Lack of competition is the problem. When you have a monopoly you can charge any price you want.
Why are DGT boards so expensive?
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There is a monopoly on DGT boards? I thought they were simply either bluetooth or USB? Why has no one challenged this monopoly, dont you think you could make a lot of money if you made a £75 to £150 DGT board?
uscftigerprowl wrote:
Bill Gates owns the technology and will not allow anyone else to make another one unless they give up their imac and iphone.
haha Linus Torvalds (peace be upon him) gave linux away for free , who seriously wants an iphone or some ancient Windows tech from 1989.
Mar 1, 2016
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#5
robbie_1969 wrote:
There is a monopoly on DGT boards? I thought they were simply either bluetooth or USB? Why has no one challenged this monopoly, dont you think you could make a lot of money if you made a £75 to £150 DGT board?
It is also the embedded tech in the board and pieces. I'm sure their markup is pretty good though. Plus, they provide the software for relaying the data I believe.
I imagine patents cover part of the reason there aren't less expensive competitors. The other part is that the market may not actually be large enough.
Martin_Stahl wrote:
robbie_1969 wrote:
There is a monopoly on DGT boards? I thought they were simply either bluetooth or USB? Why has no one challenged this monopoly, dont you think you could make a lot of money if you made a £75 to £150 DGT board?
It is also the embedded tech in the board and pieces. I'm sure their markup is pretty good though. Plus, they provide the software for relaying the data I believe.
I imagine patents cover part of the reason there aren't less expensive competitors. The other part is that the market may not actually be large enough.
Ok I understand the tech may be restricted but imagine if you are a chess federation would you not be seriously interested in purchasing boards for your tournament if they were £75-£150 rather than £600
Mar 1, 2016
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#7
Oh, certainly. But you have to consider, the base cost of the board and pieces added on top of the technology parts. I'm sure most people want a quality wooden set and that will easily cover most of that suggestion, without adding any tech parts to it.
Martin_Stahl wrote:
Oh, certainly. But you have to consider, the base cost of the board and pieces added on top of the technology parts. I'm sure most people want a quality wooden set and that will easily cover most of that suggestion, without adding any tech parts to it.
yes but most people are playing on plastic weighted sets with roll up mats, we dont want ebony and ivory just the ability to have our moves transmitted via USB or bluetooth
Its a great pity. I bought one of these for £10 but could not get it to work on my linux machine.
https://www.tanga.com/deals/31f3dab2928/usb-portable-roll-up-chess-game
Mar 1, 2016
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#10
robbie_1969 wrote:
Martin_Stahl wrote:
Oh, certainly. But you have to consider, the base cost of the board and pieces added on top of the technology parts. I'm sure most people want a quality wooden set and that will easily cover most of that suggestion, without adding any tech parts to it.
yes but most people are playing on plastic weighted sets with roll up mats, we dont want ebony and ivory just the ability to have our moves transmitted via USB or bluetooth
The simple way to do it is electronics with some kind of unique identifier (or some kind of gridded connection system) embedded on each square on the board that can read when a piece is moved off one square and placed on another. Then a corresponding piece of electronics in the piece unless you are using some kind of pressure sensor on the square.
It would be pretty trivial to add the part to plastic pieces but I don't think existing vinyl boards would provide an adequate surface for the sensors and potentially a power source. Then you have to add a module for the coordinate transmissions. All packaged up nicely and easy to use. Write up some software to take that data and display it.
Then perform enough testing to make sure the components are fast enough to handle blitzed moves and the software can distinguish where a piece really is when it isnt well centered.
I'm sure someone can come up with a solution that will work and can keep the costs low but I'm not sure there is a large enough market for it to make it profitable at such a price point. That is ignoring the costs involved with not infringing on DGT patents and defending any claims they may have if you actually create a product for sale.
I seem to recall a recent post where someone was looking at doing sonething similar. I'll post the link if I can find it.
yep, there was post about someone trying to do another electronic chess board.
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/need-your-help-with-a-chess-e-board-were-making
Mar 1, 2016
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#12
I was talking with a friend who is playing in tournament and i was asking if the games were being transmitted so i could follow them, but alas the federation does not have the funds for DGT boards. Its the same in my own country, i was asking why the games from the Scottish open were not being transmitted so i could follow them and it turned out that there was only a handful of DGT boards reserved solely for the top tables. I complained and it was suggested that if i was unhappy i could always donate £600 for another board. I don't understand why these things are so expensive, surely it cannot be the technology? If anyone can make cheap and reasonable DGT boards I am sure you will make a lot of money.