I've seen some very low cost MP3 players on Ebay running in the $3 range.
How do you manufacture something like this and sell it for $3 with free shipping and make a profit? (unit cost must be less than $1)
I'm sure high volume is involved but how do you get the price that low.
I'm tasked with a similar project with 10K to 50K/year volume and would like your insights on getting costs for a similar complexity device that low.
thanks
Done in China, with their slow mail system that is covered by the State. Design it and out-source everything to China. Customers may have to wait up to a month...
There's one chip inside with a label on it that says something like "AB1426CF3Y13.1-83En" that does everything that you can buy for 20 cents per in quantities of no less than 1 million
You need to be up in the millions to get low price
And if you look at the low price stuff, it?s often 85 degrees and c omponents that is Chinese only (known IC rip offs)
Combine that with a factory stripped of overhead and using manual processes instead of expensive automatic processes
(Even for the simplest processes we calculate 0.1 USD)
That said, quite impressive
Take a look at DVD players, hundreds of components, and a cost out of the f actory of less than 10 USD
Cheers
Klaus
This is a video teardown of one of those cheap ebay units by diodes_gone_wild.
its am impressive amount of conventional electronics in there for $1. LCD screen, battery, USB connector, Switches, etc.
Have you guys every approached a company to make a small product like this in high volume? Any recommendations. I would like to stay in the US or Mexico if possible but would consider asia as a last resort.
10-50k isn't "high volume"! When the Raspberry Pi foundation was first looking at where to make their first run of $35 SBCs they hunted high and low for a UK assembly house that could quote them a price for that kind of volume that would allow them to hit that price point, couldn't do it, had to go to China for the first run. They're making them in the UK now cuz they're cranking out 10k a week.
If I had just 10k units to produce of something and were absolutely determined to do it in the US I'd probably be looking thru real-estate listings in Providence at that sweet $3-4/sq ft/month light-industrial zoned mill space and on eBay for used pick-n-place machines.
Toss some mattresses and a coffee pot in the room along with a flyer for the local pizza delivery house and do 16 hour days for a month with a friend or two. How bad do u want it
Sorry, that's $3-4/year, rather, not month.
That's exactly what we did back in the 80's off the back of all the bankrupt stock of Sinclair Spectrums.We were making joystick interfaces to go with them for Boots and Dixons.JIT deliveries of all the stock and churned out ~1K pcs /day. Mind you, China wasn't an option in those days. For 50K pcs, you could try STI Phillippines.....They're good.
-- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
This is not a DIY operation. Depending on the market acceptance the voulme could increast by a factor of 10. It'll never get to the millions annually but 100-200K is a possibliity.
I will look at STI.
I have one recommendation for a shop in the PI. Looking for other recommendations on medium high volume ships that would be willing to crank out 10-50K/year orders initially then potentially ramp to
200K+/year.Do any of you have experience with a manufacturer that turned out good yeild on the final product?
thanks.
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.