I win, I've found the most expensive joystick ever made!

[dreamkatcha]

It's the PointIt!. It's 'specialist' kit primarily aimed at people with special needs so naturally any price is reasonable... or something.

[Pyromania]

Why is it so expensive?

[dreamkatcha]

That's the mystery, I'm baffled. Maybe because charities and governments will pay any price to support differently abled people. The manufacturers can't expect end users to buy these for themselves, surely.

[redblade]

Originally Posted by Pyromania

Why is it so expensive?

Apple Developer fee is $500USD a year, the recipient of the software if it's a company also has to pay $500USD a year.
Could be low manufacturing numbers so higher costs (tooling costs, mould costs)?
Could be ongoing support with constant software/firmware updates?
Manufactured in a expensive country?
Apple based pricing strategy (How much is the consumer willing to pay) ?
Initial High cost with product price decreasing over time as mass production happens?
Monopoly of the market?
Patent Costs?

[Pyromania]

When are you buying yours?

[TCD]

The USB version feels like a budget product compared to the Bluetooth version: https://www.inclusive.com/uk/pointit-joystick.html

Seriously though: Do people just charge crazy prices because it's an Apple related product?

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by dreamkatcha

It's the PointIt!. It's 'specialist' kit primarily aimed at people with special needs so naturally any price is reasonable... or something.

Right.

Or perhaps it's because they're using an industrial joystick for high precision and reliability, rather than a disgusting 'shot quick' piece of shit from the 90's?

DigiKey: Apem 9SA50RE650 inductive switch joystick

Unit price £249.96 (£299.95 inc. VAT)
25 up £216.38 each

And a bluetooth transceiver, custom microcontroller, long life rechargeable battery and charger etc., with production quantities in the hundreds not millions. R&D costs alone could be £100,000 or more, which will be amortized over the expected unit sales.

I'm baffled. Maybe because charities and governments will pay any price to support differently abled people.

Oh yeah that's it - the government is throwing away your hard-earned tax dollars on grossly overpriced projects for 'special needs' people. Bureaucratic waste and corruption at its finest.

[Minuous]

Such items are invariably overpriced; it is one of the reasons Interton stopped making game consoles and started making hearing aids instead; the profit margins are much higher.

[petran]

Originally Posted by redblade

Apple Developer fee is $500USD a year, the recipient of the software if it's a company also has to pay $500USD a year.
Could be low manufacturing numbers so higher costs (tooling costs, mould costs)?
Could be ongoing support with constant software/firmware updates?
Manufactured in a expensive country?
Apple based pricing strategy (How much is the consumer willing to pay) ?
Initial High cost with product price decreasing over time as mass production happens?
Monopoly of the market?
Patent Costs?

At representative of such a company visited our school and prices were similar. Basically it was the low demand that made such hardware that expensive.
Difference was that guarantee for individuals was 2 years while for schools it was 5 years.

[kremiso]

reading into the pdf catalogue, does clarifies that the joystick is in reality a mouse;
a stick that helps to replicate the mouse pointer movement

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

Right.
Oh yeah that's it - the government is throwing away your hard-earned tax dollars on grossly overpriced projects for retards 'special needs' people. Bureaucratic waste and corruption at its finest.

The fact that some body claims to do charitable work doesn't mean it is immune to corruption. Headlines like this or that appear all the time.

I'm talking in general, of course, not about this particular company. Though even considering all the angles their products really seem a tad overpriced (also have learning apps for 60 pounds and a "guitar" for 1280) but it's probably more of a "ruthless capitalism" tint than some premeditated wrongdoing.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by dreamkatcha

It's 'specialist' kit primarily aimed at people with special needs so naturally any price is reasonable... or something.

Apple users? They seem to have the special need to pay far more than something is worth in order to give tithe to the cult.

[gimbal]

It's no different than wearing expensive jewelry, buying a sports car or having designer underwear. People have a need to show off their feathers, but we ain't got any so you buy them instead. But when people do it with Apple gear, all of a sudden they're part of a cult. Right.

[dreamkatcha]

Yes, charity can be a great cover for corruption or at least legal capitalism/opportunism. The threshold for qualifying as a charity is pretty low so you could give the minimum required percentage of profits to charity and be freely entitled to use the badge/registration number to earn white knight credentials. There's an independent bric-a-brac shop round the corner from me that does this. They employ the whole family, pay them good wages, get all their stock for free, all the while presenting themselves as on par with your more typical high street names. All totally legit legally, just morally dubious.

I work for a charity at the moment who support vulnerable people in sheltered housing so I'm familiar with the sort of waste that goes on when it comes to taxpayers' money. For instance, a tenant will report a faulty light to their site manager who immediately calls out an electrician to investigate. Sometimes it turns out that a bulb simply needs replacing yet we can be charged up to £250 for an inspection, travel, labour, parts etc. If the site manager had asked the right questions in the beginning and tried the most obvious fix themselves before escalating the 'problem', this money could have been saved and spent on critical care.

If the site manager is dodgy this could turn out to be a kickback deal or much more likely it's down to laziness/incompetence.

A similar situation happened with a toilet not flushing immediately after being flushed. Obviously that's not a fault, but cost a similar fee for a qualified plumber to inform us of this.

In relation to this particular joystick device, if you could buy something similar for £50 that would achieve the same goal, surely spending £900 is pure waste, especially if that money has had to be hard earned through charitable donations or government funding.

If the PointIt's USP is that it can emulate mouse movements, that's a bit of a moot point since you could couple lots of cheaper devices with an app to pull that off. This isn't even an exclusive Apple peripheral; the blurb says its platform-agnostic. It looks like supporting iOS is a new claim to fame rather than an original defining factor.