Why are OLED dive computers so expensive?

[formula1mb@aol.com]

First of all I realize new technology costs money and that OLED dive computers/bottom timers will cost more than a standard computer for some time to come. However I'm wondering if the markup is way too excessive and if so, how long before either all computers use OLED screens or they become somewhat reasonably priced?

This isn't just some rant but recently a guy at work with lung problems came in and he was using an oximeter to check his oxygen levels. Being a gadget guy, I took a look at it and tried it out and was like----wow, this thing has a color OLED screen, very cool! I thought it must've been some really high end medical device costing a couple hundred but the co-worker told me it only costs $49 at Walgreens. So after that, I started looking around and there are a ton of OLED oximeters for medical use for well under a hundred for the whole unit, not just a bare screen. Even saw one on Costco, Costco - Deluxe Pulse Oximeter by Veridian Healthcare® . Not bad for $29, color OLED screen plus it gives you both your blood O2 level and pulse rate.

Now with a dive computer you obviously need some extra sensors, depth sensor, temperature, maybe faster processor to run everything, pressure resistant housing etc. but having hard time understanding how the screen itself now can add a couple hundred bucks to the price?

Just thought I'd share and found it interesting. I personally have a XEN I bought recently and love it so far and prices are going down but judging by the price of other items with OLED screens, hopefully won't be long before almost all computers use them.


Robert

 

[Insta-Gator]

Yeah, it's kind of like HD TVs. There was a time when you couldn't touch one for less than $3,000. Now they're everywhere and cost less than the old ginormous CRT TVs in the day. So, time and market pressure will effect the change eventually. I suspect many manufacturers are waiting for the first one to jump the shark and offer the OLED option for an extra $50.00. Then the flood gates will open and everything will be OLED. I look forward to that.

 

[Hatul]

Unlike consumer goods, scuba gear has a small market, so it's going to a while before OLED displays come down in price.

 

[Jak Crow]

The OLED screen has no significant effect on the price except on a "because they can" level. You can get a cellphone with a full color superAMOLED screen for chump change compared to what atomic is charging for its 4? color computer.

 

[Mod63]

There are even some non-OELD dive computers that cost more than one with an OLED display...

 

[fjpatrum]

And therein lies the issue... what is reasonable pricing to make up for R&D? The simple answer is "what the market will bear". The correct answer, and one I don't think dive manufacturers have realized, is "the price that maximizes units and profit". Can that $1000 computer be sold for $500? I believe many more units will sell (at a profit still) if they do drop prices like that, but I doubt it will happen. I don't know if it's actually possible to develop the "high end" computers for that low cost, but I suspect it is. The internals of most of the computers aren't significantly different (within a specific manufacturer's various lines) but the costs definitely are. There are different price points because different people think differently about cost. Some value the higher dollar items simply because of the higher price tag. Others, like me, look for the best features for a given budget. OLED just happens to be the "new" feature and as such is only on the expensive computers. There's really no other reason than that.

 

[formula1mb@aol.com]

I wonder if any dive computer manufacturers ever thought of offering an upgrade deal where you send in your old computer and they upgrade the screen to oled for x dollars? I know Shearwater did that with their high end computers. Might be a good way for them to make some money off the older computers out there, esp for someone who's happy with it and won't be buying a whole new computer otherwise.

 

[Tigerman]

The OLED screen has no significant effect on the price except on a "because they can" level. You can get a cellphone with a full color superAMOLED screen for chump change compared to what atomic is charging for its 4? color computer.

Maybe its chump change compared to what the color screen dive computers goes for, but its definetly not chump change compared to the rest of the cellphone market. The fanciest screens is reserved for the high-end phones. They might also be cheap with all the different subscription plans and crap, but buy one without it and itll cost.. Just because they give it to you for 10 bucks if you "only committ to this subscription for 18 months" doesnt mean the phone cost 10 bucks
Its all about supply and demand and lets face it, although we have come to accept that we have to change cellphones every 2nd year even if we buy a high-end one, were fortunately not quite in the same place with dive gear..

 

[RonR]

The market is pretty good at driving down costs if it's possible to do so. As a designer of an OLED computer, I can tell you that if we could afford to offer it at a lower price, we would do so in a heartbeat. But no realistic increase in volume of sales would have much effect on our costs. I can give you the reasons, including the big killer, which is the realities of scale in the electronics and diving markets:
1) First, not all OLED screens are created equal or are equally expensive. Passive matrix OLED screens cost less, but are typically single color displays. The oximeter the original poster linked to appears to be passive matrix.
2) Active matrix (AMOLED) screens are typically full color, are very expensive compared to other displays and have few manufacturers, partly because the processes have had quite low yields. The entire industry is in the process of retooling now to improve this, and costs will (we hope) come down, but we are talking a few years here. LCD televisions and computer monitors went through a similar process- costs came down when manufacturing processes improved, not when manufacturers stopped being greedy.
3) The one manufacturer that seems to have the best process is using most of their production in their own products, and will not talk to customers who won't guarantee purchases of 200,000 per month or more. For comparison, PADI says they certified about 75,000 divers per month in 2010- worldwide.
4) The consumer products you see with OLED or AMOLED screens at lower prices are either large volume products (almost anything is far larger volume than diving) and/ or are, like cellphones, subsidized by subscription charges that mask the true cost of the hardware.

Most divers have no sense of how tiny the diving market is. If a dive computer were able to capture 100% of the market, it would still be an infinitesimally tiny blip- utterly invisible- in the consumer electronics world. Anything you see in a mass market retailer is being sold at volumes that dwarf the biggest selling products in diving. The unit cost to manufacture consumer electronics is therefore much, much less. Consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers can operate off far thinner profit margins than diving (ask your LDS if they could keep the doors open on a 5-15% markup) because they can have volumes in the hundreds of thousands or millions, even for specialized products like oximeters.

Apart from the screens, it takes a lot more software development and hardware to run a full color display, and those costs must be amortized over a very small production run and with a highly dispersed distribution. Producing sophisticated electronic devices at this scale is very, very expensive. I can guarantee you that the % profit margin on the typical cheap segment based display dive computers is bigger than on Atomic's Cobalt- or any of the other AMOLED computers.

Comparing costs in the diving market to consumer electronics is just not going to tell you anything useful. I wish it were not so, but unless we can convince as many people to dive as watch TV, we are in a small market, and sophisticated design will be expensive.

 

[Jak Crow]

What it's going to tell you is that a limited color OLED screen that's considered 10 year old technology isn't going to be a big cost factor in the price of something like this, but it certainly lets a vendor charge more over the "wow!"-factor. That's not to say the computer isn't going to be expensive, since sophisticated dive computers are generally bloody expensive regardless of what kind of screen they have.