Originally Posted by christexaport

Is this thread still alive? Has no one noticed none of the materials costs cover copyright, royalties, licensing, or distribution? If you expect retail prices to closely match the materials costs, you ignore the manufacturing, R&D, marketing, logistics, and warranty departments. All of those divisions are manned by people, humans earning a living. How much are those paychecks supposed to be? How do you pay for the three years of development research that went into the N900, iPhone, or other high end devices with a lower profit margin, and from a device that will be lucky to sell 1,000,000 individual units?

Case in point is a restaurant. Does the "Fall Off The Bone Rib Dinner" really cost $18.95? Or are there other costs to recover besides the ingredients?