[sdiy] Secrets [Was: Discrete OTA]

[Richard Wentk]

Compiler - depends on the platform. You can build (say) VSTs with free tools. It's a huge pain in the ass, but it is possible. 

Xcode on the Mac is free. Mingw on Windows is free. There are various free toolchains on Linux.

Development platform - if you're a one-man band, you probably have a PC or Mac already. If you're doing something hardware specific - then yes, that will cost money. But hardware-specific DSP is a specialised semi-industrial niche, and not typical of general software development.

Developers - likewise, you won't count your time as a one-man band. But if you're hiring outsiders, good DSP or embedded coders are going to cost a lot more than £10/hr. So it depends...

The hidden costs if you're selling software are website design, transaction processing, and - for some projects - copy protection.

The obvious downsides are piracy and the fact that niche hardware can carry much higher margins.

The upside is the low spare-time development cost, the fact that you don't have to buy or manage stock or inventory (or pay anyone to do it for you - or manage a complete assembly solution), and the reassuring absence of shipping and customs charges. 

Basically making a living from hardware requires much more capital up front. But for the right projects it can pay better than niche software.

If you want to make a crap load of money, don't build synth hardware - build high-end hifi, spend money on making a design that looks esoteric and expensive, include some marketing nonsense about exotic components, and sell it for a ridiculous mark-up.

Richard

On 12 Apr 2014, at 18:58, Paul Maddox <yo at vacoloco.net> wrote:

> 
> 
>> On 11 April 2014 01:36, Neil Johnson <neil.johnson71 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Even if, as I have done above, we assume that human time is free,
>>> hardware development costs real money out of your pocket.  Software
>>> development doesn't.
>> It doesn't _now_.
> sorry, I disagree with both of you.
> Software development *does* cost money
> lets look at the cost of a compiler, a good one can be £2000 per seat.
> So say you have two developers, there's £4K.
> Next you'll need a couple of development platforms, say £1K a piece.
> Now it's going to take time for the software developers to get up to speed on your platform and the task at hand, good programmers say two weeks.
> based on £10 an hour, two developers, 40 hours a week, there's another £1600.
> 
> Say the work takes 3 months, including integration and test, that's £9600.
> 
> so, cost of your software development - £17200.
> 
> remind me of how this is "zero cost" for software development.
> 
> Software isn't zero cost, but it has a much lower "direct" cost.
> Where software does score is that to reproduce it requires almost zero cost.
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
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