I would argue that cost has to diminish over time. Development is a finite amount of effort and time placed into the R&D of a product. Initial early adopters shell out premium - which in turn is used to cover R&D costs and make up any immediate losses. Then you get the early majority and late majority, but only if your costs and perceived value are at the right levels. I could see myself spending $200-$250 on this
kit that I would have to build - but only because I am an enthusiast. You have to bring your costs down once you've made your initial recovery - the best example I can give is imagine game developers never, ever, ever brought their prices down on games. That the same product that was $60 for say a AAA super duper oh wow-wee title held that price throughout a period of 10 years. The only people, most likely, who will buy that product will be your early adopters and possibly early majority.
At present - the cost associated with getting the minivan - a 40% keyboard, that you have to build yourself, with a cnc milled case - it isn't premium, it's a little absurd.
https://www.midweststeelsupply.com/store/7075aluminumplateLet's say I'm making a lot of keyboards using aluminium ... and for some reason I'm going to use some of the best friggin' aluminium I can get. Costs to operate a CNC machine vary - but let's say you're a startup and want to own your own CNC mill - so you go used, and let's say somewhere in the ballpark of $5,000~ roughly for a CNC machine that can mill 7075-T651 (again super expensive, robust, aluminium alloy) and we'll say your budget for aluminium plate is somewhere around $5,000 in material cost. Let's assume since it's a used machine we'll need to perform maintenance too. So we'll adjust an additional ... $2,000 allowance for budgetary stuff (We're being real conservative here).
So you're $12,000 invested into Minivan's - at 300$ each for the keyboards, assuming you get ZERO deals from your alloy supplier, we're looking at roughly at 40 keyboards to make up your costs entirely and break even. After 40, you're profiting assuming all things go smoothly.
There are a lot more than 40 minivan boards out there now I'll assume...
At some point you need to bring down your profit margin, or you ultimately lose money - because customers will look elsewhere.
I bought a Vortex Core today to satiate my 40% desire. I'll return to the MiniVan when either I see a better price, or a more alluring offer in terms of what I can get for my money.
(For reference... a 12'Lx4'Wx2"D billet of 7075 aluminium is around 5 grand. This is top-tier aluminium that has no business being on a keyboard, so clearly - you'd use something much less expensive - you'd be selling at a loss if you were using 7075 as materials)
(Obviously I didn't include costs of PCB and such like that, but they're considerably smaller due to the simple circuitry involved - and the fact that there is zero labor associated with the production of the board - since it is outsourced. Not to mention, my customers will be performing the labor of soldering - so yeah, for simplicity's sake I left it out of the factors, but we'd factor that into the cost obviously if this was a more drawn out business thing.)
(I know I'm the new guy here, so who am I to assume anything related to this - but I have been a lurker for many years in various places - I just recently felt like posting. So - take my criticisms as they are, my personal opinion. Objective opinion, but my opinion nonetheless. Don't want to piss anyone off.)
