Re: cards cost

[John Townsend <utownje@lexis-nexis.com>]

Bart wrote:

> If I go down to Circuit City today and buy XYZ PCI card for my Wintel the
> average cost is $30-$120 REGARDLESS of the kind of card.  IF I find a company
> even selling an A2 card, average cost STARTS at 250 bucks and has for 20
> years!  Why?

I'm sure that the forces of supply relative to demand have always factored into
it, but even more than that I think that PC users have benefitted greatly in
recent years from the economies of scale.  Circuit boards have a fairly high
initial fixed cost to design and develop and a relatively low incremental cost to
produce, so if you don't make very many of them the cost per unit goes up fast.
Even in its heyday, the Apple II didn't sell anywhere near as many units as PC's
do now.  Cost of production has also gone down, so it's probably not fair to
compare today's prices to those 20 years ago, but even for someone wanting to
develop new cards for the Apple II today, dealing with the economies of scale
would be a major hurdle.  Still, ///SHH Systeme (as one example) is able to sell
some good new cards in the $70 to $120 range.

--
John E. Townsend
Sr. Software Engineer          "Machines should work;
LEXIS-NEXIS                     people should think."
Dayton, OH, USA                        -- IBM Pollyanna Principle
utownje@lexis-nexis.com