06-30-2016, 06:54 AM
(06-30-2016, 01:26 AM)Ghost Wrote:(06-29-2016, 11:13 PM)daveculp Wrote:(06-29-2016, 04:07 PM)dkryder Wrote: good point. but i would think that by now they could have increased staff in one area or the other. they have made a considerable amount of money.
Not really.
I know the Kickstarter brought in 1.7 million but very little if that was probably profit. Kickstarter takes a percentage of the total for themselves. In addition they are selling the base boards for $15 each. Once you take development and manufacturing costs into account that leaves very, very little as profit.
Tangenting on to that, the money they have spent on shipping, re-shipping, and shipping accessories separately, there is probably very little profit now to be had. So I think, in retrospect, they would've made more if they had used a dedicated courier service rather than the regular postal service, which, clearly, was not equipped to deal with the demands placed upon them.
But speaking with the benefit of hindsight is easy. You make what you believe to be the best decisions at the time that you make them.
I have admit I was surprised when they decided to ship accessories separately. I would have been fine with waiting until everything was ready to ship at once. However, based on the impatient reactions from a lot of people they probably made the right decision. However, shipping from China is cheap. I am always amazed how cheap it is to ship things into the US. I just had a large 5V 72AMP power supply sent 3 day mail from China for something like $15.00 shipping. I wouldnt have been able to ship it out of the US at that speed for less than $50.00.
I almost did NOT back the Pine 64 because of the incredibly low price. I know a little of the costs involved and was worried about their ability to deliver. So far, so good. Hopefully they can continue and make the Pine 2.
