165 replies to this topic

[SirPatrick]

Haha I ordered five as well. I bet they saw a jump in sales. What if it is just a marketing gag?

[pine]

$5 now at estore

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Part Number: MSP-EXP430G2

Availability: On Backorder Ships in 2 to 4 weeks.

Our Price: $5.00

Quantity: 1

(min 1, max 30)

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$4.3 is history now?

[GG430]

Remember, TI's website is run by a finite number of monkeys...

I start to believe it

[rockets4kids]

Raising the price from $4.30 to $5 is even more stupid than raising it to $10. It is probably going to cost them more to update the web site and all the associated documentation than they are going to recover in some time. Heck, they didn't even bother to update the price in the description of the item on that very page in the web store itself!

I'm guessing that some bean counter got bent out of shape at how much they were "losing" on each sale and demanded a price increase. Then, when they realized that at $10 they were overpricing ST's Discovery F0 board -- whose Cortex M0 chip is targeted very closely at the MSP430 market -- they had to back off from the $10 price point. But no, rather than just bail on the idea, they compromise on a 70 cent price increase. It seems like someone else is as bone headed as the web team.

The sensible thing to do would be to increase production so they don't go on backorder, so they then don't have to send out all the backordered items via overnight post, which I am sure is far, far more expensive. Not to mention the fact that they are keeping potential customers waiting 2-4 weeks in the process.

If any of you TI people are out there reading this, consider yourself slapped silly by the clue-by-four.

[pine]

Then, when they realized that at $10 they were overpricing ST's Discovery F0 board -- whose Cortex M0 chip is targeted very closely at the MSP430 market -- they had to back off from the $10 price point

 

I was thinking along the same line too.. was thinking for $3 more I can have the StellarPad.

 

But still, the 430LP is still attractive to me, for its DIP package, 2 chips per package, and USB<->serial on board. And for those of us living outside the US continent, free shipping is simply irresistable.

[SugarAddict]

Well that's just silly.  TI should enjoy hunting down all those price references they put everywhere.

[elpaso]

The price changed from 4.30 to 5.00 to 9.99 then back to 4.30 and now is 5.00... all this in less than 48 hours.

Maybe they loaded a bingo module on their e-commerce software 

[bluehash]

The price changed from 4.30 to 5.00 to 9.99 then back to 4.30 and now is 5.00... all this in less than 48 hours.

Maybe they loaded a bingo module on their e-commerce software 

Which means they may be figuring things out. Also, it is the weekend.. a bit difficult to get hold of people. I'd give them some time to sort this out.

[RobG]

Is this a new revision? 1.6?

[SugarAddict]

Don't look now... Mouser has it for $11... $11!!!!!

[roadrunner84]

It's back at $5,- again

[adrianF]

Hi 43oh community,

 

This is Adrian from the TI MCU group - wanted to chime in and confirm that the price of LaunchPad will change to $9.99. While the $4.30 promotional price of the MSP430 LaunchPad ended on March 1, 2013, at $9.99 it remains TI’s lowest cost development tool and a highly effective, low-cost evaluation kit. The MSP430 LaunchPad will continue to be an affordable, flexible and user-friendly introduction to the overall MSP portfolio. This new price will allow us to continue to invest in this ecosystem and bring LaunchPad to the next level – making way for new LaunchPads, more BoosterPacks and enabling new partners.

 

We apologize for any confusion and have set the updated price into the system, which will take some time to go into effect. Also, big thanks to Bluehash and the 43oh community for helping us build this ecosystem. Without you all, LaunchPad would not be the success it is. We are continually humbled by the rapid growth of this community and excited about the innovative projects this community is creating, including Energia, various BoosterPacks and software libraries and more! You continue to inspire many of us inside of TI, and we’re looking forward to the continued growth of the MCU LaunchPad ecosystem and community.

 

Thanks

Adrian

[Rickta59]

You can kill an ecosystem a lot quicker than you can build one...

[username]

Not to be debbie downer but at 10bucks, there isn't much reason to get a launchpad. First male headers, now doubling the price on the launchpad? A STM32F0 discovery board has 4x the flash program space, 15x the RAM, 3x the core CLK speed, 2x w/ 32bit instruction set and is now CHEAPER than the msp430 launchpad. The MSP430 launchpad has lost its only selling point which was its price. 32 bit ARM processors are far more powerful, have more open source support, and compete with the msp430 in their low power models. Why use TI msp430s at school or work now? *cries* why TI...why...?

 

There numerous other dev boards in the 10usd range as well that flat how destroy the msp430... another example is the Freescale Freedom board which is 12 bucks. For an extra 2 usd you get a Cortex M0+ w/ USB support...ect

 

Only thing that drew people to the launchpad was the price. Not the dev tools or the MCU itself and especially not the company TI as a whole. ..Edit: sorry rage moment... Always been a decent fan of TI until they pull things like this 

[timotet]

This is about to get very interesting....

[Rickta59]

Only thing that drew people to the launchpad was the price. Not the dev tools or the MCU itself and especially not the company TI as a whole

That was actually a draw for me. The fact that it was a TI product.

[RobG]

Bummer.

Still good deal I think ($4.30 BP + $5.70 Fedex shipping.)

[calin]

Next step is they will cut their samples program. 

[SugarAddict]

Bummer.

Still good deal I think ($4.30 BP + $5.70 Fedex shipping.)

Looking at it that way makes it seem legit for buying 1... But that doesn't account nicely for multiples.  The price got me into it and got me to hand them out.  At $4.30 it's less than a pack of smokes here and I could easily hand out 10 without blinking... but now, handing out 10 is $100? I won't be handing out free LP's anymore now...

[OhmMegaman]

The msp430 was my first micro. At $4.30 and free shipping any newbie is willing to "take the risk" into the world of microcontrollers. I don't think $10 is outrageous but I can guarantee I would look around on the internet more to see what else I could get for $10 first before i picked up an msp430.