Ask HN: Is price of one Dropcam($149) overpriced?

1 points by throwawayacct10 11y ago ↗ HN

I made some preliminary estimates and found that drop cam bill of materials (BOM) should be less than $50 (camera sensor is about $13). Why is Dropcam $149? Are they marking up the price or am I missing something in BOM? Also, if they are recording for seven days...they must be uploading 1TB/day. Do you think that's really possible?

I believe dropcam price can be much lower but they choose to mark-it up. I would like to know from knowledgeable folks here if I am right.

3 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 16.0 ms ] thread

wmf 11y ago ↗

Once you consider ~30% retail margin and ~30% gross margin for Dropcam themselves that only leaves a COGS of ~$75. That's not particularly overpriced.

throwawayacct10 11y ago ↗

I see it now. Thanks very much.

But isn't 30% a lot of margin in hardware? Even software companies nowadays have problems with that margin.

Gross margin is used to pay back your NRE, so net profit is lower.