Mavic Air 2 Teardown - Parts Cost About $135

[WithTheBirds]

I completely agree with the last part of your post but it can take quite a bit of skill and knowledge to solder, program and properly tune a quad. Especially when you get into designing and 3D printing parts for it. All the orange TPU parts on this 4" quad (GPS mount, 2 - antenna mounts, motors guards) I designed and printed. It takes some skill.

My assertion was qualified, I stand by it. With the currently available components a drone can be built with very little specialist skills or knowledge.

Obviously the sky is the limit for those with higher levels of specialist competence.

I am no stranger to cad/cam and routinely develop custom components, additive manufacture and CNC machining my own designs in house.

So yes I agree, the time investment and outlay can be very significant. That was my point. DJI is doing a lot more than buying in existing components and slapping them together.

To suggest they might be “gouging” simply looking at a bill of materials is asinine.

 

[seapack]

It is amusing to see the tech-centric comments on this topic. In any capitalist economy you build something for the least possible cost and sell it for what the market will bear. If you are lucky enough to have a positive margin, that is your reward for risking your capital. This is complicated when dealing with companies that may be government supported, but the principle is largely the same. Cost has nothing to do with price. Period.

 

[adcimagery]

This isn't really a surprise. In almost every business, the raw materials/COGS is anywhere from 10% to 50% of the actual sales price - everyone's covered the complexity of manufacturing and testing, but don't forget the hundred other costs. Website and software development, marketing, accounting, customer service, warranty claims, legal compliance, the list goes on - it's particularly notable for a company like DJI, who's major product is only replaced infrequently. Their lifetime customer value might literally be that 1 drone sale.

 

[Kyle76]

Watch a few episodes of Shark Tank and see the markups for even startup companies who haven’t gotten to economies of scale. A product that costs $1.75 to make retails for $10 per item, and that includes manufacturing costs. The MA2 cost of materials is not far-fetched at all.

 

[mschaffer66]

It blows my mind how many people don't understand how much more there is to bringing a product to market beyond the cost of raw materials.

 

[RayOZ]

This discussion is still going. I think of you are a bit of a cheapskate, you would think everyone is price gouging.
If people want to buy a drone closer to cost price, there are plenty of knock-off ones around.
But there are intrinsic value to buying from better known large companies like DJI. For one thing, there’s the warranty. If there’s a faulty batch, they’ll have to replace them for free, so the cost of materials just doubled, excluding the extra cost of shipping.
Then there’s the firmware updates where bugs are fixed or new features added.
All these have to be taken into account when they launch. They can’t increase the price later, because they realized there are making a loss.
And as with the case of Samsung Note 7, a whole production model went up in flames, literally and figuratively. There’s no recouping of cost there, so extra profit from other models have to make up for it. Companies need to take these things into account too.

 

[pinballwiz86]

This one production line alone could cost tens of millions of dollars to design, construct, program and operate.

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Wow that production line was high tech. Blew me away.

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

Slghtly off topic, but does anyone know of a diagram which shows placement of the various modules within the fuselage? I am curious about the whereabouts of the GPS module, antenae, etc. Is it safe to mount anything on the hull in front of the battery compartment, for instance?