italie |
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MAME owes italie many thank yous, hah
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Reged: 09/20/03
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Posts: 15246
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Loc: BoomTown
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Re: Quick market survey - USB controller "controller"
12/14/11 06:31 AM
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> > I'm not taking anything as an attack. I'm not really looking at this as a profit
> > venture ATM either, more of a "Could I break even if I spun a few boards." I'm
> aware
> > of the U-Hid, and see much room for improvement at an $80 price point, with the
> price
> > point being one of the improvements.
>
> I'm curious to know what your thinking is on that $80 price point. I have bought
> controllers from Andy and did think they seemed expensive for what they are, but then
> I don't know much about the costs of doing custom board design and fabrication,
> either in development cost or production cost.
I'm not knocking Andy, he's delivered a good product for years. I do question the $80 price point in that I know can do more, for much less. I'm not saying that Andy has been gouging either, just that newer technologies can do the job cheaper.
> Are you saying that you think you can make a board comparable to the one that Andy
> makes for significantly less than $80 and still make a comfortable profit (if you're
> not planning on making a profit, then I don't think you can really be serious, since
> there is no way that you're going to be able to sustain the time and energy necessary
> to complete this project without an expected payoff)?
What would you say to a device that had:
4 joystick support
10 buttons per joystick (start, coin, shift, etc...)
Dual trackball support (or 1 trackball and 2 spinners)
A 4 to 8 port USB hub
LED support
Rumble support
3 steering wheel support
Legacy controller support (NES/SNES/PS2/tbd)
Probably a handful of other goodies that I haven't thought of yet.
All in on package, under $50. Legacy controller sockets would probably be extra cost, as would any custom pigtails. That math is on very small runs, at a fairly decent profit as well. I might even toy with the idea of wireless or bluetooth if they seem worth it.
> If so, can you give any details about what leads you to that conclusion? I'm
> genuinely curious.
My conclusion is based upon professional experience. I might be leaving that profession behind, and might like a project or two to keep me busy. Then again I might not. We'll see.
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