Blog - DreamLover Laboratories

Friends, though we're planning to start sending out units within a month or so, it appears there will be some latency issues with some components.

It wasn't long ago that our microcontrollers disappeared from all online shops; fortunately we were able to get a batch directly from the manufacturer. These are a bit special due to the features required by our product (self reprogramming etc)

We just spoke to the RF manufacturer, who told us that the RF modules now have a wait time of 6-8 weeks. They are saving enough parts for us to create a few tens of units, thanks to prior arrangements and the fact that we've built a semi-friendly relationship. However this will affect product availability in the short term.

They are saying their lead times depend on RF circuitry lead times. Both the main chip and some passive components (precision stuff, necessary for antenna impedance matching etc) have a wait time of 18-22 weeks for big orders.

They explained that the ipod, ipad and android phones are selling so fast that a few companies have bought out all the stock for many of the parts used. Some manufacturers even refused the million dollar orders that these businesses were giving them, because they didn't want their latency to go sky high and lose other clients.

Seems the whole world is out of parts right now; according to them this is something that happens in cycles (our luck as usual).

Unfortunately the RF stuff is really critical, the product is designed around it, and there are all manner of FCC issues, so those parts can't come from another vendor...

How this affects us... We will need to put as much cash in the bank as fast as possible when we start selling, so we can put in as big an order as possible with them and ensure that the lead time doesn't go to waste and that supply doesn't get interrupted more than once (or ever, ideally, if we can pull that off). Hopefully the delay given by component lead times will coincide with the "dead time" where we're setting up fulfillment and sending stuff through customs.

Just another hassle in dealing with hardware!

We've spent the last two years slowly crawling up to the top of this roller coaster, and now looking down it looks like the tracks have holes...

So as we try to carefully plan our orders, we're keeping our fingers crossed and preparing for a rough ride!!

By slavecowie at 2010-08-24 02:22:53 Reply

i can understand it is very difficult to price a product. I do think they are having a pretty good overview from the direct cost involved, but that is the easy part, but what do you do with the indirect cost like the development time (2 years times 2 persons, by the sound of it), setup, investments, over how many units do you want spread the cost.....do you want to earn back your money over the first 1000 units or do you want spread the cost over many years. These are all decisions you do want to take easy and take a gamble on publishing the wrong cost.

I am just as you guys very interesting what the cost is going to be, but is already unique enough we are allowed to be observers from the r&d process and i would like to thank Mrs&mr dreamLover (that is what i would like to know, who are they :) ) for that!! Don't forget normally you would not be part of this journey!!

give them time and let let them go through the process as they see needed.

humble regards,
slave cowie
(Owned by Mistress Ali)

By dreamloverlabs at 2010-08-24 05:36:22 Reply

Thanks Cowie! :)

By lance_lake at 2010-08-24 08:50:58 Reply

I understand. Really I do. The issue is that for some of us, we actually have to save up to get this thing. If they would give us a goal to save for, it wouldn't be so bad. But being someone who wants to get one of the early ones (mainly because I feel I'm part of the team even though my time as forum moderator was a short one), I have no idea if the $350 I have allocated for it is now going to be enough.

If they would just say, "It's not going to cost more then XX" (even if that XX is 1,000), it will allow me to take a breath and say, "Ok. That's what I need to put aside to make sure I get one of the first ones."

I don't see that as an unreasonable request. Do you?

By dreamloverlabs at 2010-08-24 09:28:44 Reply

It is not an unreasonable request. We're happy people like our product so much that they are so insistent to know about release and pricing. However, the fact that our R&D is public must not reduce our ability to think things through and do the necessary research before committing to critical business policies.

First of all our costs are still not all taken into account especially EMC testing. If we fail that we're set back several grands (each trial is paid separately). Also, we've just had 2 unforeseen mold changes. The overlays had to be redone.

Secondly, we're trying to figure out the demand curve and other marketing stuff, some folks are helping us with this, it's very difficult because the product is very unique.

Third, and regardless of the above, it's likely price will be higher in the beginning due to our limited ability to supply the product and the need to get cashflow to get in line to buy components and pay for automated assembly. So when we talk about pricing it's probably more accurate to talk about a curve than a single value. We think that that curve will *eventually* settle at some point between the values you have mentioned. But how fast it will do so, or where it will start, and how to decide this, we still don't know. When we do know, we promise to tell you immediately.

By lance_lake at 2010-08-24 12:29:17 Reply

Let me ask this a different way...

If I save up $800, would that be enough to pay for it (and perhaps a bit left over)? What is the top level that you can't see it costing more then?

I would suspect that it would cost less then $20,000 for a unit (if you can't even hit it in that price range, then there is something seriously wrong here).

At what point would you start to feel that it's reasonable to estimate (not quote, but estimate) the highest it would cost? 10,000? 5,000? 1,000? 500? 250?

Urgent: please stop buying ipads :)

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