"I believe if the Sam440 could be low cost"
The Sam is already low cost. A new high end PPC system would easily cost around 1000€ and up.
Exactly.
It frustrates me no end when people say that the Sam is horrendously over-priced.
The problem is that people these days are spoiled by the massive economies of scale on PC hardware and think that therefore it should apply to minority hardware like the Sam.
PC motherboards cost $60 because they're made in their millions. How many Sams are produced? If the makers of the Sam want to recoup their costs they need a higher unit price. If they sell at the same price as PC motherboards they'd make a
massive loss, as demand is tiny compared to the PC counterparts. So nobody would make Sam systems, and then people would complain and yell about there being no hardware.
It's basic supply and demand:
PC hardware: Very high demand so very high supply. Profit margins per unit are small but quantities are huge, so a profit is possible.
Amiga hardware: Very low demand so very low supply. Profit margins per unit need to be very large otherwise the total revenue wouldn't recoup the manufacturing and design costs.
The SAM is
not over-priced for what it is. Ask any GCSE economist student. You want low-priced hardware? Then you have to buy what everyone else does, i.e. PC hardware.
