On Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:50:33 +0000 "Justyn Butler" <justynbutler +openm...@googlemail.com> babbled:
thanks for the good numeric example. as you see - it's pretty much the ballpark i was talking about - and yes - u'd get a discount, but you may find the $200 goes to $100 - at best if u order > 1k most likeley - more likely $120 or so. to get below that as best i know, you need to do your own module yourself - not buy a pre-made one, and thats when you make a leap into needing 100's of thousands of units at a minimum - if not a million to 10 million or so. only then can you begin to really compete. i know it sucks :( but as of right now - it's a reality of the game. not to mention companies like nokia own a raft of 3g patents (one of the reasons its so expensive is the patent nightmare surrounding it). now think of it this way - imagine 80% of the cost of a 3g module is patent fees (i imagine it is) or profit on patent fees if resold. hardware isnt that incredible - but the IP on top of it it is the costly thing. now if you are nokia and own lets say... 30% of the patents in 3g... you may pay $20 per unit in "royalites" but really - $6 of the $20 just goes right back into your pocket - so your money goes from pocket A to pocket B - now that $30 part just went down to $24. not bad eh? :) > This is all very interesting (and sad, of course). > > 2008/12/22 The Rasterman Carsten Haitzler <ras...@rasterman.com>: > > less than 1/3 the cost. as best i know anyone selling pre-made "3g modules" > > so you dont have to set up your own production is charging in the range of > > $100-$300 per module (depending who you go to and the volume you buy). this > > is where someone developed the module (did what nokia/apple etc. do) and now > > re-sell their work. 1-offs i have seen for sale for $250 or so for a 3g > > module. buy in bulk and you get a discount of course (thus the $100-$300 > > range). and the fewer suppliers in between the better. > > The Telit UC864-G mentioned on the MokoForesight page is a global 3.5G > module with built-in GPS. I don't know of it's actual suitability for > OM. > http://www.telit.com/en/products/umts-hsdpa.php?p_id=14&p_ac=show&p=14 > > This company, Round Solutions, sells it: > http://www.roundsolutions.com/uc864.htm > > And they have a price list: > http://www.roundsolutions.com/pdf/Price-Modules-GSM.pdf > > Which lists it at €145 for 100-500 quantity. That is around US $200. > > Clearly very expensive. But the quantity we are talking about Openmoko > buying is at least an order of magnitude larger, so I wonder how much > below $200 the module could be bought. And it does integrate the GPS > chip (a small saving there though). > > Anyway, I thought some people might be interested in a solid example > with pricing. It is costly, that is for sure. > > I'd still be interested to see how much the UC864-G costs when buying > in bulk of 10K. Can anyone else find figures for this? > > _______________________________________________ > Openmoko community mailing list > community@lists.openmoko.org > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community > -- ------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" -------------- The Rasterman (Carsten Haitzler) ras...@rasterman.com _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community