Well, Ten Tec had to stop selling the Omni+ nearly
a year ahead of when the Orion may be shipped. Why?
Because they could no longer afford to; the cost was way
too high for reasonable profit at all at the "established" selling
price. So it was withdrawn.
BTW, when I was in the electronics business in Silicon Valley,
a semiconductor firm could not grow unless the component
parts were sold for between five and six times "prime" cost:
materials, assemble, packaging, shipping. The added
dollars paid for on going product family engineering, all
the "office" overhead, g&a, and profit. And that profit better
be there along with steadily increasing sales dollars, else
you would never be able to issue your IPO, or if public,
your stock price would plummet! If you could only get
two or three times prime cost for the product, you were
on the way to going out of business, and sooner than
you might have believed! Silicon Valley is littered with
the remains/hulks of many firms that did just exactly that,
or ultimately, because of "lost" semi fab processes, could
not deliver the product promised and sold already!
If a firm is making its way along with a good profit margin,
you can bet the CEO himself is keeping an eagle eye
and certainly veto power over what the Product Manager
believes ought to be the selling price. It is the CEO's
ultimate responsibility to make a continuing/growing
profit, and a good one these days.
73, Jim KH7M
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