Kynes said:
You can say it costs to manufacture as an unit less than what you obtain in the sale, but you still have to pay all the staff and marketing and promotions... You can earn money on the hardware and still lose money as a company. |
Yes, production costs, and breaking even about it, should just include materials, energy cost and wages for the workers actually involved in producing, packing, warehousing and shipping, and maybe also QA, but not any others, while R&D should be included in the initial costs and all the debt accumulated until HW prodction broke even, and that's the debt for which break even will be reached last, while other staff and marketing are additional costs, breaking even on them just from HW profit can be reached many months after break-even on HW happened, and most probably it's another reason to market the HW mostly while marketing SW too.
Anyhow, Sony's division that produces consoles and portables is still losing money despite PS3 not losing it anymore, because that division includes TVs, that made Sony lose a lot of money, and because it made many acquisitions http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-15/sony-rating-cut-to-bbb-by-fitch-on-financial-performance
