At 12:05 PM 18/09/2009, you wrote:
>Hmm. Regardless of legality, I just plain do not understand how you
>can manufacture a USB SD card reader for US $1.03 and make any profit.
>It must contain at least a USB connector, PCB, interface IC, SD
>socket, and a few caps and resistors, as well as a plastic case which
>is probably injection molded. If the total markup is 50% including all
>middlemen, that means $0.50 for the parts and assembly. If the
>assembly cost is half of this, there is only $0.25 left for the parts.
>Assuming that the cost is evenly divided among the USB connector, PCB,
>IC, and SD socket, that is 6 cents each! Also, even in China, an
>injection mold tool for a little case like this is probably $5k USD.
>If you can allocate 5 cents per unit for the plastic parts, and 2
>cents of that is the cost of the actual plastic and labor/machine time
>involved in shooting the parts, then that's only 3 cents for the
>amortized cost of the tool. That's 170 thousand units just to break
>even on this element.
>
>Sean

China and other Asian costs are low. If you don't care too much about quality
you can buy these particular things in volume for not much more than two bits.
That includes the mfr's profit.

Is cheap like borscht.

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com



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