The Manufacturer's Cost of A Made-in-China DVD Player

Although China made the most DVD players in the world, it does not own any of the core patents in this technology. After the MPEG group announced an extra $2.5 per piece patent licensing fee in May 2006, the patent licencing cost per made-in-China DVD player exceeds $20. In other words, the Chinese manufacturers pay more than $20 for each DVD players they made. And the licensing cost is still keep raising. Philips just submitted another batch of related patent to the Chinese patent office.

Consumer's final cost of a DVD player found on Froogle today:

Insignia™ DVD Player with MP3 Playback/JPEG Viewer	$25.45	Best Buy
Coby Compact DVD Player - DVD207	$29.99	Target
SpectronIQ 1-disc Progressive Scan DVD Player	$29.99	Sears