Let's look at the USB miners. if cost is $1.5 /GH, and they have .33 GH, then their cost is $.5. At .1 btc per USB, the revenue is ($12.5-.5= $12). $12 is 96% of $12.5.
Is my math right? 96% profit margin (ignoring shipping) on the USBs at .1 btc?
How many did they sell at 2 btc and 1 btc?
And if the blades are $15 to make, and sell for 4 btc ($500), then they have a profit margin of 97%.
I think my math must be wrong somewhere...
If all of this is true (I am doubting it myself), then even if they match Cointerra's vaporware prices of $3/GH, then they are still 50% profit margin. The cost for Gen 2 might be less, as well.
No wonder FC is selling hardware instead of mining with it. Mining isn't profitable enough!
I very much doubt that AM can produce a USB miner for 50 cents.
Here's one attempt to go through the components on the USB Block Erupter and looking up the part codes on Digikey:
Top left: NXP Semiconductor 74HC574 (octal D-type flip-flop), about 0.12 USD
Top middle: Atmel ATTiny2313 (8 bit microcontroller), about 0.72 USD
Top right: Silicon Laboratories CP2102 (USB to UART interface), about 2.30 USD
Bottom right: Alpha & Omega Semiconductor AOZ1021 (3A synchronous buck regulator), about 0.50 USD
So that's $3.64 for the non-ASIC ICs only. Add to that: Block Erupter chip, PCB, heatsink, USB connector. Not sure what these parts cost, but I'd say they add up to at least an additional $1.36, which brings up the total marginal cost to $5, or $15/GH - ie. 10 times the $1.5/GH figure.
That's a 60% profit margin.