Commitment to retail pricing after preorder period

As some of the hardware specs have changed prior to the manufacturing run, we wanted to confirm that currently published retail pricing for the initial mesh product line will be honored after the preorder period, specifically:

Argon $19
Boron LTE $39
Boron 2G/3G $69
Xenon $12

We of course appreciate the discounted purchase price during the preorder period, however it’s important to know the ceiling for COGS planning purposes.

Thank you!

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Hey there @SmartWorld. Good question, and thanks for asking.

The TL;DR is that pricing for Particle Mesh development kits (in the Feather form factor) will likely be increased slightly beyond the MSRP estimate provided in February due to higher than expected final bill of materials cost for the products.

However, we will also be releasing mass production variants for each of our new Mesh boards within 2018 that are intended for customers deploying products at scale with additional discounts when purchased in bulk.

Dev Kit prices

As you alluded to in your original post, there were some changes applied during the development process that resulted in some “upgrades” of the functionality of the Particle Mesh dev kits:

  • Decision to increase the available flash memory from 2MB to 4MB to relieve development constraints associated with adding additional features to Particle’s Device OS

  • Decision to upgrade the Argon coprocessor from single core to double core ESP32 in order to prevent additional delays to Particle Mesh hardware due to availability of the new chipset from Espressif

Additionally, our Particle Mesh hardware has features that are uncommon to development kits at this price point (including our previous generation of hardware) that are also designed to save cost for our customers:

  • JTAG header for programming and debugging, eliminating the need for a separate JTAG adapter accessory like what is required for the Photon and Electron

  • Li-Po connector and charge management system to add native support for battery powered applications, preventing the need for a Li-Po charging accessory like what is required for the Photon

While our goal is to make our development kits as affordable and accessible as possible, we do need to retain some margin to share with our distributors like Amazon, DigiKey, SparkFun, Adafruit, and Seeed who help us reach a much broader audience with convenient and affordable fulfillment options.

As a result, though we are exploring the possibility of building variants of these development kits that could be made available at a lower cost with fewer features, we will need to increase prices after preorder so that we can continue to sell them sustainably.

Post-preorder MSRP pricing for Particle Mesh dev kits will be updated on our preorder site next week to reflect the pricing below:

  • Xenon - $15 MSRP
  • Argon - $25 MSRP
  • Boron LTE - $49 MSRP
  • Boron 2G/3G - $69 MSRP (no change)

None of the other hardware accessories (like the Ethernet FeatherWing) are expected to change.

SoM prices (for mass production)

Since you are considering building a product with Particle mesh, it’s also important to note the following information which is included in our “Enterprise FAQs” section on the mesh preorder site:

Will Particle Mesh hardware be available in mass production form factors like the E-Series?
Yes! More details to come – Particle will release our plans for mass production form factors for Particle Mesh hardware before preorder delivery in October 2018.

Indeed, we have been hard at work on a SoM (system on module) design for the Argon, Boron, and Xenon that are cost-optimized and intended for deployment at scale. Pricing for these products will be discounted at higher volumes, and are likely the hardware SKUs you will want to implement if going to market with a commercial product.

More details about the SoMs will be provided at our very first developer conference, Spectra, on October 3rd! The keynote will be live-streamed, and tickets for in-person attendance can be purchased here:

Particle Spectra 2018 Tickets, Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at 8:00 AM | Eventbrite

I hope this information was helpful to you!

-Will

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Of course, the preorder pricing will be honored for all new orders placed before the soon-to-be-extended last preorder date of October 2. Good opportunity to get the hardware at a steep discount before then!

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For those of us who preordered back during the free shipping window in February and have been patiently biding our time for the happy day when the mesh products show up, will adding to the order now delay the arrival? I’ve been debating adding a few more xenons to my preorder.

Also, if the preorder window is being extended again, how late can we expect the products? Since placing the preorder, I’ve moved and will lose access to my old house in mid-October.

Any idea if the shipping method will have import or brokerage fees on delivery to Canada? I noticed the fine print on your cart page when I went to add a few items, and now I’m paranoid. Last time it happened to me I got a $150 fee for $100 worth of product. I normally buy my particle products from Amazon.com, and while the shipping is pretty expensive, I never get any bad surprises on delivery.

Thanks

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