Squilliam said:
JaggedSac said:
Squilliam said:
Lets see, it has a video processor to compress the video stream (otherwise it wouldn't work in real time with USB) a high(ish) quality array microphone, a camera, a depth finder and years of software development. It would cost at minimum probably closer to $100 than $50 to make. So adding ~25% for retail margins would have us at a device which breaking even on the marginal costs of the unit itself (not the software/development costs) would cost at least $100 at retail.
Personally im expecting it to cost somewhere between $125-175 which isn't too far away from their highest priced accessory, the 120GB HDD.
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They could probably lump software/development costs in R&D and not attempt to recuperate that from the hardware sales. Voice recognition, facial recognition, etc have been being researched at M$ for a while and not in concert with this project. So there was definitely some sharing going on there.
So you have a video camera plus high quality array mic, which is currently in an EyeToy which retails for $40 bucks. So take %25 off that.
You have the infrared projector and processor. I have no idea how much that would cost.
So a you have a product that takes at minimum $30 to manufacture, plus whatever the infrared projecter and processor costs. Those could cost $70, but in bulk I doubt it. So $100 is possible in my mind.
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You forgot that it needs video compression hardware. That could easily add another $10-15 onto the bill of materials. Also the video cameras are higher quality than the Eyetoy due to the video compression hardware allowing this.
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Why would they need higher quality video than the EyeToy?
