why are sams so expensive?

[the_leander]

The SAM board costs about £400 depending on the version and speed. The rest of the £620 is the OS4 license (about £100) and for the rest of the system's hardware: case, drives etc.

Yes, pricey compared to commodity x86 hardware produced in 10,000 batches. However, ask a retailer how much money he makes selling an x86 mobo and then how many he would have to sell to stay in business.

The price you're quoting would pay for not one, but two fully kitted out quadcore desktops. The retailer might have to sell a lot of boxes to make it worthwhile, however, and this is key: He will have customers willing to plunk down that kind of cash for that sort of hardware.

There are maybe 5000 Amiga users left worldwide.

With the greatest of respect to all involved in SAM/OS4, I would have to strongly recommend getting a PC costing half as much and getting a copy of AmigaForever, which will run far more software much more quickly.

--edit--

@cv643d, no, I think you'll find most of us on this board are or at least were Amiga users, not "Amigans". Many of those self identified "Amigans" left this board many years ago in a huff to start in another place, which in turn helped perpetrate fraud. Some of the more insane ones then set up another board and have since been viewed by almost everyone else as a cancer.

[the_leander]

so thats where successful businesses have been going wrong-they've been selling too much.

:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:

[the_leander]

It's been said that nothing is expensive if you can afford it.

However, it doesn't change the fact that in terms of value for money, especially in comparison to the rest of the consumer computing world, it does seem to offer quite a lot less then the competition.

On that basis I do consider it expensive given the actual product's capabilities.

[the_leander]

Yeah, I agree... If it were £50 and came with an OS... Then I think it would be worth a look...

But my point is, as long as there are people prepared to spend that sort of money on that board... Acube would be stupid to sell it for less...

Yes and no.

Whilst selling at a high price will still garner some sales, reducing the price will sell a lot more as more people begin to perceive it as being value for money. The cost of manufacture goes down as batch sizes increase and so on and so on.

Short term they'll make a bit of cash. Long term there won't be nearly enough return on their product to justify a followup. They have to reduce not only the cost to the consumer, but also the costs involved in manufacture by buying in larger quantities if they hope to make a dent.

Selling more units also makes the customer base more attractive to potential developers. Who in their right mind would sit down and write a complex program when your customer base consists of around 600 or so remaining A1's, and maybe half as many Sams?

--edit--

Damn you tone007! :p

[the_leander]

Acube aren't stupid, they have quite an expensive board on their hands... And they know they can shift it to a set market, for a price that gives them a healthy profit. I don't think Acube could afford to sell that board for a price that would attract peope like you and me... So they don't.

Actually I'd say more short sighted then anything else.

By getting bigger batches they reduce unit cost, some of that reduction then goes to the customer base. Which, due to the reduced cost will be larger (for instance more people willing to blow £200 then £600). Whilst their profit per unit overall will be reduced, this will be made up for and then some by the increased volume.

Which again brings us back to the devs, without whom the Amiga market (such as it is) is completely unsustainable.

Yes, they can sell it at £600, but to how many people? If there are a thousand Sams put into the wild before the production ceases I would be surprised. Not many people are going to be willing to spend their time/money on developing software for 1500 (tops) users.