Intrinsic said:
You really believe that? For the 3DS I could even let that go cause tehere are a lot of custom parts in there. But for the Switch? Not a achance in hell. Further more "Nintendo's finacials" has nothing to do with the true cost of manufacuring. As I said they could even be factoring in marketing costs or some sort of R&D made up charge they tack onto every unit sold true value. That doesn't mean the actual materials that it cost to make the hardware donesn't actually cost less. And this isn't even like we are talking about some crazy cutting edge tech here using one off components..... everything in the switch exists in smartphones or tablets or some other mass production device. Gyroscopes, IR or whatever.... Like how can you be fully aware that tablets with a camera, 2 - 4GB of ram, an SOC, wifi, internal storage and a 720p screen exist that costs around $50 at retail and still somehow believe that the NS cost Nintendo more than $250 to make? Like I don't even understand how that is possible. But as always lets just agree to disagree. |
Just because the tablet you described costing so little (though I have never seen a tablet with 4GB of RAM costing $50; in fact, the only ones with 2GB that I saw were refurbished models at a liquidation centre) does not indicate much for the cost of the Switch. Not all components are built equally or priced equally. For example, a 720P AMOLED (used in some early-2010s Samsung products) costs way more than an IPS 720P display (used in Switch) which in turn costs way more than a 720P TN panel (and there are even variations by manufacturers between each type). Another example is the SOC, the SOCs in those cheaper are typically provided by Chinese companies like MediaTek; these SOCs are nowhere near as powerful as a Tegra, not to mention MediaTek operates on far lower margins than Nvidia (ie Nvidia is likely to charge more for its products). The 3DS, which contained far more older components (many of the 3DS's components including its SOC came from the mid-2000s whereas many of the things in the Switch come from 2015, like its SOC and WiFi chip) and yet it was selling at a loss when Nintendo slashed the price to $170 (btw companies do not factor in R&D cost, marketing cost, shipping cost when saying if a device is selling at a loss or profit; it is typically done by adding price - cost of materials - cost of manufacturing - Licensing costs/royalty costs); there is no way Switch in 2017 cost less than 3DS in 2011 to make. With that being said though, the cost of electronics depreciates as you sell in high volumes, so the cost of the Switch might have dropped at this point (again nowhere near $50 and most likely not even in the $100s). The 3DS, for example, was no longer selling at a loss by the summer of 2012 (most likely due to the being able to sell in high volumes previously).
