@apujanata, The wireless part is relatively cheap as it relies on Bluetooth - a rather cheap thing to implement these days with the number of Bluetooth devices.
A third party could use a lower quality sensor or they could just develop their own cheaper sensor though different means.
There would be low R&D costs due to the fact that they would be basically copying what Nintendo did.
Nintendo generally relies on other manufacturers for the basic parts and the economic size advantage would not have a large effect when a 3rd party could purchase similar or the same components from those first manufacturers. Even if they could not, economic benefit of scale would not play much of a role in this situation because of the fact that the balance board does not rely on any type of cutting edge type of tech (where economy of scale is much more pronounced).
The brand name advantage only exists when the other options are the same price or close to the same price. A thirty to forty dollar difference would be enough to steal away any type of consumer who is not interested in Wii Fit but only wants the balance board for other games (e.g. one group being hardcore or mainstream gamers who want it for their sports games).
The possibility of a 3rd party manufacturer creating a competing balance board for the Wii was not my original point in my original post (you would notice this if you checked) - I was simply pointing out to deftangel in his new post that a 3rd party has already managed to come out with a premium alternative to the 1st party balance board and that 3rd party balance boards are indeed possible.
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The wireless part is relatively cheap as it relies on Bluetooth - a rather cheap thing to implement these days with the number of Bluetooth devices.
A third party could use a lower quality sensor or they could just develop their own cheaper sensor though different means.
There would be low R&D costs due to the fact that they would be basically copying what Nintendo did.
Nintendo generally relies on other manufacturers for the basic parts and the economic size advantage would not have a large effect when a 3rd party could purchase similar or the same components from those first manufacturers. Even if they could not, economic benefit of scale would not play much of a role in this situation because of the fact that the balance board does not rely on any type of cutting edge type of tech (where economy of scale is much more pronounced).
The brand name advantage only exists when the other options are the same price or close to the same price. A thirty to forty dollar difference would be enough to steal away any type of consumer who is not interested in Wii Fit but only wants the balance board for other games (e.g. one group being hardcore or mainstream gamers who want it for their sports games).
The possibility of a 3rd party manufacturer creating a competing balance board for the Wii was not my original point in my original post (you would notice this if you checked) - I was simply pointing out to deftangel in his new post that a 3rd party has already managed to come out with a premium alternative to the 1st party balance board and that 3rd party balance boards are indeed possible.