Sure but they cost a lot to develop and they need to recoup their costs. That doesn't mean they're overpriced. it means they're expensive, but they have to sell them at that price because they know it's only a matter of time before knockoffs come out and they have to lower prices, so they need to charge that much in order to not go out of business. It's a niche product to a small audience.
The word overpriced is reserved for luxury items like designer anything, sunglasses, handbags, jeans, etc. they're able to be priced that way because of the brand, with no relation to how much it cost to make. (note: the price of an item and the cost or takes to make an item are decoupled. took a lot of years of business to learn that one)
I don't see a difference there. If someone sells something without doing much innovation for over 10 years (doesn't matter if it is electronics or clothing), for much more than it costs to make, why is one overpriced and the other one is not?
I suspect our disagreement is in the much in "Without doing much innovation", and the difference (I am not a clothing designer though I've sewed my own clothes; there may be more to it than I imagine.) between electronics and clothing is that electronics have to change to keep up, with the times, which incurs a large expense. Human bodies haven't changed size so dramatically so as to need a whole new process to handle extra arms.
There is a non-trivial amount of engineering work required to go from Usb 1.0, to 1.2, then 2.0, and then all the way to 3.0, even though to the end customer it's just updating to the latest version of USB.
I see that non-trivial engineering cost as what makes the difference.
Using a newer kind of fabric doesn't require new sewing machines.
If you're able to make a product, and not change it for a decade, and also not change how it's being made for that same decade, and on top of that, not have competitors pop up, then it's overpriced.
> There is a non-trivial amount of engineering work required to go from Usb 1.0, to 1.2, then 2.0, and then all the way to 3.0
Yes, and this in the context of a thread about a device originally marketed by Cypress (Anchor Chips) as “EZ-USB”. All this engineering work was done by Cypress for a device sold at a few dollars or so in quantity.
Hardware wise most of these sig cap devices were reference designs clearly heavily using reference libraries.
This isn’t bad, but the whole point of these relatively expensive (compared to say a bare 8051) devices (which is literal pennies) is to save all this R&D money.
It also isn’t bad when someone takes this same off the shelf design and put it in a slightly shittier packaging and sell it closer to cost.
This “infamous” line is silly as this microcontroller line existed nearly a decade before it became a thing in low-end/hobbyist sig cap devices. It originally was produced by a company called Anchor Chips in the late 90s and bought out by Cypress. It has been used in a lot of shit.
The word overpriced is reserved for luxury items like designer anything, sunglasses, handbags, jeans, etc. they're able to be priced that way because of the brand, with no relation to how much it cost to make. (note: the price of an item and the cost or takes to make an item are decoupled. took a lot of years of business to learn that one)