›

Idea! How the OUYA team can make the upgrades to OUYA 2, OUYA 3, OUYA 4... much cheaper for people.

MagicGameStoreMagicGameStore Posts: 21Member
in General Discussion
I have a great idea how OUYA can sell their next consoles way cheaper and at the same time make more money.
There are 100s of companies, mobile manufacturers and charities that are still using dated and old mobile hardware, right?
So, what the ouya team can do is team up with some of these companies.
When a new ouya console is out, you can send it to ouya and receive the new one for probably $20.
You already got the controller, and the older ouya hardware will be sent to these other companies.
And the old hardware get put to good use, which the ouya team will make a lot of money on.
$20 bucks is nothing, right? At least it sounds like peanuts compared to $90 bucks.
So I bet at least 90% of their customers would be happy to upgrade their consoles for only $20.
That'll be a win / win situation.

Comments

  • pelyapelya Posts: 5Member
    Shipping costs will eat big chunk of the price, also they will need to test each device if it's not broken by user. Also, $100 is already a throw-away price, and I bet old Ouyas will end up running Torrent clients or small web servers in the user apartments.
  • MagicGameStoreMagicGameStore Posts: 21Member
    Well. The shipping cost isn't that much, really.
    A total price of $40 -  $50.
    Sure $99 is a steal, but if it gets even cheaper And you are supporting charity, I bet more people will do it. Besides, it's a great way for the ouya team to make some extra dollars.
    And they don't need to test the device. They need the hardware inside the console, which will be tested by these companies anyway.
    So that shouldn't be an issue at all.
  • Jack_McslayJack_Mcslay Posts: 100Member
    You have to consider what they'll do with the old ouya aftarwards. In order for it to be viable, there has to be a buyer for the old ouya model
  • MagicGameStoreMagicGameStore Posts: 21Member
    Like I've mentioned a few times, a lot of companies from poor countries where all they use is old and dated hardware, and charities such as child's play (they give old game consoles, mobiles and tablets and stuff to very sick and dying kids).
    Trust me, there are million ways for the ouya team to cash in on the dated versions of ouya.
  • noctnoct Posts: 122Member
    I'd have no problem swapping for even $50 if the old OUYA went to charity, especially if it simplified the process (order a shipping box online, pack up the OUYA, ship it back). Fantastic idea!
  • TristTrist Posts: 71Member

    @noct: funny you would mention that. When it comes to the other three consoles, usually what happens is that after a developer is finished with the dev kits they would send it back to the console manufacture. but Ouya is unique because its the dev kit and retail unit in one. The whole charity thing sparks interest though.

  • imaginaryhumanimaginaryhuman Posts: 55Member
    edited February 2013
    While some people would upgrade to Ouya 2 right away, I expect many others would wait until Ouya 3 to see if there is a significant enough improvement to warrant it. Especially if Ouya 1 is successful and people are really happy with it that might become counter productive toward seeing a need to upgrade. Kind of a catch 22. The more successful it is the less an upgrade is needed?
    Post edited by imaginaryhuman on
  • TyrusTyrus Posts: 67Member
    @imaginaryhuman agreed! I think devs are doing OUYA and themselves disservice to assume that new models coming out every year means that everyone will be expected to buy the latest each year. It's more that the OUYA in stores will always have the latest tech.
  • apLundellapLundell Posts: 35Member
    It's not just the double-shipping, but there's also the labor involved in opening all those packages, testing the consoles, wiping the drives, physically cleaning them, and repackaging them, once you factor in all that, and the percentage of units that for whatever reason are not resellable, you've got to be approaching what it just would cost Ouya to just manufacture a new unit!

    MagicGameStore said:
    Well. The shipping cost isn't that much, really.
    A total price of $40 -  $50.
    Then all they'd need is a controller!
    @apLundell   <-- Follow me!
  • BowmonsterBowmonster Posts: 4Member

    With the OUYA being a cube with removable innards, would it make sense to offer the upgrade of just the innards for $50 with free delivery as they would not need to design, engineer and produce a new case?

    As a developer I would look to keep the old PCB and hot swap for backward compatibility hardware testing as consumers will not all upgrade at the same time.

  • TyrusTyrus Posts: 67Member
    @Bowmonster why would the case be such a substantial part of the manufacturing costs? Removing the case probably wouldn't make it that much cheaper, and I don't see people reselling a loose last-gen tegra board for all that much. I can see just-the-board purchases being an option some people might want, but it seems like more and more of a niche thing the more I think about it.

    It sounds like it'd be easier to have two units than "hot swap" in your dev use case, too.
  • BowmonsterBowmonster Posts: 4Member

    The cost is not just manufacturing. If all we had to cover was the manufacturing cost we would be purchasing for considerably less then $50, the man hours used in R&D is the real cost. Take the iphone 5 for an example the production cost is said to be roughly $167 and the sale price is $649 that is mark up of over 74%. If we take this model and apply to the ouya we could look at manufacturing cost being around $36 inclusive of everything you get in the box, controller etc.



  • BowmonsterBowmonster Posts: 4Member

    How much is a raspberry pi model B?

    Answer: $35


  • apLundellapLundell Posts: 35Member
    the man hours used in R&D is the real cost.
    Ok .... so how would shipping the unit without a casing save on R&D costs?
    @apLundell   <-- Follow me!
  • jayderyujayderyu Posts: 110Member
    Ouya controller price is $50 on it's own. In a bundle we can assume the controller is $30. 
    This means that the Ouya is 60 to 70. If they offer the machine by itself with no controllers it's already cheaper. Remember the Ouya isn't $100. That's Ouya + Controller


    While I think it would be nice to charity away the Ouya. This business model likely won't work  for Boxer 8. 




    Question the paradigm you believe in
  • Aiursrage2kAiursrage2k Posts: 58Member
    In another thread people were saying how developers had no incentive to target the new hardware, but what if ouya gave say an extra 10-15% for developers who do it for the first couple of months or whatever.
  • kiwicocokiwicoco Posts: 86Member
    Bowmonster said:

    The cost is not just manufacturing. If all we had to cover was the manufacturing cost we would be purchasing for considerably less then $50, the man hours used in R&D is the real cost. Take the iphone 5 for an example the production cost is said to be roughly $167 and the sale price is $649 that is mark up of over 74%. If we take this model and apply to the ouya we could look at manufacturing cost being around $36 inclusive of everything you get in the box, controller etc.

    Manufacturing and supply costs aren't percentage-based, though. They're fixed costs regardless of what you're building or how it'll be priced.You simply can't transfer an iPhone's manufacturing costs to the Ouya by means of the same profit margin, that's just not how manufacturing works. I'm absolutely sure the Ouya's margins over manufacturing costs are much, MUCH less than the iPhone's.
  • jayderyujayderyu Posts: 110Member
    While prices are not fixed. I've noticed that bulk orders can get a discount. So if Ouya does become a success the manufacturing can be cheaper. Depending on estimates of course.
    Question the paradigm you believe in
Sign In or Register to comment.