Pono Music Player Teardown

[K3mHtH]

Raising over $6M on kickstarter, here's what's inside the Pono music player:

http://mikebeauchamp.com/2014/12/pono-player-teardown/

Comparing the 64GB Samsung KLMCG8WEBC-BB31 that's inside the player, vs the 128GB chip they could have put in to double the memory.. the website says: "Update: I received an email from one of the guys at Pono and they said that the 128GB chip was “much, much more expensive and would have put the price point well above $399?". Hmm, Anyone know the price of that chip at kickstarter quantities (say: 10,000pc)?

[janekm]

Hard to say with that kind of eMMC flash since the prices are very variable and there's the spot market etc...
For reference on the second, likely recycled market a similar 128GB Samsung eMMC chip goes for $30-50 so taking into account retail margins etc that statement sounds reasonable. It could have been cheaper to build it around more simple NAND chips but I'm sure they had their reasons.

It's certainly a beautiful PCB!