- Thu Apr 08, 2010 6:55 pm
#98043
Well, as I have seen the price hikes are high, especially for something they don't manufacture.. but you do have to remember to get low prices they have to order a lot.. like 250 at a time at one point from SkyTraq. There is some risk involved which adds $. An example of this risk is getting gps modules with buggy firmware which has been an issue with the Venus modules. Stuff like that can be mitigated by buying flash modules which I see they have done.. but that adds cost too!
On top of this, their focus seems to be hobbyists, and GPS units while easy if you know what you are doing, can be a bit daunting for beginners.. some of that cost likely goes to customer support.
Finally, you have to realize that not every unit will work that they receive, and they may not be able to refund if ordering large quantities at a time (unless the whole batch is bad per se). Atop of this, not every unit sent to the customers will work which cuts into profits. If Sparkfun's customer service is good, they may occasionally eat a customers mistake (customer fries board, but Sparkfun accepts the return and gives the person the benefit of the doubt)
I'm slowly learning all this as I go along.. it's interesting stuff.
