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Comment by joe_mamba | Hacker News Reader

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Like I said, I was hoping that it would be closer to what an iPhone costs so that a lot more people can justify buying one.

I believe that it's better for their long-term viability if they sell 1000 for $2000 instead of 300 for $4400.

Most people don’t understand why or how stuff is priced, or that low volume items like this probably have a decent amount of expensive human labor included in the price. You aren’t going to set up full automation to assemble 350 cameras.

My car mechanic charges $160/hr.

what’s the margin you reckon on that $160/hr your car mechanic is charging you? human labor is not that expensive, the margins of business employing human labor are. I recently needed a plumber, called up a company, plumber showed up, etc. got an estimate from the company which was outrageous. I was expecting this so I got plumber’s number. called him and asked him if he’d do the job for 1/2 the price - win-win.

I sell and run electrical service and project work for a living.

I’d guess they net 15% on average on that shop rate after accounting for all of the overhead. Some jobs will be high margin wins, some jobs will make a bit, some jobs will lose money.

The shop rate doesn’t just include labor, it also includes all of the overhead of the shop: equipment like lifts, alignment machines, tire machines, consumables, service writers, rent/mortgage, software, diagnostic tools, utilities, blah blah blah.

Btw I quote all residential electrical work at ridiculous prices because I don’t want residential customers, possibly you called a commercial oriented plumber first?

michael&sons

>Most people don’t understand why or how stuff is priced

You'd think HN users aren't "most people"

Not everyone is you.

Not even on HN!

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