Do you think they are taking advantage of the supply global silicon supply issue and price gouging or is this a sign of what’s to come. From what I can tell, this is the Boron with Antenna only and not the “kit”. I always liked Adafruit and often use their hardware for prototyping but was shocked in seeing this. Looks like Store.particle.io still has it in stock for the $59. Sure hope it stays that way. If it goes to $89 system wide, I’ll definitely be reconsidering what platform I use going forward.
There is a worldwide shortage of the u-blox Sara-410 modem with potential lead times of several months. Orders placed now will potentially not be shipped till the end of the year. So rule of supply and demand, prices go up.
But if you need them, you’ll have to pay for them.
So price gouging by Adafruit it is then… This practice is disappointing to see from a company like Adafruit but hopefully not a long term move by them. (i.e. they correct back to the $59 price point once the demand subsides a bit and does not continue into 2022).
OEMs generally like to maintain pricing consistency and predictability within their channels (to the extent that the law allows). I don’t know, did Adafruit’s cost increase to warrant a 50% premium?
Seems like these price increases would promote the formation of a gray market- to the detriment of the integrity of the sales channel.
Digi-Key shows “retail/MSRP” pricing, but as expected, they are out of stock.
Particle is in the business of recurring revenue. Higher hardware costs reduces the velocity of this revenue. Missing X months of recurring revenue can never be “made up”. Increased hardware pricing adds friction to adoption.
What’s going to happen when production begins to come back and the part is on allocation? Would an OEM look differently at a distributor that increased their prices in the midst of a shortage?
I am speaking for myself. I have no fiduciary interest or relationship with any of the above companies, other than being a happy customer of all of them.
