Thanks a lot Wayne. That is the major explanation I was looking for. With Elecraft it's easy to follow sales figures as everybody's proud and posts them (me too ;-)). That is more difficult with the other big manufacturers. But my assumption is they do sell lots lots more radios (take alone all those HT's although they get some big competitors fro China nowadays). Heard rumors once (not sure if that's true but could imagine) that Yaesu sold > 100.000 FT-817's in the first 8 years alone. Then they have all their other products, too. So that certainly is another volume also for buying components etc. and using their market share to literally "dictate" prices at some semi-conductors, too. Keeping fingers crossed that Elecraft will grow further and further (keeping up your good support structures, etc.) and increase their market share. Would be interesting to see an "official" market share diagram concerning amateur radio manufacturers one day.
To all of you "drifting" into a value discussion: I did not question if Elecraft products are worth their prices (some might have misinterpreted my original mail - judging from a few responses here on the reflector and quite a number of privat mails). They are, that's why I spent quite some Dollars/Euros with them, too, and intend to buy even more. ;-) 73, Olli - DH8BQA K3 #4546, KPA500 #431, KX3 # 602, KAT500 #??? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wayne Burdick" <n...@elecraft.com> To: "Oliver Dröse" <dro...@necg.de> Cc: "Eric Swartz WA6HHQ - Elecraft" <e...@elecraft.com>; "Elecraft Reflector" <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 12:43 AM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Price increase in mid Sept. Our volume is certainly less than that of the "big three." That means we can't order in quantities as large as they do, and we have less leverage at times when prices go up. And they have been going up -- almost everything gets more expensive year to year. 73, Wayne N6KR Oliver Dröse wrote: > What I have already been wondering when the last price increase was > announced 2 years ago (I believe it was) is why are prices increasing for > Elecraft gear (even if only slightly) while prices of all other > manufacturers are falling after products a certain time on the market? > > I understood that Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom start with an a bit higher price > (but > still acceptable otherwise they would not sell their radios) and after > "earning" all the development costs (and "milking" the early adaptors who > always need the newest and "best") they can and do decrease the product > prices as they only have the production costs then (including margin, > etc.). > Typical mass-production mechanisms. > > So what is different at Elecraft? No mass-production (compared to the > "big > ones")? Or is that lower prices right away and thus always only > production > costs + margin + only small uplift for development (which might level out > that of the others seen over a complete product life-cycle)? At least > those > others have to fight the same cost increases for components, etc. ----- E-Mail ist virenfrei. Von AVG überprüft - www.avg.de Version: 2012.0.2197 / Virendatenbank: 2437/5203 - Ausgabedatum: 15.08.2012 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
