Continuing the discussion from Pimax Crystal - status, updates and fixes (Part 1) - #2140 by Djonko.
Previous discussions:
Page two ownage!
I love my crystal, just wish it was lighter.
The influencers whine, but its the best headset on the market right now. I dont see anything interesting until beyond and or magnex but even then those have drawbacks too.
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How long does it usually take for Pimax to ship after youâve paid the balance?
You can just drive to orlando and pick it up!
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iirc Pimax say about 3 weeks.
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Itâs laughable that people still use BOM to estimate the real cost of a device.
Itâs almost like you see the beef in a supermarket is selling for $8 a pound, then estimate restaurantsâ cost is $8. Then you will be angry that they are selling the steak dishes at $80 each.
Yeah, like the Pimaxâs CEO is not getting any pay. Everyone from Pimax we see here are just doing volunteering jobs. Somehow all the roadshows are free. And the factory in Shanghai are totally tax-free and rent-free and they only use slaves to make those headsets. Only all the above situations are satisfied, then you will get the cost down to $500.
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Iâm laughing that youâre laughing.
The BOM stands for Bill of Materials. No one asked what people were getting paid or profit margins. If you read my posts from the past 12 months Iâve said Pimax running costs which include 300 people at average Chinese production worker pay come to around $6million a year. Divide 6 million by $1100 or what ever the total costs of Crystal comes to and you see how many units Pimax have to sell to break even - 5500 units roughly. Yes not all 300 employees are producing Crystals many of them could be assembling Portal at much lower profit margins.
Someone asked would Pimax sell Crystal without controllers and the answer is imo no because the controllers are so cheap relative term to the rest of the BOM itâs pretty pointless as savings are so small.
Iâm not pretending to know Pimaxes exact financials Iâm guessing on numbers you can research for yourself and then relay the information here. Maybe we can laugh together.
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Well yes Pimax have been getting all this for free because Pimax keep selling part of their business every 3 years. Last year they got $30 million. Pimax do not run on profit they exist by spending the money they raised by investors.
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Bit of an embarrassing comment, donât you think?
What idiot would equate a BOM to a productâs price?
The restaurant example in itself is quite obviously moronic but I guess you know close to nothing about how a restaurant would do their pricing in the first place.
You"d be surprised. Some of the Articles on Apple Vision Pro bom proposed over or around 100% profit with the then est $3000 price tag. lol
But that wasnât taking into consideration of things like internal defect ppm etc⌠(Which was revealed to be quite high)
You can safely triple or quadruple that number as you are only accounting for Labor cost in that crude P&L.
And additionally do consider Kevin Henderson - I mean a former NASA guy with that pedigree doesnât come cheap, does he? 
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Does he still work for Pimax?
But yeah I think Iâm being conservative in many areas. Iâm sure there are some at Pimax in it for the passion and could get by on two bowls of rice a day.
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While still ignoring revenue from other product lines; that costs are being reduced in components and potentially labor due to better processes.
However it is easier to use a narrow fov focus then exploring the full fov available.
How many Apple Vision Pros would need to be sold to keep Apple a float? Answer? Really 0 to just 1 as Apple has many product skus.
That being said could pimax be in a rough spot? Sure like most tech companies these days. Only time will show if a company survives the long game.
Pimax is not as diverse as other big companies but do have a diverse number of products that can help carry them that now have lower costs since their own product launches.
Like any other company they will sink or swim.
Letâs keep things generalized and on topic. This is supposed to be on the Crystal experiences.
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Even if 1 employee took 1 day to assemble 1 Cystal then that in itself would only aquate to $30. Add $30 for running cost. Total $60. $60 x 300 x 340 = 6.12 million. Thatâs not a lot on a $1600 heaset with a BOM of only $500.
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More crystal talk and less accounting talk lol.
I played some skyrim and some creed boxing.
Skyrim looks better than it ever has in vr but I weep everytime I have to lean over to pick something up and my head feels like its going to fall off⌠and creed was super cringe to play with a kiloton on my head and primitive inside out tracking.
Even with anti fog whipes my prescription glasses still fog up⌠I cant wait until Vrock inserts get hereâŚi tend to have better luck with inserts as they are closer to electronics and heat up better than dorky vr glasses (closer to my eye) preventing fogging
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@Atmos
If you know so well about the labor cost, about the cost of keeping a factory and all the employees running, then why you didnât mention it before ? All the posts I saw recently were about BOM of $500.
If someone is honestly trying to estimate the cost of a device, BOM is a bad measure. This is my whole point. It only reflects the cost of silicon chips and raw material. It doesnât take the account of researching, advertising, manufacturing, shipping and taxing. Any savvy person knows the BOM only occupies a small part of the productâs cost.
You cannot really use only total salary to judge a productâs break even point. Take Crystal as the example, you have to take the account of the total development cost over the years, a factoryâs running cost, and you have to estimate the future requirement of service and development. Itâs not like they can sell a Crystal headset and be done with it. They still need to support the product for years to come. And that also need to count. The total salary is , once again, part of the price.
Well, you. Because you guys kept talking about BOM and seems you are not aware of anything else. I laughed at you because it seems to me all you guys ever cared was BOM.
To make people understand BOM cannot be the measure, I had to use an example that even a moron would understand. If you know so well about restaurant and its pricing, well, please apply that knowledge to Pimax Crystal. Donât just keep saying âthe BOM is only $500â⌠blah, blah, blah.
I guest you mean they got investment from VC, right ? You think VCâs investments are free money, that Pimax can just spend it like they donât need to pay back? On the contrary, those money should actually add to the cost of Crystal, because the VCs are expecting Pimax to pay them back with interests.
Once again, this is an overly simplified estimate and it doesnât take account of many other costs.
I didnât. But this conversation stops here, I am not with you further.
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We are open to receiving both constructive criticism and compliments about the Crystal headset. Letâs shift our focus away from accounting, labor costs, BOM, and other related topics and instead concentrate on discussing the headset itself.
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