a fossil fuel version. For small loads they have minibuses, for large they have a full sized coach.
It's not a technical problem, it's all politics.
It's also a lot easier to get things done when you can just boss everyone around and not have to worry about little niceties such as democracy and literacy.
It just so happens that literacy is also one of the things they want done. So they have that, on-time trains, and superior EV charging networks, but sure they don't get to shoot up your kids at school, so that's a point off...
but they generally cost about 80-120% more.
So let's settle on 100%. You're saying that to construct a building in a place where the building is likely to be wiped away and rebuilt, It's better to build it twice for half the cost than once properly?
And that's not taking into account the issues of displacement, loss of life, income etc.
You know, for a mere 20% increase in the cost of construction, houses in Florida could be made to withstand these storms... it's what's done in the islands, but that would be bad for the construction industry, so we build with sticks and paper instead.
Indeed. I Iived in Hong Kong for a while where they have regular Typhoons (Asian word for Hurricane) and the place doesn't skip a beat because of the higher building standards created specifically to deal with them.
Fixed sails are a bad plan in storms IMHO.
A ship is a bad plan in a big enough storm, but like right now, that can be managed.
It's update fatigue. If you only ever use one or two apps then regular continuous updates sound like the right idea, keeping you up to date on top. But since most people have dozens of apps they regularly use, the constant updates overtake your life. It's at the point now where I stop using apps because the update fatigue is not worth it.
Developers need to understand that their app is only one of millions that we use and should take that into account when introducing change.
You know when I wrote that I wrote 'non computer literate' the first time, then when I quickly reviewed I only saw 'computer literate', thought that was wrong and changed it and hit send.
I need to learn to slow down...
Mechanical fuel injection 'caught on' during WWII. For aircraft, basically as soon as it was feasible. EFI caught on as soon as it was feasible, for racing. 10 years later for emission control.
And other technology that hasn't caught on for decades may also catch on once they become feasible too.
To counter the GP's claim, just because something didn't catch on first time it was invented doesn't prevent it from catching on at some later stage when other external factors change.
If there's a good reason why this won't work I'm happy to hear it, but saying it can't work purely because it was tried once ages ago and failed is a bit short sighted.
When a fairly simple technology like this hasn't caught on for over a century, there's probably a good reason for it.
Just like fuel injection....