Wow, this version is $1,999, and if you've pre-ordered you can upgrade to the US-produced model for an extra $1,300.
Does this pricing accurately reflect the increased cost of producing everything but the chassis in the US?
Does this pricing accurately reflect the increased cost of producing everything but the chassis in the US?
First, not all of the parts are necessarily produced in the USA - the PCBA is produced there, and the parts are assembled there, but the parts themselves are likely procured elsewhere. Even still, this greatly complicates the kind of supply chain attack this is meant to prevent, because you have to compromise individual components that you hope will end up in the device you're targeting.
Second, they already had these facilities in place in the US for prototyping purposes. Thus, the up-front cost investment for setting up a facility in the US is much lower than usual, so they can set a lower price than others might be able to offer.
Third, there is probably a capacity constraint at that facility; the price chosen was likely selected to suppress demand below that threshold, not purely based on relative production cost.
Finally, although I have only limited experience (n=2) with cross-shopping electronics manufacturing between the US and China, a 3x overhead is actually substantially lower than I would expect; we were seeing ~6-10x increases for manufacturing and assembly. This could be because their production facility (which, again, already exists) would otherwise be sitting idle.
I can't speak to the health of their business (a sibling comment suggested this was a "money grab"), but the numbers seem pretty reasonable for what you're getting, overall. Note that this is not targeting the same crowd who buys "Made in USA" t-shirts to support the local economy; the audience is more likely to be security wonks who are already concerned about supply chain attacks.
How many units were you building/shipping? And was your QA on-site/in-country?
Pursim should have a standing offer: we will make your phone on a day scheduled well in advance and allow your auditors in the factory to watch over the process. At an extra cost of course, but I think this is something they could offer easily enough and it would be very helpful to those most paranoid about security.
Dealing with government contracts isn't easy though.
There's no need for them to limit demand of the USA model with a higher price, the demand for this phone is very low in general considering it's not even usable as a phone.
Edit:
"Librems are heavily overpriced but that is because Purism seemingly never tried to get better deal and the South San Francisco partner abused this so that is why Purism Librems are double the price they should be." - Zlatan Todoric former Purism CTO [0]
[0] https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Zlatan-T...
The people getting them already do so because they want the idea to have a chance, not because they're cheap or directly good value for money. Some might say "it's double than what I'd spend on an Android, but that's worth it" about the normal price, wouldn't be surprised if for others the reference frame is "2x iPhone" instead.
https://jaylittle.com/post/view/2019/10/the-sad-saga-of-puri...
https://jaylittle.com/post/view/2019/10/the-sad-saga-of-puri...
https://jaylittle.com/post/view/2019/10/the-sad-saga-of-puri...
I suspect they don't have the cash on hand for manufacturing the pending existing librem 5 orders, which unless I'm mistaken requires some redesign work to fix the thermal issues.