Small rise in kiosk costs despite increases in power and reliability
Summit report lists average kiosk cost at $5,100 (up from $4800 in 2006). Hucksters selling to churches at $27K per unit. Also reiterates warning to companies to avoid the penny wise pound foolish error.
Small rise in kiosk costs despite increases in power and reliability
Burney Simpson Editor
• 27 Aug 2010
One of the most, if not the most, common question regarding kiosks is the cost of a typical unit. There’s no quick response to that, just as there is no typical kiosk. A DVD-rental device is going to have a different pricing structure from an airline sign-in kiosk, from a blood pressure-reading device in a drug store. The diversity of the business stymies the easy answer.
The question arises following recent news reports of two kiosk salesmen who are alleged to have run an elaborate con that tricked hundreds of churches nationwide into signing contracts for kiosks that either were never delivered or never performed as promised.
State attorneys general investigating the alleged con have reported that some churches agreed to pay as much as $27,000 for kiosks that could surf the ‘Net, provide job leads and display the church’s Web pages. Prosecutors are expected to provide details when the court case against the men begins in late September in Detroit.
That figure is very high compared with the average cost in North America, though some kiosks easily exceed $27,000, according to the 2010 edition of Kiosks and Interactive Technology report from Summit Research Associates. Summit also provides kiosks costs worldwide and broken down by Europe, Asia Pacific and rest of the world.
In North America the average kiosk price in 2008 was $5,393, up about 5 percent from $5,123 in 2006, according to respondents to Summits’ survey of hundreds of companies in the interactive kiosk industry.
On the high end, 2 percent of firms paid between $30,000 to $80,000 for a kiosk, while 5 percent paid between $15,000 and $30,000. However, nearly a third of respondents said they paid less than $5,000.
Two applications causing the average to rise are the turnkey photo kiosk with an instant print capability and sophisticated retail self-checkout units, Summit reports. Both these have seen more installations in recent years.
Summit acknowledges that many firms declined to answer this question, preferring to keep the numbers confidential.
Worldwide in 2008 the average per-unit cost of a kiosk was $5,084, virtually flat from the 2006 average of $4,832. And the average cost in Europe declined from $5,390 in to $5,179 in 2008. In part this was due to the strength of the Euro and British Pound during the time frame of the survey.
Summit points out that the modest change in prices is especially noteworthy when considering the improvements in technology and the increase in power and reliability in many kiosks in recent years. Summit believes manufacturers deserve kudos for keeping prices down, despite a rise in material costs and shipping charges.
On the purchasing side, some firms have sought to contain costs either with in-house software development or by outsourcing the initial development and later taking it in-house for updates and product maintenance.
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Posted by staff at August 27, 2010 10:45 AM