Why are they so expensive?

I mean, there are a number of factors that can go in to pricing, such as:

employees
build quality
profit etc.
But I don't get how something smaller than a smartphone costs the same as one (here in Brazil at least.)
For the price of one grid you can basically get a smartphone which, with the help of an app, becomes a midi controller.
It just makes it too inviable here, where the minimum wage is 1/5th of the US'.
What makes them so expensive? Is it the magnets, the circuit board, what?
Keep in mind that here >$50 imports get 60% of their price added + shipping
That makes $126 (basically one GRID controller) go to around $200, converted to local currency it is basically one minimum wage of salary

Replies (2)

kkerti · November 3, 2024

The market is much smaller for such controllers like Grid, comparing them to other electronic devices, such as smathpones. Creating products at this scale is on the expensive side of manufacturing. So the largest portion of the cost is the required materials, but there is the software and years of development which gives the end price. There is no single good / easy answer to what the price is. We want to reach a wide audience with our products but also have to make the business built on top of it substainable. I am aware of the very high SA taxes, I hope one day we can be big enough to figure out a way to distribute products there locally.

Filip Hanes · November 3, 2024

It is open source hardware and software. Anybody can make it anywhere 😉