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The BEST way to add flash storage to a MacBook Air!

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SoIsays

macrumors regular
Nov 1, 2011
235
10
This thing is worth, at most, $10 with shipping. The makers would still have a nice profit. Cheers for the people who took donated money and are trying to milk the most they can get for it.
 
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Lukewarmwinner

macrumors 6502
Oct 12, 2012
338
4
And just to sum up; these are the only ones offering this feature right? No eBay-knockoffs or cheaper alternatives?
 
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jomo25

macrumors regular
Jun 29, 2010
212
87
Since the MBA11 doesnt have SD card, it wont work for me. But I just use one of the small USB MicroSD readers in my USB port. And those cost about $10 or less.

http://www.amazon.com/ELAGO-Mobile-...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1351638819&sr=1-1

This one to my surprise will work with 64GB Micro SDXC cards. There are others that explicitly state will work for Micro SDXC also, for about $5 more.

Not flush, but very small, and if used on the same side as the magsafe plug, doesn't add any width.
 
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javisan

macrumors 6502a
Dec 4, 2006
507
674
Chicago, IL
Lukewarmwinner said:
And just to sum up; these are the only ones offering this feature right? No eBay-knockoffs or cheaper alternatives?
Click to expand...

From what I have been following, there are no knockoffs or cheaper alternatives yet.

----------

Do any of you guys know if having the SD Reader occupied permanently with this micro sd card have any negative effect on the battery life?
 
Seamaster

Seamaster

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2003
1,093
142
SoIsays said:
This thing is worth, at most, $10 with shipping. The makers would still have a nice profit. Cheers for the people who took donated money and are trying to milk the most they can get for it.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, they're selling 64GB SD cards to their backers at a price below cost — read their latest update.
 
jmgregory1

jmgregory1

macrumors 68030
Jun 24, 2010
2,876
2,809
Chicago and a few other places around the world
For those who think this should cost $0.10, you clearly have never thought of, designed and manufactured a product before. How much do you think the mold for the plastic or programming cost for CNC'ing of the aluminum cost? $0.10?

As a designer and manufacturer of any product, coming up with a selling price of your product has to take into account up-front costs, materials, overhead, production as well as factoring in the value of your invention in the first place and the perceived acceptable price the market will bare.

I'm not sure why I'm mentioning this, because I really don't expect some people to understand regardless of the reality of the situation.

I'll order one of these in the next couple of months. I don't need the extra space now and I'm hoping they start offering higher capacity and faster micro sd cards soon.
 
bigjnyc

bigjnyc

macrumors 604
Apr 10, 2008
6,998
4,602
This is a nice solution for extra storage, very nice idea and implementation... Would be even more awesome if a 128gb Micro SD was available... very expensive but nice to have.
 
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Bollebep

macrumors newbie
Jun 19, 2012
12
0
Netherlands
I've been following this solution for a while now... quite interesting. Quite expensive yes, but it's a pretty cool solution. You can easily add GB's this way and it looks good! I am waiting on first deliveries though before I make up my mind wether or not to buy:)
 
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paymonGT

macrumors member
Mar 26, 2009
37
0
Not sure why people are bashing their price.
They developed, from scratch, a novel and useful device. They should be compensated accordingly.
 
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asting

macrumors 6502
Jun 10, 2012
378
3
jmgregory1 said:
For those who think this should cost $0.10, you clearly have never thought of, designed and manufactured a product before. How much do you think the mold for the plastic or programming cost for CNC'ing of the aluminum cost? $0.10?

As a designer and manufacturer of any product, coming up with a selling price of your product has to take into account up-front costs, materials, overhead, production as well as factoring in the value of your invention in the first place and the perceived acceptable price the market will bare.

I'm not sure why I'm mentioning this, because I really don't expect some people to understand regardless of the reality of the situation.

I'll order one of these in the next couple of months. I don't need the extra space now and I'm hoping they start offering higher capacity and faster micro sd cards soon.
Click to expand...

Throw in some words like overhead, human management, synergy... Yeah that sounds good. Now it seems this piece of plastic is worth $35.


On a more realistic note perhaps the $35 seemed reasonable with their original estimate for order numbers, which was blown out of the water. By spreading those fixed costs over thousands of units they're a small part of the price now. Hell, they would probably make more if they sold them for $10-20 as it would increase their total revenue, with very little increase in cost (mostly fixed costs as you noted).
But this is a mac product, so why not overcharge?
 
jmgregory1

jmgregory1

macrumors 68030
Jun 24, 2010
2,876
2,809
Chicago and a few other places around the world
asting said:
Throw in some words like overhead, human management, synergy... Yeah that sounds good. Now it seems this piece of plastic is worth $35.


On a more realistic note perhaps the $35 seemed reasonable with their original estimate for order numbers, which was blown out of the water. By spreading those fixed costs over thousands of units they're a small part of the price now. Hell, they would probably make more if they sold them for $10-20 as it would increase their total revenue, with very little increase in cost (mostly fixed costs as you noted).
But this is a mac product, so why not overcharge?
Click to expand...

So, when you go to buy an ice cream cone, do you tell the ice cream shop that because the cost to produce the ice cream in such huge volumes drives down the cost, they should sell you a cone for $0.10 (because it only costs $0.05 per serving)?

The beauty of a free market is any company can produce and sell a product for whatever the market will bare. I'm guessing, but could be wrong, that part of the pricing strategy also includes factoring in distributors and retailers into the mix. So take the $35 and factor in a 65% margin for the retailer. That brings down the cost to $12.25 and beyond that the manufacturer needs to factor in discounts, extended payment terms, warehousing allowances as well as an additional 25% discount to cover a distributor margin into the price. So the real selling price in volume to retailers could be $9 or less.

Further, even if they under calculated what the real uptake would be, it's still going to be a fairly low number because they're only going to get a small percentage of mac users to buy, overall, so the real numbers they see profit wise may be small (relatively speaking).
 
Ryan T.

Ryan T.

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2005
599
27
Rochester, NY
Anyone who is bashing their price should look into the costs of having custom fabrication like this done on a (fairly) small basis. It is exceedingly expensive. While I'm sure they're making some money at $35/ea (shipped to the US mind you), this is not like a big company that has the lines to make these themselves for .10 a piece.
 
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asting

macrumors 6502
Jun 10, 2012
378
3
jmgregory1 said:
So, when you go to buy an ice cream cone, do you tell the ice cream shop that because the cost to produce the ice cream in such huge volumes drives down the cost, they should sell you a cone for $0.10 (because it only costs $0.05 per serving)?

The beauty of a free market is any company can produce and sell a product for whatever the market will bare. I'm guessing, but could be wrong, that part of the pricing strategy also includes factoring in distributors and retailers into the mix. So take the $35 and factor in a 65% margin for the retailer. That brings down the cost to $12.25 and beyond that the manufacturer needs to factor in discounts, extended payment terms, warehousing allowances as well as an additional 25% discount to cover a distributor margin into the price. So the real selling price in volume to retailers could be $9 or less.

Further, even if they under calculated what the real uptake would be, it's still going to be a fairly low number because they're only going to get a small percentage of mac users to buy, overall, so the real numbers they see profit wise may be small (relatively speaking).
Click to expand...
Aren't they selling directly to the consumers, and not through retail at this point?

Also, it's true not many people will buy them. It is a free market so I won't. If the price was lower they would have much larger quantities sold, so they can afford to make less per unit.
 
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Lifequest

macrumors regular
Feb 9, 2010
109
0
Good idea however, it's not comparable to an internal SSD and very expensive.


High quality micro SD read/write 45MB/s that's about 10 times slower than your internal SSD (400MB-500MB/s).

SanDisk released a 95MB/s micro SD card version but it's $99 for 16GB. You're looking at $135 for 16GB addition with speeds 4 times slower than internal SSD.

A USB 3.0 flash stick is about $60 for 16GB.

Liking the options out there even if it is premium.
 
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ABuNeNe

macrumors newbie
Nov 1, 2012
3
0
I would say either save up and upgrade your SSD to higher capacity or get a USB 3.0 1TB drive.

Doing this is paying money to get a little more space but sucky performance.
 
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Lukewarmwinner

macrumors 6502
Oct 12, 2012
338
4
ABuNeNe said:
I would say either save up and upgrade your SSD to higher capacity or get a USB 3.0 1TB drive.

Doing this is paying money to get a little more space but sucky performance.
Click to expand...

But you'll get a "kinda internal SSD" for less. I'm not saying it's "the best solution" but so far the only integrated which is not a SSD..
 
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MacConverted

macrumors newbie
Jul 6, 2010
2
0
Macbook Air 11"

so, just read all the threads and that's definitely promising but what do you do when you own a mac Air 11" which doesn't have an sd slot?

Also, been recommended today to get dropbox, but it doesn't look like you can install dropbox on the mac...

Does anyone has a solution for mac Air 11" pls?

Cheers :)
 
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